Lenovo U310 review

I’ve had my U310 for a while now, so here are my thoughts. I have an i3 unit, with a 32 GB SSD and a 500 GB HDD. I got it straight from the Lenovo website for about $600 when it was on sale.

Very cool design. Unlike most ultrabooks, which rip their design straight from a Macbook Air, the U310 is flat all the way down (no tapering). The edges hang over a little, so it actually feels like a book. Admittedly, it looks like the MacBook Pro… but for an ultrabook, this is a pretty brand-new design.

 There are 4 ports on the left side - Ethernet, HDMI, and two USB 3.0. I think the hard drive is also located on the left side, because that’s where the vent is located. The headphone jack and another USB 3.0 slot is located on the right side (which is convenient for those using wireless mice). The SD card slot is located in the front.

Overall, the design is solid. There’s is almost no flex in the screen and the chasis, whereas the Macbook Air and Asus Zenbook always feel like they will snap under your fingers. One negative change that from the U300 is putting back a vent on the bottom. This means that using the laptop on your lap will actually block vents and hinder the performance/battery life, I think. I’m not sure if the U310 still does the thing where it vents through they keyboard.

 The keyboard and the touchpad are pretty nice. The U310 uses the same Synaptics-powered glass touchpad as the U300, so the multifinger guestures are very accurate. It doesn’t read your palm by accident, so the mouse doesn’t fly around when you type and accidentally hit the touchpad.

 The keyboard is, again, the best of the best. The smile faced keys means less error than the ugly square ones that are on most ultrabooks. The travel distance is perfect, and the keys make a very crunchy noise - more so than other laptops. My only gripe is that the keyboard isn’t backlit :( and the right shift/backspace keys are smaller than normal.

(Lenovo is actually one of the best (if not the best) keyboard manufacturers out there. They invest heavily into keyboard research (or so it is said). Next time you come across a Lenovo keyboard, type on it, then try out a Samsung or something… big difference! And as if the chiclet keyboards weren’t already good, their full fledged keyboards are just pure awesome. Satisfying click, well-spaced keys, good travel, good design. But I digress…)

 The screen is pretty good. It has a sharp display (1366 x 768). The speakers are also fairly decent for a laptop. Yeah, I’m not good with this stuff. I wish they put in an IPS screen instead of the glossy, because the reflection from the glossy screen drives me nuts. IPS is uglier, but the display is absolutely beautiful.

Battery life is actually pretty sub-par for the category. It only lasts 3-5 hours with daily use. Jaydee/Jaynee streamed about an hour and a half ofKorrayesterday from 60% battery before they started screaming because the laptop died. MBA and other top ultrabooks usually last like 6+ hours. 

Performance-wise, the laptop is excellent. It plays videos, switches windows, runs applications, and searches very smoothly. It doesn’t get all that hot either, even when using an HDD.

tl;dr, I really like the laptop. It’s a good deal, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. 

Laptop Magazine’s Review: http://www.laptopmag.com/review/ultrabooks/lenovo_ideapad_u310.aspx