Lenovo IdeaPad Y560d

Lenovo continues to create very nice looking laptops with its IdeaPad line. Lenovo IdeaPad Y560d is about as far from the office ready Lenovo mindset as we've seen, with a funky tribal tattoo design on the back of the lid. Other than that, the color scheme is similar to systems such as the IdeaPad Y460, with a copper accent strip around the outer edge of the lid and an interior mix of not too glossy black plastic and matte black keys. A row of backlit touch sensitive control buttons sit on top of the keyboard.

Running a finger back and forth along them pops up a quick launch bar, with assignable slots for different apps. It's clever looking, but it takes some getting used to. Running your finger along the right part of it can also change the desktop background image, but we never got the hang of pulling that off consistently. The keyboard and touch pad are excellent, even though Lenovo IdeaPad Lenovo IdeaPad Y560d uses a tapered key keyboard (more like the traditional ThinkPad design), rather than the flat topped island style one seen on most other IdeaPad models.

The 15.6 inch wide screen display offers a 1,366x768 pixel native resolution, which is standard for a 16:9 midsize laptop screen. It's great for 720p HD video content, but it can't display 1080p content at full resolution. Hardcore gamers may want higher resolutions, and we were also troubled by the faint horizontal lenticular lines that are sometimes visible, even when not using any 3D applications that's a byproduct of the polarized 3D system. Under the hood, Lenovo IdeaPad Y560d is a very impressive machine.

With a 1.6GHz Intel Core i7 720QM CPU, a 500GB 7200rpm hard drive, and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730 graphics, it's powerful enough for just about any task. The system holds its own against other high end laptops such as the HP Envy 17 and Toshiba A665-3DV (both also Core i7 systems) in our benchmark tests. But what we're really interested in is the 3D capabilities. We've had experience with the TriDef system before, and found this version to be largely the same.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y560d includes a basic pair of cheap plastic polarized glasses, plus a second pair of clip-ons for those of us who already wear glasses (be warned: it's not a cool look). The screen has to be tilted at just the right angle. For us it was about 120 degrees back, and with us sitting about twice as far from the screen as we normally would. The effect works best with objects that recede into the distance, where we could sometimes get an excellent 3D effect.

Objects that popped out of the screen toward us often got blurry or out of focus, as did some menus rendered in 3D. Keep in mind that it's very important to keep your head still to main just the perfect angle. To get games to play in 3D, they have to be run through the TriDef wrapper app, which is an easy enough process, but one with a lot of processing overhead. Playing Street Fighter IV (which looked very good in 3D), we got an average of 32 frames per second (at the native 1,366x768 pixel resolution) when running the game normally, but that dropped to about 13 frames per second when running it in 3D.

That's especially disappointing given the high powered hardware. On the positive side, the plastic polarized glasses are passive, and don't require batteries or recharging. Also, no external IR emitter dongle is required (as in Nvidia 3D Vision systems), making this a more compact, no extras required setup.

Lenovo IdeaPad S12

Unfortunately, there's nothing game changing about Lenovo IdeaPad S12's looks. While the design made up of glossy plastics and embedded circular patterns is tastefully done, it's been done before by the likes of the HP Mini 110 and Mini 1000. Its hues white and black aren't as varied as the colorful offerings of the Dell Mini 12, although it's not as plain looking as the Samsung NC20.

Lenovo IdeaPad S12 is now officially the heaviest netbook on the block, tipping the scales at 3.5 pounds (the dv2-1030us weighs 3.8 pounds, but HP refuses to call it a netbook). The extended 52 Wh battery is a major reason why it's heavier than your average netbook the rest has to do with its dimensions, as the S12 measures 11.5 by 9.2 by 1.2 inches (HWD). The NC20 is a bit smaller (11.5 by 8.5 by 1.2 inches), while the Dell Mini 12 (11.8 by 9 by 0.75 inches) is the thinnest among this 12 inch group.

