Lenovo IdeaPad U110

The Lenovo IdeaPad U110 is the latest addition to the IdeaPad ultra portable family, soon to be joined by the IdeaPad S10 and S9. In this review, we check out whether the Lenovo IdeaPad is worth the rather high price it demands, especially since the ultra portable has been revolutionized by many low cost entrants like the Asus EEE PC and the MSI Wind, which are priced much lower than the IdeaPad U110. It competes more with the likes of the Macbook Air, Sony Vaio TZ and the Lenovo Think Pad X300 at a slightly lower price and smaller form factor.

Lenovo IdeaPad U110 Specifications:

• Processor: 1.60GHz Intel Core 2 Duo L7500 (800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache)
• Graphics: Intel GMA X3100
• Screen: 11.1-inch WXGA (1366 x 768 px) display
• Memory: 2GB
• Storage: 120GB Parallel ATA HDD (4200rpm)
• Optical Drive: None (External Dual layer CD/DVD recordable drive)
• Wireless and Communications: Intel 4965AGN (802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi), BlueTooth 2.0 with EDR
• Battery: 4-cell Li-Ion and 7-cell extended life Li-Ion batteries included
• Ports: 3 USB 2.0 ports, IEEE 1394 Firewire, 5-in-1 card reader, ExpressCard/34, VGA monitor out port, AC adapter, headphone/line-out, microphone/line-in, Gigabit Ethernet

• Dimensions: 10.8″ x 7.7″ x 0.72″ - 0.88″
• Weight: 2.42lbs with 4-cell battery and 2.92lbs with 7-cell battery
• Price: $1899 (Approx)

Design

The design of the IdeaPad U110 is a refreshing change from the boxy designs of Lenovo’s classic ThinkPad line. It looks sleek, slim and small. It also has a great build quality and feels sturdy. It should easily withstand a few accidental drops without worries. It inherits the build quality from the ThinkPad line we suppose, while leaving out their average design and looks. The aluminium chassis and cover make it strong and sturdy, yet light in weight. It sports a new “Tendril” pattern on the display cover, and on the back of the notebook, which looks elegant. All of the components are styled superbly giving it a great design with superb build quality allowing it to withstand rough handling with ease.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U110 features a wide range of ports - 3 USB 2.0 ports, Firewire, ExpressCard/34 slot, Gigabit Ethernet, 5-in-1 multi-card reader, Audio out, Mic in, VGA out and a standard Kensington lock slot. They are much more than the minimal ports provided by both the Macbook Air and the Lenovo ThinkPad X300. It does miss out on the HDMI port though and a standard Express Card slot, but you can’t actually ask for more in such a small form factor. It maintains an excellent balance between the available space and the essential ports provided.

Display and Sound

The Lenovo IdeaPad U110 comes with a 11.1-inch WXGA display supporting standard resolutions of 1366 x 768 px. It looks good with good brightness and contrast levels, but it is a bit too glossy. The display quality is also a wee bit grainy. Due to the high glossiness, it is difficult to read anything on the display without straining your eyes. There is a bit too reflection even under standard lighting conditions. Other than these, the display performance is quite good with accurate color reproduction and vibrant colors. The vertical viewing angles are quite good, and the horizontal viewing angles aren’t too bad either.

The IdeaPad U110 comes with stereo speakers which are quite good and loud. Obviously, it won’t please the audiophiles but then they can always connect their headphones to the Ideapad U110 for better results. There isn’t any distortion and the volume is rather good for a short movie or some music. As usual, the speakers suck at bass.

Performance

The Lenovo IdeaPad U110 is powered by a Intel Core 2 Duo L7500 clocked at 1.6 GHZ with 4 MB L2 cache, operating at 800 MHZ FSB. Like in most ultraportable notebooks, it uses the low voltage Intel L7500 processors, which consume very less power and dissipate much less heat than conventional notebook processors. It is powerful enough to run standard Office and Multimedia applications and normal web surfing. You should not expect the performance you would from a Desktop Quadcore and you will be blissful. The Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics are good enough to run Vista with Aero on, and some light games at low settings. If you intend to play Crysis at high resolutions with AA, AF turned fully on, you should look elsewhere (read: Alienware Area 51 m17x).

The IdeaPad U110 comes with a 120 GB 4200 rpm hard drive which is low on performance but generates much less heat and consumes less power. Portability comes at the price of performance after all. But you wont feel the lag much in daily usage.
Overall, the performance is just as much as you would expect from a laptop of its size and portability. It doesn’t disappoint at all.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Lenovo IdeaPad U110 features a great little keyboard which is slightly smaller than a standard laptop keyboard. It offers adequate key spacing and great key travel making it a breeze to type. The keys offer decent tactile feedback and dont make much noise. The keys sport a glossy finish and the media buttons on the top feature a cool design which add to the style factor. Regular typists can get used to the keyboard in just a matter of time. There is nothing much to complain about in the IdeaPad U110’s keyboard.

The touchpad is standard with good sensitivity and a very smooth finish. The touchpad buttons are quite good too, with just the right amount of force needed to click them. Lenovo has done away with the fingerprint reader and replaced it with its nice new face recognition technology called Veriface which performs great. It uses the built in webcam to scan your face and checks whether you are authorized to access the computer.

Battery Life

Lenovo bundles both the 4 cell and the extended 7 cell battery with the IdeaPad U110. The 4 cell battery has a rated battery life of about 2 hours while the 7 cell battery can juice it up for about 6 hours, exactly as much as Lenovo claims. The above battery life was obtained with the Power management settings turned to Laptop / Portable. You can squeeze out even more by turning off Wi-Fi and lowering the display brightness. Surprisingly, the 7 cell battery is just slightly bigger and heavier than the 4 cell battery inspite of the huge power increase it supplies. The Lenovo IdeaPad U110 completely pleases in terms of battery life and its very nice of Lenovo to include both the 4 cell and 7 cell battery at no extra charge.

Pros

• Clean Design
• Great Build Quality
• Ultra portable
• Good Battery life

Cons

• Expensive
• Extra Glossy & Grainy Display

Conclusion

The Lenovo IdeaPad U110 is a good notebook with a very stylish mix of decent power and great portability. It can be called one of the best in its range and is a much better buy than the Macbook Air. Except for the mediocre display, it doesn’t actually have any shortcomings. The bundled 7 cell battery and the external DVD drive are great additions. If you are on the lookout of a stylish notebook with a small footprint, adequate power and maximum style, we would definitely recommend the IdeaPad U110.