Review HP Pavilion dm3t Laptop

The Pavilion dm3 is a CULV thin and light notebook series from HP that includes both the AMD-based dm3z and Intel-based dm3t. This notebook packs a 13.3-inch screen, optional integrated WWAN, an optional matching external optical drive, and a wide range of processor options. In this review, we take a look at the Pavilion dm3t powered by an Intel SU7300 CULV processor, and includes 3GB of DDR3 memory and Intel X4500 integrated graphics.

Our HP Pavilion dm3t Specifications:

• Intel Core 2 Duo CULV SU7300 (1.3GHz, 800MHz, 3MB)
• Windows 7 Premium (64-bit)
• 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
• 320GB 5400rpm Seagate 5400.6 HDD
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD
• 13.3-inch LED-backlit WXGA Display
• External 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD/-RW/R) with Dual-Layer
• Atheros AR5009 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi , Bluetooth
• 6-cell Lithium-ion battery (57 WHr)
• Dimensions: 12.83 x 9.06 x 0.96 inches
• Weight: 4.17 pounds
• Price as configured: $939 (With 7200RPM drive instead of 5400RPM)

Build and Design
The HP Pavilion dm3t offers an attractive and durable brushed metal finish on its screen cover that resists smudges and scratches. The perimeter-trim is chromed plastic to accent the gunmetal-gray brushed finish that extends inside the notebook for the palmrest and keyboard surround. The screen trim is a glossy black, which blends in with the LCD when the screen is off. The bottom of the notebook is painted with a matte-black finish.

Build quality is above average with the brushed metal finish helping to give some strength to the top of the notebook. The screen only has some flex under moderate pressure and the cover protects the LCD from most impacts. The quality of the materials used is above average on most areas of the notebook; although the chromed plastic might be at risk to chipping over time if you are not careful with transporting it. The one area that stood out to us as needing improvement is the touchpad finish, which out of the box had some mild scuffing. HP uses a polished-matte finish that doesn't seem to hold up to mild abrasion as nicely as their older painted glossy touchpads. The bottom cover was a big surprise, since unlike other consumer notebooks that only use plastic bottom covers, HP goes all out with a durable alloy body that adds a nice look and feel when holding the notebook.

Users looking to upgrade their dm3-series notebook will find it easy to access user-serviceable components. The bottom has three compartments, one of which is the battery. The two that contain serviceable parts are clearly labeled with symbols showing what parts are underneath. One bay houses the hard drive and WWAN-slot while the other has the system memory and Wi-Fi card. Our model, which didn't include WWAN, still came with the slot soldered in place. No antennas were visible, but at least an upgrade would be possible down the road.

Screen and Speakers
The screen on the dm3-series is a 13.3-inch LED-backlit panel with above average color and contrast. Colors from the screen are bright and vibrant with a cooler or blue hue. Screen brightness is more the adequate for brightly lit rooms with a peak brightness measured at 212nit. We found screen brightness set at 70% was perfect for viewing indoors. Outdoor viewing with the glossy panel would only be possible in a shaded area away from sun glare. Viewing angles were average with colors starting to invert or wash out when the screen is tilted 15-20 degrees forward or back. Horizontal viewing angles were better with the screen staying visible to about 60-degrees off center where it started to dim noticeably.

The speakers on the dm3-series are lap-firing, located near the front edge of the palmrest. Sound quality is above average for a notebook this size with clear upper-midrange and high notes. Low frequency audio is still lacking, but it is hard to get this from even larger notebooks unless you have a dedicated subwoofer.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard is an island-style variant that is very similar to the look and feel of most Apple MacBooks. The keys are painted with a semi-gloss black paint and feel very solid to the fingertips. The lettering is very bright and visible even in dark lighting. Key movement is precise with little wobble with side to side movement. Individual key presses are smooth and require very little pressure to fully trigger. If you like the look and feel of the Chiclet-style keyboards, you will be impressed with the Pavilion dm3t.

The touchpad is a glossy ALPS model with some support for multitouch gestures. The touchpad on average is responsive with very little lag. On a rare occasion the touchpad did become entirely unresponsive and required a reboot before it started to work again. It is unclear if this was a driver conflict or a problem with the touchpad itself. The touchpad buttons are easy to press with the side of your thumb and give off a small click when pressed. They have shallow feedback and require moderate pressure to activate.

