Lenovo Ideapad U410 14 inch Ultrabook - Graphite (Intel Core i5 3317U 2.6GHz, 6Gb RAM, 750Gb HDD + 32Gb SSD, LAN, WLAN, BT, Webcam, Nvidia Graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit)
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
A good all-round ultrapad., By
S. England (UK) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What is this?)
This review is from: Lenovo Ideapad U410 14 inch Ultrabook - Ruby (Intel Core i5 3317U 2.6GHz, 6Gb RAM, 750Gb HDD + 32Gb SSD, LAN, WLAN, BT, Webcam, Nvidia Graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit) (Personal Computers)
[ EDIT 1: Those people who have had problems with their wireless speed should read this comment here from the Lenovo forums:-[...]]
I ordered my Lenovo U410 in Ruby Red on Wednesday evening and it arrived on Saturday morning; a great day to be given a new toy to play with!
The box contained the laptop, the PSU and a few instruction manuals and that's all. It felt rather sparse, but I'm not exactly sure what else I was expecting - maybe a little USB mouse or a T-Shirt or a USB data stick or something.
Anyway, after unboxing the U410 the first thing that struck me about it was its size - it's really nice. The 14" screen may only be 0.7" larger than the standard 13.3" screens, but I can really feel that little extra size on both the screen and the keyboard, and for me it's certainly worth it.
The second thing about its size is that it belies the pad's weight. Looking at the machine you feel it's pretty small and so it should be as light as a feather, but it's actually relatively heavy. But its weight is not excessive, and the U410's build quality has a really solid feel to it - holding the ultra-pad in one hand by the corner with the screen up doesn't make it creak or sag under its own weight.
Booting the laptop up for the first time, you are presented with the normal EULA's to agree to and then the usual Windows 7 configuration prompts which zipped past nice and quickly, and then you're into the OS itself.
The first thing I do with a new PC or laptop is to uninstall all the crapware that comes with it and fortunately for me the Lenovo U410 comes with very little unwanted nonsense.
McAfee Antivirus was the first thing to be removed (I have nothing against it, but I'm perfectly happy with the free Microsoft Security Essentials and some common sense). Then ooVoo (some video conferencing app) was uninstalled, followed by Microsoft Live Essentials, Microsoft Live Mesh ActiveX and Lenovo Smart Update. There could be a couple of other things that you may want to uninstall (a 90 day trial of Absolute Data Protect for example), but Lenovo should be commended for their relatively clean Windows 7 installation.
The machine itself has a 14" glossy widescreen display at 1366 x 768 which may not turn any heads, but is perfectly adequate and will help extend your battery life compared to higher-resolution screens. It comes with a generous 6 GB of RAM, a 750 GB mechanical HD augmented by a 32 GB SSD, and third generation Intel CPU technology - Ivy Bridge power! The 64-bit CPU is a dual-core hyper-thread enabled Intel Core i5 3317U which nominally runs at 1.7 GHz but can turbo up to 2.6 GHz when it needs to. The CPU comes with on-board Intel HD Graphics 4000, but the ultra-pad also has an nVidia GeForce 610M chip on it for when you need a bit more graphical oomph.
The keyboard is good for typing with responsive keys and a nice layout that aids speed and accuracy. The track pad is pretty big (which I like) and although the left and right buttons are part of the track pad, they act as physical buttons that click (which I also like). The pad is low friction which makes using it nice and easy, and its position is comfortable and it sits well in relation to the rest of the keyboard. However you can only press one button at a time - left or right - the track-pad's buttons won't let you press both at the same time (a slight annoyance for me because I use such unusual button presses for Firefox gestures). There is also no middle mouse button and I have found it is sometimes quite difficult to get track-pad gestures to be recognized properly.
I experienced good wireless speeds with my U410. My Virgin cable connection is 20 mbps, so around 2 MB/s, and wirelessly connected through my LinkSys E3000 using 802.11/n I was happily getting over 1 MB/s when downloading games from Steam on a (probably congested) Saturday afternoon. A slightly lame thing is that the on-board network card is only 10/100. Yep, that's right, no gigabit here! But really, I don't plan to have my U410 plugged into anything physical. It doesn't have an interface for a docking station, it's not designed to sit shackled to a desk with a network umbilical - this ultra-pad is made to travel!
The speakers on the U410 are also really good for their size. The volume can get surprisingly loud for such a small laptop, and although you shouldn't expect the bass to be rumbling like Krakatoa's erupting in your back garden, the speakers do a good job that you can't really complain about.
Of course the Lenovo U410 does not come with an optical drive, but in this day and age that shouldn't be much of an issue. Also, being an ultra-book there are no slots on the bottom of the machine, so you won't be upgrading your memory or HD or changing your battery without additional effort. (And to be honest I'm not even sure if any of these things are... Read more
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Bang for buck, best ultrabook out there. With a fault., By
EA - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What is this?)
This review is from: Lenovo Ideapad U410 14 inch Ultrabook - Ruby (Intel Core i5 3317U 2.6GHz, 6Gb RAM, 750Gb HDD + 32Gb SSD, LAN, WLAN, BT, Webcam, Nvidia Graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit) (Personal Computers)
Bought this Lenovo with high hopes seeing as it was well designed, had all the ports dropped out of the thinner/lighter ultrabooks and even had a dedicated graphics card.The touchpad is great and the keyboard is a dream to type on.
But - after not one but two separate laptops, both had the wi-fi connectivity issues almost everyone else has been having. Only if you're extremely close to your router are you able to get high speed internet.
Tried adjusting settings and updating drivers, and even contacted Lenovo 3 times who are oblivious to this issue. Go on their forums - people from around the world are having this same issue.
One word: avoid. Save time and don't bother, get a different computer.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Beware-Hardware problem, By
S. Desai (UK) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What is this?)
This review is from: Lenovo Ideapad U410 14 inch Ultrabook - Graphite (Intel Core i5 3317U 2.6GHz, 6Gb RAM, 750Gb HDD + 32Gb SSD, LAN, WLAN, BT, Webcam, Nvidia Graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit) (Personal Computers)
I bought this from amazon with great expectation but unfortunately, as other reviewer commented on different colour model, there is some sort of problem with network adaptor- very poor connectivity with internet. There is nothing wrong with internet ( 10 MbPS speed) and my 6 year old dell inspiron is working way faster than this model. Also, checked connectivity with new model and old laptop one after another and results were same-same problem with internet connectivity all time (test run around 12-15 time)Lenovo-There is problem with hardware. sort it out. Not happy at all.
Again, Many thanks to amazon customer service for arranging return.
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