As expected, Lenovo is updating its 13 and 14 inch ultrabook lineup with new models sporting touchscreen displays and Intel Haswell processors. The Lenovo IdeaPad U330 Touch and U430 Touch should be available in the US this summer for $799 and up.
The IdeaPad U330 features a 13.3 inch display and will come with 1366 x 768 pixel or 1920 x 1080 pixel options. Prices for this model will start at $799.
Meanwhile the IdeaPad U430 sports a 14 inch screen and will be available with 1600 x 900 pixel or 1920 x 1080 pixel options. This model will sell for $899 and up.
Both models will be available with 4th-generation Intel Core i3, Core i5, or Core i7 processors. They also support up to 8GB of RAM, and a choice of storage options including 16GB of solid state storage plus a 500GB or 1TB hard drive or a 256GB solid state drive.
The new laptops have 10-point capacitive multitouch displays.
Lenovo’s 13.3 inch model has a 45Whr battery for up to 10 hours of idle time or 6 hours of video playback, and measures 12.7″ x 8.8″ x 0.74″ and weighs 3.7 pounds.
The 14 inch model also supports optional NVIDIA GeForce graphics, has a 52Whr battery for similar amounts of run time, and measures 13.3″ x 9.2″ x 0.81″ and weighs 4.2 pounds.
If the designs look familiar, that’s because they haven’t changed much since Lenovo introduced similar models with Ivy Bridge processors and without touchscreen displays, under the IdeaPad U310 and IdeaPad U410 names.
Any idea when will it be available in India ?
When you have a fast storage/fast paging device (16GB SSD cache) you don’t need as much dram. 4GB is enough with a fast SSD (even with lots of open big apps) for the page file since the SSD pagefaults 30-50x faster than if with just a hard drive. If you add too much dram it kills battery life in idle standby.
Why only 8 GB RAM max? It could have been a nice replacement for my laptop but 8 GB are starting to be limiting now if you are working with multiple VMs. Not future proof.
my guess would be that the chipset is limiting it at 8GB (4GB per channel).
I’m guessing that the thin and light ultrabooks are not intended to be desktop replacements users with really high end needs.. Just a guess.