Ports and Features
Port selection on the Pavilion dm3t was great with HP making use of nearly all usable space around the perimeter of the notebook. The system featured four USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and VGA-out, LAN, audio jacks and a Kensington Lock slot. Other features included a SDHC-card slot and wireless-on/off switch. One unique item on the dm3-series that caused a bit of confusion when it was first taken out of the box was the power button's location. It is located on the right side next to the wireless-on/off button as a small slider-switch.

Front: Power and disk-activity lights

Rear: Nothing

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5847031233357613617
Left: AC-Power, charge indicator light, LAN, VGA-out, HDMI-out, two USB 2.0 ports, SDHC-card reader, audio jacks.

Right: Power on/off switch, wireless on/off switch, two USB ports, Kensington Lock slot

Performance and Benchmarks
System performance was very good for a CULV-based system with its Intel SU7300 processor and Intel X4500 integrated graphics. Users considering this notebook can also configure it with a NVIDIA G105M dedicated graphics option. For normal system activities such as surfing the Web, listening to music, watching movies or using office productivity software, the system performed very well. At times, it seemed the slower 5400rpm drive may have been holding the system back slightly, but we only experienced those slowdowns during the initial installation of software. HD movie playback was fine with 720P content for both local video and online flash video, though 1080P content was hit or miss depending on the encoded bitrate. If you intend to watch a lot of HD movies on this system, it is highly recommended that you opt for the more powerful SP9300 processor, which includes NVIDIA G105M dedicated graphics. This will allow hardware video-decoding by the GPU and offload it from the processor.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

We experienced a strange problem multiple times coming out of standby or hibernation where the screen would appear as if it had video card corruption. Rebooting the system resolved it each time. The common link among these incidents was the machine going into hibernation for the night. Since the system performed fine after a reboot, there is a good chance it was just a driver problem with the system.

Heat and Noise
Thermal performance of the Pavilion dm3t was exceptional even while under a heavy processor load. The metal chassis helped spread out the heat from most areas reducing hotspots and overall just gradually warming up the entire chassis. The hottest measured spot was only 97 degrees Fahrenheit, which was during the middle of our second 3DMark06 benchmark.

Fan noise was minimal on the dm3t even under the constant stress of benchmarking. Under a full load, the fan ran continuously but you could only hear that it was going if you were in a completely silent room and your head was close to the keyboard. Under normal use, the fan stayed off or operated at very slow speeds. If you are worried about loud cooling fans, the HP Pavilion dm3t is an excellent option.

Battery Life
Battery life on the HP Pavilion dm3t was pretty good for a CULV-based notebook with a 6-cell battery. In our tests with screen brightness reduced to 70%, wireless active and Windows set to a balanced profile, the dm3t stayed on for 6 hours and 30 minutes before automatically going into hibernation. At the time of this review, the only battery option for the dm3-series is a 57Wh 6-cell battery.

Conclusion
The HP Pavilion dm3t is a well built thin and light notebook offering a durable metal chassis and plenty of configuration options. Sold in both Intel and AMD variants the Pavilion dm3-series has models ranging from $529.99 for a base dm3z to $974.99 for a dm3t with dedicated graphics. While cosmetics are praised, we experienced some glitches that could have been related to driver conflicts with the touchpad and graphics when the system was brought out of hibernation. Aside from those problems, the system performed very well, even keeping its cool during our stress tests. Thermal performance was excellent with minimal effort from the internal cooling fan. Overall, if you are in the market for a new CULV-based notebook, the HP Pavilion dm3-series is worth checking out.

Pros:

• Great build quality
• Very good thermal performance
• Excellent keyboard

Cons:

• Touchpad design could have been better
• Some possible driver-related glitches

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support
Upgrade Capabilities
Usability
Design
Performance
Features
Price/Value Rating
* Ratings averaged to produce final score

From : http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5639&review=hp+pavilion+dm3t

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Review Lenovo IdeaPad U150

Lenovo IdeaPad U150 11-inch battery life of notebook for highly mobile entertainment for the HDMI output, combined with the latest Intel processors, is equipped with Culver. netbook attractive alternative for routine tasks still small enough constant companion eit computer is enough performance. This amazing little notebook you spend $ 750 on the following should I do? Continue reading to find out.

