Small Business Notebook Review: IdeaPad U310 Ultrabook

Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Ultrabook

The U310 is very quick to wake up from a sleep state as well. A 500 GB drive is the only size choice although you can opt out of the 32 GB SSD if you’d like. The U310 Ultrabook offers a unique feature in the form of a recovery button that launches a data backup and restore tool that’s independent of the operating system. This makes it possible to restore the system to a recent backup or back to its original state should you so desire.

Here’s a list of specs for the unit we reviewed:

  • Intel Core i5 processor
  • Windows(r) 7 Ultimate
  • 13.3-inch HD display, 16:9 widescreen
  • Intel(r) GMA 3000 HD graphics
  • 4GB DDR3 memory
  • 500GB HDD storage and 32GB SSD cache
  • Stereo speakers with Dolby Home Theatre V4 audio enhancement
  • Integrated Bluetooth(r)1, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
  • USB2.0, USB3.0, HDMI connectors and a 2-in-1 card reader
  • Integrated 720p HD webcam

Touchpad

The U310’s large touchpad measures roughly 4-inches wide by 2.75-inches tall and sits slightly to the left of center below the keyboard. It has a clickable surface from around the midpoint toward the outer edge of the case with a noticeable difference in the “click” the closer you get to the outer edge.

There’s also a vertical line on the bottom of the pad indicating the left- and right-mouse click functionality. Because of the large surface area, the U310 incorporates a palm rejection technology to help eliminate inadvertent mouse movement from touching while typing. This eliminates the majority of problems but doesn’t catch them all.

One of the touchpad’s interesting features is that it uses multi-finger gestures. Dragging two fingers up or down on the touchpad scrolls the screen up or down in much the same way a wheel does on a typical mouse. A pinching motion zooms out with an appropriate application while the opposite motion zooms you back in.

The down side of this particular motion comes into play when you need to perform a common click-and-drag operation to cut and paste text. If you aren’t careful, you’ll find yourself zooming when you meant to be marking. The good news is you can totally disable the touchpad with a single key press, and then turn it right back on the same way.

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