Ultimate Notebook Reviews

The name "Lenovo" has become synonymous with its main ThinkPad product line that it purchased from IBM in early 2005. Although ThinkPad's aren't known to be very stylish or aesthetically pleasing, Lenovo has added a new product line of more attractive notebooks through their IdeaPad series. Despite still having a (relatively) bulky look and feel, the IdeaPad U110 is a credit to their new vision, with cleaner lines and glossy reflective surfaces.

At the heart of the Lenovo IdeaPad U110 is a 1.60GHz Intel Core2 Duo L7500 (800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache) along with 2GB of RAM that is expandable up to 3GB. The hard drive is a standard 120GB Parallel ATA (4200rpm) which should be enough for most people. Like the Macbook Air, the IdeaPad U110 lacks an internal optical drive, which is its main disadvantage. Nonetheless, it measures only 10.8" x 7.7" x 0.72", so there should be enough room in your suitcase for an external optical drive.

There are also other reasons that IdeaPad's better define mobile computing than its ThinkPad cousins. The U110 weighs in at a mere 2.42lbs with its 4-cell Li-Ion battery, and only 2.92lbs with its 7-cell extended life battery, which by the way is included in the $1,799 price tag. Rivaling other ultra mobile notebooks is its compact 11.1-inch WXGA display with an above-average 1,366 x 768 resolution.

New notebooks need to have wireless networking capabilities, and the IdeaPad U110 doesn't disappoint. It has an internal Intel 4965AGN card that is compatible with every Wi-Fi standard 802.11 a/b/g/n. It also supports Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, meaning that its data rate maxes out at a high 3 megabit per second. External ports include 3 USB 2.0 ports, a IEEE 1394 Firewire, a 5-in-1 card reader, ExpressCard/34, VGA monitor out, AC adapter, headphone/line-out, microphone/line-in, and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

The IdeaPad U110 clearly values portability above all else, and is recommended for the traveling businessman who needs to get surfing and word processing done instead of watching movies and playing games. This lightweight, low-profile notebook is also great in terms of durability because of its solid design and hinge-tension method of holding the screen in place.