NoteBook Review

Lenovo IdeaPad U150

2010-02-16T05:07:00.000-08:00

The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 is an 11-inch notebook featuring the latest Intel CULV processors for extreme battery life combined with HDMI output for mobile entertainment. This attractive netbook alternative packs enough performance for everyday tasks yet is small enough to be your constant companion PC. Should you spend your next $750 on this impressive little laptop? Keep reading to find out.

BUY the IdeaPad U150 Laptop Computer - 690968U - Red - Intel Pentium- Dual-Core SU4100

LENOVO $649.00

see all pricing for the IdeaPad U150 Laptop Computer - 690968U - Red - Intel Pentium- Dual-Core SU4100

Our Lenovo IdeaPad U150 Specifications:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 Processor (1.30GHz, 800MHz FSB, 3MB L2 cache)
4GB DDR3 SDRAM (1066MHz)
320GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD
11.6-inch diagonal WXGA (glossy, 1366x768)
Intel X4500M integrated graphics
Intel 5100AGN, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Dimensions: (LxWxH) 11.4 x 7.5 x 0.5-1.35 inches
Weight: 2.97 lbs. (not including weight of AC adapter)
6-cell 57Wh battery
One-year standard warranty
MSRP: $749 (configurations starting at $649 at Lenovo.com)

Build and Design
Lenovo is best known for the ThinkPad line of business notebooks that the company inherited from IBM, but the new IdeaPad line of consumer-oriented laptops has managed to generate some buzz thanks to unique designs and a modest price. The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 continues that trend by offering an attractive 11-inch notebook that rivals the Dell Inspiron 11z and the HP Mini 311. Like most 11-inch notebooks currently on the market, the U150 walks the fine line between a full-featured notebook PC and an Intel Atom-based netbook. The U150 is larger and more powerful than the typical $400 netbook, but lacks the impressive features and size of a standard laptop with a high-end Core 2 Duo processor in the $650-$900 price range. That said, the U150 certainly offers an attractive design with a combination of matte black, glossy black, and glossy silver plastics.

The lid of the U150 features the same cross-weave texture imprint seen on the larger IdeaPad U350 and it's a nice alternative to the glossy lids seen on most 11-inch notebooks. Build quality is acceptable thanks to a solid bottom half of the chassis, but the plastic screen lid with thin metal texture panel and plastic palmrests suffer from a bit more flex than we like to see in notebooks that cost more than $600. Granted, most consumers probably won't notice the flex in the plastic exterior unless they apply significant pressure to the palmrests or the screen, but 11-inch notebooks are usually carried inside backpacks with heavy school books ... so we'd like the U150 to be a bit more solid. On the other hand, the textured matte lid (again, a combination of plastic and thin metal) not only looks nice, but hides day-to-day abuse by making scratches blend in with the imprinted pattern. It also does a very good job at hiding smudges and fingerprints compared to laptops with glossy plastic exteriors. The IdeaPad U150 will probably hold up quite well to typical user abuse ... but you certainly don't want to try standing on this laptop.

People who like to upgrade their laptops with aftermarket parts (extra RAM, a new hard drive or SSD, or a new wireless card) will find the U150 is extremely easy to upgrade. One panel provides access to the hard drive and RAM while a second panel gives you access to the wireless card and mini PCI-E card slot. We couldn't find any explicit "warranty void if removed" stickers inside the notebook, but there were some Lenovo-branded stickers covering the edges of the RAM, Wi-Fi card, and heatsink screws which may be used to indicate tampering.
Screen and Speakers
The 11.6" screen on the U150 is average, providing decent color and contrast but suffering from noticeably shallow viewing angles. Most thin-and-light notebooks come with low-quality TN display panels, but this display produces somewhat "pastel" colors using our test image. For standard activities like browsing the web or typing documents you don't really notice the color shift, but when viewing pictures or watching a dark movie the softer colors are a bit distracting. Vertical viewing angles are good until about 10 degrees forward or back when colors start to show visible shift. Horizontal viewing angles are a little better as colors remain essentially unchanged except at very steep angles. The screen backlight works very well under bright office lights, but the screen isn't quite powerful enough to overcome reflections off the glossy screen outdoors under direct sunlight.

