Lenovo has announced plans for its first ultrabooks featuring Intel Ivy Bridge processors — but these two thin and light laptops aren’t entirely new. The company is updating the Lenovo IdeaPad U310 and U410 ultrabooks it introduced earlier this year with new 3rd generation Intel Core family processors. They initially sported second generation “Sandy Bridge” chips.”
The new Ivy Bridge processors offer better graphics performance and a slight CPU performance boost while reducing power consumption.
The Lenovo IdeaPad U310 has a 13.3 inch display, measures 0.7 inches thick, and weighs 3.7 pounds. The U410 has a 14 inch display and is 0.8 inches thick and 4.2 pounds.
Both models will be available with Intel Core i3, i5, or i7 processors. Lenovo will offer up to 500GB of storage on the 13 inch model, with a 32GB hard drive and solid state disk for cache. Lenovo says you should get up to 7 hours of battery life from this model.
If you opt for the larger 14 inch model you can get up to 1TB of storage, 9 hours of battery life, and optional NVIDIA GeForce graphics.
But I really wish Intel would impose stricter weight limits on ultrabooks. At 4.2 pounds, there’s a big difference between the Lenovo IdeaPad U410 and a smaller ultrabook like the HP Envy Spectre XT or Asus Zenbook UX31.
The Lenovo IdeaPad U310 will carry a starting price of $749, while the IdeaPad U410 will start at $799. They’re expected to be available this month in the US, UK, Germany, India, China, Japan, and Russia.
If you act fast, and have a preference for Sandy Bridge processors for some reason, you can still grab an IdeaPad U310 from Lenovo’s web store right now. But the larger U410 has yet to go on sale, so the first version to hit the market will probably be the new Ivy Bridge model.
make the resolution better
Can’t go wrong for under $800