Lenovo IdeaPad U110 - First Thoughts

Michael Gartenberg | May 06, 2008, 02:44 PM

First announced at CES, Lenovo started taking orders last week on their newest IdeaPad, the U110. I've had the fun of using one for a few days, here's some first impressions. Coming under the IdeaPad brand, not the ThinkPad brand, the U series is targeted at consumers and is the latest entry into the ultraportable space. The specs are decent for this class of machine. My unit was running a 1.6ghz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU (L7500, 800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache) and had a 4200rpm 120gb HD, Intel integrated graphics and 2gb of RAM. The display is 11.1 inches, LED backlit and runs at 1366x768. The unit has a nice selection of integrated ports and ships with an external USB DVD drive along with two batteries, a four and seven cell. But it's not the specs that will sell this machine, this is all about form as well as function and the tiny 10.8" x 7.7" x 0.72" - 0.88" unit is one of the most stylish and beautiful laptops I have ever used that didn't come with an Apple logo on it.

1. This really is a machine about style. While it's targeted at consumers, there's going to be a lot of business folks buying these things. I repeat, it's one of the nicest and most stlylish PCs I have ever used

2. The machine is configured oddly. Out of the box, there's two partitions, which I personally hate since it tends to waste space. I copied the drivers folder over to the C drive (that was only thing on the partition) and flattened the drive using Windows disk manager. Unfortunately, that kills the backup utility (which is much more limited than the ThinkPad version, you can only restore to the factory image and no way to image, backup or create restore DVDs). That's a bit of a problem, as I mentioned, there's no way to make a proper set of backup disks. Fortunately, Lenovo does provide disks with all the needed Vista drivers and installed apps but you will need your own copy of Vista. Worse, the License Key on the bottom of the machine did not work with my Vista DVD so I needed to use an extra key. Be warned, backup your C drive before messing around unless you have a spare copy of Vista around.

3. No XP drivers at all. XP installs fine but there are no XP drivers at the Lenovo site. I suspect someone will hunt the needed drivers down and create an install guide in a matter of time.

4. This thing is a fingerprint magnet, and Lenovo loses points for the three stickers on the palm rest that hurts the look of the overall unit. Vista, Intel and Dolby don't need to be there.

5. The attention to detail is nice. There's two batteries, driver disks and a bundled DVD burner so this is a complete package. (a recovery DVD would have made it totally complete)

6. Keyboard and trackpad are nice but the keyboard will take a little bit of adjustment. I didn't love it at first but I got used to it in about 30 mins. As with all keyboards, it's about personal taste.

7. The lightup touch buttons are a gimmick but they're cool and echo the tendril pattern on the top and bottom of the PC.

8. Vista is pretty snappy, even with the Aero interface on, once Vista has a chance to optimize itself. This normally takes a day or so of use and is common on all Vista systems I have used.

Bottom line? The ultra-portable market is red hot and fashion and form are purchase drivers for 33% of the market (ranking it very or somewhat important to their next purchase). Given that, the IdeaPad U100 is the right device at the right time. It's clear with devices like the MacBook Air, the X300 and now the IdeaPad U110 this category of machine is going to be important in 2008. Look for a report on tweener devices this summer and a forecast of Ultra Mobile PCs later in the year.

Bonus , here's a nice video first take by James Kendrick at JK on the Run if you want to see it in action.