The built-in stereo speakers are fine for listening to streaming radio or the occasional TV show, but lack much bass. Since the speakers are located at the bottom front edge of the notebook the audio output tends to sound muffled when you use the notebook as a "laptop." However, if the U150 is resting on a desk then the sound bounces up off the surface of the desk and toward the user. Still, headphones are a much better option to really enjoy music and movies from this notebook thanks to the weak bass and midrange from the built-in speakers. Another alternative is using the HDMI-out to pass digital audio to a home theater system.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The nearly full-size keyboard is great for typing and is about as good as you can expect on a notebook with an 11-inch chassis. The space bar is a little small and the tilde key has been shrunk to fit, but overall the keys feel like they are the size they should be. The editors in our office are evenly split between those of us who prefer the "Chiclet-style" keyboards that provide additional space between the keys and traditional keyboards like this one that offer larger keys. Honestly, keyboard preference is largely a matter of personal taste, so keep in mind that there are 11-inch notebooks with traditional keyboards and notebooks with Chiclet/island keys. The keyboard itself is quite firm and free of any flex even under heavy typing pressure. Each key emits a soft "click-clack" when pressed and isn't too disruptive for classroom typing. Key wiggle or travel is minimal and each key top is solidly attached to the scissor mechanism below. In short, the keyboard on the U150 is one of the nicer ones we've seen on an 11-inch notebook.

The IdeaPad U150 offers a reasonably large Synaptics touchpad and it's one of the nicer touchpads we've seen on an 11-inch notebook. The plastic surface texture is mildly rough and provides good traction without making it difficult to slide your finger across the surface. Speed and accuracy are great with the default settings and we didn't notice any cursor lag in our tests. Refresh rate of the touchpad surface is very good and prevents any "stutter" like what we've recently seen on a few Synaptics touchpads. The acceleration on each axis is adequately matched and helps guarantee that cursor movement on the screen matches your finger movement on the touchpad (unlike the touchpad on the Dell Inspiron 11z). The touchpad buttons are fantastic thanks to a perfectly deep, springy action with quiet "clicks" when pressed.
Ports and Features
Port selection is surprisingly good on the IdeaPad U150. You get VGA and HDMI-out, gigabit LAN, audio in/out, and an SDHC card slot, and three USB ports (two standard ports and one combo USB/eSATA). The eSATA port allows you to use much faster external hard drives with this notebook, and we're glad that Lenovo used a combo USB/eSATA port for those customers who need USB and don't use eSATA.
The front-mounted SDHC-slot is spring loaded, and unlike the card slot on the larger U350, this one allows the card to sit flush in the slot. When you fully insert a standard SDHC card into the slot it doesn't stick out. Don't expect to see a built-in optical drive in this notebook, so if you plan on reinstalling the OS or playing DVDs you will need to pick up an external USB optical drive. Multimedia keys are limited to a mute button and a direct access button to the Lenovo "OneKey" recovery software suite used for creating a system backup or recovering from a system crash.

Performance and Benchmarks
System performance with the Intel SU7300 CULV processor is quite reasonable for most daily tasks such as web browsing, checking email, editing documents in Microsoft Office, or even basic photo editing. That said, we would have liked to see Lenovo overclock the SU7300 processor to 1.73GHz the same way ASUS and Alienware have done with some of their recent notebooks. Most programs take noticeably longer to load or access information compared to faster Core 2 Duo processors, but the SU7300 does offer the benefit of greater battery life compared to more powerful CPUs. Our test configuration comes with 4GB of memory and a reasonably fast 320GB hard drive, so this laptop certainly isn't as sluggish as most Intel Atom-based netbooks and packs enough performance for average PC users.
HD video playback works reasonably well thanks to the Intel X4500 integrated graphics, and the HDMI port lets you connect this notebook to your HDTV. That said, the U150 does suffer from some lag when we tried watching HD video while multitasking with a web browser and Microsoft Office. As previously stated, if this system included an overclocked version of the SU7300 dual-core processor then the lag might not have been an issue.
Having said all that, here is a quick look at the synthetic benchmarks so you can see how the IdeaPad U150 performs compared to other notebooks.
Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
While most of the external surfaces of the IdeaPad U150 stayed within normal ranges, we did notice one hot spot next to the system RAM on our review unit. While the temperature wasn't horribly uncomfortable during periods of short use, the bottom of the notebook might get a little too hot for some users if you keep it on your lap for more than an hour at a time. Noise levels were about average for a computer of this size, but the fan might get on your nerves if you are used to a completely silent notebook. The U150 tends to keep its fan running all the time, either to keep case temperatures low or to keep the processor under a certain temperature range. Fan noise was only a little louder than the noise level of a hard drive, but if you have really good hearing it sounds like a distant hair dryer running in the background.

