Over the last few years we’ve seen a lot of 11.6 inch laptops from major PC makers. Most of these new thin and light laptops have been budget machines that are designed to fill a niche between a low power netbook and a full-fledged laptop or desktop PC. They’re not usually designed as full-on desktop replacements, since they’re generally just not powerful enough to do everything most people would want to do with a computer. And they tend to be priced accordingly, with price tags between $400 and $700.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U160 appears to break that mold. Engadget has posted one of the first reviews of this 11.6 inch laptop with a Core i7 low voltage processor. The verdict? It’s more powerful than most thin and light laptops, but it doesn’t have the graphics prowess you would get with a new AMD Nile-based laptop. And it’s expensive, running $1150.

At that price, you’d really expect a computer like this to have stellar build quality, desktop-like performance, or excellent battery life — or some combination of those features. Engadget’s Joanna Stern concludes that it doesn’t have any of them.

That said, Lenovo is expected to offer less expensive configurations with slower processors. Depending on the final pricing, those models might be worth checking out.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for a budget thin and light laptop with decent performance from Lenovo, you might want to check out the business class Lenovo ThinkPad X100e instead of the consumer oriented IdeaPad line.

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