Geekonomics
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by Nicholas Aaron Khoo, Singapore
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10 things you should know about the Lenovo IdeaPad U350
Jul 23, 2009 10:21
ONE. It is not a Netbook even though it is under the IdeaPad series. The U350 a full-blown performance laptop and pretty impressive.
TWO. It is ultraslim and light. Personally, I think it is comparable with even the MacBook Air in terms of thickness and weight.
THREE. It comes with the Intel ultra-low-voltage processor to feature an extremely power-efficient notebook. The resulting impact is that the battery life is up to 5 hours on the four-cell and up to 10 hours on the eight-cell battery. For a thin-and-light, that's pretty good stuff.
FOUR. It comes with a multitouch touchpad, something like what you have on your iPhone. You can use two fingers to navigate the touchpad and do stuff like zoom in and out on your pictures with it, similar to your iPhone's multitouch.
FIVE. It comes with a facial recognition login system called Veriface for pretty fast and secure login. You can find out more about Veriface through this YouTube video.
SIX. Even though it does not come with SSD harddisks because Lenovo wanted to keep the price down, there is an Active
Protection System (APS) which protects your hard drive data from sudden shocks.
SEVEN. It does not seem to run on Windows Vista very well. Look out for the Windows 7 upgrade option.
EIGHT. The OneKey Rescue System works very well and within 30 minutes you can get a crashed laptop back. I know because we tested it!
NINE. It comes with an Ambient Light Sensor to automatically adjust screen brightness based on your surroundings.
TEN. It will likely be retailing for S$1,499. Sounds to me like Lenovo hasn't exactly firmed up the retail price yet because I was hearing a few different numbers being thrown around. I think maybe the company is deciding how many options to throw in, such as the amount of RAM. But S$1,499 sounds the surest.
P.S. This post is adapted from my original post last weekend from the Blogathon where I blogged on the Lenovo IdeaPad U350 for 24 hours. And if you did not know already, I won the Judge's Choice Award, thanks to your support!
- Talkback
-
scoobydoo says...
It seems strange that the U350 should having problems running Vista, as other recent Lenovos that I came across seemed to run just fine. Perhaps it's an errant driver problem? For all you know, upgrading to Win7 might introduce it's own set of problems, hehe.
Jul 23, 2009 11:12
It seems strange that the U350 should having problems running Vista, as other recent Lenovos that I came across seemed to run just fine. Perhaps it's an errant driver problem? For all you know, upgrading to Win7 might introduce it's own set of problems, hehe.
Jul 23, 2009 11:12
Geekonomics says...
I think maybe it's so new Lenovo hasn't stablized it yet. yeah so you may be right about the driver problem. I heard the notebooks landed the nite before the blogathon started.
Jul 23, 2009 23:10
I think maybe it's so new Lenovo hasn't stablized it yet. yeah so you may be right about the driver problem. I heard the notebooks landed the nite before the blogathon started.
Jul 23, 2009 23:10
Geekonomics says...
OK the notebook will only be launched in a couple of weeks' time and the retail batch will be shipped with Windows 7, good news.
Jul 27, 2009 16:00
OK the notebook will only be launched in a couple of weeks' time and the retail batch will be shipped with Windows 7, good news.
Jul 27, 2009 16:00
scoobydoo says...
Thanks for the tip. It's going to be hard to resist for the price.
Jul 27, 2009 17:09
Thanks for the tip. It's going to be hard to resist for the price.
Jul 27, 2009 17:09
GreatCookie says...
Just put a pre-order for one of these in - interested to hear about the Windows 7 thing. Hopefully that won't mean I have to wait till Oct 22nd until I get the laptop though.
Nic: How did you find the general build quality? After using one for the duration of the blogathon, any searing heat issues?
Jul 29, 2009 16:36
Just put a pre-order for one of these in - interested to hear about the Windows 7 thing. Hopefully that won't mean I have to wait till Oct 22nd until I get the laptop though.
Nic: How did you find the general build quality? After using one for the duration of the blogathon, any searing heat issues?
Jul 29, 2009 16:36
Geekonomics says...
Hi GreatCookie, I did not experience any heat issues, and did not hear any of the bloggers complain about any heat issues either. I'd say the general build quality is good, if you are referring to things falling apart :) lol.
It's not exactly a sturdy kinda build that you'd expect in a Thinkpad though, given that it's meant to be slim and light, but it's definitely got a nice finish to it.
Jul 29, 2009 17:45
Hi GreatCookie, I did not experience any heat issues, and did not hear any of the bloggers complain about any heat issues either. I'd say the general build quality is good, if you are referring to things falling apart :) lol.
It's not exactly a sturdy kinda build that you'd expect in a Thinkpad though, given that it's meant to be slim and light, but it's definitely got a nice finish to it.
Jul 29, 2009 17:45
GreatCookie says...
