Lenovo
IdeaPad U300S
A
solid performer but doesn’t stand out from the crowd
Despite
the Lenovo IdeaPad U300S (£899 inc. VAT) being a fantastic ultraportable laptop
- with a comfortable keyboard, lightweight design and decent amount of power - it
does little to stand out from rivals like the Asus Zenbook. That said, the
Lenovo’s brushed metal body feels solid, there’s little flex and there are
contours and lines which add detail, making it more interesting than the myriad
Apple MacBook Air clones we’ve seen elsewhere.
An
Intel Core i5 processor is under the hood, which we were a bit disappointed to
find when other manufacturers have added Intel Core i7 processors into a
smaller chassis. There’s also 4GB of RAM and a small but fast 128GB SSD drive.
The
less powerful Intel Core i5 processor showed through in our lab tests and the
7244 score in Cinebench is on the low side, when compared with the Asus Zenbook
UX31 and Acer Aspire S3. These are much more powerful systems, and the Lenovo
has little in reply to make it a real winner.
The
battery life made up for this somewhat with 231 minutes of use in our harsh lab
tests. This translates to around five hours of web surfing and emailing, which
equates to a good day on the move, but nowhere near the seven hours quoted by
Lenovo on their marketing literature. However, this still beats much of the
competition in this group test. The Lenovo features a 13.6-inch screen, and in
a nod to true portability, there’s a matt screen with a coating to help stop
reflections in direct sunlight. Matt screens tend to polarise opinion: some
complain they make the panel dull and lifeless; others love the ability to work
outside, and near windows, that you don’t get with a glossy screen.
Both
of these statements are true: with this screen the Lenovo is unsuitable for
those who want to enjoy movies and pictures, but it’s still a great choice for
people who want to work on the move.
Frustrating
to use
 |
The Lenovo's
keys are well cushioned and separated,
but the extra row of keys on the right
edge have squashed
the Return key
|
Two
of the major complaints about Ultrabooks are poor, uncomfortable keyboards and
single button track pads that are frustrating to use. The Lenovo is little
better than most.
On
the plus side, the keys are as comfortable and natural to use as any Ultrabook.
They’re well cushioned, well-spaced, with isolation style keys jutting through
the aluminium chassis. However, Lenovo has made the Enter and Backspace keys
very small, with the Home, End and Delete keys to the far right. These meant
mistakes were common, and it took us a while to get used to the keyboard. The
trackpad, however, is terrible and often clicking and navigating led to chaotic
moments, where clicks were misregistered.
TrackpadAlso known as a touchpad, these rectangular pads are found beneath the keyboard and are touch sensitive. You use them to move the cursor on-screen and left and right mouse buttons allow you to select menu options.
In
short, the Lenovo IdeaPad U300S is a good ultraportable laptop, but doesn’t
offer more than its direct competition on test here. Battery life is average,
performance is mediocre, despite being thicker and heavier than any other
Ultrabook, and the keyboard and trackpad are still awkward to use.
The
matt screen will make this Ultrabook attractive for business buyers, but the
lack of a VGA and Ethernet connection found on its Toshiba rival mean that many
will inevitably overlook this laptop.
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