With low dimensions of only 238 mm (12.9 inches) width, 228 mm (9.0 inches) depth and at most a height of 24.9 mm (1.0 inch), the 13.3-inch Ideapad U350 is a compact subnotebook. The slim design with a tapered leading edge is thoroughly attractive, yet in terms of the system's height, it isn't a market leader. Also the low weight of around 1.6 kg (3.52 lb) will appeal when travelling.

With the combination of black and silver the Ideapad U350 seems timelessly elegant. High-gloss surfaces, apart from the black-glossed display borders, which suit the reflective display, are otherwise spared. Not only the base unit but also the display lid is designed in matte black, the latter with texture. As a contrast to the keyboard, which is also black, the metallic-finished silver components on the upper side of the base unit seem particularly elegant and through the brushed surfaces they exhibit an excellent feel. Otherwise plastic was put to use - for anyone that really wants to know: polycarbonate/acrylonitrile butadiene-styrene (PC/ABS) plastic, so a polyblend (mixture of several polymers).

On the whole the stability of the base unit is in good shape. Indeed the wrist rests give way a little under light selective pressure. If you intensify this, you can also occasionally notice a creaking. The same goes for the area above the keyboard. In return the notebook scores points with excellent torsional stiffness when picking the unit up from any corner of the base unit.

Concerning this, the display lid was less convincing. In our distortion- and pressure resistance tests we could also partly notice image distortions on the display when turned on.

Likewise the small hinges really weren't convincing. After changing the viewing angle, which is limited to around 133 degrees, the display clearly seesaws. Also during jolts, for example during train journeys, the self-closing hinges can't really hold the small display in position. Also the clamping force with the lid closed could be somewhat higher, still the Lenovo Ideapad U350 does without a transport lock.

With three USB 2.0 ports, VGA output, a digital HDMI port as well as the relevant jacks for connecting a headset (headphones, microphone), the range of connections fulfils the demands of a mobile entry-level subnotebook, in our opinion. Furthermore the 4-in-1 card reader supports the formats Multimedia Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro and Secure Digital Card.

The rear and front cannot be used for interfaces on this noteboook, meaning all interfaces are situated on the left and right sides. In a nutshell you can observe that the chosen arrangement isn't ideal depending on which port is occupied. As ports on the left which are often permanently occupied (like the video connections and the power supply) are positioned in the middle to the front, depending on what's being used, the arrangement of interfaces already doesn't prove ideal for left-handed people. Still on the right alongside the notebook through use of a headset and a 3G USB modem it can end up in cable spaghetti. Incidentally the latter often requires two USB 2.0 ports, meaning right-handed people cannot switch their modem to the left side.

The 13.3-inch LED display offers a cinema-friendly format (16:9) with a resolution of 1366x768 pixels. Compared with 16:10 panels the user gets some more width on the available workspace, yet the user must do without a few pixels vertically. Although you can thus watch corresponding films without black bars, in normal office applications a reduced height is however rather disadvantageous. As almost all popular applications, for example word processing, internet, mail etc. are oriented rather vertically, you have to scroll more often and earlier on a 16:9 display.

In the central image segment the good maximum brightness of 199.4 cd/m² could be measured. From there the brightness drops away in all directions, most strongly upwards. For the middle upper area we could still record 182.5cd/m², so that on the whole there's a quite even illumination of 92%. Therefore it's no wonder that we also couldn't observe any illumination weaknesses subjectively.

With the Lenovo Ideapad U350 we have put a notebook with an Intel Pentium SU2700 CPU to the test for the first time ever. Manufactured via the 45 Nanometer lithography process, it is a single-core processor with a clock speed of 1.3 GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache, 800 MHz front sidebus, which utilises a 64-Bit instruction set. At its maximum thermal power loss (TDP) of 10 Watt you can recognise that it's all about a device tuned for mobile use whereby the performance reserves are considered less important in favour of a longer battery life. For those interested in technical details, here's a link to the manufacturer's specification and a data sheet for the Intel Pentium SU2700.

