$150 Off Coupon 11.6” Lenovo IdeaPad U150 (Black) $599 + Free Shipping
$599
$749
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Now that I’ve reviewed all three 11.6” Lenovo IdeaPad U150 / Acer Aspire 1410 and HP Pavilion DM1 notebooks, it’s time to do a direct comparison of all three. All three are really good notebooks but each has their good and bad points which I will point out below.
The reviews:
This is for people who can’t decide between one of these notebooks but want a little more detail regarding key differences. These were notes I had taken during my time with all three notebooks. I only own the HP Pavilion DM1 now so I cannot make further comparisons.
See full set of comparison pictures on Flickr.
Specs / Price Comparison
I will be using US models for comparison here since the Japanese models pretty have the same specs.
| Lenovo IdeaPad U150 (Black) | Lenovo IdeaPad U150 (Red) | HP Pavilion DM1* | Acer Aspire 1410 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | Core 2 Duo SU7300 | Pentium SU4100 | Celeron SU2300 | Celeron SU2300 |
| Graphics | GMA X4500MHD | GMA X4500MHD | GMA 4500MHD | GMA 4500MHD |
| RAM | 4GB | 3GB | 2GB | 2GB |
| HDD | 320GB | 250GB | 250GB | 160GB |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11b/g | 802.11b/g | 802.11b/g | 802.11b/g/n |
| Bluetooth | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Battery Life | ? | ? | 4.5 Hours | 4 Hours |
| Price | $749 | $649 | ? | $400 |
* Listing Japanese model specs since US model not available yet.
Build Quality / Feel Comparison
The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 feels the best out of all three and has the best build quality / material. It has a super thin lid which is very solid and non-plastic. The only plastic bits are the screen bezel and the area just below the screen. I guess the keyboard would be as well, but the keys are coated and feel excellent and not cheap. Keyboard and touchpad / palmrest feel higher quality than the other two.
The HP Pavilion DM1 would come in second - Nice solid material all over with the only plastic bits being the lid, screen bezel and just below the screen. Keyboard feels great with zero flex. Only flaws are the loud and stiff touchpad buttons and the flex in the lid.
Close behind the HP Pavilion DM1 comes the Acer Aspire 1410. Not much difference between the HP Pavilion DM1 - you’ve still got the plastic lid, screen bezel and area below the screen. The whole inside area has a brushed metal aluminium surface. The major difference comes with the keyboard - it’s plastic, spongy and has some flex in it. Has a great touchpad and nice buttons as well luckily.
| Lenovo IdeaPad U150 | HP Pavilion DM1 | Acer Aspire 1410 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build Quality | Best | Good | Good |
I will go into detail with build quality in the following sections.
Display Comparison
All three notebooks have a glossy display - none being more glossy than the other. They all seem pretty much equal to me in terms of image quality (viewing angles / black levels). I couldn’t tell them apart by the eye having them all side by side.
The IdeaPad U150 has the thinnest and sturdiest lid out of the three (by a good margin - thinness felt great). The Acer Aspire 1410 lid seemed a little thicker than the HP Pavilion DM1 lid.
However, in terms of screen brightness the opposite is true with the Lenovo IdeaPad U150 having the lowest brightness while the Acer Aspire 1410 having the highest brightness.
As far as opening lid range - I found all three to be very adequate. There was no situation were I couldn’t get an optimal viewing angle. The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 had the largest opening range by a few degrees, just slightly more than the Acer Aspire 1410 followed by the HP Pavilion DM1.
| Lenovo IdeaPad U150 | HP Pavilion DM1 | Acer Aspire 1410 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display Quality | Roughly the same (judging by eye) | ||
| Display Surface | Glossy | Glossy | Glossy |
| Lid thickness | Thin | Normal | Thick |
| Brightness | 194 nits | 208 nits | 230 nits |
| Opening Range | 137º | 130º | 135º |
Noise Comparison
All three notebooks had relatively low noise. Certainly not extremely quiet and I had no difficulty hearing the fan in all the them. In an extremely quiet location, thinking about this now, I actually wished all three could be a tad quieter, because recently I have been finding myself using notebooks in quiet places most of the time. If you have any other noise source, noise is not a concern with any of these.
