In the market for a mobile computing solution, I eschewed the tablet trend and went straight for the ultrabook. I needed a device that met both my productivity needs (i.e., a keyboard) but was also highly portable. For almost a day I was convinced I wanted that new Samsung chromebook, but ultimately I decided a browser-based O.S. was possibly too limiting. I really preferred a Windows 8 machine, and if it had the power to run Guild Wars 2 (my PC game of choice) without costing a lot, that would be optimal. The Lenovo brand spoke to me because of its reputation, and even though I shopped around at Dell, HP, Toshiba, Samsung, ASUS, and the rest, the Lenovo kept calling me back. Performance, portability, and price. The Ideapads checked all three boxes.
In the review that follows there will be several mentions of Lenovo's S405. This is because I purchased the S405 first from Amazon for $540. (Less than a month later, it's already down to $480!) But I determined that the S405, attractive as it was, didn't meet my performance expectations. So, I returned that model and got the U410 (version 59351632) from Newegg for $630.
APPEARANCE: At a maximum width of .83" and 4.1 lbs., the U410 is neither the thinnest nor lightest ultrabook on the market. However, laptops offering similar performance at this price point weigh an average of 6 lbs., so put aside the notion that the U410 is somehow an unwieldy beast. It's no MacBook Air, but it isn't HEAVY. (It's also not $1200+.) It does kind of look like a MacBook, though. (Not that the MacBooks have a monopoly on silver chassis with black chiclet keyboards.) The aluminum cover of my U410 is charcoal gray; interior is matte silver. I *loved* the all black interior of the S405, but this design has grown on me. The U410 looks and feels expensive, beautiful in its simplicity. Whereas the S405 was .8" at its thickest point, then became even narrower at the front, the U410 is a uniform thickness on all sides, but the sides are also slightly concave giving it a touch of style. If you purchase the U410 on Lenovo's website you'll have red and blue designs as options (the red looks particularly spiffy) but you'll also pay at least a hundred dollars more than you would at Newegg.
The U410 sheds some of its cost and weight by the exclusion of an optical drive. I used an external DVD burner to make a recovery disc, but Lenovo includes a program called "OneKey Recovery" that backs up your system to a safe partition of your hard disk. I also appreciate how cool and quiet the U410 runs during casual use. Predictably, games cause the fan inside to work harder and the device gets hot on the underside near the ventilation.
Insert: Another review on this site complained of the fan's noise level. Perhaps this person received a defective unit. My U410 runs quiet except when I push the hardware, then the noise increases. But even then, it's not so loud I'm disturbed by it.
KEYBOARD: Lenovo bought IBM's Thinkpad brand back in 2005; Thinkpads being notable for their outstanding keyboards well suited to the business-oriented user. Before I committed to purchasing a Lenovo, I read a bit about how the keyboards in the Ideapad line had finally, or nearly, caught up to the Thinkpads. The keyboard on the U410 is good, but far from great. The keys are sized nicely (except for the Backspace, right Shift, and Enter which are undersized to make room for the Home, End, and Page keys) and are supposedly contoured so your fingers don't slide off, resulting in typing errors. (Lenovo calls this "Accutype.")
What disappoints is the "flex" beneath the keyboard. If you've researched the U410 online, you may have seen the video of the guy pushing his finger into the middle of the keyboard. Now, nobody will be doing this to their brand new ultrabook, but the video demonstrates a lapse in quality. While the U410 looks and feels sturdy overall, the keyboard comes off cheap. You may not notice the flex as you type--since your eyes are glued to the screen--but glance down and you'll see your fingers bounce up and down on the springy underside.
The keyboard on the S405 is much studier with a satisfying, velvety press, but I noticed I tended to make more mistakes using that machine. I decided to take a typing test online to see on which ultrabook I typed the best. On the U410, with no mistakes, I averaged 89 wpm. On the S405, I averaged 81. (On my older Compaq Presario I scored a 92.) So even though the flex in the U410 is distracting, it's actually the swifter keyboard. At least, on this particular day with this particular typing test this proved to be the case.
There's no backlight, but that would inflate the price and it's a luxury feature I personally don't need nor want.
