Review Lenovo IdeaPad U150
|
For:
Cons:
|
11-inch Lenovo IdeaPad U150 is equipped with the latest processors, Intel CULV, providing a long battery life, and HDMI output for connection to high definition TV and digital audio systems. As an alternative netbook, U150 attractive, powerful enough for most everyday tasks and small enough to serve as a help to your stationary PC. Spend it you another 30 000 rubles for this impressive little notebook? Read on and you learn.
Specification of our Lenovo IdeaPad U150:
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 (1.30GHz, 800MHz FSB, 3MB L2 cache) |
| OS: | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
| Display: | 11.6 “WXGA 1366×768, glossy, with LED backlight |
| Video Card: | Intel X4500M, built |
| Memory: | 4GB DDR3 SDRAM (1066MHz) |
| Data Warehouse: | 320GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD |
| Wireless: | Intel 5100AGN, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR |
| Camera: | 1.3Mp |
| Battery: | 6-cell 57Wh battery (optional 3-cell 29Wh) |
| Warranty: | 1 year |
| Dimensions (WxDxH): | 29,1 x 19,2 x 2,4 – 3,4 cm |
| Weight: | 1,5 kg (1.35 kg with battery 3-cell) |
Construction and Design
Lenovo is mainly known as a manufacturer of notebook line business ThinkPad, which the company inherited from IBM. But the IdeaPad line of consumer created a sensation thanks to unique design and affordable prices. Stylish Lenovo IdeaPad U150 continues this trend, speaking competitor models Inspiron 11Z from Dell and the Mini 311 from HP. Like most 11-inch notebooks, U150 squeezed in between a number of full-fledged laptops and netbooks based on Intel Atom.
U150 made in an attractive color combination of matte black, glossy black and glossy gray plastic. The display repeats the texture in the form of cross-weaving, Lenovo earlier in the application of larger U350, which is better than the glossy lid on most 11-inch notebooks.
In the notebook a good body rigidity through the bottom of wholeness of the laptop, but the plastic cover screen with a textured aluminum fascia and plastic supports for the wrists flex more than you expect from a laptop that cost more than 300 eur. Although most buyers probably will not notice bending of the plastic shell, unless you press on your support for the wrists with the entire force. But the 11-inch laptops are usually in backpacks and bags stuffed with other things, books, etc., so that it would be very nice if at the U150 casing would be stronger. On the other hand, opaque plastic cover of the screen not only looks good, but hides scratches well, emerging from the constant use of a laptop, they just do not see in this textured coatings. Also fewer fingerprints and other stains can not be said about laptops with glossy covers. Most likely, during normal use of U150 for a long time will remain in good condition. Just do not need to try to stand on a laptop, as is often the fans from doing a ThinkPad’ami, plastic housing will not stand.
Those who need to upgrade U150 (add memory, new hard drive or SSD or a new wireless card), will be able to do it fairly easily. One panel provides access to the hard drive and memory, and the second panel – a wireless card and slot miniPCIe. We did not find inside a laptop is no labels, restricting the guarantee, but on the edges of memory, wireless card and the CPU heatsink screws were pasted stickers Lenovo, which can serve as an indicator of unauthorized access into the laptop.
Also added that the 6-cell battery this laptop noticeably sticks out from the body, increasing its thickness by about 1 cm, which may not appeal to all users and also makes it difficult to use a laptop on his lap. But for this notebook can also be purchased and compact 3-cell battery, which is installed flush with the notebook casing.
The screen and speakers
11.6-inch screen at the U150 is quite normal, it provides an acceptable contrast and color reproduction can not be said about its angles. Most thin and light notebooks TN matrix, rather poor quality, but the screen on a notebook in addition colors have some pastel shade. For common tasks, like accessing the Internet or printing it does not matter, but if you look at photos or watching movies with dark scenes, the soft colors are beginning a little irritating. Vertical viewing angles are kept only up to 10 degrees tilt the screen forward or backward, then the color is already beginning to distort. Horizontal angles of the situation is better and colors get distorted only at very large angles. Screen backlight copes well with bright lighting in the office, but to work on the street, to overcome on the screen in direct sun light reflection and glare, it is not enough.
Built-in stereo speakers work well for periodic listening to music or watching online TV series, they just do not have enough bass. Since the dynamics are located on the front lower edge of the notebook, then, if you put a laptop on his knees, the sound can be muted. Although, if you put the U150 on the table, the sound is reflected from the table and goes directly into the ears of listeners.Nevertheless, the use of headphones will be the preferred solution for high-quality music and watching movies, “thanks to” weak Bassam and mid-range built-in speakers. Also to connect to high-quality stereo or home theater, you can use the digital output HDMI.
The keyboard and touchpad
Nearly full-size keyboard U150 is perfect for printing and good as far as it can be expected from the 11-inch laptop. Space bar a bit too small and the ~ key and uzhali in size to accommodate her, but on the whole key is to size as needed. Colleagues in my office from time to time fall into two camps in the discussion of the benefits of island-type keyboard, with the distance between the keys, and conventional keyboard, with keys larger. Frankly, the keyboard selection is a matter of personal taste, and 11-inch laptops with keyboards produce both types.
