Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Laptop Review

Not long after the launch of the IdeaPad U300s late last year, Lenovo announced in January at CES 2012 an expansion to the IdeaPad Ultrabook lineup with the new 13.3-inch IdeaPad U310 and 14-inch IdeaPad U410, complete with Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors, discrete GeForce 610M options (on the U410), hybrid HDD/SSD storage solutions and Lenovo's Enhanced Experience 3 (EE 3) system optimizations. Battery for IBM ThinkPad R50P

Fast forward six months and Lenovo has only begun shipping both the IdeaPad U310 and U410. As of this writing, Lenovo currently offers just one U310 model through its online store equipped with a Sandy Bridge Core i3 CPU for as low as $599. In this review, however, we will focus on the IdeaPad U310-437526U with its Ivy Bridge ULV dual-core i5-3317U, integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics and a 32GB SSD for system cache. According to Lenovo, such a configuration will be made available starting at $799. Battery for IBM ThinkPad R51

Considering that the first Ultrabooks in 2011 were retailing for as high as $900 to well over $1000 at launch, the comparatively inexpensive IdeaPad Ultrabook series will absolutely catch the eyes of many. In our IdeaPad U400 and U300s reviews, however, we criticized both notebooks for its rather average display performance and a general lack of expandable options. Battery for IBM ThinkPad R51e The U310 allows Lenovo to improve upon where the previous models are weakest, but how does this latest addition stack up with its predecessors and the current crop of Ultrabooks?
Case
Smooth matte surface reminiscent of the Samsung 900X3B

Battery for IBM ThinkPad T40P The IdeaPad U310 continues the attractive-yet-minimalistic aluminum construction and chassis style that it shares with the rest of the IdeaPad Ultrabook lineup. This time around, those who feel deferred by the dull matte gray coloring scheme can opt for livelier blue, pink, or red lid options. But at 0.7 inches (18 mm) thick, the notebook is a tad thicker than the 14.9 mm thick IdeaPad U300s, but still comes in thinner than the 22.6 mm thick IdeaPad U400.

Battery for IBM ThinkPad T41 Regardless of the color choice or size, we noticed slight improvements in the stability of the display over the U300s. Wobbling between the front corners of the display is minimal and better than average while the single bar hinge reduces vibrations much more effectively than the similarly-designed hinge of the Toshiba Z830 Ultrabook. The base and palm rest areas are quite the fingerprint magnets, but they are stiff and visibly resistant to finger depressions. Battery for IBM ThinkPad T41P With force, side-to-side twisting of the base can be observed, but it is extremely slight and within comfortable levels.

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The quality of the construction, while good overall, is not firm everywhere. Typical weak points of a notebook, such as the lid and center of the keyboard, are not as rigid on the the U310 and are actually quite susceptible to flexing from applied pressure. Battery for IBM ThinkPad T42 The ostentatious glossy plastic bezel contrasts with the matte aluminum case for better or for worse, and the notebook is also noticeably heavier than the majority of competing Ultrabooks at 3.75 pounds (1.7 kg) compared to the slimmer Asus UX31, Dell XPS 13, Toshiba Z830 and Acer Aspire S3. The additional heft does allow users to open up the display with just one hand, but the smooth round curves and lack of a latch or gap near the front edge does make gripping rather difficult. Battery for IBM ThinkPad T42P

Despite the modest drawbacks, it would have been ideal if the U310 provided a much stiffer impression, especially since it is one of the denser and heftier Ultrabooks currently out in the market. Still, the chassis is impressively built for its retail price and leagues beyond many similarly-sized notebooks like the Portege R830 Ultrabook or HP Pavilion dm4-3090se in terms of aesthetics. Battery for IBM ThinkPad T43

Performance

The U310 may be similar to its siblings cosmetically, but internally the model can be configured with Intel's Ivy Bridge class of CPUs. Essentially a 22nm die shrink of Sandy Bridge, the third generation of Core ix processors should theoretically offer the same or better performance than its predecessors while drawing less power. For a full rundown on the architecture, see our in-depth review of dual-core Ivy Bridge CPUs here. Battery for IBM ThinkPad T43P

Our review model houses a dual-core 1.7 GHz Core i5-3317U. Although an ULV CPU, it supports Turbo Boost up to 2.4 GHz for both cores and 2.6 GHz for one active core. For more information and benchmarks on the I5-3317U, see our dedicated resource page here.

