Lenovo Ideapad U-450p 14-Inch Black Laptop – Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life

5 Responses to “Lenovo Ideapad U-450p 14-Inch Black Laptop – Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life”

1. Nancy Kenworthy says:

   April 10, 2010 at 6:09 am

   This is the most terrible laptop I have ever owned. Everything started out just fine. Fantastic keyboard, gorgeous screen. Three days after I bought the laptop the hard drive started to make a terribly loud crunching noise. This was LOUD. Unfortunately I had a death in the family and did not use the laptop for about three weeks afterward. I resumed use- the laptop sits on my desk at home and chose to live with the hard drive noise. But then the screen started to get lines running vertically on the screen. Continued to get worse as the day went by and then the upper 1/4 of the LCD screen disappeared. Sent back to Lenovo- they said it was “accidental hurt” and want me to pay $182 to get it fixed! I did not drop, hurt it in anyway! The computer is a lemon. It was exactly three days after buy that the hard drive started to make the noise, five weeks that the LCD screen went bye bye. I am very very despondent with this computer and Lenovo (who still has it) and pursuing my credit card insurance to cover the repair. If they will not cover it, I will just forget it and and consider the $699 I paid for it a terrible, terrible loss. I will never ever ever buy a Lenovo again!

   OK- 3 weeks later…I have a NEW Lenovo. My doing- I just gently but firmly fought with Lenovo. First day of use of my new replaced laptop. I LOVE it. But a word about their service! As stated above, after persistent the lemon of a laptop, tech support called it “accidental hurt” and sought after to charge me $182 for repair. They kept mission not even leaving a call back number. So I started at the bottom of the ladder again, and called tech support, clarified the situation, when I got a “no”, I questioned to speak to a supervisor. On up the ladder. Til I finally found someone who listened to my report- and eventually replaced it! I received it today. It is cool down (so far) and working magnificently.

   My eldest son is a VP at McAfee. He visited at Christmas and said that there was something very incorrect with the hard drive
   
   on my original laptop- and that I might eventually see things start to fail. And he was right. When I threw that piece of info to the supervisor who really replaced the laptop, it seemed to help my case.

   I will edit this review if I have another problem with this replacement. But so far it’s fantastic and I must give Lenovo some credit. But it took a lot of time to get SOMEONE there to know. I reckon if I had my son take care of this initially with tech support, I might not have had to work so hard to get it replaced. But I must give Lenovo credit so I am elevating my review to 3* and will be back and give it 5* if it continues to perform as nicely as it has today.
   Rating: 3 / 5
2. Demian says:

   April 10, 2010 at 6:32 am

   I am a Mac user and sought after to try a PC when window 7 launched. I searched and lessened down to thin and long array life 14″ laptops, such as asus UL80vt-a1, acer timeline AS4810tz-4508, and this ideapad U450p. I had chance to look 15.4″ bestbuy translation of asus thin laptop. But despised the touchpad’s one click bar, which was too tough to register. I didn’t have a chance to try similar versions of acer or lenovo. Just based on the available pictures, I concluded that the acer looks too cheap. Consequently, I went with thinkpad reputation hoping I can avoid notorious lenovo customer service and ordered U450p thru Amazon. I really liked the case which certainly is a fingerprint proof material, and its feel and point. I didn’t feel any flex by finger pressing on the palm rest board though the keyboard itself looks poorly prearranged (might be just look). Even though I liked and admired Mac’s in isolation enclosed keys, the poorly prearranged (just look) keys in U450p were very smooth and pleased me quite a lot when I typed. Even I am not a touchpad user, U450p’s touchpad and left and right click were amazingly simple to use. Its screen brightness was also superb and resolution was very crispy compared to my 13″ macbook. I was very pleased with my buy. But one huge problem came out. When I tried wireless internet connection at home, the connection killed all the other wireless and main wired connection completely. As soon as I place the U450p sleep, all the connection came back. I tried manual and self repair tools but with no success (tried restart too). The U450p is sitting in the box to return until any person can give me an technical advice to solve the problem before 30 day grace period ends. I guess the integrated Wi-Fi is not installed properly or something else is installed instead. I am not a computer geek at all. I will really be grateful for it if any person can give me an simple explanation for this kind of problem, or this specific unit is destined to go back to factory. If this is the case, I may order the same unit directly from lenovo, which model # is 33892GU. The one I bought is 33892EU.
   
   Do you know any other difference between these two models except graphic card? no bluetooth? I gave this computer 5 stars based on my 30 min experience lacking counting its reliability.
   Rating: 5 / 5
3. S. Svarovsky says:

   April 10, 2010 at 8:13 am

   I bought this from Frys Electronics a month ago and so far I am more than pleased with its performance and facial appearance. Imho for the cash there is simply no better deal. Tried MSI but the soundcard was simply horrible! This laptop is speedy yet stays cool all the time, screen resolution is fine (not exact though), array lasts solid 4 hours. Surround sound is fantastic in the class. Also like the textured close — looks and feels fantastic in your hands. Very thin form factor too due to tapered front. Another computer I was considering for the price was Dell Vostro v13 but Lenovo won due to more facial appearance. The only thing I don’t like is the glossy frame around the screen; it gets scratched very easily just from the daily use. The comp would be exact if the frame had a matte close to match the case. Thanks Lenovo for a fantastic product!
   Rating: 5 / 5
4. Damodar Chetty says:

   April 10, 2010 at 10:19 am

   Very rarely do I buy a product that just exceeds my expectations in so many ways that I can’t wait to come online and share my joy with others. The Lenovo U450P is one such product.

