Lenovo IdeaPad U330 Review

Lenovo has come up with the new IdeaPad 330 following in the lines of the moderately popular IdeaPad U110. It looks a lot like the IdeaPad U110 but offers much better specifications than the IdeaPad U110 and also a more spacious keyboard. It is a semi ultraportable and tries to offer the best of both worlds. It is also priced reasonably at about $1200 which is nice considering its performance and features. It doesn’t have many shortcomings and does provide a good computing experience as we shall see in this review.

Lenovo IdeaPad U330 Specs:

• Dimensions: 12.5 x 9.3 x 0.9 inches
• Weight: 4.3 pounds
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 at 2.0 GHz, 1066Mhz FSB, 3MB L2 Cache
• RAM: 2 GB DDR2 RAM
• Hard Drive: 250 GB SATA HDD, 5400 RPM
• Optical Drive: 8X DVD ±RW
• Display: 13.3 inch LED Backlit Glossy, WXGA 1280 x 800 pixels
• Graphics: Intel GMA 4500 MHD / ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 256 MB - Hybrid
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
• Operating System: MS Windows Vista Home Premium
• Ports: 2 USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, Firewire, HDMI, Headphone Jack, Microphone, Modem, VGA out, 6 in 1 Card Reader, ExpressCard
• Battery : 6 Cell Battery - 57Wh

Design and Build Quality:

The Lenovo IdeaPad U330 sports a super slim and subtly stylish design. The whole design is very plain and clean with no flashy parts. The build quality is great with smooth surfaces, the lid is glossy and the whole magnesium alloy chassis looks sturdy and durable. It is very thin, about 1 cm in width, following the lines of the Macbook Air, Lenovo X300 etc. The thin frameless display, smooth finish etc all add to the sleek look of the notebook. At dimensions of just 12.5 x 9.3 x 0.9 inches and a weight of just 4.3 pounds, it is very compact and more portable than most other 13 inch mainstream notebooks. The ports are very thoughtfully placed around the whole body, with the 6 in 1 card reader, headphone and microphone jack in the front, the VGA out, Ethernet and HDMI on the left and the Firewire port, Expresscard, the 2 USB ports, optical drive, power slot and the Kensington lock slot on the right side. The presence of just 2 USB ports is a disappointment especially as even the smaller IdeaPad U110 has 3 USB ports.

Display and Speakers:

The Lenovo IdeaPad U330 sports a 13.3 inch LED backlit display with a native WXGA resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. The LED backlit display helps in reducing power consumption and also makes the display exceptionally thin. The brightness levels are great and the contrast is superb. The viewing angles are moderately wide, both horizontal and vertical. It is a glossy and reflective display, partly unreadable in bright sunlight. There is a 1.3 MP webcam above the display which is average. The images and videos captured are decent and while they aren’t the best, they will definitely do for normal users. The facial recognition technology by Lenovo works cool and you can definitely rely on it and use it instead of using a password.

The speakers of the Lenovo IdeaPad U330 are not much to speak of. The volume levels are not very loud as compared to other laptops. The sound quality is fairly decent though. They would be good for just casual listeners and some movie watching. You can use the headphone jack to connect your own headphones in case you want even better sound quality and volume.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

The Lenovo IdeaPad U330 sports a superb full sized keyboard which is nice and spacious. Lenovo has been renowned for making perfect keyboards for its ThinkPad line of laptops and it does exactly the same with the IdeaPad U330. It has adequate key spacing and travel and doesn’t feel cramped at all. The keys have a nice feel and offer a great response. The keys follow the standard layout The keyboard is a blessing for touch typists and one of the best laptop keyboards out there.

The touchpad which is located just below the keyboard, is a Synaptics one. It is very responsive and has optimal sensitivity. The touchpad surface is smooth and slightly textured which makes it easy to navigate. There are two separate touchpad buttons which are soft and nice and have a distinctive click with nice feedback. It also has a vertical scroller at the right.

Performance:

The IdeaPad U330 sports a nice hardware configuration - Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 at 2.0 GHz, 2 GB DDR 2 RAM, Intel GMA 4500 MHD / ATi Mobility Radeon HD 3450 256 MB. You can switch to the integrated graphics if you want better battery life and to the ATi Radeon HD 3450 if you want better graphics performance. You can do this without even rebooting the system, just with the click of a button. Combined together, the whole combo is very capabl and runs Windows Vista Home Premium without any complaints. It can also handle most games easily, atleast definitely at low settings. The IdeaPad U330 also has a 250 GB SATA HDD at 5400 RPM which has decent data transfer speeds and runs cool. On the whole, the notebook has low operating temperatures and doesn’t get very hot even in the discrete graphics mode. On the performance front, the IdeaPad U330 is in line with most notebooks in its range. There is nothing you would miss if you opt for the IdeaPad U330.

Battery Life and Other Features:

The IdeaPad U330 sports a 6 cell battery which is a bit underequipped to provide the system with adequate endurance. With integrated graphics enabled and power saving settings switched on, the U330 manages about 4 hours of battery life. If you switch on the dedicated graphics, the battery life drops to about 2.5 hours straight away which is quite less for a consumer notebook. You should follow simple power saving tips like lowering the display brightness, lowering the speaker volume and switching off the Wi-Fi when not in use, if you want to improve the battery life. The Wi-Fi reception is good and offers good speeds.

Pros:

• Slim and Clean Design
• Very Portable
• Nice Keyboard

Cons:

• Low Battery life

Final Words:

The Lenovo IdeaPad U330 is a very slim and sleek notebook with nice specs and great performance. It lags behind other notebooks when it comes to battery life, but other than that, it pretty much excels and is near the top of its category. If you can do without the extra portability and slimness, we would suggest the HP DV 3510 NR we reviewed a week earlier.

Our Rating: 4 / 5.