Battery for IBM ThinkPad X41 RAM can be configured up to 4GB through a single module. There are no maintenance hatches whatsoever, so easy configuration or swapping of the hard drive, mSATA drive, battery or RAM is out of the question.
Processor
In the synthetic CPU-oriented benchmarks, the i5-3317U is roughly in between the last generation i3-2310M and i5-2410M, both of which are probably the most common mainstream Sandy Bridge notebook CPUs. Battery for IBM ThinkPad X40 In terms of neighboring ULV types, the CPU here is roughly on par with the very similar i5-2557M, if not a little faster in raw benchmarks like Super Pi, wPrime and SiSoft. While not a powerhouse, the i5-3317U runs at about half the TDP of those two standard voltage processors above, allowing for markedly improved performance per watt. Users can expect overall CPU performance to lie between notebooks like the ThinkPad Edge E420 and Toshiba Portege R835-P56X. Battery for IBM ThinkPad Z60m
System Performance
General system performance is typical of a notebook equipped with a 5400RPM drive, although the SSD cache does notably boost final numbers. PCMark 7 and PCMark Vantage returned scores 3491 and 5853, respectively, similar to the SSD-equipped 2011 MacBook Air 13 (i5-2557M) and Samsung Series 9 900X1B (i5-2357M). Battery for IBM ThinkPad Z61m However, we ran PCMark Vantage for two more full cycles back-to-back in order to see if the SSD cache had any observable effect on the synthetic tests. Our second and third runs both returned distinctly higher overall scores of 8169 and 8733 points, respectively. This puts the U310 ahead of even the MSI GE620 (i7-2630QM/GeForce GT 540M) and Asus N55SF (i7-2630QM/GeForce GT 555M) gaming notebooks equipped with only HDDs, although notebook with pure SSD storage like the SATA III Samsung 900X3B (i5-2467M/HD 3000) still come out much further ahead by about a couple thousand points in the same PCMark Vantage test. Battery for IBM ThinkPad Z61p
Mass storage
Lenovo has taken the same route as the early Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabooks in terms of storage solution. That is, instead of a full-blown SSD, the manufacturer has opted for a hybrid HDD/SSD setup to save on costs while exploiting the large maximum capacity of mechanical drives.

Battery for IBM ThinkPad Z61e In the end, the U310 offers a SATA II 5400RPM 320GB or 500GB HDD paired with an optional mSATA 32GB SSD for cache. Our review unit in particular comes equipped with a 500GB Hitachi HTS545050A7E380 and a 32GB Samsung MZMPC032HNCD SSD. With Enhanced Experience 3, RapidBoot and Intel Smart Response Technology (SRT) caching optimizations, a cold boot takes about 20 seconds to reach the desktop. Battery for lenovo IdeaPad U110 Since the system also uses RAM as a cache for boot files, Lenovo claims that boot times will not increase significantly as more applications are installed overtime.

According to HD Tune, the Hitachi drive offers an average transfer rate of 86.7 MB/s but an unusually high maximum of 280.7 MB/s due to the caching mechanism as data is cached to the SSD during read/write processes for quick retrieval. Funky results also occur in CrystalDiskMark (204.4 MB/s read and 1.040 MB/s write in 4KQD32) for the same reason. Battery for lenovo ThinkPad SL300 The speed advantage of the SSD caching system is definitely tangible to the user especially after repeat usage of the same applications or programs. While a no frills dedicated SSD is still preferable for the best speed, Intel's SRT combined with Lenovo's EE 3 work wonders at speeding up the system by means of an otherwise slow 5400RPM HDD.

Battery for lenovo ThinkPad SL400 Out of the 500 GB of space, 44.81 GB is reserved for system recovery and 420.56 GB is immediately available for the end-user. The 32GB SSD cannot be accessed through traditional means as the OS recognizes only one primary physical drive. Under Windows Computer Management, the SSD appears as an 8 GB Hibernation Partition.
GPU Performance
Battery for lenovo ThinkPad SL500 The integrated HD 4000 idles at 350 MHz and can be clocked up to 1050 MHz with Turbo Boost as advertised, which is a bit less than the 1200 MHz maximum of the same GPU found on the standard voltage i5-3210M. However, we'll gladly take any kind of automatic performance benefit on the ULV processor for better gaming on-the-go.

