Lenovo IdeaPad U400
he thin-and-light market is seriously heating up, and with CES 2012 just around the corner, Lenovo's hoping to sneak some sales in during the last few weeks of the 2011 holiday season. The IdeaPad U400 is a sleek, sexy machine, understated from top to bottom and aimed at mid-range buyers who have never had so many options. You can't really call this an Ultrabook (you'll need to ogle at Lenovo's IdeaPad U300s for that honor), but it's still super slick. And in its roomier 14-inch weight class, you actually have fewer options to pick from. We're happy to see Lenovo continuing to serve this in-between market actually.
The U400 is machined from a single slab of aluminum. This unibody
approach has become more and more popular in recent years, but Lenovo
has truly exceeded in producing a stunner in design. As far as PC
notebooks go, there may be none more stunning than this on the market.
As for internals, it offers mid-to-high range specifications, utilizing
Intel's latest line of Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs, up to 8GB of
DDR3 memory and an optional AMD Radeon HD6470M GPU. Speaking of
specifications, here's a look at what's inside our test machine:
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Perhaps most interesting here is just how premium the U400 looks and
feels. It's surprising actually, that this notebook is priced and
specified like a mid-range machine. In a way, we wish Lenovo offered
this very hardware with higher-end specs, a higher-res display, etc. But
on the other hand, we're just happy to see Lenovo is taking design
seriously, integrating a premium fit and finish into a machine that's
squarely aimed at mid-range buyers. Of course, looks are only half of
the story; is the entire package worthy of consideration this holiday
season? Let's dig in and find out.
Lenovo suggests that the IdeaPad U400 is actually modeled after a bound
book or paperwork of some sort. That's to say, there are tapered edges
with a flat side edge, and if you look at it while closed, it does
indeed look as if the pronounced edges are the cover, and the body
itself are the pages. But more than all of that, the U400 is just
beautiful. It's crafted from a single sheet of aluminum, and while the
overall body isn't quite as rigid as a newer MacBook Pro -- the palm
rest and display flex a bit more when mashed on, it still outclasses
nearly every PC in the same price range.
Some have said that Dell's new XPS line, and perhaps even the newer HP
multimedia machines, are trying awfully hard to rival Apple's
classically styled MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup. But honestly, the
U400 may be even closer to mimicking that style. The major difference is
that the U400 is a very dark silver, almost bronze in the right light,
and there are no speaker grilles alongside its chiclet keyboard. Also,
the keys on the U400 aren't backlit.
The entire machine measures in at under one inch thick, and the aluminum
is as smooth as a baby's bottom. It's sandblasted from the factory and
anodized; it's a process that Lenovo claims will keep the exterior tough
despite daily wear and tear. Perhaps most unusual about a familiar
unibody experience is the cooling system. The company talks up a
"breathable keyboard technology," which allows air to be sucked in
around the keys and then shoved out via a left-side vent and a slot vent
along the back. There are no underside vents to speak of; quite odd for
a machine in this segment.
While that may all sound like a lot of hot air (pun firmly intended),
it's actually not. Even after hours of benchmarking, the palm rests
remained downright cool. We aren't sure if Lenovo will ever get the
credit they deserve for this one facet, but we're here to make a big
deal about it. Evidently, the company teamed up with Intel's Advanced
Cooling Technology (which is exclusively licensed to Lenovo, at least
for now) in order to create the first major breakthrough in notebook
cooling that we've seen in a decade. The only sad thing about it is that
"exclusive" bit. We really wish this could be rolled out to every other
laptop maker post-haste. We've finally found a powerful notebook that
doesn't melt your palms or lap -- it's seriously something you have to
feel to fully appreciate.
The chiclet keyboard is a strange mix of good and bad. The texture and
travel are ideal; it's wonderfully comfortable to type on, but it takes a
good deal of getting used to. Why? Because the right side of the
keyboard is truncated in a number of ways. The right Shift key is about
half of the normal size, so frequent users of that will be frustrated at
first by "missing" a key that they expect to be there. Once you get
used to the slightly atypical layout, it's a great keyboard to type on.
The lack of a backlight, however, is a downer for us. At this point in
the game, all self-respecting laptops should have them; particularly
ones knocking on the $1000 door.
We will say, however, that we love how the Function keys respond to
system functions first, and Function keys second. In other words, the F1
key Mutes the sound by default; you have to press Fn + F1 for F1 to
activate. Given that we can't even recall the last time we needed to use
F3 or F4, we're in favor of this. The only downside is a subtle one.
The UI to the graphics that correspond to volume levels, screen
brightness, etc., are just plain ugly, and look nothing like the Aero
elements present in Windows. It makes us wonder if Lenovo even gave this
detail a second thought. They really should -- with hundreds of similar
laptops, it's the details that make one stand out over another.
While we're in the area, it's worth talking about the glass trackpad. If
you're familiar with the feel of a MacBook trackpad, you'll understand
how this one feels. It's slick, smooth and huge. There's no left/right
click buttons; you simply press in that area of the trackpad. It's the
trackpad that we wish all PC notebooks had. There's robust multi-finger
gesture support, and the touch response is exemplary. Our only complain
is this: it's still not as good as a MacBook trackpad. It's as good as
it gets for a PC, but why can't PC trackpads match those on Apple
machines? It's hard to know how much of the problem lies within the
trackpad and how much is due to Windows' inability to really make use of
a multi-touch pad, but regardless, we can't help but wish it was just a
bit more finely tuned. Four-finger gestures take a fraction of a second
too long to respond, and two-finger scrolling on webpages only works
instantly around 80 percent of the time. That's just not good enough.
The really perplexing thing about the
hardware is the display. There's a 14" LED display, but the resolution
is capped at 1366 x 768. That's the same resolution as most 13" laptops.
So, unless you like a larger image, not screen real estate (seriously,
we can't think of a great reason why you'd want to buy a larger, less
portable machine), Lenovo really should've offered a true high-res
option. We're used to seeing 720p on tablets; seeing a similar
resolution blown up on a large 14" display just looks subpar these days,
at least to the enthusiast in us. Again, we're asking for the option of
a high res display here. To keep cost down, plenty of prospective
consumers would opt for the system as we tested it of course.
At just over 4 pounds, the U400 isn't what we'd call "light." But it's
sturdy, making the weight more justified. It's a seriously solid hunk of
metal, and it feels premium from top to bottom. Its weight is nicely
distributed as well. As for the ports, you won't find much of interest
in the front or rear, and sadly, few things were of interest even on the
sides. The upside is that there's a CD/DVD writer (slot-loading), which
is extremely useful for those who routinely need to burn data or read
DVDs and don't want to opt for one of the many thin and light machines
who are ditching optical drives these days.
Also, there are only three total USB ports available, and only one of
these is USB 3.0; the other two are USB 2.0. That's a bit of a letdown,
although not too unexpected. There's also a full-size HDMI port, but
it's located in a really weird spot. It's near the front of the machine,
crammed between USB ports and a DVD drive. It'd make a lot of sense to
have the HDMI port on the rear, but alas… There is also no flash card
slot at all. No SD slot, nothing. This seems like a poor choice. Nearly
every other laptop out today, regardless of price, has one; we're
certain a lot of users will miss having one here.
The U400's audio solution is decent; about as good as you'd expect from a
mid-range notebook, but of course, there's no low-end response to speak
of.
The bottom line on the U400's design, though, is that all the niggles fade when you remember just how cool this machine stays even after extensive usage and how good it looks doing it.
The bottom line on the U400's design, though, is that all the niggles fade when you remember just how cool this machine stays even after extensive usage and how good it looks doing it.