I set up all three in a quiet bedroom, set decently apart, and ran simultaneous HD YouTube video tests on them. The results were quiet interesting.
The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 starts off being almost fanless but quickly steps into a higher level fan once the YouTube video started playing. This level was easily noticeable from a normal sitting position next to the notebook. Probably about 30-40 mins into the video, I think the fan may have gotten a little louder and could be borderline noisy. The air coming out of the air vent at this time seemed to be more than cool. Perhaps slightly warm. The fan kind of wavers slightly, it’s not 100% flat constant noise, which I find slightly less tolerable. I could HDD clicks unlike the other two.
The Acer Aspire 1410 also starts off seemingly fanless and stays this way for quite a while into the video after which the next level fan sets in (highest level it seems). Noise at this level is constant and low, lower than the IdeaPad U150 at the highest level. I couldn’t hear any HDD clicks. Air coming out of the air vent stayed cool.
The HP Pavilion DM1 was the quietest of the lot. At the start there was a very soft whiring of air, barely noticeable and this continued for about 30-40 mins into the video at which time the fan ramped up. At this level, I found it quiet and constant but easily noticeable. I could not tell if the fan ramped up to a higher level after this. Air coming out of the vent stayed cool.
By default, the HP Pavilion DM1 comes with a “fan always on” option turned on. You can turn this off in the BIOS and when the machine is idle the fan will not come on. If you do anything on it even just browsing static web pages, the fan will turn on and off every few minutes.
| Lenovo IdeaPad U150 | HP Pavilion DM1 | Acer Aspire 1410 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noise Rank | 3 (worst) | 1 (best) | 2 (middle) |
| Airflow | slightly warm | cool | cool |
| HDD Clicks | Yes | No | No |
| Fan Always On | Yes | No | Yes |
Keyboard Comparison
The Acer Aspire 1410 has the largest keyboard by far but that doesn’t mean it’s the best keyboard. The keys are plastic and there is some flex (nothing you can’t fix with adhesive though). That coupled with keys that that don’t quite give strong enough feedback (keys aren’t springy enough) gives a kind of cheap feeling keyboard.
The Pavilion DM1 has a very solid non-plastic keyboard with zero flex and slightly curved keys to fit your fingers. Great tactile feedback. Unfortunately it’s the smallest keyboard of the lot, and for an 11-inch notebook it feels a little cramped. Definitely more comfortable and larger than any 10-inch netbook keyboard I’ve used luckily. I also had a few other issues: The hotkey icons / lettering on the function keys are hard to see and I find myself spending a few more seconds hunting around for the right key.
The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 is medium sized between the other two but not enough to leave me feeling a little cramped. There’s barely any flex and the keys are slightly curved to really fit your fingers. Overall it felt the best to me and I really enjoyed typing on it. I do have one annoyance though - switched Fn and CTRL keys makes it hard to perform certain shortcuts and takes a bit of getting used to at first. One extra thing you need to be aware of is the lack of an F12 key. It is done by a Fn + F11. I had a Japanese keyboard though so English keyboards might be able to fit it in.
| Lenovo IdeaPad U150 | HP Pavilion DM1 | Acer Aspire 1410 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Standard | Flat (slightly curved) | Completely flat |
| Tactile Feedback | Great | Great | Mushy / Not springy enough |
| Size | Medium | Slightly Cramped | Large |
| Width | 258mm / 10.16” | 252mm / 9.9” | 268mm / 10.5” |
| Height | 101mm / 3.97” | 99mm / 3.9” | 107mm / 4.2” |
Touchpad Comparison
Both the Acer Aspire 1410 and Lenovo IdeaPad U150 sport multiple gestures on their touchpads with the HP Pavilion DM1 being left without it.
