Lenovo Thinkpad U260 Core i3 12.5-in Notebook

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PC Perspective says the Lenovo Thinkpad U260 Core i3 12.5" notebook is "beautiful, exquisitely constructed and great to use" but its battery life is lacking. Here's a quote:

This is a conclusion I also came to when reviewing the T410s, which suffered from the same drawbacks as the U260. If Lenovo can figure out how to squeeze larger batteries into these slim and light laptops, it will have some class-leading products on its hands. For now, however, the U260 is a bit of a fashion statement. It’s beautiful, exquisitely constructed, and great to use – but lacking the expected endurance."
 
Laptop that is > $500 with crap gaming performance/onboard video = not worth it.

The only people who buy laptops like this are people that don't know jack about specs and performance.....

You might as well buy a cheapy dual-core laptop for 300-400, as it will do all the same exact tasks as this $799-999 U260 Thinkpad is capable of.

You can get a budget gaming laptop for 500-600 on a good sale now with a dedicated graphics card... making this laptop obsolete/overpriced by a few hundred, easy. Correct me if I am wrong, but I would not touch this laptop with gaming performance like that.

And I thought most people hated chiclet keyboards for the most part when they came out in the 1st gen netbooks... why do they continue to make chiclet keyboards on laptops?
 
Laptop that is > $500 with crap gaming performance/onboard video = not worth it.

The only people who buy laptops like this are people that don't know jack about specs and performance.....

You might as well buy a cheapy dual-core laptop for 300-400, as it will do all the same exact tasks as this $799-999 U260 Thinkpad is capable of.

You can get a budget gaming laptop for 500-600 on a good sale now with a dedicated graphics card... making this laptop obsolete/overpriced by a few hundred, easy. Correct me if I am wrong, but I would not touch this laptop with gaming performance like that.

And I thought most people hated chiclet keyboards for the most part when they came out in the 1st gen netbooks... why do they continue to make chiclet keyboards on laptops?

this is going to come as a shock, but not everyone wants or needs a gaming notebook. Clearly this laptop is an ultraportable without comprising on performance. I have a laptop similar to this, but I don't game. I do work on it.
 
I do agree about the chiclet keyboards, not a fan at all. Though the lenovo ones aren't bad, i've the thinkpad edge 13 keyboard. Not terrible, but had a lot of flex in it.
 
this is going to come as a shock, but not everyone wants or needs a gaming notebook. Clearly this laptop is an ultraportable without comprising on performance. I have a laptop similar to this, but I don't game. I do work on it.

lol no kidding.

This would be a nice laptop to add to my list of current good business laptops for commuters and travelers. I'm personally using an HP Elitebook 2530p Core2Duo 2.13ghz, 4gb RAM, Win7 Pro 12.5" laptop. I absolutely love the feel of it and the weight and size and that it comes with a DVD drive. It's a great laptop for me to keep working on my 1.5 hour train commute each way. I use a docking station when I get to my office that connects it to a normal keyboard, mouse, wired network and 23" 16:9 screen.

The lack of DVD drive on the Lenovo would make me not want to exchange laptop just yet. I still watch Netflix DVD movies on the train sometimes too. But if Lenovo adds a DVD drive to it, you can count on them raising the price to around $1200-2000 as most ultra-portables with DVD drives will cost.
 
this is going to come as a shock, but not everyone wants or needs a gaming notebook. Clearly this laptop is an ultraportable without comprising on performance. I have a laptop similar to this, but I don't game. I do work on it.

You got me wrong, I knew I should have said something.... to me, there are 3 kinds of "portable" computers right now.

Cheap netbooks that most people should buy,the little cheapo $200-400. These are great for most net users like your mom, uncle, or anyone over 40 pretty much who doesn't do much besides youtube/porn/twitter/etc

Then people like you, who want a laptop and don't give a crap about HD video or gaming. These people don't need to spend $800... they can simply use a netbook, or get a $400-600 laptop like I mention above.

Then you have the tech people, the ones who watch HD video and game... they are the only people who truly need to spend $500 or more on any laptop.

Why do you need an onboard laptop (12" mind you, almost netbook size) that cost over $500? Honestly..... I sell laptops and there is no good reason to own this at this price. If it was 400-600, that would be reasonable for the specs on this machine, but 900 for this puny, underpowered 12" (wannabe netbook as far as I'm concerned) is clearly way overpriced....
 
You got me wrong, I knew I should have said something.... to me, there are 3 kinds of "portable" computers right now.

Cheap netbooks that most people should buy,the little cheapo $200-400. These are great for most net users like your mom, uncle, or anyone over 40 pretty much who doesn't do much besides youtube/porn/twitter/etc

Then people like you, who want a laptop and don't give a crap about HD video or gaming. These people don't need to spend $800... they can simply use a netbook, or get a $400-600 laptop like I mention above.

Then you have the tech people, the ones who watch HD video and game... they are the only people who truly need to spend $500 or more on any laptop.

