Got for $599 last week from another vendor. First Lenovo and I am happy with purchase and tech support. First one received did have dead pixel on arrival but vendor instantly sent me a replacement with next day Saturday delivery. This is an upgrade from my 4years old Samsung netbook which served me very well. I find the u310 touch to be very fast, screen is very nice and clear after making fine adjustments, track pad very smooth after making fine adjustments, touch screen a nice addition. Did not have any dropped WIFI connection and have found operational distance to be good. Very nice build and like the aluminum outer shell.
Windows 8 must be given a chance. Like everyone else and based on bad reviews I did not want to give it a try and was going to install Windows 7 the next day. After playing with it for a day I realized that it is not as bad as everyone that didn't give it a try had stated. It was like having a touch pad and laptop in one. Being that I don't have a touch pad anything this was nice for me as I can download apps from Microsoft and use them accordingly. It was just a matter of knowing where everything has been relocated to. God Mode is great addition to the OS allowing one location for all kinds of adjustments. Desktop was a bit frustrating at first as I did not know where everything was relocated to, especially the Start menu. After reading up on tricks and tips articles there are third party software that adds Start menu back to desktop. I installed Start8 and now desktop works just like Windows 7. All my old software that worked on Windows 7 work just as well or better on Windows 8. Very happy with my purchase. Only reason I did not give it 5 stars is that I had to adjust quite a few settings to make it work to my liking.
30 Days Update -
Having used my u310 Touch for 30 days now I'm enjoying Windows 8. The option of having a tablet apps platform is very welcomed. It is like having 2 devices in one. The live windows in the apps are nice but bear in mind it will keep your ram running at 50% and draw on battery power. You can turn off the apps live windows.
The touch screen is very responsive and smooth. I have 2 iPads in the family and the u310's touchscreen is comparable. Although I have used it occasionally it is a nice option to have.
Desktop is working great with installation of Start8, I don't miss Windows 7 at all. Lenovo tech support has been great. I had a few more kinks to get out and all it needed was driver updates. I called Lenovo tech support and they took care of the needed updates for me. I had an Acer before purchasing the Lenovo and when I called about an issue the Acer tech support just instructed me to go to their website and download & install the latest drivers.
The 2 drivers needing updates for me are the Mouse/Touchpad and Lenovo Power Management. Mouse/Touchpad was getting stuck when I right click & hold down to highlight or to activate scroll bar. Driver update corrected the problems.
Battery life for me is averaging 4.5-5 hours. Not great but not too bad.
Speakers are nice and loud enough for my needs. I have not had volume turned up more than 50% setting. Computer speakers are what they are and I never expect to listen to room filling music sound from them. The Acer I returned was so "tinny" that it hurt to hear sound from them.
No problems at all with wifi connections.
Processor is fast and smooth. When warranty is up I will upgrade to 8gig ram.
Although a lot of tweaks to get this ultrabook to perform to my preferences I am still very much enjoying it and for me it's a keeper.
I recently was in the market for a laptop for school, as my old macbook's days are numbered. I originally was looking to get a macbook pro, but after doing some research and looking around I landed on this Lenovo Ideapad. I really like the build quailty, it feels very sturdy and has a refined look. The touchscreen is also a must for Windows 8, it comes in handy quite often. It boots up extremely fast, and runs very cool. I also saved about $600 over the Macbook pro, so I was very pleased. For the price, you can get a Lenovo Ideapad and a new iPad instead of just a macbook, can't really beat that.
Pros:
Touchscreen
i5 processor-very fast
Runs cool
Great battery life: I get about 5 hours watching video, and 8 hours doing surfing or typing documents.
Very thin and light
Cons:
Screen does get fingerprints, guess that's to be expected though.
As with all new laptops, has a good amount of bloatware. I got rid of most of it, and it does run even faster now.
Not sure why I keep reading about the wireless issues? Mine has been great since I got it, not one issue. I heard they fixed this back in July of last year, with the introduction of the touch screen models.
In conclusion, this is a great laptop. It runs fast and cool, has an awesome touchscreen and has great battery life. For the price of only $599, it is hard to find anything even close to this laptop (believe me I have looked around). Lenovo is quality, and this laptop is no exception. I recommend this product to anyone wanting a nice light and thin laptop with great battery life. This is great for students!