The Acer Aspire 1410 has the most responsive touchpad. Two fingered scrolling works very well and so do horizontal swipes for going back and forth in the browser. Touchpad buttons are great too; not too stiff and not too hard. There are no faults with this touchpad except if I had to point one thing out is that while the surface looks slick it’s not as slick as it could be and it can be hard to glide your finger across if you apply too much pressure.
The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 is not as responsive as the Acer Aspire 1410 in terms of scrolling, still, it’s usable though I found myself just reverting to scrolling on the sides for the U150. There is no horizontal swiping for going back and forward in the browser like on the Acer Aspire 1410. Furthermore, the mouse cursor in Windows seems to be a little jerky / not smooth. Hopefully drivers will fix this. In other OSes it is smooth as any normal touchpad cursor would be. What the U150 lacks in responsive it makes up in feel. The touchpad feels so much better and these buttons are the best I’ve used on any notebook / netbook. Very soft and quiet. The touchpad has a soft feel to it with a barely noticeable texture to it and it’s very slick.
The HP Pavilion DM1 touchpad is big, especially horizontally, which is a shame since there is no multi-gesture support. Horizontal scrolling seems decent enough. I feel it could be slightly more sensitive though. It’s got the same surface as the Acer Aspire 1410; looks smooth but applying pressure makes it a little harder to glide your finger across. The worst part are the buttons which are incredibly stiff and loud. Brings me back to the touchpad buttons on the ASUS Eee PC 1000H/HA/HE series.
| Lenovo IdeaPad U150 | HP Pavilion DM1 | Acer Aspire 1410 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-gesture? | Yes (2-fingered scrolling) | No | Yes (2-fingered scrolling + swipes) |
| Responsiveness | Good | Good | Great |
| Buttons | Very soft, Quiet | Loud, Very stiff | Soft, Low noise |
| Touchpad Feel | Great: Soft texture, Smooth | Hard, Smooth | Hard, Smooth |
Size & Weight Comparison
When it comes to weight, there’s not much between these three 11.6-inchers. The thickness is where the difference comes into play.
Both the Acer Aspire 1410 and HP Pavilion DM1 have completely flush 6-cell batteries. This makes it so easy to slip into a sleeve / case. The HP Pavilion DM1 gets really thin at the front which gives you the feeling that it’s thinner than it really is - especially so if you pick up the notebook by the front. The Lenovo IdeaPad U150, on the other hand, has a 6-cell battery that juts out slightly underneath. This makes it just a little more hard to slip into a sleeve / case. It does provide a slight slope for the keyboard which makes it slightly easier to type on.
Now, the power bricks. The HP Pavilion DM1 has a larger than average power brick. The other two are quite small and very similar in size to the Eee PC power bricks. None of these notebooks have velcro on the attachable A/C cable part. Something I really like on the Eee PC netbooks.
| Lenovo IdeaPad U150 | HP Pavilion DM1 | Acer Aspire 1410 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Width | 290 mm / 11.4” | 288 mm / 11.3” | 285 mm / 11.2” |
| Length | 190 mm / 7.4” | 204 mm / 8” | 204 mm / 8” |
| Thickness | 25 mm / 0.98” | 16 - 26 mm / 0.6” x 1.0” | 22.1 - 30 mm / 0.9 - 1.2” |
| Weight (inc. battery) | 1.48 kg / 3.26 lbs | 1.5 kg / 3.31 lbs | 1.42 kg / 3.1 lbs |
| Power Brick | Small | Big | Small |
Audio / Speaker Quality Comparison
The HP Pavilion DM1, with it’s Altec Lansing speakers is easily the best performer out of the three in terms of audio quality. It’s very loud (I never actually tested it out at 100% - neighbours would probably complain), louder than the other two and quality is superb, better than both in terms of clarity and bass. The Acer Aspire 1410 comes in next and quality is very good, but volume is too low. There is an option in Windows 7 to increase volume and that helps a great deal. The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 comes in last with the least best quality. Still very decent in it’s own right, but when comparing it side by side with the other two it falls short somehow - a little less clarity and bass perhaps. Much louder than the Acer Aspire 1410 but doesn’t reach the level that the HP Pavilion DM1 can reach.
| Lenovo IdeaPad U150 | HP Pavilion DM1 | Acer Aspire 1410 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume | High | Very High | Low |
| Quality | Good | Best | Better |
| Features | Dolby Sound Room | - | Dolby Sound Room |
| Other | - | Altec Lansing | - |
Linux Support Comparison
I tested the final version of Ubuntu 9.10 on all three notebooks.