Our Lenovo IdeaPad U150 Specifications:

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 Processor (1.30GHz, 800MHz FSB, 3MB L2 cache)
• 4GB DDR3 SDRAM (1066MHz)
• 320GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD
• 11.6-inch diagonal WXGA (glossy, 1366x768)
• Intel X4500M integrated graphics
• Intel 5100AGN, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Dimensions: (LxWxH) 11.4 x 7.5 x 0.5-1.35 inches
• Weight: 2.97 lbs. (not including weight of AC adapter)
• 6-cell 57Wh battery
• One-year standard warranty
• MSRP: $749 (configurations starting at $649 at Lenovo.com)

Build and Design

Lenovo is the best company inherited the business known for IBM ThinkPad notebooks, but the new IdeaPad laptops in the consumer market centers, managed, thanks to its unique design and a modest price to generate some calls. Lenovo IdeaPad U150 an attractive 11-inch this trend, offering a Dell Inspiron 11z to compete with the HP Mini 311th Most of the current market value of portable 11-inch U150 netbook based on a full-featured laptop with Intel Celeron - 42 is a fine line. U150 and more powerful than the typical keunhajiman netbook $ 400 price $ 650 - $ 900 from high-end Core 2 Duo with impressive features and the size of a typical laptop computer is not enough. In other words, the U150 definitely matte black, a combination of black plastic and shiny silver space offers an attractive design.

The fabric appears to cover the logo on the cross U150 IdeaPad U350 has a glossy cover and 11-inch laptop can see a good alternative. The bottom half of the chassis is stable thanks to accept, build, we can see more with the structure of the notebook and sheets and plastic panels and plastic cover on screen, palmrest suffer a bit more flexible than the cost of U.S. $ 600. Unless they want to know or palm raised pressure on the screen granted, most of Flex in the plastic case that consumers would not know it, but 11-inch notebook inside the backpack is usually carried out at the school with a heavy book ... U150 So we want to be a bit harder. On the other hand, textured matte cover (again, a combination of thin plastic and metal), as well as imprinting patterns hidden in the day to create harmony risks do not look good everyday abuse. Moreover, the plastic exterior hides blemishes and fingerprints of the notebook cover a very good job. Probably very good IdeaPad U150 will be held until the end of the abuse of user ... But on a laptop, you will definitely not trying to stand.

Who can find U150 (extra RAM, new hard drive or SSD, or a new wireless card) Aftermarket Parts upgrade your notebook computer upgrades, these people are very simple. The second panel of a wireless card and a mini-PCI - E slot can be accessed on a hard disk and RAM for the panel to provide access. Only around inside the laptop, which remove the sticker, but not explicit "that does not guarantee will not find a sticker inside, some Lenovo brand of RAM, WiFi card, the edges of the lid and heat sink screws can be used to represent the modulation power .Who can find U150 (extra RAM, new hard drive or SSD, or a new wireless card) Aftermarket Parts upgrade your notebook computer upgrades, these people are very simple. The second panel of a wireless card and a mini-PCI - E slot can be accessed on a hard disk and RAM for the panel to provide access. Only around inside the laptop, which remove the sticker, but not explicit "that does not guarantee will not find a sticker inside, some Lenovo brand of RAM, WiFi card, the edges of the lid and heat sink screws can be used to represent the modulation power .

