Meet Alex, a senior technician here at Laptop Broker. Like all our technicians, Alex knows his way around a laptop and has upgraded and rebuilt thousands of computers over the years. We asked Alex to review a few laptops he is familiar with and have posted them for our customers to review. We hope you find this information helpful and welcome your feedback.

Lenovo IdeaPad Laptop Review

Lenovo launched a new line of notebooks and desktops on January 3, 2008. This recent launch by Lenovo concentrates on consumer-oriented IdeaPad notebooks and Idea Center desktops. This clearly complements its earlier launch of ThinkPad desktops and notebooks best suited for businesses.

Lenovo is offering IdeaPad notebooks and desktops in a trio pack. It includes IdeaPad Y510, IdeaPad Y710, and the IdeaPad U110. Incidentally, IdeaPad U110 will be available only in April 2008. These laptops were on display at the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas between January 7 and 10. The other two would be available by January-end.

Lenovo is initially launching IdeaPad notebooks and Idea Center desktops across many countries. These include U.S., South Africa, Russia, France, India, Indonesia, Australia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, and China. It will be available across all online retailers and stores. Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 and Y510 will ship by the end of January 2008.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 Notebook

Features

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 is an easily portable notebook. The actual dimensions of Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 are 362mm x 260mm x 29.2 to 36.2mm. It weighs 6.4 lb. including battery. Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 supports an Intel® Core™2 Duo T5550 processor of 1.83 GHz and speed of 667 MHz.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 offers genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium 32 operating system. The hard drive has a capacity of up to 250GB with speed of 5400rpm Serial ATA. Memory available is 2GB PC2-5300/667 MHz and can support up to 4 GB.

Rating: 5/5

Design

All the important components of Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 are lead-free and Energy Star 4.0 compliant. All components are according to required European Union's Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) standards. Energy Cut tool helps you adjust system performance according to the time you require ad save on battery power.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 offers 1.3-mega pixel integrated camera. Its VeriFace™ face recognition software makes your face the password for your laptop. You can gain access to the notebook by sitting across the keyboard. Additionally, this system also records the faces of others trying to access your system. There are few touch-sensitive controls on specific areas of the keyboard. These help regulate the Multimedia Control Center.

The IdeaPad Y510 has a distinctive look and feel. This is due to the Light Weave Texture on the notebook. This laptop is black in color. It is priced at US$799.

Rating: 5/5

Battery Life

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 has a 6-cell Li-Ion battery. Battery life is approximately four hours. A multi-light battery indicator paced on the screen bezel gives a continuous tracking of remaining battery power.

Rating: 5/5

Audio and Video

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 offers Dolby® Home Theater™ premium audio system. This system consists of five speakers and a subwoofer. The sound system delivers sound similar to that as in a theater. This is a one-stop multi-entertainment option.

The Multimedia Control Center is exclusively designed. It has an easy and conveniently placed shuttle key that can operate volume and equalizer controls. It also has a dual layer CD/DVD writer and a 6-in-1 card reader. All video is through Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X 3100 up to 256 MB.

Rating: 5/5

Wireless

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 has integrated Wireless LAN. It offers 10/100 Ethernet, modem, and Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG or 4965AGN.

Rating: 5/5

Screen

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 has a 15.4 widescreen WXGA vibrant view screen with a maximum resolution of 1280 x 800. The frameless screen with a glossy surface gives an innovative and unique look to this notebook. The screen surface extends to the edges of the top cover.

Rating: 5/5

Keyboard

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 has a full-size keyboard. This keyboard is very similar those available on Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks. Every key has a solid feel and offers perfect press and typing comfort.

Rating: 5/5

Warranty and Support

Lenovo also offers complete support through its service and support center at any time of the day or night. Lenovo offers a one-year warranty on system and a one-year warranty on battery.

Rating: 5/5

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 Notebook

Features

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 is available in specific dimensions of 395mm x 285mm x 26 - 39mm. It weighs 7.9 lb. including battery. It offers an Intel® Core™2 Duo T9300 processor of 2.5 GHz and speed of 800 MHz. The operating system is Windows Vista® Home Premium 32. It is blue in color with a metallic finish.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 has a hard drive of up to 500 GB with a speed of 5400rpm Serial ATA. It also houses a secondary drive. The presence of two completely distinct hard drives helps in using another system through a slot or cable in any one of the empty drives. It has memory of 2GB PC2-5300/667 MHz and can support up to 4GB memory.

Rating: 5/5

Design

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 has an integrated 1.3 mega pixel camera. It offers VeriFace™ face recognition software. This registers your face as the password. You only have to sit across the laptop to gain access to the notebook.

All hinge and logo areas are brightly lit with colorful halo lighting. This makes your laptop look very different from the others. It is priced at US$1,199.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 houses all lead-free components. Further, they adhere to European Union's Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) standards.

Rating: 5/5

Battery Life

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 has a 6-cell Li-Ion battery. It delivers approximately four hours of battery life. The energy tool helps cut down on system performance while working on battery.

Rating: 5/5

Audio and Video

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 offers video graphics through ATI Mobility Radeon HD2600. It has a dual layer CD/DVD Recordable with Blue Ray DVD reader. The audio system has four speakers and one subwoofer Dolby® Home Theater™. The sound quality is superb.

Rating: 5/5

Wireless

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 supports integrated wireless communications. It has 10/100 Ethernet, modem, and Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965AGN.

Rating: 5/5

Screen

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 has a 17 widescreen WXGA vibrant view screen with a maximum resolution of 1440 x 900. The frameless and glossy screen gives it a very fine appearance.

Rating: 5/5

Keyboard

The keyboard of Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 offers easy typing on its solid and well-placed keys.

Rating: 5/5

Warranty and Support

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 offers one-year warranty for the system and one-year warranty for the battery. Lenovo offers an extensive support system for any queries.

Rating: 5/5

Lenovo IdeaPad U110 Notebook

Lenovo IdeaPad U110 will be available in April 2008. This laptop will have an 11.1-inch screen and will weigh around 2.3 lbs. It would sport a floral design on its red colored aluminum-alloy lid. This would be an ideal lightweight laptop for women.

Some of the features of Lenovo IdeaPad U110 include Dolby Home Theater sound, touch-sensitive media controls, Shuttle Key to operate audio and video controls, frameless display, Lenovo's Active Protection System for the hard drive and a solid-state hard drive offering quick access to data. Battery life would be substantial. Lenovo IdeaPad U110 would not have a subwoofer.

Probably, Lenovo IdeaPad U110 would support low-voltage Core 2 Duo processors on Intel's latest Centrino Duo platform, up to 160GB of hard drive space and 667MHz RAM. The cost would be around US$1,800.

Overall Conclusions

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 is a superb and versatile notebook that can pack a huge number of features within a small notebook. It is the ideal laptop for normal home and office use. It ranks among the leaders in mobile computing. It is an extremely dependable notebook. Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 offers a perfect balance between performance and affordability.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 is a gamer’s laptop. Lenovo IdeaPad U110 is creating quite an excitement before its launch. This is because it is the smallest among the three. It would weigh only 2.42lbs and would be 0.72 inches thick. Lenovo is claiming to have a battery life of eight hours in this smallest laptop.

Pros:

• Dolby® Home Theater™ sound
• Multimedia Control Center with touch-sensitive buttons
• Frameless screen
• Game Zone keys with secondary display
• VeriFace™ facial recognition security

Cons:

• Expensive