With the Lenovo IdeaPad U150, I breezed past the installation but upon entering Ubuntu 9.10, nothing worked apart from audio and resuming from stand-by. None of the hotkeys worked. Volume control didn’t work. Brightness control didn’t work. Wi-Fi was not recognized. I hooked up to the Internet via LAN and proceeded with an update but nothing changed afterwards. At the time, I was unaware of the hardware drivers control panel section to enable Wi-Fi drivers. Wi-Fi may possible work after this
With the Acer Aspire 1410 - I could not install Jolicloud - I couldn’t get past the installer - it crashed at the end of the installer. I then tried installing Ubuntu 9.10. I think I encountered a few difficulties at the end of the install. I eventually got it installed but I couldn’t boot up into Ubuntu 9.10 - it kept crashing at the boot-up screen where the logo pops up.
Ubuntu 9.10 works a treat on the HP Pavilion DM1 - everything works! Only Wi-Fi didn’t work out of the box, but after an update and enabling Wi-Fi drivers for Wi-Fi pop up under System -> ‘Hardware Drivers’ everything works 100%. Hotkeys all worked - except for the Wi-Fi button.
Note that these outcomes are the state of Ubuntu 9.10 out of the box with no modifications. I’m sure you could get Linux working nicely if you put time into researching ways to get the hardware to work but I’m unable to devote any time to that and I believe things should work straight out of the box. Also of note is that hardware - and Linux compatibility will vary depending on what model you have and what country you buy from.
| Lenovo IdeaPad U150 | HP Pavilion DM1 | Acer Aspire 1410 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summary | Works but lacks hardware support | Works very well! | Couldn’t get past the boot-up logo (after installation) |
| Audio | Yes | Yes | - |
| Brightness | No | Yes | - |
| Hotkeys | No | Yes (except Wi-Fi) | - |
| Wi-Fi | No - perhaps possible | Yes* | - |
| Resume (from standby) | Yes | Yes | - |
* enabled after update and enabling proprietary hardware drivers in the control panel.
Very nice comparison. One thing that stands out is the low price of the Acer compared to the Lenovo. The Lenovo is competing in a different league.
The Acer will draw people from the netbook market, as it’s faster than a netbook, but at a similar price. The Lenovo will draw people from the high-end ultraportable market, as it’s got the build quality of a premium ultraportable, but without the $1,000+ price tag.
We’ll see where the HP falls in price…
In France, the HP is always sold, until now, with the su2300, but can be found with 2 or 3 Giga DDR3 and 250 or 320 Go HDD, and bluetooth is included. Prices are between 449 and 499 €. If this can help you. Thank you again for thoses reviews.
Note that the Lenovo prices quoted in the review are Lenovo’s generic “sale” prices. For the last few weeks Lenovo has been offering 10% discounts off those generic sale prices (= $585 & $674) in the U.S., and over the Thanksgiving weekend it is offering 15% discounts (=$552 and $637).
The Acer model that has comparable specs to the high end Lenovo U150 I found listed as the Acer Aspire 1810T which NewEgg and J&R Music had for sale for $600 (back-ordered).
Acer has soooo many different models/versions of this ultraportable. The model that has the most similar specs to the low-end Lenovo is a different one than that reviewed and seems to retail for around $450 online.
So the Lenovo models are more expensive, but depending on the very frequently changing deals from Lenovo, not as much more expensive than the Acer than the excellent review suggests. I don’t know about the price for the HP.
Heat (& Noise) & Lenovo CPU clarification?
The HP and Acer models AND the Japanese version of the Lenovo U150 that you you tested ALL use the Intel Celeron 2300.