Hi Nic,
Thanks for the reply... I've been searching around the Net for some info. Any chance of getting your opinions on the following:
1) Build-Quality… Have heard some varied reports (from Gizmodo or Engadget) about this new generation of ultra-thins having problems with the all-plastic casing cracking (due to heat dispersement) as well as the questions about the hinges for the LCD screen.
2) Battery life… Especially how the standard 4-cell performs. Given the criticisms of some of the other Ideapads (U330), wondering how this one stacks up. I'm taking it that for most of the Blogathon, you guys were running on AC power, but any ideas whether it'll reach the manufacturer's claims?
Thanks in advance!
Jul 29, 2009 23:18
Hi Nic,
Thanks for the reply... I've been searching around the Net for some info. Any chance of getting your opinions on the following:
1) Build-Quality… Have heard some varied reports (from Gizmodo or Engadget) about this new generation of ultra-thins having problems with the all-plastic casing cracking (due to heat dispersement) as well as the questions about the hinges for the LCD screen.
2) Battery life… Especially how the standard 4-cell performs. Given the criticisms of some of the other Ideapads (U330), wondering how this one stacks up. I'm taking it that for most of the Blogathon, you guys were running on AC power, but any ideas whether it'll reach the manufacturer's claims?
Thanks in advance!
Jul 29, 2009 23:18
Geekonomics says...
Hey that's interesting. Normally if you feel the keyboard and palm area heat up, it might not exactly be a bad thing coz it might mean the heat is dispersing through the conductive surface. In this case, we are not feeling the heat does not mean it's a good thing either coz the heat is not conducting through the plastic material doesn't mean it's not there and it might jolly well crack the case over time. But definitely nothing of that sort happened during the Blogathon.
I'd say the answer to both your questions is the same, it's in the Intel ultra low voltage processors which generates less heat and take up less battery life.
Jul 30, 2009 08:20
Hey that's interesting. Normally if you feel the keyboard and palm area heat up, it might not exactly be a bad thing coz it might mean the heat is dispersing through the conductive surface. In this case, we are not feeling the heat does not mean it's a good thing either coz the heat is not conducting through the plastic material doesn't mean it's not there and it might jolly well crack the case over time. But definitely nothing of that sort happened during the Blogathon.
I'd say the answer to both your questions is the same, it's in the Intel ultra low voltage processors which generates less heat and take up less battery life.
Jul 30, 2009 08:20
GreatCookie says...
Just when I thought everything started to look rosy, I find the following posting...
www.notebookforums.com...
Talk about lack of commonsense...*sigh*
Do you think they'd be anyway for Lenovo to clarify that the following didn't affect our units here? Would this type of issue constitute a recall? I'm guessing not since it's only affecting performance, not crippling it.
Aug 04, 2009 11:10
Just when I thought everything started to look rosy, I find the following posting...
www.notebookforums.com...
Talk about lack of commonsense...*sigh*
Do you think they'd be anyway for Lenovo to clarify that the following didn't affect our units here? Would this type of issue constitute a recall? I'm guessing not since it's only affecting performance, not crippling it.
Aug 04, 2009 11:10
Geekonomics says...
interesting... so the warranty stickers might be causing heat problems for the laptop? I checked again and heat didn't seem to be an issue with the units we used. Hmm.. lemme see what I can find out.
Aug 05, 2009 11:58
interesting... so the warranty stickers might be causing heat problems for the laptop? I checked again and heat didn't seem to be an issue with the units we used. Hmm.. lemme see what I can find out.
Aug 05, 2009 11:58
GreatCookie says...
Yeah, I thought the following was interesting (if not worrying read) too. Mind you, you'd be hoping that there'd be a memo issued to the assembly manufacturer to stop this process.
Hopefully some of the product people in Lenovo Singapore should open up a couple of local units to see if we're affected. I mean, it'd be in their best interest to rectify asap (as most of the criticisms thus far centre around the heat and battery life - both of which are markedly improved when the sticker is removed).
Aug 05, 2009 14:30
Yeah, I thought the following was interesting (if not worrying read) too. Mind you, you'd be hoping that there'd be a memo issued to the assembly manufacturer to stop this process.
Hopefully some of the product people in Lenovo Singapore should open up a couple of local units to see if we're affected. I mean, it'd be in their best interest to rectify asap (as most of the criticisms thus far centre around the heat and battery life - both of which are markedly improved when the sticker is removed).
Aug 05, 2009 14:30
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About Nicholas Aaron Khoo
Nicknamed "Gadget Boy" by friends at age 18 because he used to scribble Grafitti on a PalmPilot faster than most would type, Nicholas Aaron Khoo is web developer turned technopreneur and Singapore tech blogger who also pretends to do strategic advisory for tech startups and 'un'Fortune 500s (when he's not pretending to be the gadget-loaded Batman). A digital nomad, his tech interests range from gadgets, games, tech trends, social media, security, and just about anything that runs on 1s and 0s. See his industry affiliations here.
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