Have IdeaPad, Will Travel

When Lenovo acquired IBM Corp.'s PC product group in 2004, it took over IBM's flagship ThinkPad line. With the recent launch of the IdeaPad, Lenovo has taken a bold step, injecting new features into a next-generation, notebook-form factor--all while keeping some of the ThinkPad's legacy features. Battery life lacks, and some improvements are needed, but Lenovo is on the right track.

Unlike the basic black ThinkPad, the IdeaPad comes in a series of bright colors. The IdeaPad U110 the Test Center looked at was built with a glittery, red case. But don't judge a notebook by its cover. Beyond its appearance, what jumped out was the feel: It weighs about 38 ounces with sleek dimensions of about .75 inch (at its thinnest) by 8 inches by 10.9 inches.

What makes the dimensions so noteworthy? Consider that with American Airlines now saying they will charge passengers for checked baggage, and significantly limited overhead storage on flights, the IdeaPad fits snugly into a single carry-on bag that makes it a home run for travelers. It also comes with a padded, fabric case that makes it easy to carry.

The slick, black keyboard is a nice touch and is easy to keep clean. The 11.1-inch wide screen display was fine; in the lab, the smaller screen was easy to adjust to as it was bright and nice to view.

Lenovo built the IdeaPad U110, a Core 2 Duo L7500, at 1.60 GHz and 2 GB of RAM, loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium. Using Primate Labs' Geekbench 2.0 benchmarking software, the IdeaPad U110 scored an exceptionally low 941. Besides the low performance, battery testing also turned up lackluster results. It barely hovered above room temperature, though, giving it a cool feel.

Using the standard, 4-cell battery that comes with the base unit, and working under the Test Center's methodology (turning off all power-saving features and running a video from the hard drive until the battery ran out), the IdeaPad ran for 52 minutes. With power-saving features running tasks like word processing, it's possible to stretch it out to a little more than two hours. Lenovo does provide a separate, 7-cell hybrid battery that can stretch its life to about eight hours, but the bigger battery makes it almost two more inches longer and several ounces heavier.

Beyond performance, Lenovo includes VeriFace facial-recognition software. On each sign-on, VeriFace compares your facial features against its recorded image. Unrecognized faces (including a photo of your face, but not your face itself) aren't permitted sign-on access to the notebook, although a standard, password sign-on is still included as a failsafe.

Lenovo sells the IdeaPad through its consumer retail channels only, so the Test Center can't yet recommend it to VARs. However, its form factor, facial recognition, nice display and thermodynamics would give Lenovo an edge should it deliver them to the commercial channel.