Lenovo IdeaPad U350 Review

Lenovo is best known for its excellent ThinkPad business laptops, but also offers entry-level machines via its 3000 Series. The IdeaPad range strikes a balance between the two, with the U350 offering a combination of mobility, usability and corporate features.

Where Lenovo’s other laptops use stark but functional black designs, a more consumer-friendly design is used here. The textured plastic lid and faux brushed-aluminium palm-rest provide a look that will suit the home or office, and build quality is excellent throughout.

The slim chassis weighs 1.7kg, making this ultraportable ideal for frequent travel use. The large but slim battery is neatly integrated into the chassis, and it allows the machine to run for 261-minutes when away from mains power, easily keeping you working for half the day.

The quality of the user interface is mixed. The keyboard is large and spacious and all keys respond accurately, but the board flexes and rattles slightly when typing. The model we saw was a pre-production build however, so this will hopefully be rectified on final samples.

The large touchpad is far more usable. It also supports multi-touch gesture control, allowing you to move your fingers in a circle on the pad to scroll through documents, or pinch your fingers together to zoom into images. It is a small touch, but works really well.

The 13.3-inch screen is excellent. Brightness, colour and contrast are outstanding, delivering sharp and vibrant images. The widescreen aspect ratio is ideal for viewing spreadsheets and an ambient light sensor automatically adjusts brightness according to your surroundings.

Low-powered components are used to deliver optimum performance within the confines of the small chassis. The low-voltage Intel processor and 3072MB of memory provide enough power for most home and office tasks, but isn’t the best configuration for frequent multi-tasking.

Ample storage is provided by the 320GB hard drive and the disk is shock-protected, to prevent damage to your data if you drop the laptop. There is unfortunately no built-in optical drive for CD/DVD use, but a 3-in-1 card reader allows access to flash memory cards.

802.11n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet provide high-speed networking. The integrated camera also supports VeriFace login software, whereby it remembers your facial characteristics, and lets you login to Windows by simply looking into the camera.

Overall, the IdeaPad U350 finds a comfortable balance between Lenovo’s high-end ThinkPad and entry-level 3000 ranges. It may not be the best ultraportable we’ve seen, but it’s nevertheless a highly usable machine, and is sure to suit small to medium business use.

For more information, visit Lenovo

via whatlaptop