Buy Lenovo IdeaPad U310 13.1-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Graphite Gray) Now
I've nothing to complain about with this purchase, which is saying something, indeed. Once upon a time, you had to pay high prices for the power to support a multimedia and gaming platform, and I tend to buy very high-powered laptops over the years as a rule, because I cannot stand the performance of machines that are designed to be energy efficient and preserve battery life. While this isn't on the level of getting an overclocked i7 desktop with the latest Nvidia graphics card and liquid cooling ... let me put it this way: it's so efficient it doesn't need the cooling. For comparison, this is replacing an old 2006 Vaio laptop of mine that runs XP (not one of my high-powered machines, but one that I had converted for multimedia use). Merely playing a lot of youtube videos on that old Vaio would cause that machine to run so remarkably hot that it was painful to touch. This Lenovo, however, stays very cool for the entire duration of playing movies or games. W/r to games, unless you're playing the most demanding games (e.g., Skyrim or SWTOR with the highest details and options set), you likely won't notice any performance issues, either.
The real attraction of this laptop, however, is its touchscreen. I was unwilling to purchase a Windows 8 laptop without a touchscreen mostly because Windows 8 -begsfor touchscreen capability, as the mouse/keyboard alternatives aren't exactly intuitive. This is a nice, small, light laptop that does just about everything you might ever ask of it (outside of the most performance-demanding video games), and has full touchscreen capability with all of the Windows 8 touchscreen-enabled apps ready to go. Add Office 365 and VPN, and it fulfills work, play, email, video needs.
It's interesting what they leave off, to keep it small and light: it has no CD/DVD drive. Once upon a time, CD technology was fast and light and way more efficient than the alternatives. Now, it's far more economical to stream videos on the fly, or download games online services, instead of buying several CDs or DVDs to install/play. Technology is still leaping ahead, folks, in spite of the current economy, and this is a remarkably frugal means to get the latest tech and play with it.
For the record, this is the 3rd laptop I've bought from Amazon, and I find shopping for laptops this way to be far superior to checking out whatever happens to be in stock at local stores. The detail in the description and reviews is more than enough to determine whether it is a good purchase. I'm used to being disappointed. I expect disappointment. I was always disappointed with store-purchased laptops. Amazon-purchased laptops haven't disappointed me yet.
The only issues that I might imagine anyone having with this laptop are that it's Windows 8, and the UI is very touchscreen-oriented. If you aren't used to the new OS or touchscreens, it can be a bit of a leap from Windows 7 with mouse and keyboard.
Read Best Reviews of Lenovo IdeaPad U310 13.1-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Graphite Gray) Here
Got it this afternoon, and typing on it.
It feels really nice, beats my expectation. It is nice looking, thin and light (compared to my 6 pounds E430). It is fast enough for my need programing, web browsing, watching video, editing picture etc. The display is better than expectation too, even readable under direct sun when set it to highest brightness.
Touch screen is good, and very useful too.
But, wifi, what should I say, so disappointing.
When it closes to the wifi access points, it works great. But when moving far away, the download speed dramatically reduced, sometimes even disconnected.
Here is my test results comparing to other laptops (response time/download/upload, I tested 3 times each access points, exact same location)
1. HP DM4(i5): 43 ms/9.53M/1.35M
2. Lenovo Edge E420 (i3): 35 ms/10.02M/1.42M, similar for the other access point.
3. Lenovo Edge E430 (i7): 35 ms/10.56M/1.41M, similar for the other access point.
4. U310: 135 ms/0.89M/0.67M for one access point, 415 ms/0.14/0.36 for another access point and disconnected several times during testing.
I also tested it using a Airlink 101 wireless dangle, with it, I got more than 11M download speed.
I really love it, but can not accept the low wifi speed. I am thinking switch to another one and give Lenovo another chance.
BTW, this is made in April 2013.
Updated: I tried another one, similar results. I test against two wifi routers and all set to N/G combined. I updated drivers, and did all the tricks I can find from web. No go.
I tried a Yoga 13, got very good wifi reception. I think I may keep the Yoga.
Want Lenovo IdeaPad U310 13.1-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Graphite Gray) Discount?
Pros: Looks nice and is solidly built. My previous laptop was 5.3 pounds, this feels like a feather in comparison. Responsive touchscreen, Achieved over a 6 hour battery life at this price point (screen brightness set to 40%). Stays very cool to the touch.
The keyboard is well spaced out for a 13.3" ultrabook; the keys have great action and the keyboard isn't too small for my somewhat large hands.
I felt that I was taking a chance with a Lenovo ultrabook as there have been reports of Wi-Fi issues with previous models. I'm happy to report that this is not the case here at all. I have yet to have a single drop and have experienced fast speeds.
My only gripe is that the screen smears rather easily. This isn't usually noticeable until you turn off the machine. I just keep a box of electronic wipes handy.
All in all, this is a great little machine with sufficient power and ultrabook portability. The touchscreen even makes windows 8 fun to use! (I was very reluctant to try windows 8)
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Had to replace my desktop computer because of a mother board faiure. My desktop computer was loaded with I7 core and 8 Gig of RAM. I've been interested in getting a laptop for a lot of reasons but I found none that could match my desktops specs, until now.
