Lenovo IdeaPad U410 review

Lenovo’s IdeaPad U410 14in Ultrabook is available in a range of colours, from hot pink to aquamarine blue. Our review sample came in a more reserved graphite grey, so there should be something to suit all tastes.

The case is a uniform thickness throughout, rather than the wedge shaped favoured by other manufacturers. This leaves ample room for ports: as well as two USB ports, two faster USB3 versions are also present, as is an HDMI video output, Gigabit Ethernet, a 3.5mm combination audio jack and a multi-format card reader.

Inside, there’s a dedicated GeForce GT 610M graphics chip. This may be one of Nvidia’s entry-level mobile GPUs, but that doesn’t mean it’s a slouch when it comes to games – it managed 25.8fps in our Dirt 3 test, an impressive feat for such a slim machine. Disabling anti-aliasing should help boost frame rates to above a playable 30fps too.

Despite the additional graphics card, the U410 still managed to last over seven and a half hours in our light use battery test – Nvidia’s Optimus graphics switching technology disables the GT 610M in favour of integrated graphics, meaning you don’t miss out on battery life compared to other Ultrabooks.

Desktop performance is supplied by a dual-core i5-3317U processor running at 1.7GHz. Intel’s Turbo Boost technology can increase this up to 2.6GHz in certain applications. With 6GB of system memory it completed our multimedia benchmarks with an overall score of 48 – easily powerful enough to run everyday applications such as web browsers or word processors.

We had no trouble working on the U410, thanks to its spacious Chiclet-style keyboard and sizable all-in-one touchpad. Each key has plenty of travel and a springy action. The layout is fairly standard, although the function keys have been remapped to perform multimedia and system shortcuts. It was a little disappointing to see so much flex in the keyboard tray – it bounces up and down with every key press, becoming quite distracting once you notice it.

The glass touchpad is better and lets you glide across its surface. It was both responsive and accurate, with the left- and right-mouse buttons integrated into the bottom of the pad.

Considering you’ll spend all your time sat in front of it, the 14in screen is a little disappointing. Its 1,366×768 resolution is fairly standard but brightness is disappointingly low. With a glossy finish that makes light reflections troublesome, it can be difficult to see what’s on screen in direct sunlight or under bright overhead lighting. At least colours were vibrant and contrast was reasonable. Tight viewing angles mean you have to sit straight-on to get the best image quality.

Although it’s one of the few Ultrabooks with a dedicated graphics card, the basic screen and a few issues with build quality means the IdeaPad 410 falls a little short. It’s powerful, able to play certain games at reasonable levels of detail and has a fantastic battery life, but you’ll have to learn to live with the keyboard flex. At the same price, the HP Envy 6 is the better choice.