Price: $1,199.99
- 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 (1066Mhz FSB, 3MB Cache)
- Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium w/ SP1
- Graphics: ATI Radeon 3450 with 256MB DDR3/Intel X4500 Integrated
- Screen: 13.3-inch LED-backlit WXGA (1280 x 800, 300 nit) glossy display
- Memory: 2GB DDR3 (4GB Max)
- Storage: 250GB SATA HDD (5400rpm)
- Optical Drive: DVD-Recordable
- Wireless and Communications: Intel 5100AGN (802.11 a/b/g/n wi-fi), BlueTooth 2.0 EDR
- Battery: 6-Cell 57Wh Battery
- Dimensions: 12.5" x 9.3" x 0.9" – 1.1"
- Weight: from 4.28lbs with 6-cell battery
- Warranty: 1-year
Build and Design
The design of the Lenovo U330 is very visually pleasing, with a low profile chassis, super thin LCD, and high gloss display cover. On the inside it has a pinstripe paint scheme with glossy touch-sensitive media controls. The frameless display looks really nice, with a smooth seamless finish side to side. These screens all tend to look great when the system is off, but they do introduce a ton of glare in a bright environment.
Build quality was average, with a good design, but having some components that could be improved. The thin screen while visually pleasing was very flexible, but did seem to protect against ripples in the screen when tapping the back of the cover. The paint scheme looked nice, but the finish could be improved. We saw many areas which looked like dusts had been trapped in the paint surface during the painting process, leaving defects and imperfections on the palmrest. The overall feel of the notebook is nice, but the little things really add up.
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Display
The “frameless” display, while highly reflective in nature, looked very nice on our review machine. Colors and contrast were exceptional, and black levels were very good with the LED backlit. Viewing angles were above average, with a broad sweet spot for easy viewing. Vertical viewing angles spanned from roughly 30 degrees down or 20 degrees up before colors started to become washed out or inverted. Horizontal viewing angles were much better, easily spanning to the steepest angles before colors started to wash out. In bright viewing conditions, at steeper angles you start to have nearby surfaces reflecting off the screen and dimming your view of what is on display. This is one limitation of the all-glass panels across the board though.
Keyboard and Touchpad The keyboard was very easy to type on, and had relatively good support under strong typing pressure. The style looks similar to what is found on the business grade ThinkPad notebooks, but with more of a consumer vibe. Individual key action is smooth with a soft click on each press. For long typing sessions the keyboard was wonderful and very easy on the fingertips. The Synaptics based touchpad had great sensitivity and had little to no lag during use. The surface texture had a soft matte finish which was easy to slide your finger across, even if slightly sweaty. One problem we noticed which was slightly odd was a bubble underneath the surface, which may have just been a manufacturing defect. The touchpad buttons were large and had great feedback. Each button had a long throw, with a soft quiet click when pressed. Performance System performance with the ATI Radeon 3450 dedicated graphics and the Intel P7350 Core 2 Duo processor was excellent. The system handled mild gaming without a problem and normal acitivity was without any lag (once you removed most of the bloatware). One advantage of having a switchable graphics system is one minute you can be playing around in a game, and another you are sipping slowly off battery power using integrated graphics. Lenovo handles this transition without needing to reboot the system with a simple right click on the desktop and selecting "Configure Switchable Graphics." The switch takes only a few seconds and power usage drops significantly. Besides gaming, I found leaving it in the Intel graphics mode worked out best. The system consumes less power, puts off less heat, and still ran all of the 3D features of Vista without a problem. The PCMark Vantage synthetic benchmark returned a reasonably impressive score of 3,232. Specifications
13.3 WXGA (1280 x 800) LED backlit VibrantView Display. Built-in 1.3 Megapixel Webcamera with Microphone. DVD+-R/RW Drive with Dual Layer. Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500MHD Graphics. ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 with 256MB Dedicated Graphics Memory. Intel WiFi Link 5100AGN. 802.11a/b/g/n. Integrated Bluetooth. Intel 10/100 Ethernet LAN. ExpressCard 34 Slot. 6-in-1 Memory Card Adaptor. (MS, MS Pro, SD, SD Elite Pro, xD, MMC) Ports - 2 x USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, Headphone out; Microphone-in, VGA, HDMI, RJ-45 Approximate Unit Dimensions - 12.5 (W) x 9.4 (D) x 1.1 (H) Approximate Unit Weight - 4.3 Pounds