Our test model comes from Germany, yet currently you'll find no Ideapad U-series models listed on Lenovo's Germany homepage. At the beginning of the test report there were both of the models in the introduction. In Austria and Switzerland you still don't have the choice of the Ideapad family on the homepages. Thus it remains to be seen which model variants of the Ideapad U350 will become available soon in the German-speaking Europe.
In the USA currently four models are offered, most of them sporting an Intel Pentium SU2700 processor. Only the model U350-29632JU has an Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 processor (1.40GHz; FSB: 800MHz; L2-Cache: 3MB). Although it's also a single-core processor, this already has a better performance due to the technical performance data alone. This is also confirmed in our benchmark list of mobile processors.

But now back to our test candidate. According to the specification, the USA model U350 - 296327U is mostly on par with this. According to CPU-Z our device uses the GS45 chipset, which integrates the Intel GMA 4500M HD graphics chip. Indeed the reduced clockspeed of the graphics card exhibits only 475 MHz, Everest even reports only 400 MHz. Out of experience the data from GPU-Z is to be trusted less, whereby in this respect we refer back to the office manufacturer specifications:
Intel GS40 chipset/ Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M (GMA 4500M)

Standard office applications, but also light multimedia fare like DVD playback are no problem for this graphics solution. It can certainly become critical in complex 3D computations, like is the case in CAD animations or games. It's here that the application spectrum of the integrated graphics ends abruptly.

For 3D intensive applications, like computer games, you should look around for a device with a more capable graphics solution. Whilst older games are still in the region of feasible gaming, when it comes to current titles eventually only World of Warcraft or Sims 3 are in the question, which in the best of cases can be trimmed down to the lowest possible graphical demands for a useful frame rate. More detailed information about the gaming performance of graphics cards is to be found in the column Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards?. Otherwise Lenovo offers no alternative graphics solution.

With the 3GB DDR3 main memory the Ideapad U350 is already equipped ex works with the optimum when it comes to memory, which appears wise when equipped with Windows Vista Home Premium 32-Bit pre-installed. A RAM upgrade would indeed principally be performed by the layman via the maintenance latch on the underside of the notebook. Certainly it should be considered that due to technical characteristics of the processor architecture with a 32-bit system, an upgrade to 4 gigabytes of main memory cannot optimally be used. However with more than 4 gigabytes of RAM the installation of a 64-bit operating system is indispensable, as 32-bit operating systems can only address a maximum of 4 GB RAM. In principle the GS45 would support an upgrade up to 8 GB of RAM. Considering the standard performance features of the U350, this would seem to make little sense. The GS40 does merely support 4 Gigabyte anyway.

The hard disk from Western Digital, a WDC WD2500BEVT-22ZCT, offers a gross capacity of 250GB and works at a speed of 5400 rpm. The measurement results of the performance data obtained with HDTune remain in the middle field of comparable hard disks without any abnormalities. In contrast to the test device the USA U350 - 296327U model offers a larger 320GB hard disk, which indeed only works at 5400 rpm.

Also subjectively the Ideapad U350 performs well without problems in the tested configuration with popular office tools and internet applications. The single core processor however turns out to be a weak point when working with several applications open simultaneously, so that you would wish for a quicker reaction to user actions. Above all in this regard it is also to be considered that virus scanners and other memory resistant programs require processor cycles again and again.

System Noise

In the test with a room temperature of around 23 degrees Celsius the Ideapad U350 is mostly on the pleasant side with an average of 31.2 dB(A). Only here and there the fan switches on, whereby a noise level of 36.0 dB(A) is reached.
Under load of the core components (CPU and GPU) the fan increased its speed clearly and reached a maximum level of 43.84 dB(A).

Temperature

On the upper side the Ideapad U350 remains pleasantly cool with a maximum of 31.3 degrees Celsius, measured in the left keyboard area. Still the underside allows use on the thighs with a maximum of 37.5 degrees Celsius in the central measurement segment. Apart from that, it's not to be expected that the device will be put under permanent full load. When used with lower load it looks better, as expected. Here there was a maximum of 30.4 degrees Celsius for the upper side and 35.1 degrees Celsius for the underside.