Introduction & Design
Ask us to recommend a thin, stylish ultrabook, and we won't be tongue-tied or shy: Recent Editors' Choices include the newly refreshed Apple MacBook Air 13.3-inch, the gorgeously 1080p-screened Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DB71, and Lenovo's business-centric ThinkPad X1 Carbon, with its carbon-fiber chassis and first-class keyboard.
Those machines, however, range from $1,200 to $1,500 or even moreâ€"putting them out of reach of mainstream ultrabook buyers with three- rather than four-figure budgets, or back-to-school shoppers who don't want to risk deluxe laptops being stolen as they're carried around campus.
Happily, there are plenty of thin, attractive laptops in the $800 price rangeâ€"ultrabooks such as the Sony VAIO T Series (SVT13112FXS), Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M5 481TG-6814, and Lenovo IdeaPad U310.
The 13.3-inch IdeaPad U310, in fact, has a sibling that's perhaps an even better buy, and the subject of this review: The slightly larger, 14.0-inch IdeaPad U410 has the same processor as the U310 (a 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U) and the same ho-hum 1,366x768 screen resolution. But the U410 doubles the standard RAM to 8GB and throws in dedicated (if low-end) Nvidia GeForce GT 610M graphics.
Like the U310, the U410 also has an excellent keyboard (for an ultrabook), though there's no backlighting here. And it comes in a trio of colors that don't remind us quite so much of spring holidays or baby showers as the U310's pastels do.
The result is a well-rounded ultrabook with a little extra graphics oomph that's a solid choice for $799. We just wish a higher-resolution screen were at least an option. The extra pixels are handy for productivity, and they could be put to good use researching and writing term papers.
Design
Our review unit came in what Lenovo calls Sapphire Blue, which added an appreciated splash of color to our test bench. If blue's not your bag, but alliteration is, the U410 is also available in Ruby Red and Graphite Gray.
The IdeaPad's overall appearance is pleasing to the eye, with rounded corners and a silver strip running around the exterior edges. The strip, which houses the ports on each side and a pair of activity lights up front, is plastic. But the lid and bottom section are both aluminum, giving the laptop a solid feel.
Because the IdeaPad U410's thickness (0.8 inch) is the same front and back, unlike many wedge-shaped models such as Apple's MacBook Air, the laptop is comfortable to hold in your hand and carry around without a case. The MacBook Air and some other skinny laptops have thin front edges that can dig into your palm, but that's not a problem here.
And while the laptop's 4.1-pound weight is rather hefty by ultrabook standards, it doesn't feel that heavy, perhaps also due to a more even distribution of components and weight thanks to its consistent thickness. That being said, if you're willing to step down to a 13.3-inch screen (with the same resolution) and live without dedicated graphics, Lenovo's U310 or Sony's VAIO T Series will shave a half-pound from your backpack burden.
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