   I honestly don’t know where to start with the things that I like about this device.

   If you’ve seen my review of the T135-S1310RD, you’ll have noticed that it pained me to give it a 1-star review for what was terrible customer service on the part of Toshiba. They continued to sell a product that had a known deal-surf problem.

   So … here’s what I was looking for (in order of importance to me):
   
   1) ultraportability … I tend to spend a lot of time waiting (at recitals, school meets, music lessons) and I needed something that I could throw into a bag and run out the door.

   2) computing muscle … I just got done writing a book, and I’m working on some additional thoughts, and so I needed this ultra portable to keep up with me.

   3) large screen … I tried hard to get used to the netbook screen and resolutions, and I just couldn’t get comfortable with a 10.2 inch screen @ 1024×600 even for web browsing. My sweet spot was 13.3 inches @ 1366×768.

   4) touchpad/mouse … I rely nearly exclusively on the built-in mouse/touchpad, and sought after an implementation that I could use comfortably.

   5) array power … I sought after at least 4 hours of juice.

   After significant research, I settled on either the Toshiba T135, the Asus UL30/UL20 family, or the HP DM3.

   I even went so far as to buy the Toshiba. Until, I ran into issues with point #4 on my list of priorities, and so the Toshiba went back.

   The Asus disappeared off my list soon after. I had imagined that I could “get used to” the rocker based point for its mouse buttons, but after my brief experience with the Toshiba, I started to question that assumption. Maybe I’m ancient fashioned, but to me a computer is a productivity tool, that should adapt to me, rather than the other way around. In addition, the Asus machines seem to have issues with their wireless networking as well – and while I hear this may have been resolved, I didn’t want to take a chance with such quality issues.

   I have had very poor experiences with HPs with two notebooks biting the dust in very quick succession – so the DM3 was out for now.

   Luckily, I soon ran across two alternatives from the Lenovo family – the Thinkpad Edge and the Lenovo U450P. A bargain basement priced price on the U450P made my choice for me.

   Fortunately, my experience so far has been nothing but stellar.

   Pros:
   
   #####
   
   1) The form factor of this machine is just exact. I was worried that a 14″ screen might be too much for an ultraportable, but its just incredible!

   2) The SU7300 CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) processor is meaty enough for most of my needs – and is a beefed up SU4100). Add in the 4GB RAM @ 1066MHz and a 320 GB drive and all’s excellent!

   3) The screen size and resolution are just stellar. Even at 20% brightness, the screen is very apparent and readable.

   4) The keyboard is just awesome – I can hardly tell the difference between my regular 17″ laptop and this one. Seriously.

   5) The touchpad is wonderful! The mouse buttons are placed right where you need them, and the multitouch touchpad gives you some nice options.

   6) Lenovo has had serious consumer issues with the U330’s array and I am hoping that the U450P hasn’t inherited those issues. Its too early to tell, but I’ve been browsing the web and typing this review for about 1 hour now, and have used up only 17% of the array. Furthermore, unlike the U330, spare batteries can be ordered for the U450P (check out the 57Y6309).

   7) The feel on the lid is unique … it’s a type of cross hatch pattern that is way better than the glossy smooth lids of the usual crowd. You won’t be troubled with finger prints on the lid, and you won’t have issues with the machine slipping out of your sweaty grip. I really prefer this feel to the less refined feel on the Toshiba NB305 netbook.

   The optical drive can be a array drain, but hey … its there if you need it. You no longer need to buy and lug around an extra portable DVD drive.

   9) The wireless card is an Intel 5100, and supports Wireless-N networking. So far, it has worked with exceptional range.

   10) It comes with Win 7 64 bit Home Premium, so you can use all that precious 4GB of RAM.

   Cons:
   
   #####

   1) While the screen facility well indoors, it isn’t quite so readable outside, when the glossy screen acts as a mirror. While outdoors, I have to turn up the brightness to about 80% or so.

   2) The residency of the FN key is where I expect to find the CONTROL key. Since I mostly use keyboard accelerators (e.g., Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V), I often hit the FN key instead, causing me a fantastic deal of pain.

   3) The hard drive spins at 5400 RPM which is a bit of a downer. Even worse, the hard drive cannot be replaced easily by the user. You can do it, but it requires some technical skills.

   4) The underside gets a bit hot, enough to notice, but not enough to cause extended discomfort.

   That’s it!

   If you are in the market for a CULV-based computer, you really should check out either the Thinkpad Edge or this Lenovo U450P. I’m extremely satisfied with mine and I can unreservedly recommend this product.

   Pleased Computing!
   
   ~Damodar
   Rating: 5 / 5
5. Tarak Parikh says:

   April 10, 2010 at 11:50 am

   This is a fantastic laptop. It is a right thin and light ultra-portable laptop (at less than 4.6 lbs). Unlike most 13 inch models, this 14 inch comes with the optical dvd drive built-in and still provides with 6 hrs of usable array life. It has a very compact feel when carried due to the very narrow tapered front. Performance has been fine for most of the common tasks so far and just having the 4gb ddr3 memory helps quite a bit. Another fascinating thing is that this laptop remains cool even after 6 hours of continuous usage. The bright LCD screen and colors are really excellent too.

   Overall, certainly one of the best choices in thin and light ultra-portable laptops for people who need to have the dvd drives built-in.
   Rating: 5 / 5