Lenovo IdeaPad U260 gets reviewed and adored

The world’s first 12.5 inch ultraportable, as it’s dubbed by marketers, the IdeaPad U260 gets a largely positive review from Laptopmag and we’re here to fill you in on all the important points of this $999 device.

The first thing that draws you attention is the magnesium alloy chassis and the orange lid. It looks great and might attract both professionals looking for a minimalist, elegant looking machine, but also those thriving for style. It’s slim (0.7 inches) and light (2.9 pounds), fully deserving a place amongst the easy to carry around laptops or netbooks.

The interior design is also top notch, with a leather like finish for the palm rests and a discrete black plastic finish around the display. The keyboard is water resistant and is placed a little lower than the palm rest and touch pad, which makes it more comfy to type. The touchpad works like a charm while moving the cursor around or using touch scroll, but multi touch gestures have relatively slow response times.

Underneath the nice picture show is a Core i5 470UM low power processor, 4 GB of RAM and a 320 GB HDD. The screen is a 1366 x 768 display, which handles itself correctly when watched from a straight angle. Unfortunately, if you tilt it back a little, say 110 degrees, the corners get a little dark. Audio wise, the sound is better if you use headphones , as the integrated 2 watt speakers are poor on bass and overall volume.

Lenovo IdeaPad U260

The video performance is not that impressive, considering it’s an integrated solution from Intel. 3Dmark06 tests positioned the U260 well under the average performance of its category and miles away from performers like HP Pavilion dm1z. Gaming frame rates tick in at about 13 fps, while the battery life doesn’t last for more than 4 hours. All in all, the U260 is a superbly built, highly portable and fast notebook, but lacks power when it comes to battery life and graphics.

Tags: 12.5" laptops, Core i5, Lenovo IdeaPad

Last updated: March 27, 2012 | Published: January 27th, 2011 | Add the first comment!