Lenovo IdeaPad U300s Pro Reviews

Once you've tried the IdeaPad U300s, you won't want to use any other computer... says one of Lenovo's Beijing-based engineers as part of the slick advertising for this smart Ultrabook. I don't happen to agree - well, I'd be nuts if I did because I'd be out of a job - but I can see why Lenovo is very proud of the U300s. It's a good computer that looks very stylish in an classy, understated manner, runs all day on a single battery charge and is pleasant to use. My problem is that there are other extremely good alternatives already on the market, notably from Asus, Acer and hell yes Apple, and that's just the companies beginning with 'A'. There is more Ultrabook goodness to come this year, too, so I can't imagine the IdeaPad U300s holding its own for long. But even if it did, the price would have to drop significantly below £1,200 before it could be forcefully competitive.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U300s scored fairly well in all of our standard benchmark suites, but did come up a little short in a couple of areas, due to its single channel DDR3 memory configuration. Storage subsystem performance testing showed the machine to offer solid, although perhaps not best-of-class throughput, though definitely more than enough to satisfy most any user requirement. In terms of battery life, the U300s is one of the better utlrabooks we've tested to date under light duty workloads, like web browsing, email and video playback.

There's no shortage of great looking Ultrabooks on the market, with the likes of the Toshiba Z830 and Asus ZenBook UX31 also vying for your attention. But there is something a bit different about the Lenovo U300s. It feels slightly less indulgent and takes itself a little more seriously, making it potentially more attractive to the business user. It's not perfect, with the reduced size keys on the keyboard being the main bugbear, but you are getting a solid, well designed Ultrabook at a very reasonable price.

Understated elegance married with decent performance, but the dim display sends it dropping down the rankings

The Lenovo IdeaPad U300s isn’t only a worthy update to the U260, it is now the best ultrabook on the market. Thanks to a totally unique design, extremely solid build quality, a functioning trackpad, a comfortable keyboard, and six hours of battery life, the IdeaPad U300s doesn’t suffer from the pain points of the other ultrabooks out there. But is it better than the MacBook Air — the laptop that has set the bar for the entire industry? At $1,195 (our Core i7 U300s rings up at $1,495), it is $200 less than the base 13-inch MacBook Air, however, saving that cash means living without a higher resolution display, an SD card slot, an extra hour of battery life, and a backlit keyboard. And that’s the sad fact about the U300s – it may be the best ultrabook, but Apple’s lead and ability to competitively price its premium products makes it incredibly hard for these other laptop manufacturers to catch up. The U300s’ captivating design and battery life make it a great laptop, but Lenovo still hasn't caught up to Apple's MacBook Air.

Once again we have another excellent 13in Ultrabook entrant with just a few too many flaws to fully recommend it. Nonetheless, Lenovo’s stylish and ergonomic IdeaPad U300s is a strong contender, and at under £900 in its Core i5 guise it’s our favourite budget choice – if you can live with its screen’s poor viewing angles, lack of keyboard backlighting and absent memory card reader.

No matter which way you cut it, the U300s is a pricey laptop, though only moderately more so than the similarly configured competition. It's available in a slower, less capacious configuration with a Core i5-2457M CPU and a 128GB SSD for $1195, and Lenovo's U260 and its recently released U400 are only slightly thicker and heavier, with cheaper configurations. The missing ports are a bit of puzzler, but otherwise the U300s delivers a very satisfying Ultrabook experience.

The IdeaPad U300s is a solid entry into the Ultrabook market; it's mostly successful but stumbles in a few noticeable areas. While I like the design, the chassis is too easy to flex, which leads to some concerns about long-term reliability. The screen is nothing special with barely adequate picture quality. Last but not least it lacks a media card reader. On the plus side, the U300s has a great keyboard – the best we’ve seen on an Ultrabook thus far. It measures just 0.6 inches thin and is less than three pounds; combined with almost eight hours of battery life the U300s makes a great travel companion. Last but not least it has plenty of performance for everyday use. Then there’s the matter of price; at $1,449.99, this fully loaded U300s is considered very expensive for an Ultrabook; the Toshiba Z835 we tested was just $800. The Toshiba had half the storage and a slower processor, but even with the beefy specs, the U300s' price is hard to justify. A few hundred dollars needs to be knocked off before "value" can be used in the same sentence. Overall we can recommend the U300s if you can get it for the right price – and assuming you can deal without a media card reader.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U300S is a good ultra-portable laptop, but as an ultrabook, it doesn't offer any compelling reasons to choose it over the competition.

