Lenovo IdeaPad U110 Hands-on

By Andrew, NotebookReview Staff | | 87634 Reads

Lenovo had their new lineup of IdeaPad notebooks on display at CES last night. The U110 is particularly interesting as an 11.1-inch subnotebook, a first for Lenovo (at least in the U.S.). The U110 could also qualify as the shiniest laptop going.

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The most striking thing about the IdeaPad U110 design-wise is probably the lid, it's red and has sort of a flowery pattern to it -- nothing like we've seen in a Lenovo notebook before. The next rather striking thing is the keyboard. It's very shiny and very different to any other Lenovo keyboard I've ever used. Notice that the keys are flushed right up against each other and the keyboard has a glossy finish. During a quick first test I found the keyboard hard to use and quite mushy. The advantage is that since each key on the keyboard is flushed up against the next, the average key size is bigger than what you'll get on most ultraportables with an 11.1-inch screen form factor. However, the space bar is shrunken in size and hard to use. Overall, at first blush this keyboard is nowhere near the usability of a ThinkPad style keyboard and would seem it take some getting used to -- which is often the case with ultraportable keyboards.

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The good news with the U110 is that it's incredibly easy to carry around at only 2.4lbs of weight. It was simple to hold and palm in the hand for the purpose of taking pictures for instance.

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