However, as you note in this comparison, the U.S. versions of the U150 run on more “advanced” CPUs, described by Intel as:
- Intel Pentium Processor SU4100 (2MB L2 cache, 1.30 GHz, 800MHz FSB), (red model)
- Intel Core 2 Duo Processor SU7300 (3MB cache, 1.30 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) (black model).
Intel does not appear to refer to either of these latter two processors as Celeron CPUs.
To keep matters confusing, there are Acer Aspire models that also use the latter two CPUs (priced at $450 and $600 respectively).
Here is a link to Intel’s comparison sheet of these 3 processors:
http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=42779,43568,42791,
As far as I can tell, the comments in the comparitive review refers to the Japanese model of the U150.
What difference, if any in heat of the laptop, would one expect given the different CPUs in the American models?
I am hoping that the extra $$ I spent in ordering the black U150 will result in lower heat of the laptop—hot laptops being something I really dislike.
Hi.
Nice review.
I will just suggest one thing: You could add a table showing a performance test (like super pi and 3d performance) for all three models. A conclusion could be nice as well.
Thanks.
Great review, thanks. I think this is really helping me to decide.. I had already moved from the atom based netbooks and was seriously looking at the Lenovo options. Being in the UK, I was thinking do I go buy a U150 from the USA or do I get the dm1 in the UK… I got to look at a dm3 today at work, so based on your review and the fact that the dm1 comes with an external DVD drive I think I am going to go for the HP… and look forward to plugging it into my HD TV for family friendly web browsing etc..! I think I can get the dm1 for around 500GBP, so more than a U150, but I can have it now!
Dear Peter, Very concise comparison, but i spot minor inconsistency, could you clarify this please:
“The Acer Aspire 1410 had the largest opening range, just slightly more than the Lenovo IdeaPad U150.”
but on the table shown:
Lenovo IdeaPad U150 137º
Acer Aspire 1410 135º
Peter,
I hope you didn’t take my comments on the diversity of Intel CPUs spread across these laptops as being a criticism of your review which I think is excellent, and was enormously helpful to me.
However, I have no problem lashing out at Intel for doing so very, very little in explaining the differences between these three CPUs. I spent over three hours researching the differences between these CPUs and came up with almost nothing.
And no thanks to Acer either for an extraordinarily confusing mess with the 1410, the 1810, renaming the 1810 as 1410 in the U.S., and then selling a 1810 and 1810T in the US.
In your review of the U150 you wrote:
“Heat
I left the IdeaPad U150 on for an hour… (note I have the Celeron SU2300 processor, the higher end processors will probably yield different temperatures):
“On the top: Left palmrest = 34.1 C / 93 F, touchpad = 35.8 C / 96 F3, right palmrest = 34 C / 93 F
Temperatures on the palm rests feel warm. The touchpad gets slightly warmer than the palm rests.”
“Temperatures on the bottom get hotter towards the left side. I would say it feels extremely warm.”
From your individual reviews here is a comparison of the bottom temperatures from the Lenovo and the [HP DM1]
and showed temperatures on the bottom of:
bottom-left = 42.4 C / 108 F [40.2 C]
bottom-right = 37.7 C / 100 F [27.9 C],
top-right: 37.4 C / 99 F [35.3 C],
top-left = 40.2 C / 104 F [33.6 C]
These suggest that the Lenovo on the bottom was 10 C cooler on the bottom right, 6.6 C cooler on the top left, and 2.2 C cooler at the hottest spot in the bottom left.
I did not mean to suggest you test every variant configuration, but I was curious as to what effect, if any, the different CPUs in the U.S. Lenovo models would have on the heat.
Compared to all the confusion created by Intel and Acer, your review was a beacon of clarity!
Peter, did you test the Asus UL30A which is not a netbook, I know ? I’am hesitating between this one and the HP dm1.
ok that’s what I’ve thought. But keep going with testing under 13 inchs, you’re very good on that kind of harware.
