Lenovo IdeaPad U350 review roundup
By Tim Stevens 
posted August 7th 2009 10:17AM
posted August 7th 2009 10:17AM
If you have laptop needs but only a netbook-sized cavity in your carry-on, you need one of the growing number of notebooks that slot in between the eee-clones and pricey ultraportables. Lenovo's IdeaPad U350 is the latest, a svelte, 13.3-inch machine with a funky rubberized back and sophisticated design. It's been hitting test benches at various places and is getting good but not quite great reviews. Laptop Magazine loved the design and the $679 starting price, but found battery life (3.5 hours) to be disappointing. Computer Shopper was a bit more positive, knocking its performance but calling the system "feather-light" and its 1,366 x 768 screen "gorgeous." Finally, StarkSilverCreek's review is the least flattering, including concerns about excessive heat and a system fan that hardly ever turned off. Overall it seems like a decent choice if you don't mind a warm lap and can't quite swing a T400s, but if you're looking for alternatives perhaps you'd be interested in a Timeline 8000 or the like.
Read - Laptop Magazine
Read - Computer Shopper
Read - StarkSilverCreek
Windows 7 ftw
omG!!!!! that lid is sick! I think i want this. THis is a very very very beautiful laptop indeeed, Finnaly lenovo stepping up their game! good job yall
The heat and system fan is actually a problem, the darn fan NEVER turns off. I've been reading the forums and somebody after dismantling one of the U series found Lenovo stickers covering screws and the PROCESSOR(???) to make sure the customers haven't been doing custom work. The guy found a Lenovo sticker inbetween the processor and the heatsink. WTF??? I just got one for the wife a week back so I haven't had time to look into it but it seems that after removing the sticker and applying some decent thermal compound the fan noise goes away along with a much cooler CPU temp. Everything else is gorgeous, battery life isn't like a 8 hour netbook but decent for a regular laptop. Keyboard is decent, but the function key is where at the bottom left where the Ctrl key should be (the Ctrl key is next to it) so I keep hitting Func instead of Ctrl. They were selling it after coupon for a cool $599 for 3GB ram and 320GB hard drive.
I have had a u350 with 3gig ram for about a week and I have put it through its paces!
There have been absolutely no problems with heat or the fan continuously running, I was expecting such after reading the review on Stark Silver Creek, but for my unit absolutely no problems.
The CPU is faster than I expected, screen is very good in about everything but direct sun. You can tweak the power settings and I got over 5 hours yesterday on the battery while listening to music and using wordprocessing.
The fan DOES NOT constantly run and my u350 and it is very quiet when it does.
It is a great buy with the coupon.
One of the best aspects is the fantastic speaker system for such a small unit. No more lugging my external powered speakers around.
Four things that bug me.
1, the adapter could be smaller and lighter. I know that these guys could make these things smaller and lighter, and full size adapters make the travel weight much heavier and bulkier to carry. Face it, on a trip you are not going to be gone a day or two without your adapter.
2. I notice how they are going to 16:9 instead of 16:10. The extra screen space vertical screen space is valuable, so what if some media is 16:9 and would cause a black line on the top and bottom! 99 percent of the screen viewing you do would require less scrolling.
I actually liked 4:3 screen ratios even better for reading webpages, doing wordprocessing, reading ebooks, etc. They continue to shrink the vertical of the screens which saves them money. There is plenty of space in the top for a 16:10 or even a 14 inch16:10 screen. If the battery is a bit shorter, since most people are plugged in over 90 percent of the time. It is a slight tradeoff on battery life. The U350 can't be faulted on this though, it is the industry.
3. As a track point user from way back, I miss it very much on the u350. When you are on the road, or simply have the notebook in your lap, or say on your bed, the trackpad is much more difficult to use precisely. With the trackpoint, you keep your fingers on the main keys and just have to use your forefinger and a thumb wheras the trackpad forces you put your hand down at the bottom of the notebook which can be much more awkward in your lap or in conditions in a train or plane.