Picky netbook users will be drawn to its 12 inch widescreen, questioning whether it's a netbook. The size of the screen and its 1.280 by 800 resolution don't suffer the same limitations as a 10 inch screen with a 1,024 by 600 resolution (scrolling, for instance, is minimized with long web pages and Adobe's Photoshop CS series has a 1.024 by 768 resolution requirement). It's not unusual, though, as all of its 12 inch peers possess the same screen characteristics.

The typing experience, however, does stand out. Its full size keyboard eclipses the 92% ones of the Dell Mini 12 and the HP dv2. It's on a par with the NC20's full size keyboard, with the slight edge going to the former's noise free mouse buttons. A bigger than normal netbook frame has its advantages, especially with cramming in features. The S12's three USB ports, Ethernet, VGA, an integrated Webcam, and a 4 in 1 memory card reader are standard netbook parts.

What makes it stand out among its 12 inch counterparts is the ExpressCard 34 slot. This slot, which can enable luxuries such as 3G wireless, extra USB ports, FireWire, and Serial port, can be a handy commodity for road warriors. The Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (Red) and HP Mini 2140 are the only other netbooks that carry this slot, but they're miniature frames causes them to lose a third USB port.

Lenovo 3000 V100

And the fact that Lenovo has updated the V100 line with the latest Core 2 Duo processors, larger hard drives, and the option for Windows Vista warranted a second look. Based on our $1,699 review unit, we'd say that the Lenovo 3000 V100 has kept pace with the times, continuing to provide all the features you'll need for work (and some play) in a highly portable package.

The V100 is the smallest Lenovo 3000 laptop available like its siblings, the C200 and the N100, the V100 is silver on the outside and dark gray on the inside. Its steel hinges and relatively sturdy construction reflect its ThinkPad heritage, though it doesn't have the ThinkPad's drain holes, shock mounted hard drive, or keyboard light.

The V100 weighs 4.5 pounds (with the optional six cell battery, which extends about a half inch from the back of the laptop) and measures 9 inches deep, 12 inches wide, and 1.1 inches thick.

So it's a bit larger than both the Toshiba Satellite U205 and the Dell XPS M1210. Total travel weight with the V100's modest A/C adapter is 5.1 pounds, striding the line between ultra portable and thin and light.

There are certainly lighter laptops on the market, including Lenovo's own ThinkPad X60s, but the V100 is reasonably portable for regular travel.

Because Lenovo doesn't currently offer a wide screen ultra portable ThinkPad, the Lenovo 3000 V100 fills an important role in the company's laptop lineup. Like the XPS M1210 and the Satellite U205, the V100 features a 12.1 inch wide screen display with a sharp 1,280x800 native resolution and a glossy finish that's great for watching movies but can become distractingly reflective in bright environments (unfortunately there's no option for a matte finish display). An optional 1.3 megapixel Webcam is built into the display bezel, making it useful for Web videoconferencing from the road.

Corresponding to the V100's wide aspect display is a wide, comfortable keyboard that harkens back to the laptop's ThinkPad lineage. Like all Lenovo 3000 laptops, the V100's trackpad feels a bit small, and the trackpad buttons don't provide as much travel as we'd like. Next to the trackpad sits a tiny fingerprint reader, which lets you securely log on to your computer, network, and favorite Web sites with just a swipe of a finger.

Above the keyboard are three handy external volume controls and a button to launch Lenovo's MediaNow application (the extent of the V100's dedicated multimedia controls), plus a button that summons the useful Lenovo Care system management and help utility. Along the front edge, two speakers emit hollow but passable sound, while the right edge of the case holds a handy hardware on or off switch for the system's built in Wi-Fi radio.

Lenovo ThinkPad T60p

The Lenovo T60p eschews the soft, rounded edges and brushed metal accents of consumer laptops for a no nonsense squared off look, giving it a slim, sleek profile. The familiar matte black case measures 12.5 inches wide, 10 inches deep, and 1.1 inches thick. That's a little smaller than the wide screen version of the T60, which measures 14 inches wide, and it may be too big for some fitted laptop cases.

This version of the T60p is a half pound lighter, weighing in at 5.3 pounds, or 6.2 pounds if you include the AC adapter. The time tested design includes traveler friendly touches, such as sturdy steel hinges and a shock mounted hard drive. The keyboard is one of the best laptop keyboards available, offering an extremely comfortable typing experience.