WIFI: The Lenovo U410 is notorious for its sketchy WIFI adapter. The company's official stance is U410s manufactured after July 2012 no longer have issues, but users maintain that problems, such as slow speeds and dropped connections, persist. I was nervous my U410 would suffer these problems, but after running a series of informal tests I have not found any cause for alarm.
My U410 was manufactured September 29, 2012 and the WIFI adapter is Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2200. I updated my driver to the latest version (15.5.0.42) immediately and set Transmit Power to 5, Roaming Aggressiveness to 3. Then, I placed my U410 alongside the S405, my HP desktop, iPhone, and an older Compaq Presario laptop about twelve feet from the router, which was on the other side of a wall. I went to speedtest.net and ran the test on each machine six times and averaged the speeds. These are the results... U410: 28.96 down/7.42 up, S405: 29.86/7.40, desktop: 28.98/7.70, iPhone: 25.27/10.13, Compaq: 29.64/7.71.
Although it appears the U410 performed the worst (excluding the iPhone) the difference is negligible, and the numbers were actually improving as the test went on. Users had said the pre-fixed WIFI was delivering speeds 75% slower than their other machines, which in my case would be around 8mbps. Clearly, at nearly 29mbps, my U410 is no worse than my other devices--a huge relief.
However, some disclaimers: I have no idea if every U410 manufactured after July is equal to mine. I also don't know how well the machine would fair in a crowded wireless environment, like a coffee shop or airport. Lastly, I have a less expensive Internet plan through Cox. It's possible if I had the fastest plan the U410's wireless adapter would throttle that connection... but I have no reason to expect it would.
Also be aware some SKUs of the U410 model (there are about a dozen) include Bluetooth. This one does NOT. If you absolutely must have integrated Bluetooth, you should purchase your U410 from Lenovo.com.
PERFORMANCE: With an i5-3317U processor, 6GB of RAM, dedicated GeForce 610M graphics card, and a Solid State hybrid drive the U410 is one of the most powerful ultrabooks on the market at this price point. I don't think you're going to find anything more powerful, and slimmer/lighter, without paying over a grand. The dedicated graphics in particular, while being at the low end of the GeForce 600 series, gives the U410 that extra boost it needs to run more demanding games. I wanted an ultrabook that could run Guild Wars 2, and the U410 succeeds at this task.
These are the results of the Windows Experience Index (For comparison's sake, the Lenovo S405's results are in parenthesis.) Processor 6.9 (6.2) Memory 7.4 (5.9) Graphics 5.5 (4.4) Gaming Graphics 6.3 (6.2) Hard Disk 6.9 (5.9) Overall 5.5 (4.4). One thing about the Windows Experience Index: the gaming graphics are based on the primary adapter, the Intel HD 4000, so this test doesn't account for the GeForce 610M. So, I think these scores are lower than they should be.
I also ran Passmark's benchmarking software and the U410 scored a 1412.8 versus the S405's 1018.4. With power settings set to High Performance, CPU-Z recorded the i5-3317U's core speed as 2396 MHz (thanks to Intel's TurboBoost) versus the S405's A8-4555M processor at 1816 MHz.
Of course, higher numbers in these benchmarking utilities don't tell the full story, so I ran tests in Guild Wars 2. I set the resolution to max (1366x768), all graphics to Low (except for "render sampling" which I set to Native) and ran FRAPS for two minutes to find an average FPS. (Note: I didn't run this test in a heavily congested area. I was just killing moa birds in Frostgorge Sound.) My FPS at this setting was 58. Very solid, especially considering the S405 was half as speedy at 26. With all settings on Medium, the FPS was 30. A custom blend of Low, Medium, and High settings (ignoring water, shadow and particle effects and focusing on environment/character textures) scored 41 FPS. At maximum graphics, the FPS was 15 and pretty much unplayable. For a non-gaming machine, an ultrabook no less, the U410 handles Guild Wars 2 really well and still looks great with the graphics turned down.
Insert: One reviewer mentions that the SSD doesn't have the O.S. installed on it. To clarify, this is because the drive is a hybrid. It stores your most frequently accessed data as you use the machine, increasing your read speed over time. You could install the entire O.S. on the SSD if you wanted to. There's nothing stopping you. But since the computer boots in about twelve seconds and is pretty fast in all respects, I don't see why you'd bother.