Battery Life
Battery life with the 6-cell battery and the SU7300 is quite good. In our test with the screen brightness set to 70%, Windows 7 set to the "balanced" power profile, and wireless active the system stayed on for 5 hours and 22 minutes before going into standby mode. Power consumption during this test floated between 9 and 10 watts. You can probably get more than six hours of battery life from this notebook if you lower the screen brightness to 30% or less and disable wireless when you're not online.

BUY the IdeaPad U150 Laptop Computer - 690968U - Red - Intel Pentium- Dual-Core SU4100

LENOVO $649.00

see all pricing for the IdeaPad U150 Laptop Computer - 690968U - Red - Intel Pentium- Dual-Core SU4100

Conclusion
The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 offers a terrific balance of portability and value combined with enough performance to satisfy most consumers. Compared to similar 11-inch ultraportables like the Dell Inspiron 11z, the U150 delivers a better keyboard and touchpad for a modest increase in price. On the other hand, the IdeaPad U150 looks a little underpowered and expensive compared to the new Alienware M11x, which offers superior graphics horsepower, a backlit keyboard, the addition of DisplayPort, and better build quality for roughly the same price.
Bottom line: If you need a basic netbook alternative with HDMI and eSATA then the IdeaPad U150 should probably be at the top of your shopping list.
Pros:

Good value
Includes eSATA!
VGA and HDMI video output

Cons:

Average performance
Weak plastic construction

ASUS U50Vg notebook

2010-02-16T04:41:00.000-08:00

ASUS U50Vg notebook

This 15.6in notebook is quick and has plenty of useful features. In particular, we love its multitouch touchpad. The ASUS U50Vg would make a great desktop replacement, but it's also capable of being transported to work or school and its battery life is quite good.

Features
What's Hot
What's Not

Number of speakers: 2. Display Technology: TFT with LED backlight.
Excellent touchpad, backlit keys, swift performance, good battery life, not too heavy for a 15.6in notebook
Keyboard backlight not automatic, keyboard bounces and makes a rattling noise, screen is too glossy and has shallow vertical angles

ASUS U50Vg notebook

A 15.6in notebook with good specs and a brilliant touchpad

Review by Elias Plastiras (PC World Australia (online)) 05/02/2010 15:50:00

The ASUS U50Vg notebook is like a 15.6in portable reflecting pool — but without the benefit of ripples. It has an all-over gloss that reflects any lights within its vicinity and you can see yourself in its screen and chassis when you use it, which can be distracting. It has a backlit keyboard so that you can type in the dark, but, most interestingly, there are lights in the touchpad that follow every vertical movement your finger makes.

There's no doubt that the ASUS U50Vg will stand out, whether you use it at school or on the road. However, due to its size, you won't be able to use it comfortably while riding public transport. Its weighs 2.6kg (not including the power adapter), which is actually not too bad for a 15.6in notebook. However, its dimensions make it difficult to pack the unit with its large power adapter — you'll need a decent sized bag to fit it all in. We carried it around in a small backpack while commuting and found it to be relatively easy to get around with, but you wouldn't want to do it every day.

You can use the ASUS U50Vg away from an outlet for a decent period of time. With its 6-cell battery, the U50Vg lasted 2hr 44min in our video rundown test, in which we loop an Xvid-encoded video with the screen at maximum brightness, power management disabled and the wireless radio enabled. You can change power schemes on the fly by pressing the button opposite the power button on the bezel, so you can get even more life out of the notebook.

Our review unit was equipped with a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 CPU, 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM, a 500GB, 5400rpm hard drive and an NVIDIA GeForce G105M graphics adapter (different configurations are available). This configuration produced times of 1min 12sec and 1min 08sec in the Blender 3D rendering and iTunes MP3 encoding tests; these are fast times and indicate that the U50Vg can be used comfortably for most multimedia tasks. You'll be able to manipulate high resolution photos and even edit videos on this notebook, and it has plenty of hard drive space for large files.

