The good: Great design; good speakers; generous selection of ports.

The bad: Weak graphics; no Bluetooth; thick chassis.

The bottom line: Reasonably priced, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 is a style-savvy, media-friendly laptop that unfortunately lacks gaming graphics.

Read full review of the Lenovo IdeaPad Y450  »

By Scott Stein
Jul 6, 2009

Formerly known for the iconic, if boxy, ThinkPads (which the company still does well: See our review of the T400s), Lenovo has also begun branching into more stylish consumer products, loosening up its slightly uptight design aesthetics along the way. The recent IdeaPad line reflects the change most starkly: We looked at the 16-inch IdeaPad Y650 a while ago, and were impressed by the thin, sturdy feel and bolder touches, including texture-patterned lids and glossy materials used in the interior.

While the IdeaPads retain Lenovo's comfortable keyboard and some of the same custom software, the prices are also more reasonable, making them, by some measures, budget-friendly notebooks bearing better-than-average design.

The S$1,399 (US$996.51) Y450 is a smaller-screened relative of the Y650, with an extremely similar design on the inside and out. While the 14-incher is also thicker than its 16-inch big brother, the overall feel and performance of the Y450 make it a worthwhile alternative for those who want a bit more portability.

Editors' note : This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia. Do check directly with your local distributor for details.

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Design

The Y450, on the outside, comes patterned with an attractive hex design on its black lid, which feels like plastic to the touch as opposed to the Y650's slightly silicone finish. Copper highlights line the edges, and inside, the same white glossy palm rest and white keyboard as the Y650 lie below the black plastic-framed glossy 16:9 screen. We liked the design then, and we still like it now.



However, from the front, the Y450 looks thinner than it is. Turning it on its side, a more considerable bulk is revealed. Still, the system carries comfortably in a backpack, and whether we used it at a local cafe or on our laps, it felt really well proportioned.

Above the keyboard, twin JBL stereo speakers sit on either side of a small lineup of controls: Power and a OneKey recovery button for instant backup and data restore, an LED-backlit touch-strip for launching Lenovo's small suite of tools including VeriFace facial recognition software, and touch controls for volume and Dolby Home Theater settings.

The Y450's keyboard has a good classic combination of travel and click, and the textured multitouch touchpad feels more accurate than glossy pads, although that is more of a tactile psychological effect. The twin buttons below were a little mushy for us, but worked fine.

Features

The 14-inch widescreen LED-backlit display offers a 1,366 x 768 native resolution, which is standard for a screen this size that has a 16:9 aspect ratio. The colors were sharp, and text and icons were crisp and readable. The glossy screen is inset from the lid, which helps with glare, but viewing the screen from off-angles produced a slightly washed-out look on our model.



The JBL stereo speakers, similar to the ones in the IdeaPad Y650, are great-sounding and pack a better-than-average punch for movie viewing and headphone-free music listening. They're one of the features we like the most about Lenovo's midrange IdeaPad lineup. In simulated surround mode, the Y450 provides a satisfying lap-based mini home theater for the budget-minded.

One area where the IdeaPad Y450 mostly shines is ports. From first glance, nearly every connectivity consideration is covered, especially for the student or home consumer. HDMI, eSATA, ExpressCard, FireWire, and three USB ports on top of that are studded all around the sides--so many ports, in fact, that the headphone/mic jacks have been relegated to the front of the laptop, because that's the only place they'd fit.

Tags: Intel Core 2 Duo, Expresscard, Speaker, Keyboard, Intel Corp.

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