The T60p also has both an eraser head pointing stick and a touch pad, each of which has a set of mouse buttons (the top set includes a scroll button in the middle). Above the keyboard are three handy volume buttons the extent of the ThinkPad T60p's dedicated multimedia controls and a blue ThinkVantage button, which summons Lenovo's helpful preinstalled support and configuration utility.

The ThinkPad T60p features a 14.1 inch display with a 1.400x1.050 native resolution that affords a decent amount of screen real estate. Nearly every laptop we've seen in the past year has had a wide screen display, so the squared-off display on this model is almost jarringly retro. As with all ThinkPads, a reading light tucked into the bezel above the screen lets you illuminate the keyboard when working in the dark (hit Fn + Page Up to turn it on and off).

Connections include VGA and three USB 2.0 ports, plus headphone and micrhone jacks and slots for a PC Cards and an ExpressCard. Consumer friendly extras, such as FireWire and a media card reader, are missing, but networking options include a 56Kbps modem, Gigabit Ethernet, and 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Security features include a fingerprint reader and the ThinkVantage Active Protection System, which uses a motion sensor to park the hard drive in case of a fall.

Our $2,250 ThinkPad T60p review unit costs almost double the system's base price. For the extra money you get a 2.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 CPU, 2GB of RAM, and Windows Vista Business. For the $1,200 starting price, you'll have to trade down to a 1.67GHz T5500 CPU, only 512MB of RAM, and Windows XP Pro leaving you with a system that's cheaper but has a much shorter useful life.

With such a high end set of specs, the Lenovo T60p made short work of CNET Labs' Multitasking test, beating two other recent Vista laptops, the Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet, with a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo L2500, and the Dell Inspiron E1505, with a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7200. But compared to a nearly identical T60p system we tested with Windows XP, it fell slightly behind in the Photoshop CS2 and iTunes encoding tests, suggesting that Windows Vista requires more computing power to run than the older XP operating system.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y730

Home users are increasingly turning to notebook computers as their primary PCs, as they like that laptops can offer similar performance and features to those of a desktop PC, and can be easily moved from room to room. Though of course almost any notebook computer will do for typical home use, there are two types of laptops most suitable for home users middle size notebooks, which tend to be budget friendly, and desktop replacements, which are usually packed with features.

To maximize battery life, notebook computer processors are often designed to save more energy and run cooler than desktop processors.

The drawback is slower performance, but more memory can help, which it won't consume energy or radiate heat.

Even better, up to 4GB of RAM can now be found in budget configurations. If you want more memory later, expansion is often a simple procedure.

The central processor (CPU) is the heart of any computer system and an excellent litmus test as to whether a desktop computer or notebook fits your needs. The trouble is, processor names like Athlon and Celeron are as cryptic as system names like Latitude and Pavilion.

Lenovo ThinkPad T500

Home users are increasingly turning to notebook computers as their primary PCs, as they like that laptops can offer similar performance and features to those of a desktop PC, and can be easily moved from room to room.

Though of course almost any notebook computer will do for typical home use, there are two types of laptops most suitable for home users, middle size notebooks, which tend to be budget friendly, and desktop replacements, which are usually packed with features.

The central processor (CPU) is the heart of any computer system and an excellent litmus test as to whether a desktop computer or notebook fits your needs. The trouble is, processor names like Athlon and Celeron are as cryptic as system names like Latitude and Pavilion.

Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet

Usually comparable in size and weight to ultra portable or thin and light laptops, tablet PCs let you take handwritten notes and navigate menus, documents, and Web pages using a stylus directly on the screen. The most common type is the convertible tablet, which looks much like traditional a laptop but has a display that swivels 180 degrees and folds flat over the keyboard.

(Some manufacturers are incorporating this type of tablet functionality into larger middle size and thin and light laptops.) Slate tablets, on the other hand, lack keyboards they're all screen. The smallest tablets, ultra mobile PCs, bridge the gap between PDA and ultra portable, with 7 inch touch screen displays and enhanced media player features.