Battery for lenovo ThinkPad X300 The 3DMark Vantage score of 1890 points is rather weak and is awfully close to notebooks equipped with a standard voltage Sandy Bridge processor and HD 3000 graphics. For example, the HP Pavilion dm4-3090se (i5-2450M/HD 3000) and ThinkPad X220 (i7-2620M/HD 3000) both scored extremely similarly not just in 3DMark Vantage, but were also able to outscore the U310 in CineBench 10/11 OpenGL tests as well. Many popular modern titles like Bethesda's Skyrim is unfortunately unplayable, but Blizzard games should play relatively smoothly if graphics expectations are kept conservatively low.
Battery Life Battery for lenovo ThinkPad X301

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Lenovo advertises a battery life of up to 7 hours with the U310. Through the BatteryEater Reader's Test, we ran our usual maximum battery life test with the lowest possible brightness setting and with WiFi disabled while running under the Power Saver Profile. The system was not allowed to hibernate or sleep. Under these conditions, we clocked in at about 6.5 hours or notably less than the claimed 7 hours. In other words, we were unable to attain the full 7 hours even after leaving the notebook untouched throughout the entire duration. Battery for lenovo ThinkPad X201

For minimum battery life, we ran the BatteryEater Classic Test at maximum brightness and WiFi enabled under the Performance Profile. The notebook caved in after about 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Battery for lenovo ThinkPad X201i Our more reality-oriented WLAN test utilizes the Balance Profile at a screen brightness of about 150 cd/m2 (setting 13/15). We looped our standardized script to simulate typical web surfing conditions with the occasional Flash videos until the battery ran dry. The notebook was able to last about 4 hours and 16 minutes before automatic shutdown.

Battery for lenovo 3000 Y500 In terms of total runtime, the U310 could have benefited from a larger capacity battery. The integrated 3-cell 46Wh module offers about the same power as the batteries found in competing Ultrabooks, if not a little lower. Despite this, the Lenovo notebook offers below average runtime, especially under our standard Balance Profile test. For comparison, the Samsung 900X3B (37Wh), Asus UX31 (50Wh), and Dell XPS 13 (47Wh) all have longer battery lives under our same WLAN test at 4hr 56min, 5hr 9min, and 5hr 12min, respectively. Battery for lenovo 3000 Y510 We normally wouldn't mind so much about mediocre battery life if larger capacity options were available, but the 46Wh battery is a fixed option for the U310 regardless of configuration.
Verdict


It's hard to argue against an Ultrabook starting at just $599 with Ivy Bridge options. Not only does the notebook provide a decently built aluminum chassis, it even looks better than many and has an overall presentation that would suggest a higher price otherwise. Battery for lenovo 3000 Y510a When combined with the solid keyboard and the surprisingly large and precise touchpad, the U310 has the first-rate core functionality to justify its impressive looks.

Performance from the hybrid HDD/SSD storage solution with Intel's SRT is at least noticeable and does its job in the background. We can definitely feel the difference compared to a notebook running on a lone 5400RPM drive, and we're sure many users will gladly trade a bit of that pure SSD speed for 3x or 4x more storage capacity. Battery for lenovo IdeaPad Y510 System performance is also good with no throttling issues, but the oddly limiting Turbo Boost can be a bit off-putting to some. Even if disregarding the issue, we found no major performance issues elsewhere, such as the decent fan noise and surface temperatures in general.

Of course, corners will have to be cut, some unfortunately more than others. For one, the U310 is a very closed system with no easy access to its motherboard and components like the RAM, HDD and battery. Battery for lenovo IdeaPad Y530 What you see is what you get with the U310, including the somewhat underperforming battery, so the IdeaPad U series probably won't make it to the top of the list if end-user expandability is of utmost importance.

Secondly, the low screen brightness of the glossy display and the hefty weight of 3.75 pounds are notable hurdles limiting the outdoor potential of the notebook. Most competing Ultrabooks offer slimmer form factors, longer battery lives, brighter screens and sometimes even matte displays for easier use under sunlight or shade. Battery for lenovo IdeaPad Y530a If you'll want to use this notebook outdoors more than indoors, then there are better Ultrabooks out there for such a purpose.

The IdeaPad was never intended to be a lineup of business notebooks. Hence, the target everyday home user who won't normally bother with upgrading internal hardware or use the computer outdoors very often may find a lot to like with the IdeaPad U310. Battery for lenovo IdeaPad Y710 The large input devices and conveniently placed ports are both appealing and ergonomic while the shiny screen and bezel will surely catch the attention of many. Add on top an attractive starting price hundreds below that of most Ultrabooks and the IdeaPad U310 will look like a winner to the eyes of the right user.