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Lenovo IdeaPad U350 - Sexy, Sleek Ideas

By Aloysius Low - 20 Aug 2009

Padding An Ideal

Padding An Ideal

With the exterior loved by the entire team here at HardwareZone, it was time to delve into the interior, which was where our expectations were let down and met reality. Like most consumer notebooks, the U350 opted for the shiny reflective screen. Not too big a deal, but a matte screen would have been more ideal for usage in any lighting condition. Luckily, Lenovo managed to get most of the interior design right.

The interior goes for a minimalist look that's clean and sexy.

The U350 continued to impress us with its shiny metallic base that blends right into the look and feel of the notebook. While it does give a nice and polished look to the unit, the design is somewhat marred by the ordinary styled keyboard. The keyboard certainly does evoke the classic Lenovo feel, but it's strangely out of place in view of the U350's design. Putting the appearance of the keyboard aside, typing on the keyboard was a pretty decent affair. There was quite a notable bit of flex when we used the keyboard so you might want to take note if you're a fussy on the keyboard aspect or you place a lot of emphasis because of your high volume typing needs.

The lower half of the notebook is encased in a brushed metal finish that contrasts nicely against the dark finish of the exterior.

The keyboard design does look slightly out of place for a sexy looking machine, but it does give a good tactile feel when typing. A shame on the noticeable flex though.

The trackpad earns the most criticism from us this time around. Lenovo has generally gotten the keyboard and trackpad right for most of their notebooks, but the textured trackpad of the U350 leaves much to be desired this time around. It feels slightly odd on your fingers, and its responsiveness was slightly off even after a reset to the default settings in the Sypnatics trackpad program.

The trackpad too felt lackluster with less than responsive tracking and wierd feel on our fingers.

As for the audio, we're fine with the volume and output of the speakers. It's more than sufficient for entertainment purposes, though the usual caveats apply on how much you can get out from a pair of notebook speakers.

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