DISPLAY: The screen is the U410's other weak link. (The keyboard being the other.) A resolution of 1366x768 is standard for ultrabooks and laptops at this price, so I can't really fault Lenovo for not exceeding the standard. But, my Dell 6000 had a 1680x1050 display and that was six years old. Why hasn't the industry pushed for better resolutions? Why are laptops lagging behind tablets? (Google's new Nexus 10 is 2560x1600!) For whatever reason, you cannot find affordable ultrabooks with nice resolutions. Search on Newegg and you'll see that even if you went to the next highest tier, 1600x900, you're either paying a lot or getting a 17" monster. Lastly, as with most ultrabooks, the screen is glossy. (Not a concern for me, but it might be for some.)
I'm incredibly satisfied with the U410. It's a very strong performer in a light(ish) frame at a decent price. I'm relieved the WIFI problem was solved. I only wish the keyboard didn't feel so cheap. (Although it's by no means horrible.) I would recommend the U410 to anyone who wants a machine capable of playing some high end games, but still values mobility. Meanwhile, anyone looking for a work/casual device with no need of a fast processor and discrete graphics may find value in the U410's cheaper, but lovelier, cousin: the S405.
PROS: Performance-to-Price ratio virtually unmatched in the ultrabook category. Hybrid HDD-SSD. Very attractive design. USB 3.0 (x2) and HDMI ports. Loud speakers. Webcam captures 720p HD.
CONS: Keyboard flexes. Sufficient, but unremarkable display. Battery not removable. Heavier than most ultrabooks. No Bluetooth on this particular SKU. Alternative colors limited to official site.
Lenovo usually makes great products but they really fell short on the U410. The U410's are shipped with a faulty wifi card which makes this laptop an utter disappointment. Do a Google search for U410 wifi issue and you will get pages of problems with this laptop and according to Lenovo, any U410 ,manufactured after 7/30 is fixed but the manufacture date on the bottom of mine is 9/29/12.
At first, the U410 would drop the Wifi signal making it impossible to surf. I then updated to the latest Centrino wifi drivers on Intel's website which helped keep a connection but the download speed on speedtest was less than 1mb! My Lenovo X220 next to the U410 pulled down 35mb.
A nice laptop if you have no plans to use the internet but if you are, look somewhere else
Buy Lenovo U410 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Graphite Grey) Now
The wireless connection on this laptop is horrible. There are pages of posts online about customers complaining about the weak wireless connection. The computer will connect, but the signal fluctuates to the point where I was not even able to watch netflix. Lenovo claims to have fixed the problem after a specified manufacture date, but they have NOT! This laptop was manufactured after their stated fix but the problem still persists (this has been reported by many consumers). I would strongly discourage people from purchasing this laptop if they plan to use it on a WiFi network.
Note: Driver updates and other software/firmware fixes do NOT work.
Read Best Reviews of Lenovo U410 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Graphite Grey) Here
I could not believe how noise is the fan of this computer. It seems like I am beside an engine. After 5 minutes I turned the computer off. The vendor that sold me the computer through Amazon is asking for a 15% return fee. As I don't want to pay that fee, I tried to use the computer, but every time I turn it on I get so disturbed with the noise that I cannot use it. The noise is definitely unbearable. I do not recommend this computer.
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Fast, lightweight, good design, but you have to treat it kindly because it feels fragile. But it's a great value for the price. And don't be afraid with Windows 8. Once you learned to use it, it's very easy.
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A friend bought me a T61 over 3 years ago as a belated birthday present. Mine came directly from the manufacturer though. Mine also has Windows Vista Home Premium. This laptop is my every day laptop. I use it pretty much all day for work, games, music creation, video creation, graphics, etc. It handles everything I throw at it, including virtual machines in VMWare and VirtualBox, and runs the Visual Studio 2008 development system just fine. Despite what many say about Vista, I haven't really had any device driver problems or too many problems in general. It's very stable. And I even develop for a robot which needed a special LibUSB driver on the laptop to recognize the robot when plugged in to get to the robot's linux console.