The hard drive is slow, however. It only averaged 21 megabytes per second in our transfer tests — but you can plug in a fast external SATA drive if you do plan to use the notebook for disk-intensive tasks such as video editing. Along with the eSATA port, there are other modern conveniences on the U50Vg, such as HDMI and an ExpressCard/34 slot. You also get 802.11n wireless networking, Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, so it's a well-equipped notebook. It also has a built-in DVD burner, an SD card reader, a VGA port and a webcam.

The panel on the bottom of the U50Vg can be easily removed, letting you access the hard drive and RAM compartments. The hard drive has a SATA interface and there is a spare SO-DIMM slot so you can add another 2GB of RAM.

You won't be able to play many games using the ASUS U50Vg. Its GeForce G105M graphics adapter is slow when it comes to real-time 3D rendering, and this was shown by its 3DMark06 score of 1704. High-definition video content, on the other hand, can be displayed on the U50Vg without any problems, and its screen is vibrant enough to allow you to enjoy movies; you will have to adjust the screen in order to get a clear picture as its vertical viewing angles are very narrow.

The chassis of the U50Vg is rigid and its hinges are study enough to hold the large screen perfectly in place. The chiclet-style keyboard includes a number pad — albeit a squished one — which is handy if you frequently perform calculations. The keys rattle a little when you press them, and they are not as tactile as we would like; the keyboard also bounces a little.

The keyboard's backlight is very handy when typing at night if you don't want to switch on a room light. Unfortunately, there is no automatic trigger for this backlight; you have to switch it on and off manually. There are three levels of brightness you can select from. An ambient light sensor can automatically dim and brighten the screen depending on how well-lit the room is.

We found the touchpad to be brilliant! It's big and it supports multitouch gestures. You can easily zoom in and out of photos with a pinching motion, and rotating photos is also a cinch; you can scroll through long Web pages simply by dragging two fingers down the pad. It feels very smooth, and you can be bedazzled by the pad's lights as you drag your finger up and down. However, the touchpad's buttons are joined together and are too stiff to press comfortably. We would prefer them to be separate and softer.

The lights don't have a particular function, other than to show you where your finders are currently applying pressure on the pad.

The ASUS U50Vg includes Express Gate, which allows you to boot into a Linux-based operating system that resides on a chip on the motherboard. It's an alternative to booting into Windows when all you want to do is just browse the Web, for example, and it takes less than 10sec to load.

The notebook's price tag of $1699 is a little high if you've become used to checking out sub-$1000 laptops in the stores, but the extra money you pay for this model ensures you get good performance, plenty of features, good build quality and some room for expansion. Of course, we would have liked 4GB of RAM for the price, but overall we're happy with the value this model provides (including a two-year global warranty).

HP Pavilion dm3-101tu (VV707PA) notebook

2010-02-16T04:35:00.000-08:00

HP Pavilion dm3-101tu (VV707PA) notebook

The HP Pavilion dm3-101tu (VV707PA) is an inexpensive notebook, yet it packs plenty of CPU speed and battery life, and has good connectivity options. We think it would suit students looking for something light, long-lasting and comfortable to type on, but even business users might want to look into it. We just wish HP wouldn't pre-load so much software.

EXPERT STAR RATING

4.00

Price $ 1199.00 AUD

Features
What's Hot
What's Not

Number of speakers: 2. Audio Type: Stereo.
Four USB 2.0 ports, well built, long battery life, Core 2 Duo CPU
Too much unnecessary preinstalled software, touchpad is sometimes 'sticky', awkwardly located power button, no Bluetooth

HP Pavilion dm3-101tu (VV707PA) notebook

A reasonably lightweight, long-lasting and speedy 13in laptop

Review by Elias Plastiras (PC World Australia (online)) 16/02/2010 17:30:00

HP's Pavilion dm3-101tu (VV707PA) is a 13.3in notebook with good speed, long battery life, a strong yet lean body, and an affordable price tag. It's this combination that should make it a sought after device for students and office users alike — and even for travellers. However, it's not a perfect laptop, and we do have a couple of quibbles with its design and with the number of setup screens and annoying reminders that you have to endure from preinstalled software.

Pre-installed software

Before you can use the Pavilion dm3-101tu (VV707PA), you have to go through a few registration screens for HP's Total Care Program and you are asked if you want to set up Norton Internet Suite. Of course, you can say no to all these things, but once Windows 7 has loaded you are pestered by reminders and intrusive pop-up boxes. There is so much extra software installed on the HP Pavilion dm3, if you want to restore it back to its factory condition (using the installed Recovery Manager software) it will take well over an hour!

