The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 – Review

Post by Sharat | February 3, 2010 | Laptops, Lenovo, Reviews | Comment

11.6 Inch Screen

Intel CULV processor.

Up To 4GB of RAM,

320GB Hard Drive,

1.3GHz Core 2 Duo SU7300 CPU

2 USB ports

VGA And HDMI Ports

802.11b/g/n WiFi

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

A choice of a 3 or 6 cell battery.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 is a sweet little machine that comes with an appealing ergonomic two tone keyboard, and combination eSata/USB port, something that is very difficult to find on most ultra-slim portable laptops.

The main drawback is the battery life, which is not as long as one would expect from a machine driven by an Intel CULV processor.

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Design

The U150 is very attractive, very thin and very light; the lid of the laptop is raised so is resistant to fingerprints. The laptop weighs in about 3.3 pounds with a 6 cell battery.

The laptop comes with 2 USB ports, and combo USB/eSata connection along with audio ports and VGA and HDMI ports that are positioned around the sides of the laptop.

On the right side of the machine, there is a switch which lets the user toggle the Wi-Fi on and off, and on the front of the machine there is a well place SD card slot.

The battery of the U150 has a rather unusual shape, but is actually thoughtfully designed to occupy less space on the bottom of the machine, and also means that the laptop does not tilt if you have opted for a 6 cell battery option.

On the base of the laptop are two access panels, that convincingly allow owners access to both the RAM and hard drive with the U150 possessing two RAM slots, making upgrades really easy. The second panel allows you to get at the WLAN hardware and a spare expansion slot.

The 11.6 inch screen and has a 1366 X 768 resolution, the screen is glossy, which also means it is reflective in bright environment, though the manufacturer does give the user control over the level of back-lighting.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard is not the most well designed, it does come in a distinctive two tone design. The top row of keys are black with white lettering, whilst the rest of the keyboard comes in a silverfish colour. The keyboard itself is probably best described as a little unresponsive.

The best thing about the touchpad is its width, which is very accommodating, there are two buttons for right and left click and allow for soft touch, which means you may not actually hear anything when you click the buttons, and it does support multi-touch and dual finger scrolling or pinching to zoom in on applications.

Battery

The U150 comes with a 6 cell battery that the company says should last as long as 7 hours, though manufacturer claims of battery life tend to be dubious for the most, we found that the laptop gives 5 hours of battery life comfortably. If you plan to watch continuous video however, expect the battery life to lass less time.

The Verdict

All in all, Lenovo’s U150 is a nice looking ultra-slim very light portable laptop, that is fairly powerful and offers a nice alternative to a 10 inch Atom driven netbook. It’s not the fastest system in the world, but has the graphics capability to play some games and play HD video.