As best I can tell, the comparison specs chart at the top of the review is incorrect in describing both the Lenovo CPUs as “Celeron”. I believe Intel would describe them as “Core 2 Duo” (black model) and “Pentium” (red model). I am vaguely aware that Celeron may be used sometimes to refer to CPU architecture rather than market name, but it just seems the chart is inconsistent with Intel’s usage and may confuse readers.
More on differentiating the CPUs.
Per the Intel webpage
http://www.intel.com/consumer/rating.htm#core2duo
The CPUs in the various models are “rated” with 1-5 stars to reflect their capability to handle more demanding tasks. Among the ULV CPUs of interest here:
4 stars - “Mobile computing with exceptional performance and energy efficiency.”
= Intel® Core™2 Duo processor SU7300 (included in the high-end U.S. model of Lenovo U150 [NOT the one tested] and in some of the Acer Aspire 11.6” models also not tested)
2 stars - “Get enhanced performance and multitasking for everyday computing on the go.” = Intel Pentium SU4100 (included in the low-end U.S. Lenovo U150 and most Acer 1410 models in the U.S. - but NOT in any of the tested laptops.
1 star - Intel® Celeron® processor SU2300 “Get extraordinary value and reliability for your everyday computing needs.” = Intel Celeron SU2300) = CPU used in ALL of the models TESTED in Peter’s separate individual reviews.
Intel wants you to believe that your life will be 3 stars happier!
with a Core 2 Duo in your laptop, presumably because of better performance, but also because of better battery life? (and less heat?).
For what it is worth, both the low-end Celeron SU2300 and the high-end Core 2 Duo have “Thermal Monitor 2” technology enabled; the mid-range Pentium SU4100 does not. (see comparison link above)
“...TM2 (Thermal Monitor 2)...is the main part of Intel SpeedStep Technology. This can decrease the multiplier on a CPU to x14 and decrease the CPU voltage (vcore), thus lowering temps but reducing the clock speed of the CPU. This is only activated when a small amount of processing power of the CPU is actually required. TM2 is part of the Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology that is implemented into the…mobile processors.”
I have no idea how much of these suggested differences in performance are marketing hype by Intel, and cannot find any real-life comparisons on the web.
As for which of these brands or models you chose, just remember “caveat emptor” and let us hope that NONE of us will have to wear asbestos gloves to work on overheated machines!
(P.S. Lenovo “estimates” my u150 (black) will start the journey from the factory to me on Monday.)
To keep the waters very murky, this morning I saw Amazon offering for $500 a “DELL Inspiron 11 11.6” Obsidian black” netbook with very comparable specs to the 2 models reviewed here:
* 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU4100 Processor
* 4GB Memory
* 250GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
* 11.6” Display, Intel GS45 Integrated Graphics
* Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit)
(http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-11-6-Inch-Obsidian-Windows/dp/tech-data/B002PY7OJE/ref=de_a_smtd)
I looked at the DELL website, and could find no listing or any other reference to this laptop. I “chatted” on-line with some DELL salesperson in India who said that DELL is only offering from its website the less well configured Inspiron 11z which runs on a Celeron processor and Windows VISTA among other specs. He said that he would have no info about models that DELL built specifically for 3rd party resellers.
Meanwhile, the ultraportable I had originally ordered—the Acer Aspire Timeline AS1810T-8679 ($600) (which was configured like the high-end “black” Lenovo u150) has disappeared off the J&R Music website and Amazon states it does not know “when or if” it will be available again. The Acer Aspire Timeline AS 1810TZs that are configured like the red Lenovo u150 are in stock for $550 at various resellers.
As for my Lenovo u150 saga…when I placed my order on November 20, Lenovo showed an estimated ship date of November 30 (= 10 business days advertised). Well, here it is Nov. 30, and the status this morning was for an estimated shipping date from the warehouse of December 9—the same day u150s bought for $40+ less this weekend are “estimated” to ship. Grrrr. After being on hold on the phone for 20+ minutes to India, the sales person said he would request “prioritization” of the order, but that would take 2 days! I asked about switching from regular to 2-day shipping and he said the sales dept might be about do do this for free, “but any change” in the order would bump it back to the end of the queue. Grr.