Once only the tool of specialized industries, tablets are gaining a wider audience, thanks to their portability, flexibility, and wow factor. To maximize battery life, notebook computer processors are often designed to save more energy and run cooler than desktop processors. The drawback is slower performance, but more memory can help, which it won't consume energy or radiate heat. Even better, up to 4GB of RAM can now be found in budget configurations. If you want more memory later, expansion is often a simple procedure.

Lenovo ThinkPad SL400

Slide the ThinkPad SL400 out of the box, and you might think you mistakenly purchased a particularly boxy Sony Vaio. Open the laptop up, however, and you'll soon discover it's a standard issue ThinkPad that Lenovo outfitted with a glossy, black lid. Without the magnesium alloy shell protecting the back of the screen, the plastic lid feels soft flexing when pressed. The plastic wrist rests, however, feel much sturdier.

Overall, the SL400 feels like a substantial machine it's bulky and rather thick for a 14 inch laptop, running from 1.3 inches thick along its front edge to 1.5 inches thick at the back edge. Like all ThinkPads, the SL400 boasts an incredibly comfortable keyboard, a red track point, and blue Enter key. Below the keyboard sits a touch pad and second set of mouse buttons. The touch pad's matte finish and vertical and horizontal scroll regions make it highly functional, and the mouse buttons are soft, quiet, and responsive.

To the left of the keyboard sit a blue Lenovo Care button that calls up a small window with helpful links to system management and security tools. Below the Lenovo Care button are volume up, down, and mute buttons.

Five small, green glowing icons adorn the front edge below the touch pad, informing you of your wireless, wired, and Bluetooth connections as well as whether you're running on full battery power or in sleep mode.

On the angled bottom half of the front edge reside three small air vents and a Wi-Fi power switch. A large vent sits on the left side for the GeForce 9300M GS graphics card.

While the laptop is by no means noisy, it does emit a fairly steady yet low hum and stream of warm air out its left side. The side edges are sloped and narrow toward the bottom of the laptop. It helps lessen the ThinkPad boxy appearance somewhat, and while some reviewers have complained that the ports are difficult to reach, I did not find this to be the case.

I have an old, bulky USB key and was able to connect it to all four of the system's USB ports without a problem the overhanging top edge did not interfere. The ThinkPad SL series is available in three sizes, the 13.3 inch SL300, the 14.1 inch SL400 we reviewed, and the 15.4 inch SL500. The standard SL400 wide screen display offers a 1,280x800 pixel resolution our review unit included a $50 upgrade that bumps you up to a still very readable 1,440x900 pixel resolution and includes Lenovo's AntiGlare option.

In general, we think a matte finish is the better option for the screen of a business laptop, and Lenovo's AntiGlare screen lives up to its name. (Lenovo also sells an SL400 configuration with integrated Intel graphics, but choose that and you lose the higher resolution option.) Even when sitting with two bright, sun filled windows at our back, the screen was very readable with glare and reflections kept to a minimum. We still found colors to be vibrant when viewing photos or movies, though we did find a stuck pixel in the upper right hand corner of our review unit.

Lenovo IdeaPad S10

With Intel's now standard 1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU, specifically designed for low power Netbooks, the Lenovo S10 is not going to match up with Lenovo's normally high powered business systems or deliver the same level of performance you'd get from even an inexpensive Core 2 Duo.

Still, for Web surfing, email, and working on office documents, which is 90 percent of what most people do on their laptops anyway, the S10 performed about as expected, closely matching the Asus Eee PC 901 and MSI Wind in our iTunes performance test.

With impressive battery scores from Lenovo's mainstream laptops, we had high hopes for the S10's battery, even though it's of the smaller 3 cell variety.

Unfortunately, the battery lasted about as long as other 3 cell Netbooks we've tested, such as the MSI Wind, coming in at 2 hours and 13 minutes on our video playback battery drain test. Dell manages to get more than 3 hours out of the Mini 9's 4 cell battery, while Netbooks with 6 cell batteries, including the Asus Eee PC 1000, lasted for more than 5 hours. Lenovo includes an industry standard one year parts and labor mail in warranty with the system. A variety of extension options are available and upgrading to a year of on site service costs an extra $49, while three years of at home service is $159.

