Quick Glance

Good: Thin & light, competitive price, HDMI output

Bad: Limited expansion, mediocre 4-cell battery life

Design
Lenovo’s IdeaPads generally feature attractive, simple designs that usually have contrasting schemes with some kind of textured material. The U350 is no exception to this and has a simple yet striking black and silver interior with a textured black top cover. The silver material on the inside has a textured look to it that makes it look like machined aluminum, but the U350 is all plastic. Even the bottom cover has some stylishly cut air vents. The touchpad buttons tie it all together with a sophisticated look and are from what I can tell made from metal.

Keyboard & Touchpad
Keyboards have always been Lenovo’s strong suite and from what I’ve seen of other models, they’ve managed to maintain that with the IdeaPad line. While it’s no 7-row ISO full-size model like on a ThinkPad, the U350 has a well sized 6-row keyboard that has good tactile feedback and no flex. Manufacturers take many different tacts to work in the extra keys that don’t fit in a 6 row design and Lenovo opted to put the Del/Home/End/PgUp/PgDn keys in a column on the far right, which is personally what I prefer. Del is still within natural reach and you have the scrolling keys convenient to your right hand.

The touchpads on Lenovo’s IdeaPad lineup have been a bit hit or miss, but the U350 is a hit. It has a smooth, but not too slick texture and is easy to use. The side scrollbar works well and this is a multitouch version. The touchpad buttons have a sophisticated look to them, with a light effort and plush response.

Display
The 13.3-inch form factor is a great compromise between the portability of an 11-12 inch and the viewability of a 14-inch display. Lenovo’s U350 has a respectable 1366×768 resolution and more than sufficient brightness. The colors are decently rich and contrast sufficient as well. You won’t be blown away by the viewing angles, but you also won’t be hunting for that optimal viewing position. Overall the display is perfectly sufficient and I have no complaints, but don’t expect to be blown away.

Multimedia
HDMI output helps separate this CULV from the pack, along with a half-decent set of speakers. I used the U350 to watch numerous videos on Hulu and Netflix and was pleased with the performance. While the Intel dual-core ULV processor in this machine is quite a bit better than the Atom found in netbooks, it still doesn’t have enough horsepower to keep up with full-screen HD Flash. And when Adobe releases NVIDIA GPU acceleration for Flash next year, the U350 won’t benefit with its Intel graphics. So I guess better than a netbook, but not quite good enough for today’s common usages would be a good summation.

Features & Technology
CULV notebooks are interesting creatures: similar features to netbooks with larger screens and slightly better processors. To keep size and weight down, the U350 lacks an ExpressCard slot and optical drive. It worked, as the U350 feels eminently light, but all you have for features are HDMI output, USB ports, and a 4-in-1 card reader.

Connectivity & Ports

Right side (front to back): 4-in-1 card reader, Mic input, Headphone output, two USB 2.0 ports, power jack

Left side (front to back): WiFi switch, USB 2.0 port, Ethernet jack, HDMI output, VGA output

Software Preload
Given the lack of multimedia capabilities, and of course optical drive, in the IdeaPad S12, you won’t find as many applications installed out of the box. This is overall a good thing, as it helps from slowing down the already barely-fast-enough netbook. You get the ubiquitous Office 2007 and Norton Internet Security trials, the latter of which was punted as soon as it turned on. There is also a utility for the webcam, but that is about it; overall, nice and light.

Battery Life
Another consequence of the thin & light design in the U350 is there’s not much room for a battery. When the U350 first announced it was only available with a 4-cell battery, as our unit is equipped. I saw between 3 and 4 hours of runtime during most normal usage, with the 3D stress test yielding a hair over 2 hours.

As recently announced, Lenovo has released some refreshed models that use the updated SU7300 processor, have a new top cover design, and feature Windows 7 64-bit. These refreshed models also use an 8-cell battery and while I don’t have exact capacities, Lenovo calls for doubling the runtime with the 8-cell option.

Real World Usage
As previously mentioned, the 13.3-inch form factor is a great compromise between size and portability. Lenovo adds to the portability with a 3.5 lb, 0.7-inch chassis and while it may be made out of plastic, still looks quite chic. The system is pretty quiet on the whole, but the heat and thus fan speed will ramp up a good bit. I never found it staying spun up enough to be annoying and it really only gets toasty when (trying) to watch a fullscreen HD Flash video.

The battery life was a bit disappointing, but not hampering. The new models with the 8-cell should remedy that with no problem. Windows 7 on the new models will be a blessing too. Most CULV’s came with Windows Vista since the dual core ULV processors have a bit more oopmh, but they still feel a bit sluggish thanks to Vista.

Conclusion
Lenovo’s IdeaPad U350 is thin, light and stylish. It doesn’t have much in the way of standout features aside from the HDMI port, but rather relies on a solid design and competitive price point. In this it succeeds, as you have a much more usable machine than with a netbook for a rather reasonable price.

The average user won’t miss the horsepower of the lower clocked CULV processor and current models come with 3-4GB RAM, Windows 7 64-bit, and a 320GB hard drive. While I’m not wowed or blown away with the IdeaPad U350, its value and solid design have sold it for me.