Some of this software is useful, such as CyberLink's DVD burning software, but most of it you can do without; for example, a trial version of Microsoft Office is installed, as is Norton Internet Security. HP's MediaSmart software is also installed. By default, your media files are played through MediaSmart, which is a slow and cumbersome interface. For example, viewing photos from an SD card isn’t as intuitive as it is with Windows 7’s built-in Photo Viewer: when you view a photo, you can’t navigate through the rest of the folder. You either have to add the files to MediaSmart first, or resort to opening them one by one.

Furthermore, MediaSmart really isn't that smart, as not all of your media will be available in the one place; you'll still have to open up new windows to view videos and photos, and listen to music. This is made even more difficult because the default setting for MediaSmart is to start in full-screen mode. It's the type of interface that is fine for a TouchSmart PC (the layout is conducive to touch), but it really isn't much good on a notebook.

Specs and speed

The HP Pavilion dm3-101tu has a strong hardware configuration. You get a low-voltage Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 CPU, which runs at 1.3GHz, as well as 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 320GB hard drive and integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics. The speed of the CPU is enough to let you run most office applications as well as photo editing software, and the notebook can even be used for more taxing tasks such as video editing. In the Blender 3D and iTunes MP3 encoding tests, the laptop recorded times of 2min 18sec and 2min 09sec — faster than the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13", for example, which uses a 1.5GHz AMD Athlon X2 Neo L325 CPU.

Battery life

The low-voltage CPU and the inclusion of a six-cell, 57 Watt-hour battery mean that the dm3-101tu can have a long life away from an outlet. In our battery rundown test — in which we disable power management, maximise the brightness and enable the wireless radio — the notebook looped an Xvid-encoded video for 4hr 9min. This is over an hour longer than the Lenovo and over two hours longer than Dell's Vostro 13. You can get a lot more battery life out of it if you enable a power management scheme, but it will depend on the type of work you do. Viewing Web pages with lots of CPU-intensive Flash elements will drain the battery quicker, for example.

Build quality

The dm3-101tu (VV707PA) weighs around 2kg, which is relatively light considering the chassis is made from metal. It has brushed aluminium panels on the palm rest and lid that look and feel good. The screen and bezel are glossy, so reflections might pose a problem when you use the notebook outdoors or near a window. However, the brightness and contrast of the screen are good. The only problem with the screen is that it has a narrow vertical viewing angle, which means that you might have to adjust it regularly while watching videos. Luckily there is an HDMI port, so you can easily connect the dm3-101tu to your TV.

For the most part, the dm3 is very well built. It feels very solid when you pick it up and move it around and the hinges are stiff and keep the screen perfectly in place. However, it’s the little details that don’t feel good to the touch; the touchpad’s buttons feel like they have two steps (similar to a digital camera’s shutter button), which can make you think you’ve clicked when you haven’t. The power button resides on the side and you have to slide it to switch on the machine, but it’s very shallow and hard to get a grip. The touchpad has a mirror finish that can sometimes feel sticky and unresponsive, despite being so smooth. It shows fingerprints and smudges very clearly and will require cleaning from time to time.

The keyboard has island-style keys and they are soft and tactile. The only buttons that are a little uncomfortable are the arrow keys — the up and down arrows are too small. There aren't dedicated page up and down buttons, which is annoying. Rather than having media shortcut buttons above or to the side of the keyboard, the play/pause, skip and stop buttons are located on the function keys, and they are the primary, rather than secondary function. That is: you don't have to press the Fn button in order to use them. Likewise, you can change the screen brightness and volume without holding down the Fn key. We like this feature and think it makes a lot of sense for users who barely use the F-keys while browsing the Web or working on documents.

After a while, the dm3's base gets warm and becomes uncomfortable to rest on your lap, especially on hot, sticky days. You're better off resting it on a flat surface where the bottom vents can breathe.

We like the fact that you can easily remove panels to access the RAM and hard drive slots. Along the sides of the notebook you will find four USB 2.0 ports, an SD card reader, headphone and microphone ports, an HDMI port and a Gigabit Ethernet port. You also get a webcam and 802.11n wireless networking. This is all fairly standard connectivity for a 13in notebook that costs just over $1000, except for the number of USB 2.0 ports; most laptops have three ports, yet HP generously gives you a fourth.

