lenovo ideapad u150It looks like low power thin and light laptops 11 to 13 inch laptops could be the new netbooks. I’m on the fence as to whether these will completely replace netbooks over the next few years, but PC vendors are definitely starting to push out thin and lights like they’re the new hot thing… you know, like netbooks were last year.

The latest machine to make the scene is the Lenovo IdeaPad U150, which has an 11.6 inch display, an Intel Core 2 Duo dual core ULV processor, 2GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, and Intel GMA X4500 graphics.

The laptop weighs less than 3 pounds, and measures just half an inch thick at its thinnest point. According to some images PC Watch snagged at CEATAC, the U150 also has a rather odd looking texture on the chassis covering the lid and palm rest area. You can find more pictures and a price (about $770 US) at Xmit.cc.

via Netbooked

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15 replies on “Lenovo U150 with dual core ULV processor spotted”

  1. They keep using Intel graphics chips in these things. Use a real graphics chip, and I promise they will sell. There is no point in buying something that is only slightly more powerful than a netbook, but is still extremely limited by a horrible graphics chip. You can pick up a netbook for about half of what these cost, and it won’t function any worse. It’s not like you will be gaming on this anymore than you will be gaming with a GMA950 – both are abysmal.

  2. the real hot stuff about netbooks – specially those of the original 9′ paper back size – is that if boosted to 2 gb ram, 500 gb fast hd these little guys let me do all work needed in my daily business live and carryy all information needed (in fact a whole library of textbooks – a few 100 of them) all the time with me. i will not start to carry big large size stuff in large sized bags with me de novo.

    1. And let’s not forget the fact that netbooks are cheap. That’s their appeal in a nutshell – they are affordable.

  3. I think netbooks will still be around. However, I think this will shovel more dirt on the idea that the default consumer notebook form factor should be a 15″ system with 90 minutes of battery life and the weight of a boat anchor.

    I think netbooks will stay more in the 10″ form factor allowed by Intel and Microsoft for the best deals, with more systems hitting the sub-$300 price point.

    Meanwhile 11″ systems will primarily ship with CULV chips that are up to the task of powering the larger screens and will ship at $399 and up. They’ll still generally be thin and light and have terrific battery life, but they won’t really be netbooks anymore. I think there will be huge mainstream volume in these.

    Also, I think 13″ will take a big chunk of sales away from 15″ systems, possibly even becoming the largest-selling size. 13″ is the compromise size for people who want relatively portable but not *too* small, just as 15″ is the compromise size for people who want a nice big screen, but don’t want to carry around a 17″ or 19″ laptop.

    1. CULV notbooks are just as limited as netbooks because both are saddled with Intel graphics chipsets. Netbooks are useful for only a few things, and CULV notebooks aren’t useful for much more than netbooks.

      Netbooks are useful because they are inexpensive. CULV notebooks aren’t going to sell that well because they cost more and you don’t really get anymore than you got with a netbook.

      Technology has evolved past the point where you can afford to have poor graphics capabilities. They don’t have to be battery draining 3D monsters, but they don’t need to be pathetic with pathetic drivers, either.

      Intel needs to get with the program and provide real solutions or they need to get out of the business of shoveling substandard chipsets with substandard drivers and claiming they are graphics capable.

      1. Entry level CULV-based systems don’t actually sell for much more than netbooks.

        As for the idea that systems with Intel graphics are good for only a few things, I think that depends on what your idea of doing things with a computer is.

        A computer with Intel graphics will do fine with office software, web surfing, ebook reading, audio editing & playback, AV recording, transcoding, remote access (either end), photo editing, development tools and compilation, and many other common tasks. They’re capable of acting as file servers, web servers, database servers, virtualization servers, application servers, domain servers, and streaming media servers.

        They can play back video to various degrees and play games of certain varieties as well.

        Now if what you want most out of a computer is he highest quality 1080p playback and 3D gaming, then no, Intel graphics aren’t what you’re looking for. But I would hardly describe all of these other areas as “only a few things.”

        Beyind that, it’s true — a CULV-based system isn’t the optimal choice for many of the things I mentioned. But the gating factor for most of those is the fact that you’re getting a CULV chip instead of an expensive ULV Core 2 Duo, not the fact that it has Intel graphics. Netbooks use pretty nearly the slowest x86 CPUs you can buy. CULVs are appreciably faster. If you need something faster, there are many steps up from there, even in the ULV range, until you get to chips like the 1.86 GHz ULV Core 2 Duo. And at any point in the range, you might stop and say “well, that’s fast enough for me” — even if you never spend a dime upgrading your graphics.

        Different strokes for different folks.

  4. I don’t see this new category killing off netbooks. They are different machines. I hope both thrive. I realize not everyone has multiple portable computers, yet. When ARM netbooks hit the market there will be more pressure to keep prices down. Looks like it will be a buyers market for a while. Nice, isn’t it?

  5. I think 11″ will be the new netbook standard size, with 10″ being considered the ‘small size’ standard. As you said with an 11″ screen the unit can still be quite small and the weight at or below what many 10″ netbooks weigh. No matter what manufactures were going to push up the price…they will always test people’s resolve to pay under $500 by putting out devices about that mark.

    The good news is I think we will see ALL laptops nose diving in price and that means the average cost for even a powerful standard laptop will be much more reasonable. The 13″ and 14″ netbooks won’t have those razor thing margins built into the price, but much of the fat and stupid profit grabbing will be gone.

    BuzzOutLoud (#1077) was saying many of the makers are putting out Win 7 notebooks with very low price tags. They are a step or two up from netbooks and have the latest OS to boot. This might be ‘The Industry’s’ (Intel, MS, manufactures) last best chance to drive people ways from less profitable netbooks before they try them…and like them.

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