Screen and Speakers
1.6 U150 screen is noticeably visible from a shallow angle, contrasting colors and offers decent, but the pain is average. Most thin and light notebooks with low-quality TN screen digital display, but, and "The Color" Te degrees through the forest to produce our images. about 10, had to change the color of your surfing and do not notice the pattern of activity, such as writing documents, pictures and soft colors, but looks a bit dark to see the movie to refrain from viewing. For those who are good vertical viewing angles when you move back and look again to get started. overall, some of the colors in nature, with an angle too steep to hold more. lighting on the screen very far inside, but enlightenment Office workspace is very bright, is not strong enough to overcome placed outdoors in direct sunlight, reflections from the glossy screen.1.6 U150 screen is noticeably visible from a shallow angle, contrasting colors and offers decent, but the pain is average. Most thin and light notebooks with low-quality TN screen digital display, but, and "The Color" Te degrees through the forest to produce our images. about 10, had to change the color of your surfing and do not notice the pattern of activity, such as writing documents, pictures and soft colors, but looks a bit dark to see the movie to refrain from viewing. For those who are good vertical viewing angles when you move back and look again to get started. overall, some of the colors in nature, with an angle too steep to hold more. lighting on the screen very far inside, but enlightenment Office workspace is very bright, is not strong enough to overcome placed outdoors in direct sunlight, reflections from the glossy screen.


Stereo speakers or the occasional TV streaming to listen to the radio, but many lack the basic fine. Since the loudspeaker at the bottom of the front edge of the notebook, audio out "on your laptop using a laptop can tend to sound moderate." However, U150 and sound desk, is the table surface towards the heel and User rest. Still, headphones, so this laptop, thanks to a weak base and mid-range to enjoy music and movies are the best option is built-in speakers. Another option is to use HDMI home theater systems, digital audio is delivered.

Keyboard and Touchpad
Almost full keyboard for typing, you can expect the laptop to the 11-inch chassis is a great good. Tilde key and the spacebar is a little adjustment, but little has been reduced in size as it should please the public key. Even in our office that he was the editor of our "keyboard Chiclete - the desired style from the buttons, such as between the traditional keypad, providing more space to make a fundamental distinction. To be honest, the keyboard preferences of people, most of the problems, so your brain is already 11 Chiclete keyboard and a traditional laptop, the island can continue to inch notebook is the key. The keyboard itself is very firm flex free, no great pressure on the entry. Each button "issues - click, click," the press does not destroy the type of classroom. Great travel and curiosity, or at least the beginning of each key is firmly attached to the scissors mechanism. In other words, U150 keyboard we've seen on a 11-inch laptop is one of the best.

Reasonable IdeaPad U150 offers a Synaptics touchpad, and a 11-inch laptop we've seen the best touchpad. The structure is somewhat uneven plastic surface gives good grip difficult to finger over the surface without it. Speed and accuracy to the default settings as well as in our tests did not notice any lag in the cursor. The frequency of updating on the surface of the touchpad is very good, we have in the past two Synaptics touchpad which I have seen all the "listen" to stop it. Make an appropriate match for each accelerometer to move the cursor on the screen to help with the keyboard, the touchpad on a Dell Inspiron 11z (), and is consistent with the movement of a finger. Touchpad buttons behavior is deeply and calmly and perfectly elastic, "" when you press the Click thanks to the fantastic.

Ports and Features
Surprisingly, works a select IdeaPad U150 good. If you receive a mitneun HDMI VGA - Out Of Gigabit LAN, audio in / out and SD card slot and 3 USB ports (two regular and a combo USB / eSATA one). eSATA port for external hard drive is much faster than you can use with laptop and so, and we Lenovo Combo USB / eSATA not use USB needs of these customers use the eSATA port, because I'm happy. "/ P that"

front SD slot equipped with a spring, and transfers to the U350 card slot, unlike the larger and you can sit recessed in the slot. When you give me your full SDHC to set the standard. Do not expect to see this feature built-in optical drive, laptop computer, so if you reinstall the operating system, or an external USB optical drive, you get DVD of his plans. Multimedia key mute button and Lenovo "OneKey" software to create a recovery backup system for disaster recovery systems, direct-access buttons are limited.