Conclusion

Despite the glut of preinstalled software, the somewhat sticky touchpad and the poorly placed power button, the HP Pavilion dm3-101tu (VV707PA) is a fantastic little unit with good speed, a long battery life, and, above all, a competitive price.

Lenovo IdeaPad U350 Review

2010-02-15T08:50:00.000-08:00

The Lenovo IdeaPad U350 is a 13.3" thin and light notebook based on the Intel CULV platform. It offers Intel processors ranging from the single-core SU2700 to the dual-core SU7300 with up to 4GB of DDR3 memory and your choice of 4-cell or 8-cell batteries for extended battery life. In this review of the Lenovo IdeaPad U350 we take a look at how well it performs in a wide range of tasks, including time away from the power outlet, to see if this is indeed the perfect travel companion.

Our Lenovo IdeaPad U350 Specifications:

Windows Vista Home Premium with SP2 (Now available with Windows 7 64-bit)
Intel Pentium SU2700 CULV (1.3GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB cache)
4GB DDR3 SDRAM (1066MHz)
320GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD
13.3-inch diagonal WXGA (glossy, 1366x768)
Intel X4500M integrated graphics
Intel 5100AGN, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Ports and connectors: (2) USB 2.0 ports, VGA, HDMI, 2-in-1 SD-Card reader, RJ-45/Ethernet (Gigabit), stereo headphone/line out, stereo microphone in, 1.3 megapixel webcam
Dimensions: (LxWxH) 12.9" x 9.0" x 0.7-1.0"
Weight: 3lb 10.3oz (not including weight of AC adapter).
4-cell 41Wh battery
One-year standard warranty
MSRP: $749

Build and Design
The Lenovo IdeaPad series has always featured unique designs compared to other Lenovo notebooks, and the U350 is likewise a unique-looking laptop. For starters, the U350 features a cross-weave texture imprinted on the top of the screen cover where most notebooks are only covered with glossy paint. This gives the user a completely different tactile experience: you can feel the difference in texture the moment you touch this laptop. I think it looks kind of cool and unique, but not everyone will agree with that. Inside the U350 you'll find a plastic palmrest painted with a brushed metalic finish to simulate the look of metal. This is one design element I don't agree with, since it gives the illusion of better construction than what plastic provides.

Build quality is still very good thanks to a solid chassis and durable components throughout. The plastic exterior feels strong with very little flex even under moderate pressure. The textured plastic lid not only looks nice, but hides day-to-day abuse by making scratches blend in with the imprinted pattern. It also does a very good job at hiding smudges and fingerprints compared to laptops with glossy plastic exteriors. Inside, the palmrest and keyboard feel solid under the weight of your hands and arms. The chassis doesn't twist or flex when you hold the notebook by the edge of the palmrest. In short, the laptop feels like it should stay in one piece over its lifetime.
People who like to tinker with computers or add aftermarket features will really enjoy the way Lenovo built the IdeaPad U350. A single panel on the bottom of the notebook gives you access to the hard drive, system memory, WiFi card, and an open WWAN slot. While Lenovo doesn't currently offer a WWAN option on the U350 series, the notebook comes prewired with capped off antenna leads in case you want to install your own 3G card. There is a slot for a SIM card underneath the battery for those consumers needing GSM-based WWAN options. We couldn't find any explicit "warranty void if removed" stickers inside the notebook, but there were some Lenovo-branded stickers covering the edges of the RAM, Wi-Fi card screws, and heatsink screws which may be used to indicate tampering.
Screen and Speakers
The 13.3" screen is average, providing decent color and contrast but suffering from noticeably shallow viewing angles. Low-quality TN display panels are normal since most of the thin-and-light notebooks costing very little, but some displays are better than others. For standard activities like browsing the web or typing documents you don't really notice the color shift, but when viewing pictures or watching a dark movie the color shift is very noticeable and distracting. Vertical viewing angles are good until about 10 degrees forward or back when colors start to shift considerably. Horizontal viewing angles are a little better as colors remain true except at very steep angles. The screen backlight level is rated at 200nit by Lenovo, and in our testing it works very well under bright office lights. The screen isn't quite powerful enough to overpower the reflections off the glossy screen outdoors under direct sunlight.

