Comments on: Lenovo IdeaPad U400 Review

By: ing001

ing001 — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:31:00 +0000

In terms of specs – surely you agree that it beats the macbook air by miles?
I mean, it has 6gb of Ram, 750gb hd and it runs at 2.4Ghz
The air is beaten in each one of these categories!

By: Jonathan Pierce

Jonathan Pierce — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:47:00 +0000

Thanks for the review. I’ve found a pretty good deal on a refurbished U400 and I’m wondering about getting one as a low cost alternative to a Macbook Pro. Besides the usual web-surfing, Office, and iTunes use, how do you think the laptop would work for Photoshop and video editing work? The one I’m looking at is the i3 model with 4gbs ram and a 7200 rpm hard drive so I suppose it will handle it fine but what about the screen? I know for a fact it would be better than the old Dell screen I’ve got now, but I read another review which said the screen was mediocre.

Also, though I’m not much of a gamer, I’d like to know how MW3 performs on the U400. It’s got a decent graphics card I’m just wondering how well the i3 processor and AMD gpu together run MW3.

By: Zaid Qureshi

Zaid Qureshi — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 02:22:00 +0000

Would this suite my need? i am a computer science student and need this for some linux build compiling, java and c++ programming. The core i7 version is on a special for $1000 on lenovo’s website. Would it be better than a lenovo u300s? or recommend a better computer. Also i will be using the notebook to stream live video to ustream using adobe flash media encoder. And i will have to change the format of the videos to put on youtube. Will this be powerful enough?

By: Wayneman250

Wayneman250 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:07:00 +0000

This is a great machine for a combination of thing, good looks, good performance, optical drive, and lenovo build quality

By: Wayneman250

Wayneman250 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:06:00 +0000

First of all, this computer is not even in the same price range as a Mac.
Macs (15in) are over 1700 dollars while this one is 900$
If comparison to a Mac, this lacks in some areas, but are those improvements in the Mac, really worth paying 800$ more?

By: Wayneman250

Wayneman250 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:06:00 +0000

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 07:52:00 +0000

I’m just a student, so I know it will work for that but I play a few games basically the SIMS3 and Cities xl 2012. How will this perform? I was going to get the ux31 but I don’t trust integrated graphics, and from what I read this packs a fairly dated card. I’m just confused.

By: Guest

Guest — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 05:36:00 +0000

would this laptop be good for music production software usage (Ableton Live, ect.)?
and for live shows using midi keyboards and such?thanks

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:55:00 +0000

Thanks for the review. I’ve had my U400 since late October (i5, 750GB version) and love it. Solid, stylish, fast, and I use the DVD and hdmi daily in my classroom. A recent review canned it due to problems with the touchpad, not using the Synaptic touchpad and drivers as the U300 does. My laptop does have the Synaptic touchpad. I agree the documentation could be better, but its available, you just have to find it. For the touchpad, just hit the up arrow on the right taskbar, click on the touchpad icon, and from there you can customize the mouse and touchpad features, and under “device settings” then “settings” it takes you step by step through all of the 1, 2, 3, 4 finger swipe combinations, even showing short video clips. The glass touchpad is so much better than my previous Dell. Also, in response to the previous posts, I have not had any problems with wifi reception at home, work or at restaurant hotspots. I also have not noticed any loud noises from the DVD player on startup. Overall I like this laptop very much.

By: shek

shek — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:01:00 +0000

Heard there are some issues with the wifi reception in these models… is this true?

By: Sai

Sai — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:31:00 +0000

Nice Review.

I bought mine about 2 weeks ago, loving it ever since. I’ve been carrying around my Asus g50-vt, which was awesome for high level gaming and movies, but extremely bulky. This laptop weights alot less, a blessing for my back. The only bad thing is that it didn’t come with a detailed enough manual; for example the mouse trackpad, I’m still geting confused on how to right click (sometimes getting it with luck), scrolling similar to the macbooks, yet I still believe there may be more function of the trackpad that I haven’t discovered yet. The lack of more complex manual also leaves me confused about the boot options, and how to optimize it, though I haven’t really explored it’s fully functionality. Another annoying spec that I noticed is that whenever I boot up the laptop, the disc drive goes CRAZY!! – meaning it makes really loud noises. Besides the noisy bootup and the lack of a proper manual, this laptop is AWESOME!!

