Lenovo IdeaPad U400 review: Lenovo IdeaPad U400

While ultrabooks are seemingly all anyone at Microsoft or Intel can talk about, what about the humble laptop? The thicker, more versatile notebook computer of old certainly isn't going anywhere--at least, not right now--although changes in laptop design brought about by products like the MacBook Air, and even the Dell XPS 13 and Asus Zenbook, are starting to force all laptops to step up their game.

7.5

Lenovo IdeaPad U400

The Good

The Lenovo <b>IdeaPad U400</b> has a sleek, attractive metal design and a good assortment of features for its price, including a slot-loading DVD drive and AMD graphics.

The Bad

There's not much that stands out performance-wise over the competition; it lacks the exceptional battery life, higher-res screen, Blu-ray drive, and SSD upgrades that high-end competitors tend to have.

The Bottom Line

Adopting the looks of an ultrabook and an Apple MacBook, the IdeaPad U400 wins on design and overall value, but it's not that far above other equally good laptops that are out there right now.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U400 isn't an ultrabook, but it borrows the look of one--the IdeaPad U300s--in a big-brother 14-inch laptop with a Core i5 processor, slot-loading DVD drive, and a larger-capacity 500GB hard drive that isn't SSD, but can hold more music, photos, and videos than the average limited ultrabook.

The best thing the IdeaPad U400 has going for it is style; this is a cool, clean-looking laptop, easily one of the best I've ever seen Lenovo make. It's got clear design connections to the MacBook Pro and Samsung Series 7 Chronos, but has some fine-tuned features that stand alone.

Alas, the battery life kills the equation. Four hours or so on the U400's integrated battery isn't bad, but it's hard to swallow when the MacBook Pro and Samsung Series 7 got 6-plus hours on our same tests.

Attractive laptop? Certainly. Yet, when you look at what's coming down the pike very soon--new Intel processors and ultrabook-like 14- and 15-inch laptops with many of the same features that the U400 has--it makes me hesitant to recommend the U400 in this iteration. It's a good, but transitional, laptop.