The speakers are fine for listening to streaming radio or the occasional TV show. That said, headphones are a much better option to really enjoy music and movies from this notebook thanks to the weak bass and midrange from the built-in speakers. Another alternative is using the HDMI-out to pass digital audio to a home stereo.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The full-size keyboard is great for typing and the 13" form-factor is the perfect compromise between size and user comfort. Too much smaller and the palmrest won't actually support your wrists. Any larger and the notebook becomes too large to be travel friendly. Key action is smooth and quiet with a very mild click emitted when you fully press a key. Key wiggle is minimal and each key top is solidly attached to the scissor mechanism below. We didn't notice any keyboard flex unless we pressed down very forcefully on the keys. In short, the keyboard on the U350 easily ranks as one of the nicest ones we've used on a thin-and-light notebook.

The IdeaPad U350 offers a spacious Synaptics touchpad that is one of the better models we've seen in this form-factor of notebook. The surface texture is mildly rough and gives good traction without making it difficult to slide your finger across when moist. Speed and accuracy are great and we barely noticed any lag in our tests. Refresh rate of the touchpad surface is very good and prevents any "stutter" like what we've recently seen on a few Synaptics touchpads. The acceleration on each axis is adequately matched and helps guarantee that cursor movement on the screen matches your finger movement on the touchpad. The touchpad buttons were excellent thanks to a soft, springy action with a very long throw. The only complaint I have regarding the buttons is you need to make a full press all the way down as far as the buttons will go, otherwise you don't fully engage the button.
Ports and Features
Port selection is very good with three USB ports, VGA and HDMI-out, gigabit LAN, audio in/out, and an SDHC card slot. The SDHC-slot is spring loaded, but doesn't allow the card to sit flush in the slot. When you fully insert a standard SDHC card into the slot it still sticks out partially. Don't expect to see a built-in optical drive in this notebook, so if you plan on reinstalling the OS or ripping DVDs, pick up an external USB optical drive. Multimedia keys are limited to a mute button and a direct access button to the Lenovo recovery software suite.

Performance and Benchmarks
System performance with the Intel SU2700 CULV processor is less than stellar. Most programs take noticeably longer to load or access information compared to faster CULV options. Even with 4GB of memory, the system feels as sluggish as most Intel Atom-based netbooks. That said, basic tasks such as web browsing, listening to iTunes, typing documents, or watching the occasional SD video are no problem for the IdeaPad U350. When we moved up to watching HD video while still multitasking, the system lagged considerably. If this system included the faster SU4100 or SU7300 dual-core processors this would not be a problem in the slightest. Most of the configurations with the better processors don't even cost that much more than this model, so there is little reason not to choose a faster one.
Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
System temperatures stayed within normal ranges with the low-end single core processor. The hard drive cavity was noticeable warm on the left side of the palmrest and on the bottom of the notebook, but the temperature wasn't uncomfortable. Noise levels were about average for a computer of this size, but the fan might get on your nerves if you are used to a completely silent notebook. The U350 tends to keep its fan running all the time, either to keep case temperatures low or to keep the processor under a certain temperature range. Fan noise was only a little louder than the noise level of a hard drive, but if you have really good hearing you will notice it.

Battery Life
Battery life with the 4-cell battery and the SU2700 is less than we had hoped for. In our test with the screen brightness set to 70%, Vista on the "balanced" power profile, and wireless active the system stayed on for 3 hours and 35 minutes before going into standby mode. Power consumption during this test floated between 9 and 10 watts. Lenovo does offer an 8-cell battery with higher-priced models for users looking for better battery life, and the 8-cell battery should provide more than 7 hours of runtime.

Conclusion
The Lenovo IdeaPad U350 is a great thin-and-light notebook ... as long as you don't pick the model with the slower Intel SU2700 processor. The U350 offers a unique design with a textured surface, great build quality, and excellent upgrade options. What can make or break this system though is the configuration, which could span from speedy to painfully slow under most tasks. Battery life is below average with the 4-cell battery, but an 8-cell battery comes standard on higher-priced models. The IdeaPad U350 offers an overall excellent value as long as you pick the right configuration.
Pros:

Excellent build quality

Design looks and feels good

Pre-wired for WWAN

Cons:

Slow SU2700 processor

Touchpad buttons require deep press