Lenovo IdeaPad U110

The Lenovo IdeaPad U110 is imperceptibly smaller than one of our favorite 11.1 inch ultra portables, the Sony VAIO TZ150. It gives up 2 inches in screen size to the 13.3 inch MacBook Air, but the U110 weighs a full pound less (when using its four cell battery). Toshiba's Portege R500, on the other hand, weighs less just 1.7 pounds and gives you an extra inch with its 12 inch screen.

Aside from its diminutive size and stunning design, the IdeaPad U110 is remarkable in its sturdy construction, thanks to an aluminum cover and magnesium aluminum case. The sturdy construction seems to owe something to Lenovo's business focused ThinkPad line. But the IdeaPad U110 is considerably different from the company's other flagship ultra portable, the $2,476 ThinkPad X300.

The latter maintains the familiar ThinkPad DNA rectangular black case, great keyboard, and such corporate friendly features as WWAN and a Trusted Platform Module while still allowing for innovation in design and cutting edge components. The IdeaPad U110, on the other hand, is focused on the consumer market, and as such gives Lenovo more freedom to experiment with design while still incorporating new technologies.

Speaking more concretely, the 11.1 inch, 2.4 pound IdeaPad U110 is considerably smaller than the 13.3 inch, 3.4 pound ThinkPad X300. The entire keyboard deck on the IdeaPad U110 including the keyboard, touch pad, mouse buttons, and quick launch keys is one flush surface, all in a glossy piano finish. At first the flatness of the keys, and the lack of space between them, had us worried about typing comfort.

But closer inspection revealed that the keys have a slightly concave surface, and while the keyboard did feel noticeably less than full size, typing was remarkably comfortable and error free. Part of the reason Lenovo extended the keyboard quite nearly to the edges of the system, similar to the HP 2133 Mini Note, to accommodate larger keys than would ordinarily be found on such a compact laptop.

Unfortunately a concession had to be made when it came to the touch pad the IdeaPad U110's narrow depth means the touch pad sits uncomfortably low on the keyboard deck, and its mouse buttons are part of the laptop's front edge. We were able to complete a day's work with this setup, but would likely want to pack a travel mouse for better ergonomics on lengthy trips. Also, the meticulous among us might be put off by the shiny interior, which easily picks up fingerprints. (Lenovo does include a chamois cloth to help you keep the IdeaPad U110 looking sharp.)

Lenovo ThinkPad X301

Like all ThinkPads, the ultraportable X301 features a rectangular black case built around a sturdy chassis. There's still a blue ThinkVantage button above the keyboard, a fingerprint reader below it, and a keyboard light on the top edge of the display. However, ThinkPad fans will notice small touches that make the X301 a bit more attractive than other ThinkPads.

The lid and wrist rest feature an appealing soft matte finish the ThinkVantage, power, and mute buttons glow when pressed and the front edge is devoid of any ports or switches. In addition to the keyboard light, the ThinkPad X301's display bezel includes a 1.3 megapixel Webcam and a noise canceling digital microphone for Web conferencing.

The matte finish display itself features a 1,440 x 900 native resolution that's sharper than that of the MacBook Air and other similar size screens, resulting in text and icons that are a bit smaller than you'd expect. So far the sharper resolution hasn't caused tremendous problems, though we did find ourselves pumping up the font size on a newspaper's Web site so we could read a lengthy article.

We also zoomed in a bit when working on documents and spreadsheets. The trade off more screen real estate for multitasking and, when it's time for a break, beautiful video.

Given the amount of typing the typical executive does through the course of the workday, a keyboard can make or break an ultra portable. The ThinkPad X301 actually uses the same keyboard found on Lenovo's 14 and 15 inch models which is to say, not the condensed keyboard found on previous X series models and many ultra portable laptops from other manufacturers. After conducting several days' work on the ThinkPad X301, we still don't feel like we've been typing on a laptop. We love it.