Peter,
Found the last posting by Jim on December lst about his shipping date being delayed to December 9th interesting because Lenovo told me that my U150, ordered on the evening of November 28th won’t ship until December 9th. I hope they have the stock in the warehouse. Has anyone received a U150 in the United States?
Hoping that someone can report back on loading Ubuntu or some other build of Linux that can use the wireless.
Mark
When I ordered a T400 in June this year, my laptop “shipped” on Monday June 7 and was delivered to me on Friday June 12 - five work days, so maybe shipment is from a U.S. port/airport.
Peter - my u150 was not caught up in any Thanksgiving over-selling, since I placed my order on November 20, prior to the Thanksgiving sale (so I missed the 10%—> 15% increase in the discount).
I noticed that Gateway has now jumped into the 11.6” ultraportable fray with its EC14XX series (http://www.gateway.com/programs/ecseries/) :
- Intel Celeron SU2300 or Intel Pentium SU4100
- Windows 7 Home Premium
- 11.6” LED-backlit Display (1366 x 768)
- 160 GB or 320 GB hard drive
- 2 or 3 GB RAM
- 3 pounds
- 1.2” thick
The lesser configuration is selling for $399 and the higher config for $549.
I hope Gateway has spent time sorting out heat issues, because the 15.4” Gateway I had in early 2009 was very uncomfortably hot to use after any length of time.
Peter,
Sorry you no longer have the Lenovo U150—particularly as I was anticipating your further thoughts and lucid advice about its ability to run Linux, different shades of that, possibly OS X, and advice about configuring drivers. Can you point those of us who were motivated by your review to a site where U150 owners can discuss common problems.
Have you heard from anyone in the United States to whom one of the Lenovo U150 machines has actually been shipped? Wondering if they made any changes to the ones distributed in Japan. Also why the announced 8 gig ram spec seems to have come down to the installed 4 and what e-sata cards it will or will not work with. I’ve been very happy with e-sata on my Mac and that was a deciding factor for me in regard to the Lenovo.
Mark
Hi. I think I’m the first kid on this block (U.S.) with a Lenova U150. The red lower spec model.
The thing that tipped me to buying this model versus the competitors was the port selection (a month or two ago when I was shopping there were very few choices that had no optical drive but with a eSata/USB charger ports and an HDMI port. This thing is the super portable part of a system that connects to external eSata backup when at home and which can output to HDMI monitor when I choose, or so was my thinking.
Given that I’m 48 year old guy who wants portability and flexibility rather than video gaming and video streaming the input/output options for backup and display counted a lot. And so did build quality. This Vaio that I’m going to recycle came with dead speakers out of the box, and has had it’s keyboard and hard drive replaced in the 18 months I’ve had it, and the keyboard needs replacing again. I don’t have patience for shoddy build quality hardware problems in my life again.
I haven’t benchmarked it against anything else as the Vaio I’m throwing away isn’t a decent comparison. And I’m happily running Windows 7 not a Unix varietal. But I’m happy to unplug it, turn on netflix streaming and see how long the battery lasts or, in my copious spare time, subject it to some other abuse that you all might suggest.
It was amazing to watch the 2 day shipping take place starting the day after Thanksgiving from a departure point in China, it didn’t stop at a Lenovo warehouse in the U.S.. And I called and complained and learned how to generate a quote to get the Black Friday 15% discount which became available after I ordered but before it shipped.
I got it the Monday after Thanksgiving before 10 am.
Anything you want me to kick on it? I’ve been watching for official reviews to see if I should feel like a genius or an idiot for ordering something that was really just a spec…
Great review. Thank you for posting this.
What battery life are you getting?
I am looking at these plus the Samsung X120. It comes in 3 variants with battery life of 6 (4 cell) to 9 (6 cell) hours.
Escape from China!
For those souls with nothing better to do than follow my saga….
