Lenovo IdeaPad U300s Review: Beauty and the Beast Discussion

Lenovo's new Ultrabook features a 13.3-inch display, Core i7 processor and 256GB SSD. Those are nice specs for a premium thin and light laptop, but are the build quality problems a deal breaker?

Read the full content of this Article: Lenovo IdeaPad U300s Review: Beauty and the Beast

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I never understand the fascination with being thin. I'd take the X220 over any ultrabook.

 

Pretty decent battery life and oomph on this it seems, but the fragility you mention and the non-removable battery leave me rather indifferent. -_-

 

It's comical what notebook makers go through to make thinness possible. Cutting features, pushing smaller mini ports, making them non-upgradeable, no user-changeable batteries, etc.

 

ditto. It's going to fun to watch the Ultrabook market implode like the Android/Blackbery/WebOS tablet market and see prices plummet when manufacturers realize consumers actually don't want to pay $1,500 for a laptop that cuts corners and offers less features to stay ultra thin.

They are fun to look at and talk about of course, but I'll pass on actually using one.

 

I am more bothered about the screen quality than thiness.

 

I think the Air is a great product if you can live with its limitations, but to me there's a much stronger correlation between weight and portability than thinness. The Air is a bit lighter, but not by a large margin. The minimal port selection doesn't bother me as long as I've got an SD card and couple USB, that's all I really use.

What I don't like is the limited drive capacity and non-replaceable battery they must impose to get so thin. When I had a X200 and X200t with a SSD, I disliked having to carry most things on the external. When I need a new battery, I just want to be able to buy one and replace it, not send it off somewhere.

This is why the X220 with the mSATA and platter drive in the bay is so great, but Lenovo is a bit guilty of it too by going with a 7mm drive. I never understood that either. 99%+ of X220s are going to be sold with a six or nine-cell battery, which raises the back up. You've got the space to add a couple mm so you can use a standard drive. The X220 with a mSATA drive and 1TB platter drive would be fantastic. With the four-cell battery, it's a one inch thick machine, but so few will order it that way, it looks like they did it to put it in the marketing material. At least with the X220 you can get 500GB+ of storage.

 

i'll say this much: if you're a regular user, you do not know how to get to a computer forum.

most users use a USB drive, headphones, and MAYBE a wireless mouse. guess what has 2 usb ports and an audio out? pretty much every laptop in current existence.

'nuff said.

ps, ultrabooks are supposed to be under 1k before tax. that price and the looks are enough to get people looking. the weight will keep people interested. the salesman will get them upgrading.

 

That would be an issue with this notebook as it doesn't have one .... and neither did the U400 I reviewed last week.

 

The mini ports are what bother me. Really? You expect people to use an adapter or hard to find cable to do what most other laptops offer at a cheaper price. Sacrifice a few mm and you can gain your regular port back.