Lenovo decided to include both the red eraser head TrackPoint pointing stick and a touch pad on the ThinkPad X301. The decision is understandable many ThinkPad users are viscerally attached to their TrackPoints, while other users can't stand it, so why not include both methods? However, the double sets of mouse buttons seem to run counter to the overall theme of simplification that the ThinkPad X301 embodies.

In order to make room for the TrackPoint's buttons, the touch pad is placed rather low on the wrist rest, with its buttons near the laptop's front edge. Fortunately, the ThinkPad X301 is thin enough that we could use the touch pad with our wrist resting on a desk surface or on our leg, when the laptop was in our lap. Of greater concern is the fact that, during our lazier typing moments when our wrists dropped to the wrist rest, we were likely to graze the touch pad and accidentally misplace the cursor.

Lenovo ThinkPad X200

With the ThinkPad X200, Lenovo brings a wide aspect ratio to its most portable system. The 12.1 inch wide screen display features a sharp 1,280x800 native resolution that's more common on 14.1 inch or even 15.4 inch displays. The resulting text and icons are probably about as small as you can go for comfortable everyday use. Given the ThinkPad's business focus, we appreciate the matte screen finish, which avoids reflections in brightly lit office environments.

Another advantage to going wide with the ThinkPad X200 plenty of room for the keyboard. Whereas Lenovo's previous ultra portable, the standard aspect ThinkPad X61s, had (of necessity) a slightly compact keyboard.

The ThinkPad X200's wider case can accommodate the same keyboard used on Lenovo's 14 and 15 inch ThinkPads. (You can see close up photos of both keyboards in this blog post.)

The difference in size is noticeable on the X200 we never felt like we were typing on an ultra portable machine. Navigation, however, is still a bit limited. With its last few ThinkPad models, Lenovo has tried to accommodate both fans of the red TrackPoint pointing stick and those who prefer a touch pad by including both options. The ThinkPad X200, however, features only the TrackPoint and three mouse buttons (the center acts as a scroll button) touch pad fans, of which there are many, will feel left out.

Above the keyboard are basic volume controls as well as the very helpful blue ThinkVantage button, which launches a suite of system maintenance, power management, connectivity, and other utilities. All the other classic ThinkPad touches are here, including the nifty keyboard light tucked beneath the lip of the lid and a fingerprint reader below the keyboard for quickly logging in to Windows and a company network.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 eschews the soft round edges and light colors of other 15 inch consumer laptops, such as the Dell Inspiron 1525, for a matte black finish and boxy shape. It feels solid and well built, if a little on the heavy side, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The Dell 1525 is lighter but feels much flimsier. This still isn't the heftiest 15 inch around that would be the 7.8 pound Alienware m15x.

The back of the lid is also black, but has a linen like pattern etched into it. Lenovo calls it a "Light Weave Texture," and while it probably spent more time on the name than the design, it's at least a nice break from the usual flat, glossy laptop shells. Lenovo is known for its excellent keyboards, and the IdeaPad's is very good, with thick, sturdy keys. A row of touch sensitive media control buttons sit above the keyboard, and a volume rocker switch is on the right side of the keyboard tray.

It's worth noting that the traditional Lenovo pointing stick in the middle of the keyboard is missing. The Y510 takes audio seriously, with four front mounted speakers and a subwoofer on the bottom.

The sound is certainly a step above your average laptop, and good for movies and TV, but we have yet to find a laptop that offers acceptable sound for serious music listening. A 1.3 megapixel Webcam sits above the display.

It works with the VeriFace face recognition software, which uses your face to log into Windows. Unlike the Asus U6S, the Lenovo version actually worked well, and we were able to log in almost instantly, after running a quick face enrollment application, without having to play around with positioning and lighting. The 15.4 inch wide screen LCD has a 1,280x800 native resolution, which is standard for a screen this size.

The display looks bigger than it actually is, thanks to a glossy screen overlay that extends right to the edges of the lid. Lenovo calls it a "frameless screen," although we'd probably save that designation for a screen with the smallest possible bezel this one has a fairly standard half inch bezel. The glossy overlay does make for a cleaner look, but it was a bit too glossy for our tastes, and we had a lot of screen glare to contend with.