I ordered aLenovo u150 (Black) on November 19 (getting the 10% discount, but not the 15%). On my receipt, the “estimated ship date” was stated as November 30.
Well Nov 30 came and Lenovo changed the estimated ship date to December 9. I phoned them and whined a great deal, but all they offered was to put in a request to “expedite” my order since I was leaving on a long trip at the end of December.
Today, December 9, I get an e-mail from Lenovo “US Inbound Supply” informing me that I was “a valued customer” but nevertheless the estimated ship date for my order had slipped to December 15.
However, yesterday, I had checked my order status and saw that my laptop had been handed over to UPS in Shanghai on December 8. As of the afternoon of December 9, it has made it as far as Taiwan (UPS tracking).
I phoned Lenovo and they said the e-mail about deferred shipping for my order must have been a mistake. Perhaps having my order “expedited” rescued me from the delay?
Gerryz - I’ll join your club. I received the same machine as you, first one on the block, the red U150 on 12/8. I ordered it on Thanksgiving Day so the 26th with an estimated ship date of 12/9. It shipped on 12/2 from China, made it’s journey to alaska and then to me in the midwest. I also got the email about delayed shipping, but that was long after it had shipped. Anyway, long story, but no complaints!
As for the machine itself, it feels fantastic physically. I haven’t had time to really play with it yet to figure out how long the battery really lasts, but I have tried to watch some Netflix/Hulu and Youtube full screen HD videos. They play ok, but the 1080p youtube is fairly choppy (Muppets sing Bohemian Rhapsody!) a 480p full screen episode of Scrubs on Hulu was kind of choppy as well. Netflix played great, but it wasn’t HD. The sample 720p video that comes on the machine plays beautifully, I hope other non streaming video does the same. I’m hoping there’s a way to get the various flash HD videos to play better, but I tried IE/Chrome/Firefox and about the same results. Anybody have any thoughts?
The touchpad does feel great although the responsiveness is a little iffy. I’ve read that reinstally windows 7 fixes, but it doesn’t come with a install cd. I called Lenovo and was told they’ll be automatically shipping out Windows 7 cds on Dec. 21, hope that’s true.
If anybody has any thoughts on fixing the touchpad, let me know.
Otherwise it runs great and no complaints.
Peter,
Thanks for the word on Flash 10.1 Now that you say it I remember reading about that, hopefully that’ll fix it. Looks like there is a 10.1 prerelease, maybe I’ll give that a shot. And yes, the non-streaming worked great.
What about Silverlight for Netflix, do you know how to get that to play more smoothly in full screen?
As for the touchpad, it’s exactly that issue you described. Choppy cursor. Any thoughts on a fix?
Just wanted to add a little encouragement to some. I ordered a black U150 on 12/8 with a shipping date of 12/17. Yesterday, I was reading the Lenovo forums and saw some real horror stories and was about to cancel the order when I came across this forum and saw “JimS” post about his prompt shipment so decided to wait.
Today (12/11) I looked online and see it has shipped…that is excellent, just 3 days. I am in Miami and it is coming UPS ground so I believe it still has at least another week in transit.
Well, notwithstanding the notice from UPS this morning that delivery of my black u150 (ordered Nov 19) had been “rescheduled to tomorrow”, it in fact arrived this morning. 1st among Peter’s US readers?
Hopefully, I’ll have something to contribute later this week.
UPDATE - My black U150 was delivered yesterday (12/14) which is 4 business days after ordering online with delivery by UPS ground.The label on the box says it came from Whitsett, NC.
Very nice unit, well built, good keyboard, good screen, fast, no problems with the trackpad. On the downside it does feel a lot heavier than my Asus 1000H, although it isn’t much heavier, you can hear the fan and it does get slightly hot after awhile.
Nice review, I liked the Acer so I think I will like the HP even more! Does anybody now the product code for the version with HSDPA/WWAN/3G module?
Hello Peter, thanks for the great reviews! In your opinion, in real world usage, is there really a lot of difference in performance between the SU2300 and SU7300 processors? I’m thinking for light gaming, and virtualization.
Ok thanks!