Performance and Benchmarks
SU7300 Culver systems with Intel processors, maximum performance for everyday tasks such as surfing and checking e-mail is reasonable, MS Office, even the basic photo editing, click Edit. In other words, we have some of the latest Lenovo notebook overclocked to 1.73GHz and SU7300 processors in the same way Alienware Asus and losing, "he said. Many programs load faster or to access and compare the Core 2 Duo SU7300, but the information to make a much more powerful processor than the battery life does not give greater benefits. Our test configuration of 4GB memory and 320GB hard drive and a reasonably fast laptop is also very poor in most of the Intel Atom-based netbooks enough for an ordinary PC users do not deliver the package. HD video playback, this pretty well, thanks to the Intel X4500 integrated graphics, an HDMI port works with your laptop can connect to an HDTV. In other words, U150, some delay while the browser and Microsoft Office and multi-tasking is a pain trying to watch HD video. As mentioned, the system can not be a problem SU7300 dual-core processor, overclocked version of the delay is included. IdeaPad U150, so I can see compared to other laptops all that said, here is a quick look at synthetic benchmarks.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Most of the IdeaPad U150 to the surface outside the normal scope of a unit of our analysis of the hot spot next to the RAM, it was a warning. However, the temperature is very uncomfortable for a short time, but rather at the bottom of the laptop, for some users on your knees and keep you warm and also take longer than an hour. If the sound level on the computer of this size was about average, but if your laptop is used to calm the mind can be a fan. U150 running all the time, to fans of both cases maintain low temperatures in some areas the temperature tends to keep the processor. Fan noise is only slightly larger than the noise the hard drive, but if you're away from it with a hair dryer running in the background looks really good to hear.

Battery Life
SU7300 6-cell battery and the battery life is very good. Brightness and 70% in our tests, Windows 7, "balanced" profile settings of energy and a system for wireless communications, active 5 hours, 22 minutes before the changeover to the standby mode has been set. During this test showed 9-10 watts. Perhaps you have less than 30% low battery life and screen brightness of more than 6 hours on a notebook for wireless communication can take you to disable the online status is not.

Conclusion
The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 offers a terrific balance of portability and value combined with enough performance to satisfy most consumers. Compared to similar 11-inch ultraportables like the Dell Inspiron 11z, the U150 delivers a better keyboard and touchpad for a modest increase in price. On the other hand, the IdeaPad U150 looks a little underpowered and expensive compared to the new Alienware M11x, which offers superior graphics horsepower, a backlit keyboard, the addition of DisplayPort, and better build quality for roughly the same price.

Bottom line: If you need a basic netbook alternative with HDMI and eSATA then the IdeaPad U150 should probably be at the top of your shopping list.

Pros:

• Good value
• Includes eSATA!
• VGA and HDMI video output

Cons:

• Average performance
• Weak plastic construction

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Lenovo IdeaPad U450 Review

By Brett Weinstein (NBR forum user Nrbelex)

The Lenovo IdeaPad U450p is a thin-and-light, 14” widescreen notebook introduced in August 2009 to the brand's preexisting line of U-series portable, consumer laptops. The U450 fills the gap between the 13” U350and 15.4” U550. The U-series notebooks are advertised as stylish, portable, multimedia machines with Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage (CULV) chipsets and thin LED screens. So has Lenovo managed to blend the perfect mix of performance and portability? Read on to find out!

Lenovo IdeaPad U450 Specifications:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
• 4GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (2x 2GB)
• 14.0 " HD AntiGlare (glossy) 1366x768 LED backlight screen
• 320GB 5400 RPM hard drive
• DVD Recordable (Dual Layer) disk drive
• Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 5100
• Gigabit ethernet, RealTek 8111L
• Bluetooth
• 1.3M Webcam & microphone
• 6-cell Lithium-Ion battery (5200mAh, 57Wh)
• One-year standard warranty
• Dimensions: 13.3" x 9.3" x 0.9-1.1"
• Weight: 4.62 lbs

The configuration reviewed here is the 33892GU which features an Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 Processor (1.30GHz 800MHz 3MB) and dedicated ATI Radeon HD4330 512MB video card.

Build and Design
The Lenovo U450 is black with a plastic casing and gently rounded corners and edges. The lid and area surrounding the keyboard (including the palm-rests) have a tactile, checkerboard-like pattern which resists smudging, fingerprints and scratching. Some may find this pattern distracting or annoying after prolonged use, but we see it as a nice design choice which gives this the otherwise plasticky case a bit of class and differentiates it from the shiny plastic all too common recently. The screen lid has a metallic, plastic Lenovo emblem embedded in the upper left. The bezel around the screen is shiny, smooth, black plastic and the hinges connecting it to the body seem fairly typical – plastic on the exterior and not overly tight or loose. The laptop is held closed by the tension of the hinges. A fan is located on the left. The back has no ports and simply holds the battery in place. White indicator LEDs for A/C power, the battery, wireless status, hard drive usage and the touchpad (on/off ) are on the bottom left of the case. The power button is to the left of the keyboard and the Lenovo OneKey (for recovery, backups, etc.) is directly above it.