The contenders from Acer, Asus and Apple have set a fast pace in the last few weeks and months - in particular the Zenbook UX31 and the established MacBook Air could impress us with their advantages. Now, Lenovo has also sent its candidate, the U300s, into the ring with several strengths, but also a few weaknesses. The UltraBook is inspiring right from the first moment with its elegant and incredibly slim design. The workmanship of the aluminum chassis can easily keep up with the unibody case from Apple, but has to regrettably accept a few deductions in stability. Also, there is room for improvement on the somewhat loose and clearly wobbly display hinges. The screen is only suitable for outdoor use to an extent. The backlight is too dark and, alike most competing products, the surface reflects intensely. We could only say words of praise about the subjective and assessed performance thanks to the Core i5-2467M and the built-in SSD. However, Lenovo has seriously blundered with the battery's charging electronics: When the battery is being recharged, the CPU throttles to its idle clock rate and unpleasantly slows the UltraBook down for about 1.5 hours. The afterward long battery life can only make up for that to an extent. Because we can't completely rule out a malfunctioning of our test device, we will keep our readers informed about the manufacturer statements on the issue. Every buyer has to decide to what extent the listed shortcomings can be accepted at a price of 1000€ for himself. Our recommendation would be the recently reviewed Asus Zenbook UX31, which bids a brighter screen, stronger hardware and a more balanced total package at about the same price.

Another great Ultrabook design, but a slower processor and a couple of missing ports place it just behind the current leaders

The Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, Lenovo's entry into the ultrabook arena, is as well-engineered as you'd expect, but it's not a knockout blow to its competitors.

At its current price ($1,095 and up), the IdeaPad U300s isn't the best value, but it is one of the better Ultrabooks we've seen. People comparing this side-by-side against other skinny laptops will note that it doesn't have a high-res display, backlit keyboard or memory card slot -- things Lenovo left out of last year's U260, too. By those metrics, both the MacBook Air and UX31 win, handily. Like Apple, though, Lenovo is inviting you to pay more for what it knows is a polished, painless experience. In that sense, your $1,095 will be well spent -- the U300s is fast with good battery life, Intel Wireless Display and the best keyboard / trackpad combo we've seen on an Ultrabook. That doesn't mean Lenovo's off the hook: the Air has a slightly more fine-tuned trackpad and it brings an SD slot, sharper display and backlit keys. Still, the U300s is a success where it really counts, and in areas where other Ultrabooks have struggled. We'll keep our hopes up that Lenovo adds an SD card and backlit keyboard the next go 'round, and in the meantime, we suspect the company will sell a few more of these if it trims the price to undercut all the other guys who offer better specs for your buck.

No matter which way you cut it, the U300s is a pricey laptop, though only moderately more so than the similarly configured competition. It's available in a slower, less capacious configuration with a Core i5-2457M CPU and a 128GB SSD for around £900, and Lenovo's U260 and its recently released U400 are only slightly thicker and heavier, with cheaper configurations. The missing ports are a bit of puzzler, but otherwise the U300s delivers a very satisfying Ultrabook experience.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U300s is looking to be one of the best Ultrabook deals yet. But like we say, this is only the first of many Ultrabooks to come. Just because it wins now, doesn’t mean it will survive the Ultrabook onslaught from other vendors. If you can't quite wait to see what else is in the pipeline from the other brands, and you can handle the sharply built IdeaPad U300s, this bright little machine would be an ideal Ultrabook buy for you.

Lenovo's stylish U300s Ultrabook is one of the best-looking Windows laptops we've seen and matches Apple's MacBook Air nearly spec for spec. The entry-level version is $100 less than Apple's, but that discount vanishes on the higher-end model.