4. Lenovo has the best keyboard in the business. They had plenty of space on this machine, I couldn't have cost more to give the same arrangement as on other Lenovos, so why squench up the accessory keys on the right? Still the keyboard works fine, but not nearly as good an arrangement as the smaller x300.
All that being said.
The U350 is super, it is light, responsive and plenty powerful enough for most tasks. One more point, the graphics were much better than I expected and thumbnails and photoshop editing is much quicker than I imagined.
Reading that Apple is making a huge percentage of the laptop profit.
If Lenovo would get on the stick and do some of these easy improvements, they could sell an incredible, powerful, windows machine for under a $900 that would knock apple on its butt. They need a dedicated graphics option, not simply a deceptive duo, but true duo core processor, and they would make the most popular light computer in the world, by far.
Dr. Max
Just to clarify, I bought this for my wife, a grad student, and it fits the bill well. We were originally looking at a netbook but even the 10" screen/keyboard was a little small for long hours of reading / writing papers. 13" was a good point where it still had the ultra-thin profile and light weight (her bag is heavy enough as it is). For light using, a netbook would probably work better. For prolonged use and portability, this is great (sans fan noise). Lenovo made an awesome laptop and then kinda screwed it up. Hopefully it won't be too hard to fix (might void warranty)
Just got off the phone with Lenovo, customer service rep was very competant, knew exactly what i was talking about when I said "stickers", didn't treat me like an ignorant fool (Dell reps do that), briefly put me on hold to verify, and recommended I send it in instead of trying to fix it myself as removing the stickers will void the warranty. On the other hand, I've heard nightmare stories about the actual service depots that do the fixing and them not even regarding service notes so I'm a bit skeptical. I also highly doubt they will remove a measure they put a lot of thought into to save warranty dollars, but since this is the first time I've actually had to deal with them (My Thinkpad never needed service) I'll give them a chance.
1.3ghz processor? lolz. intel graphics? lolz. Almost $800? lolz. What's the deal with all these terribly underpowered laptops floating around now? If you're going to go for thin just buck up and buy a unibody macbook, even a used one, and enjoy your investment. Then at least you can enjoy using it instead of waiting for things to load all day long.
Idiot. lolz.
If this had a decent P or T series C2D processor and any gfx card other than something from Intel I would have bought it. It looks absolutely gorgeous, even the keyboard was class and it's beautifully thin.
I'm all for looks (and don't get me wrong, this looks incredible) but I really dont think this would cut it even for light travel use. 3.5 hours battery life, with 1.3ghz processors??? Fail. Even taking into account heat issues.
I'm eyeing this one as my home-and-travel laptop, with my old Latitude D630 still pulling office duty. I was originally pumped for the MSI X340, but the build quality didn't impress and it was just a little too MBA KIRF. This one looks to be much better built with with just enough aluminum to make it feel substantial without raising the price.
check again. Theres NO aluminum on this laptop. The aluminum looking surface around the keyboard is actually plastic designed to look like aluminum.
stickers in between the cpu and the heatsink? does anyone know if stickers even transfer heat well? if this sticker thing is true then lenovo should expect some laptops coming back with burnt cpus.
The Dell 14z is the one I've been watching. These others don't seem to stack up too well.
Is there any indication of the UK release date?
I'm waiting for this laptop, looks to fit my requirements perfectly
The battery life is horrendous given the magnificently mediocre CPU and graphics performance. The 8-cell should be default if they want to compete with e.g. the Acer Timeline series. Also, should have a Core 2 DUO ULV option.
U350 Fan Problem- unit is 2 hours old, called Lenovo Support, says the constant fan noise is normal!! OK!?
It's louder than my desktop PC (but that's normal!)- Ha! Lenovo has a severe design issue, and it's going to hurt them reputation wise....Sending it back to have the stickers removed :- ) , or some-such.
Non-Stop fan activity- at the desktop, no browsing or sidebar, or video running....Not right!!