Overall the laptop is well put together with every component fairly sturdy. The palm-rests and casing hardly flex and are well supported. The screen flexes and can be twisted slightly, but this is expected for a laptop of this thinness - a screen this thin simply can't be perfectly rigid. The fan is well positioned (for right-handed people) and has never gotten overly hot.

As a 14” widescreen, the area around the keyboard is fairly expansive, and Lenovo has struck a pretty good balance between useful buttons and clutter. If anything, the layout is a bit spartan with only the keyboard and five additional buttons. The power button (beside the keyboard on the upper left), Lenovo OneKey (just above the power button), volume up/down and mute buttons (beside the keyboard on the upper right) and speakers (above the keyboard) are intuitively placed.

The hard drive and DVD drive are considered “fixed” (non-removable) and upgrades and repairs will therefore be tough, requiring some navigation through the laptop's internal components. After working with Thinkpads and Dell laptops with easily removed hard drives and CD-drives (often in a swappable port), this was a bit of a bummer, but is pretty par for the course for consumer laptops.

The underside provides access to one RAM SO-DIMM via two easily removed screws, a plastic-dummy-plugged SIM card slot via a simple lid, and three screws for access to the keyboard and internal components below it.

The hinges could be a little more sturdy and the materials could be a little more high-end, but the actual build quality is high. The most striking elements of the design are the cross-hatched pattern throughout the entire case and the laptop's thinness. While somewhat wide at 14”, the front of the laptop is actually less than 1” off the desk. We've found 14” to be a great size for a laptop, and this is no exception; its dimensions combined with its very manageable wight make it perfect for travel and airplane tray tables, but equally usable daily on a desk.

Screen and Speakers
The screen is a 14.0" WXGA (1366x768 - 16:9 aspect ratio), TFT LED backlight glossy. Lenovo measures it at 220 nits with a 500:1 contrast ratio. A 1.3-megapixel, fixed focus webcam sits above the screen in the bezel. The screen is free of dead pixels, fairly bright at its brightest setting, and can be turned off by hitting Fn+F2. Whites are slightly cooler and possibly more accurate compared to a couple older laptop screens – likely a characteristic of the relatively new LED backlighting. Colors are vibrant and text is sharp. The native resolution is pretty much ideal for a laptop of this size. A casual inspection in an unlit room reveals no light leakage or hotspots.

Left to right viewing angles are surprisingly good, but up to down viewing angles are typical to slightly weak. The “sweet spot” is large enough that it shouldn't cause problems. The screen can only fold backwards to about 125°– a bit of a surprise, but hardly a problem. If WXGA and glossy screens work for you, this laptop's screen doesn't fall short. The ATI Catalyst Control panel (included with the discreet graphics card) gives plenty of tweaking options. Combined with the video card, the screen is great for multimedia, light gaming and anything requiring a mid-level GPU.

Two speakers are positioned to the left and right directly above the keyboard. Lenovo calls this a “Dolby Home Sound Room premium audio system with two stereo speakers,” but it would be more accurately characterized as slightly better than typical for a laptop. They get fairly loud, but the louder the volume, the tinnier the sound. Bass is lacking at best. The headphone jack or HDMI port are going to be essential for any serious music playing (more on this later). Volume up, down and mute buttons adorn the right side of the case beside the keyboard. To be honest, the speakers aren't terrible for a laptop, and probably a bit above average, but when external speakers are available, they will obviously be preferable.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard on this laptop is slightly better than average. The spacing, size of the keys and the feel of the keyboard are all strong. Stroke distance and the feel of the movement are ideal and clearly influenced by the Thinkpad design. The sound of the keys is solid while slightly muted. There is some flex in the keyboard when serious pressure is applied, getting worse from left to right, but nothing noticeable under normal typing usage. Unique features of the keyboard include a shrunken, narrow Windows flag key between Ctrl and Alt on the left of the space bar, and an Fn key as the leftmost key next to Ctrl. The caps lock and num lock (F8) keys have white LEDs in them to show when activated. There is no number pad, but the orange Fn key gives access to a variety of additional buttons including volume and brightness controls on the arrow keys. Overall, it could have a little less flex, but generally it exceeds the quality of most consumer laptop keyboards.