Please if you could give a reference on where to learn the trackpad gestures it would be much appreciated.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:24:00 +0000

The selling price of u400 (core i5, 6 gb ram, 750 gb hard drive) is about $933 on amazon. A cheaper model (core i3 cpu, 4 gb RAM, 500 gb hard drive) is about $810. The higher-end model was actually around $850 from amazon directly a few weeks ago, but it was sold out quickly.

By: Eric Bandholz

Eric Bandholz — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:07:00 +0000

That price you talk about is for a different machine than you reviewed. The $1299 u400 is an i7 with 8gb of ram and 750gb hd.

By: Chris Burns

Chris Burns — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:22:00 +0000

That’s the price you can get it from Lenovo right this second online

By: Chris Burns

Chris Burns — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:22:00 +0000

you are welcome

By: Chris Burns

Chris Burns — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:22:00 +0000

I agree with you there

By: Chris Burns

Chris Burns — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:21:00 +0000

Excellent!

By: Marlon Stevenson

Marlon Stevenson — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:00:00 +0000

I think the Alienware notebook looks awful. The design of the U400 is the least similar to the Air of all the Ultrabooks and even a bit unique. I think the design is fantastic, but it does have many flaws. No. It does not compare to the MacBook Air. At all. You’re right. None of the Ultrabooks do, in my opinion. They have all fallen short of what Intel intended and they are all above the thousand dollar price range. It is a pretty big fail. They need to try new and innovative designs instead of just ripping off the MacBook Air, but Lenovo does this best, as I said, our of all the Ultrabooks.

I carry around a crappy Gateway NV52. Why? Because my Dad didn’t consult me when purchasing my computer and I haven’t had the money for anything else. I’ve saved up and I strongly considered purchasing the U400, but they didn’t have a price and there were several things that had fallen short of the MacBook Air that were just unacceptable flaws. Now it is revealed to be the same price…of course I don’t want this shit.

I have saved up just under enough to purchase a MacBook Pro and I am waiting until this year’s refresh to purchase. I think that it will have a higher resolution screen, USB 3.0, a thinner frame similar to the Air and some sort of new touch interface to make Lion make sense.

I’m a Freshman college student, so I’m betting it all on Apple, but you’re right, the numbers don’t lie. My only argument is that it shouldn’t be compared with the Pro and Alienware has a different design, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good looking design. The U400 has a great design, but it still falls short of the Air and could definitely have been more innovative.

By: Giulio Ghislanzetti

Giulio Ghislanzetti — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:57:00 +0000

2 weeks ago I bought the version the same specs as outlined here plus Radeon HD 6470M from B&H photo video in NYC. What’s up with the price tag mentioned here?

By: Counsel Dew

Counsel Dew — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:04:00 +0000

Lenovo’s problem is naming the whole line ideapad-here I thought it was a tablet review.

By: Nocomment

Nocomment — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 07:01:00 +0000

Thank you for the review.

By: Chris Burns

Chris Burns — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:15:00 +0000

It’s being compared to the Pro and the Air – and it doesn’t come close to competing with either. Let’s just be clear on that. The Alienware notebook is an effing masterpiece compared to the notebooks after notebooks being released by OEMs the past few years that all look like MacBook ripoffs – tending precisely to the audience they’re going for rather than just trying to cut into the profits of the current masters of the everyman, Apple. The numbers don’t lie.

What notebook do you carry around – why?

By: Marlon Stevenson

Marlon Stevenson — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:53:00 +0000

Why is this being compared to the MacBook Pro? It’s a MacBook Air competitor. It does alright in comparison with the other Ultrabooks as well. Also, the Alienware isn’t being praised for design, just to be clear here, right? The Ideapad shits on that design and the only place it has the U400 beat is in the gaming specs…but who wants an ultraportable computer for gaming…get a portable game console such as the PSP.