I got a chance to check out Lenovo’s recently announced IdeaPad U260 laptop last night. As promised, it’s thin, light, and all sorts of elegant looking. That said, I was a bit disappointed to discover that the laptop only comes with a 4 cell battery which is not user replaceable.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U260 measures about 0.7″ thick all the way around. It has an unusual 12.5 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, which Lenovo says is the first screen of that size from any major laptop manufacturer. The notebooks is powered by an Intel Core i3 or Core i5 CPU and Intel HD graphics.

Lenovo says the laptop should be available in the next week or so for $899 and up. You can check out my hands-on video and a few more photos after the break.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,543 other subscribers

16 replies on “Hands-on with the Lenovo IdeaPad U260”

  1. so with mention here of i3 and i5 processors, why no mention of i7 and SSD as with the official press release on lenovo.com?

    a 4 hour battery life is pretty pathetic in comparison to the latest offerings from apple. my ideapad s12 has more battery life than that and its 2 years old.

    1. Where did you see that the laptop would be available with a Core i7 CPU? All the materials I’ve seen say it will be available with “up to a Core i5” CPU.

      1. https://news.lenovo.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1389

        “Perfect for those who love to travel or executives who enjoy a classy laptop away from the office, the IdeaPad U260 is the right choice weighing in at less than three pounds and measuring just over a half-inch thin. The U260 is ergonomically designed with sleek curves, proportions and hinge mechanics for maximum comfort as it can be easily opened with one hand. Users will also enjoy standing out in a crowd with their uniquely designed, world’s first 12.5-inch laptop powered by up to an Intel® Coreâ„¢ i7 processor for impressive performance and long battery life. The U260 can be configured with up to 320GB of hard drive storage or up to 128GB of SSD flash-based storage providing plenty of room for music, photos and movies. With up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, consumers can enjoy a seamless multimedia experience when browsing multiple web pages and using applications.”

        1. Huh. That’s really strange. The release they sent me was different. I’ll check with Lenovo to see what I can see.

          “Users will also enjoy standing out in a crowd
          with their uniquely designed, world‟s first 12.5-inch laptop powered by up to an Intel
          ®
          Coreâ„¢ i5 processor
          in the US market for impressive performance and long battery life. The U260 can be configured with up to
          320GB of hard drive storage providing plenty of room for music, photos and movies. With up to 4GB of
          DDR3 memory, consumers can enjoy a seamless multimedia experience when browsing multiple web
          pages and using applications. “

          1. i’m assuming is true since SSD hasn’t been made available yet. my only hope is that it also comes with nvidia or ATI graphics. otherwise with a 4 hour battery life 2-3 hour real world life you’re pretty much paying for style. apple might have my money soon enough. the U260 is a great laptop but is lacking in those two fields. i would pay a little bit more if it included both of those features.

            the sony vaio z carbon has it all but with a $5,000 price tag which is rediculous.

        2. OK, here’s the deal. The press release on the web site is the international version. The Core i7 and SSD options will not be available in the US.

          The battery is a 4 cell, 30Whr battery.

          1. i guess they think that with the i3 and i5 processors being released in the USA they think that this laptop trumps the new macbook air which has a higher density lcd and the 8 month old macbook pro.

            i’m really disappointed that lenovo/ibm is not looking to build a competitive laptop as opposed to an alternative which this clearly is. a poor alternative in business approach if you ask me. real world users of any laptop under 14inches are people that are on the go and do not have time to keep their laptops plugged in. on top of this, with design release of the macbook pro and even the standard macbook with an nvidia gpu honestly what were they thinking.

            i was hoping this was going to be my next laptop but its losing battle. weaker graphics, weaker battery life, less lcd pixel density, and a heavier weight. guess i’m going to wait till april for hopefully a macbook pro 13.3 refresh.

  2. He says it’s a 6-cell battery in the video which is what I thought it had in it. Might want to verify that.

    1. I think he misspoke. All the official data sheets I’ve seen for this laptop say it’s a 4 cell battery. I’d also be surprised if a 6 cell battery got just 4 hours of battery life, which is what he says in the video, although of course there are a lot of variables to consider besides the number of cells.

  3. In the video i heard mention of the igp… Then the words slurred into someone saying g310. does this laptop have a spot for a descrete gpu?… Even if its not populated in the machines at launch? Orr?

    1. Nope, that was just a mistake… I didn’t hear him say the word
      “integrated,” so I asked if it had NVIDIA G310… but didn’t say
      NVIDIA, so he got confused…

      Long story short, this laptop just has Intel HD graphics. I’ve posted
      a little update to the video.

  4. “battery which is not user replaceable” = not a good product

    We seem to be edging closer and closer to a time when having a user replaceable battery is going to be a premium feature of premium products. That’s as idiotic as it seems inevitable. This is what you get when you let fools drive the marketplace. Sorry kids, but “thin” is not a feature if it comes at the cost of a battery which is not user replaceable. Vote with your dollar, not your ignorance.

    1. Actually, I don’t think companies see user replaceable batteries as premium
      features… it’s actually quite the opposite. It’s “premium” laptops which
      don’t have them because it would be hard to fit one in the slim case… I’m
      not a fan of the trend, but most $300 netbooks still come with user
      replaceable batteries while $900 and up laptops like this and the MacBook
      air do not.

Comments are closed.