The Synaptics touchpad is typical with a fairly wide area for movement and two separate oversized, metalicized plastic buttons below. The material is smooth, slightly matte plastic and comfortable and easy to run a finger across. The speed is appropriate out of the box. The rightmost section of the touchpad has a line of barely tangible orange dots which indicate that a finger can be slid up or down to scroll. Multi-touch is supported. The touchpad is nothing special, but gets the job done. A microphone is located just to the left of it, so recording sound while using the touchpad or typing might cause some conflict.

Input & Output Ports
On the left side are two USB ports next to each other (but decently spaced for wide USB dongles), a Gigabit ethernet port, an HDMI port (HDCP-compliant), a VGA port, the fan, the AC plug and a lock slot.

The back has no ports and holds the battery in place.

The right side has the DVD burner, a wireless on/off switch, another USB port, a microphone jack and headphone jack.

A 4-in-1 MultiMedia Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Secure Digital (SD) card reader is in the front left. There is no fingerprint reader.

This is a pretty good mix of ports in good locations. The headphone jack could cause problems for people who use a mouse immediately to the right of the laptop, but otherwise, nothing essential is missing or poorly placed. The laptop lacks expansion ports like an express-card or PC-card slot, but 3 USB ports basically excuse this. An S-video port, FireWire port and swappable bay would also be nice, but certainly aren't essential – especially in a laptop in this class.

The 3.5mm headphone/audio jack gives a tiny bit of high pitched feedback at all volumes when plugged in to the wall. When unplugged the pitch drops and becomes slightly more noticeable. This isn't a major problem and is fairly typical for laptops, but it's worth noting for the audiophiles out there. An external sound card will be necessary for unadulterated sound.

Performance and Benchmarks
This configuration came with an Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 Processor (1.30GHz 800MHz 3MB) and 4GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (2x 2GB). The computer runs Windows 7 and typical programs – word processing, web browsing, photo management – with no problem. Being an ultra low voltage processor model, however, there are a couple trade-offs. While the battery life is extended beyond normal Core 2 Duo processors, the chip buckles slightly under load. There are rare hangups when going between major programs or performing CPU intensive processes. Configurations with lesser CPUs will probably struggle even more, and may have some performance issues with multiple demanding programs running. Video editing and serious gaming on this computer are not advised (though the GPU can definitely handle modern games at average to low settings), but given its size and target audience, this shouldn't be a problem, and everyday office tasks should not be at all challenging. Startup is decently fast and 4GB of RAM is more than enough for basically every installed program to run simultaneously yet smoothly. The 5400 RPM hard drive is typical and may be a good target for an upgrade to 7200 RPM or an SSD for those seeking the best possible performance.

All benchmarks were run after removing the bloatware, on high performance energy management mode, and after a fresh restart. Catalyst Control center was set for performance and the default resolution was used. A virus scanner remained on in the background.

The laptop takes 37 seconds to reach the Windows login screen and about a minute to reach a usable, wireless-connected main desktop.



The U450p calculated 32 million digits of π in two threads in an average of 63.975 seconds – slow in general, but average for a CULV.

The U450p scored 3333 in the PCMark05 test suite – an average score for the class which was no doubt hurt by the CULV processor.

The U450p scored a surprisingly good 3DMark06 score of 2592, making it one of the best graphics performers in the CULV class, exceeding the Dell Studio 14z by over 300 points. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 512MB makes light gaming possible and will give a boost to GPU accelerated programs (i.e. Photoshop CS4 and the upcoming Flash 10.1). This comes at the expense of some battery life. Nonetheless, the pairing of a dedicated video card with a CULV processor is slightly strange unless multimedia is going be a major focus for the user.

Heat and Noise
This laptop doesn't get hot and never gets loud, even under load. The hard drive is nearly silent and the fan stays fairly quiet even at its fastest. One could easily sleep with this laptop nearby even at its loudest. The hottest spots are under the touchpad and at the vent. Neither gets more than warm to the touch. When operating, the CD drive is audibly noticeable, but no more so than most laptops. This is a very quiet laptop.

