The Lenovo Ideapad U350 is the Chinese company’s official entry into the growing market of CULV-based notebooks that feature a thin and light form factor, as made popular by the MacBook Air. As you can expect, it’s a great-looking piece of hardware that, somehow, manages to maintain a decidedly professional edge.
Fitted with 1.3GHz Pentium U2700, it features low power consumption along with the stylish profile. Unfortunately, it’s also a bit underpowered. Of course, those in search of more powerful thin-and-lights can always look towards Lenovo’s professional-grade Thinkpad T400.
While capable of running Windows Vista without choking nearly as bad as a 10-inch netbook, the U350 doesn’t necessarily overwhelm on the platform. Other default core hardware specs include 2GB of memory, Intel GM45 chipset and Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics.
At one-inch thick, Lenovo could have successfully fitted the U350 with an optical drive. However, leaving it off the table definitely made the difference in keeping the machine extremely light. It sports a glossy 13.3-inch screen with 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1,366×768 resolution. Display panel is gorgeous, as well as the out-of-sight internal speakers, which facilitate very loud sounds. This is a great machine for viewing movies, provided the guts of the machine can handle it, of course.
Input facilities are decent, with a good keyboard (similar to usual Lenovo laptops) and an average touch pad. The touch pad is particularly tactile, bit can be difficult to use because of the lack of a click when you tap it. The array of ports is a bit less than standard, with no DisplayPort and ExpressCard expansion, though all the basics are sufficiently covered.
Compared to similar laptops, the Lenovo IdeaPad U350′s performance is a tad less than the norm (not by much, but enough to warrant a notice). However, it’s also priced considerably lower. Retailing for $629 (default configuration), it’s a great value for those with modest performance needs.
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