While ultrabooks are clearly all any person at Microsoft or Intel can speak about, what about the modest laptop? The thicker, more versatile cover P.C. of aged of course isn't going anywhere--at least, not correct now--although changes in laptop pattern brought about by products similar to the MacBook Air , and even the Dell XPS 13 and Asus Zenbook , are starting to force all laptops to step up their game.
The Lenovo IdeaPad U400 isn't an ultrabook, but it borrows the look of one--the IdeaPad U300s --in a big-brother 14-inch laptop with a Core i5 processor, slot-loading DVD drive, and a larger-capacity 500GB hard disk that isn't SSD, but can grip more music, photos, and videos than the median paltry ultrabook.
The most appropriate thing the IdeaPad U400 has going for it is style; this is a cool, clean-looking laptop, simply a of the most appropriate I've ever seen Lenovo make. It's got coherent pattern connectors to the MacBook Pro and Samsung Series 7 Chronos , but has a few fine-tuned features that mount alone.
Alas, the battery life kills the equation. Four hours or so on the U400's integrated battery isn't bad, but it's hard to swallow when the MacBook Pro and Samsung Series 7 got 6-plus hours on our same tests.
Attractive laptop? Certainly. Yet, when you look at what's forthcoming down the dart really soon--new Intel processors and ultrabook-like 14- and 15-inch laptops with many of the same features that the U400 has--it creates me wavering to suggest the U400 in this iteration. It's a good, but transitional, laptop.
It's hard to not to look at the IdeaPad U400 in a cursory behaviour and think, "hey, a MacBook." The likewise colored steel chassis, keyboard, and equally considerable multitouch clickpad, and the slot-loading DVD drive, all feel really Apple-like. There are differences, however: the IdeaPad U400 isn't quite as crisply built. It's not unibody; the anodized aluminum externa; bombard and middle steel are two pieces (you can see the join if you look closely), and potion doesn't cover the entire top bezel, only the screen. In our examination unit, the corner bezel around the shiny manifestation was moreover a small irregularly seated.
However, we wish to highlight that this laptop, design-wise, is an on the whole success. The edges of the U400 way up up and are somewhat sharp, giving the form of the closed laptop a booklike feel. It's a unmatched look that the U260 and U300s moreover employed. The even, well-spoken all-metal feel of this laptop, down to its integrated battery, make the U400 a of the best-looking Lenovo IdeaPads I've ever seen. we hope that future IdeaPads blossom from this design; sometimes, Lenovo laptops endure a numerous of designs as against to requesting add-on by division to its lineup.
The non-backlit set of keys features lifted keys similar to those on new Lenovo laptops. The keys are flat, however, and not somewhat concave similar to on a few ThinkPads. It's a cozy typing experience all around, and I'm blissful is to function-reversed quarrel of keys on the top, that hoop shade brightness, volume, and other key functions without having to track around is to Fn button.
A large, potion clickpad looks similar to an Apple spin-off, but doesn't perform as good (shocker: actually, few Windows 7 touch pads ever do). Neither Lenovo nor Windows 7 have supposing the arrange of multifinger gestural wording that Apple does on OS X; a elementary pane-switching swipe mode that Lenovo has enclosed pales in more aged to OS X Lion. That's more a disaster of program than hardware, nonetheless the touch pad's sensitivity, whilst normally solid, had a mannerism of infrequently being over-reactive.
The 14-inch 1,366x768-pixel LED manifestation isn't a shocker, that is a bit of a letdown. Viewing angles mellow hurriedly as the shade is tilted, and we found it hard to find a straight-on point of view where the shade was perfectly, clearly lit. Considering the aloft cost label on the U400, we approaching more.
The stereo speakers, meanwhile, have lots of volume but not ample refinement. They're fitting for TV shows or movies, but aren't standout features on this laptop.
A 1,280x720-pixel Webcam and the preinstalled Cyberlink YouCam program offer nothing that other lower-priced laptops aren't moreover inclusive standard.
While the IdeaPad U400 has a lot of bases covered on ports and features, it particularly lacks an SD card slot. It's got a improved underline expansion than the U300s ultrabook, to no surprise: an Ethernet port, a singular USB 3.0 port, 2 USB 2.0, HDMI, and internal Bluetooth and Intel Wireless Display 2.0, that wirelessly streams video up to 1080p fortitude if you have a Wi-Di-compatible adapter box bending up to your TV, and is flattering hard to find on your laptop (search and you will track it down).
The IdeaPad U400 now starts as low as $719 on Lenovo's Web site, with a 2.2GHz Intel Core i3-2330M processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB, 7,200rpm hard drive, and AMD Radeon HD 6470M graphics. That processor may be bumped up to a Core i5 or dual-core Core i7; our examination model has the middle-of-the-road 2.4GHz Core i5-2430M CPU, 6GB of RAM, and a 750GB 5,400rpm hard disk for $899, nonetheless Lenovo's site has similar configurations as low as $800 (Lenovo has not long ago upgraded the U400's processor to a 2.5GHz Core i5-2450). RAM may be stretched up to 8GB, and hard disk up to 750GB. There aren't any SSD ascent options. As is to slot-loading DVD drive, do not even consider upgrading; there's no elective Blu-ray.
Also, it's unquestionably value observant and reminding you, the consumer, that the Intel processors now existing is to IdeaPad U400 are second-generation Core i-series; we're awaiting newer Ivy Bridge third-generation Core i-series processors in many laptops in a matter of months, so a word of bell goes out to any person deliberation this laptop that you're probably improved off watchful until April or so.
The 2.5GHz Core i5-2450M CPU in the middle-range IdeaPad U400 is a familiar a we've seen in several laptops lately, inclusive the HP Pavilion dm4-3090se and Sony Vaio SA41FX . Our examination unit's somewhat slower CPU suited up more equivalently with the Samsung QX411-W01 , that had the same processor, but you should expect the newer, somewhat faster chronicle to span equivalently with the HP dm4 and Vaio.
No comments:
Post a Comment