Wireless
The Intel WiFi Link 5100 11a/b/g/n wireless card works better than many other wireless devices we've worked with, picking up dozens of local hotspots we usually don't see. Windows 7 cooperates with it perfectly, making wireless connections easier than ever. Bluetooth comes all set up, and pairing a device is intuitive. A Bluetooth mouse required simple pairing and no extra drivers. The computer may have an antennae for 3G connections, but the SIM card slot it would connect to is permanently sealed. This isn't a major loss, but again, a slight annoyance. Wireless works very well overall.

Battery
The battery is a 6-cell lithium-ion with 5200mAh, 57Wh. It slides into the back and has a lock and spring-loaded, plastic lever keeping it in place. Running the computer on Energy Star power management mode – the factory default – yielded 239 (3 hours, 59 minutes) minutes of power while browsing the web (with wireless and Bluetooth on), playing some videos and keeping a couple programs open. This is a decent time for a computer with a dedicated GPU, but weak for a CULV laptop. Stricter power settings, turning off the wireless transmitters and closing processes and programs would undoubtedly add more time, but with a low voltage processor, we were hoping for a good deal more.

Operating System and Software
The computer comes preinstalled with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit which runs very smoothly – Lenovo calls it an “Enhanced Experience” since they apparently made some adjustments and tweaks, though exactly what isn't immediately obvious. No recovery disks are included. The Lenovo OneKey Recovery console allows for the creation of recovery disks (requiring two DVDs or multiple CDs) and system backups to an image file. The computer has a hidden partition to enable recovery at the touch of a button to the factory state and a separate partition just for drivers.

That said, the factory state included a surprising amount of bloatware. The computer came with a ton of trial-ware, adware and useless utilities. It took about 30 minutes to uninstall the useless programs, leaving only the required Lenovo utilities. Changing the default energy management performance profiles can make a difference in the overall speediness of the system. Changing the setting from the default of “Energy Star power saving” to “high performance” changes the screen brightness and CPU usage markedly.

With a bit more time, we might download a clean copy of Windows 7, install it using the key on the bottom of the laptop, and install each driver and piece of software individually from the driver partition or the Lenovo website. This would almost certainly result in a slight performance boost.

The breakdown of the partitions of the 320GB hard drive are a hidden 14.75GB OEM partition, a hidden 200MB partition, the 252.88GB C: and a 30.25GB D: for drivers. All are NTFS formatted. About 90% of C: is free upon arrival.

Customer Support
The laptop comes standard with a 1-year parts and labor ➫warranty. This laptop was purchased with an additional one year Lenovo Onsite Repair Next Business Day policy. There's also 24x7 toll-free support for warranty issues during the warranty period at 877-453-6686. This service has not yet been tested, but Lenovo has a decent reputation for support and the on-site repair is generally considered good.

Conclusion
The Lenovo U450p is a thin, well built, fully featured CULV laptop ideal for consumers looking for a balance between performance and portability. At the price-point, the U450p is competitive with similar systems (i.e. the Dell Inspiron 14z and Dell Studio 14z), and probably has them beat on styling and thinness. Heavy users of the web, office software and multimedia will appreciate that they can roam with a machine able to handle basically anything thrown at it. The configurations with video cards are a bit of paradox, since adding a power-hungry GPU defeats the point of getting a CULV, but they do allow for more media handling. Serious gamers need not apply (though configurations with discreet graphics make many games a possibility). It lack some bells and whistles, is a little pricey, and has some minor annoyances, but they're reasonable trade-offs for one of the more powerful and stylish CULVs currently on the market.

Pros:

• Thin, portable, stylish
• Well designed, built
• Dedicated GPU, among best graphics performance among CULVs
• Has an optical drive (many CULVs do not)

Cons:

• Comes from the factory with an inordinate amount of bloatware which hurts performance
• Somewhat plasticky
• Mediocre battery life for a CULV
• Slight fuzziness in audio jack
• Missing some niceties, options (i.e. non-removable hard drive and CD-drive, no fingerprint reader)

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