The keyboard itself is quite strong and does not bend even slam on the keys when you print. When firing the keys emit a soft klatsayuschy sound fairly quiet, which will not be distracted by office colleagues and neighbors in the plane with the press. Progress in small keys, each key is securely attached to their triggering inside and not loose. In general we can say that U150 is one of the best keyboards that we met on the 11-inch laptops.
The only shortcoming is the key Fn, which is located to the left of the keys Ctrl, which can be inconvenient for users accustomed to its normal position. And unfortunately, the laptop BIOS is no option for replacement of the keys Fn and Ctrl.
U150 is also equipped with a sufficiently large, comfortable and, running forward to say, one of the best in the 11-inch notebooks, touchpad Synaptics. The plastic surface of the touchpad a little rough, due to which it is easy to slip and the quality of the reading situation as excellent. We did not have to adjust the accuracy of any entry, nor the speed of the cursor, everything was already the best at the first turn. What a lag in the cursor moves we have not noticed. Reading flat, without delay, interrupt, which are peculiar to some touchpad Synaptics. Acceleration of vertical and horizontal lines are the same and you will not have problems with his finger to draw a circle on this touchpad (as opposed to for example, touchpad on Dell Inspiron 11z). Touchpad keys are fantastic, with a properly chosen length of the soft and quiet click when operated.
Ports and Features
A set of ports on the IdeaPad U150 surprisingly good. You will have VGA out and HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet port, audio jacks, slot SDHC card reader and three port USB (two standard and a combined USB / eSATA). ESATA port lets you connect to this laptop is very fast external hard drives, and we are pleased that Lenovo has applied a combined port USB / eSATA, which may be useful for those who do not need a port eSATA.Located in front SDHC card reader is equipped with spring latch and, unlike older brother U350, securely holds the card inside. If the card is fully inserted into card reader, it no longer pops out. Do not even expect to find the optical drive in this laptop, so if you need to reinstall your operating system or look of DVD, you will need an external optical drive with USB.
Also, a laptop is a small set of additional keys, or rather two, mute button and volume button OneKey to access the software to preserve and restore the system.
Productivity and performance
Performance notebook processor Intel SU7300 CULV is enough for most everyday tasks, like accessing the Internet, checking e-mail, editing documents and photo editing. Although of course we would like to gain full-time overclocking the processor SU7300 to 1.73 GHz, as implemented in the latest laptops Asus, UL20A for example, and Alienware. Most of the programs loaded significantly longer than laptops with powerful processors Core 2 Duo, but the SU7300 a significant advantage in time of battery life compared with those processors. Our laptop 4GB RAM and a fairly fast hard drive to 320 GB, so it is not exactly call it a brake, as the majority of netbooks on the Intel Atom and it would provide enough for most normal users PC performance.
With the integrated graphics chip Intel X4500 laptop copes with playing high-definition video, including Flash videos from Youtube. This chip provides a very good picture quality, with output to an external high definition TV via HDMI. Although the U150 are of course some delays in playback, with the inclusion of parallel tasks, such as internet access or the inclusion of Microsoft Office. As stated earlier, if the processor would have been broken up, perhaps even a delay and did not appear to.
Comparative results of processors wPrime (the lower the score, the better the performance):
PCMark05 characterizes the overall system performance (the higher the score, the better the performance):
3DMark06 characterize the performance of graphics and gaming capabilities (the higher the score, the better the performance):
Results of performance hard disk HDTune:
Heat and Noise
Most of the external surfaces of the IdeaPad U150 is not extremely high during our tests, except for areas in which there is system memory. Although the temperature of the heating body in it can not be called terrible after brief use of a laptop, the bottom of the notebook can be very warm if you hold for a laptop on your lap or on the couch for over an hour.
Laptop pretty quiet for its size, but laptop fan can be annoying if you’re used to a completely noiseless device. In U150 fan runs all the time, trying to cool a building or a laptop to keep the CPU temperature within the prescribed limits. The level of fan noise is only slightly above the noise from the hard drive, but if you have a good ear, you hear it, it looks like the remote noise from running a hair dryer.
Battery life
Notebook showed a good time with a processor SU7300 from 6-cell battery. In our tests, with screen brightness set at 70%, included a profile “balanced” in Windows 7 and the included wireless laptop lasted 5 hours and 22 minutes, while consuming 9 to 10 watts of power. If you lower your screen brightness to 30% or turn off the wireless connection, you’ll likely get more than 6 hours of battery life.
Conclusion
For most users, Lenovo IdeaPad U150 notebook will be a good, relatively strong while small. Compared with other 11-inch laptops, like the Dell Inspiron 11Z or HP Mini 311, the U150 is better keyboard and touchpad, although slightly higher cost. On the other hand, IdeaPad U150 several little weak and relatively cheap, compared to a new Alienware M11x, which has much higher performance, especially in graphics, backlit keyboard and a better build quality at a comparable price.
In the end, if you want a simple laptop with HDMI, but you do not want to buy a netbook, then you should definitely consider the IdeaPad U150.
- Great keyboard and touchpad
- He has a port eSATA! As well as VGA and HDMI outputs
- It little glossy parts
- Average productivity
- Plastic cover tough enough
- 6-cell battery makes the laptop notebook column
- The bottom is basking in the long run