Why do you need an onboard laptop (12" mind you, almost netbook size) that cost over $500? Honestly..... I sell laptops and there is no good reason to own this at this price. If it was 400-600, that would be reasonable for the specs on this machine, but 900 for this puny, underpowered 12" (wannabe netbook as far as I'm concerned) is clearly way overpriced....

Well, I have an elitebook 2530p, the same laptop that Azhar has but without the DVD drive (bc of 2.5" of hd vs 1.8") I bought mine for $450, about a year ago. And I didn't even think about a netbook because I need something durable and can handle being moved frequently. You are forgetting one important distinction: laptops like the 2530p have much much much better construction/durability/warranty than these plain jane consumer styles.
 
Well $450 for something along these lines is what it should be, not double @ $800+..... I am not saying yours is bad at all, just that it should not cost over 500.....

For instance, They have this "ultra portable laptop" (not a netbook? lol) in stock right now for $940 shipped...... 940..... in frickin sane. It has the crappiest of crap graphics card, Intel HD onboard. and an Intel i3 with 4GB ram.... that's it, nothing is more fancy on the thing besides how it looks.... not even an SSD drive! :rolleyes:

You might as well get a higher-end netbook for half that price, as it will literally do the same pretty much performance wise....
 
Note: This isn't a ThinkPad, it's an IdeaPad. There's quite a significant difference.

The ThinkPad ultra-portable line is the ThinkPad X-Series, which is very drool-worthy.
 
Well $450 for something along these lines is what it should be, not double @ $800+..... I am not saying yours is bad at all, just that it should not cost over 500.....

For instance, They have this "ultra portable laptop" (not a netbook? lol) in stock right now for $940 shipped...... 940..... in frickin sane. It has the crappiest of crap graphics card, Intel HD onboard. and an Intel i3 with 4GB ram.... that's it, nothing is more fancy on the thing besides how it looks.... not even an SSD drive! :rolleyes:

You might as well get a higher-end netbook for half that price, as it will literally do the same pretty much performance wise....

You're way off base in my opinion. I have a 11.6" ultra portable w/ an i5-430 that runs at 1.2 and turbos up to 1.7, it's dual core w/ HT(4 threads) and has 4GB of RAM and a massive 750GB HDD. I use it for various productivity duties and as a mobile media player for stored HD videos, to be played back on the unit w/ headphones or outputted to a 1080p display via HDMI. Yes, the i5 is better than an i3 that this thread is mainly about, but some people want more performance from their small units and need a little durability compared to many of the netbooks. I paid $700 for mine and think it's a great compromise in size/performance/weight. Coming in a 3lbs, w/ more than 7 hrs of battery life for most tasks, you can travel w/ it and get plenty done while unplugged. I do feel Lenovo could have done a little better w/ their battery, a 4-cell is weak but I do like the matte display and the looks are stunning.

BTW, you might be surprised how good the Intel HD graphics are at powering light duty FPS games. I can actually play Valve's Portal on this unit and stay above 30 fps, just need to use the wireless mouse for long play time.

But alas, to each their own. Manufacturers don't consider you to be their target audience for this type of device.
 
Well $450 for something along these lines is what it should be, not double @ $800+..... I am not saying yours is bad at all, just that it should not cost over 500.....

For instance, They have this "ultra portable laptop" (not a netbook? lol) in stock right now for $940 shipped...... 940..... in frickin sane. It has the crappiest of crap graphics card, Intel HD onboard. and an Intel i3 with 4GB ram.... that's it, nothing is more fancy on the thing besides how it looks.... not even an SSD drive! :rolleyes:

You might as well get a higher-end netbook for half that price, as it will literally do the same pretty much performance wise....

A netbook is not going to match a X201 in performance no matter what you think, and simply because people release things you don't buy doesn't mean there's no market for them. I, for one, would not mind owning a X201. Between the battery life and the bombproof chassis, the thing really is worth $1000. I won't be the first to admit they wouldn't be buying this Ideapad (read: Not a Thinkpad) because Ideapads truly aren't worth the money. Thinkpads, however, are in a different league of quality and build design.

For the record, I use an Acer 3820TG. Yes, it creaks a bit. No, it's not rock solid enough to beat up a hipster and his malleable Macbook. Yes, it was $750 CAD. Yes, it's 13", 5 hours of battery life with wifi, 8 without, weighs 2 kg, i3 370M, 4GB DDR3, and a HD5650 that overclocks to 710/1000 that's switchable with the Intel graphics. As perfect as this laptop is for a student who wants a laptop that can game as well (Crysis MWLL on medium at native res? Sure, why not), I can see why people buy everything from netbooks, to those overpriced VAIOs, and those giant ASUS/HP 17" monster laptops.
 
BEWARE!

I had a client 'try' to install a 12.5MM ssd in this machine the day it came out and damaged a very delicate power cable on the bezel.

machine is so slim you have to use slim type ssds like Intel and Kingston sell, OCZ /G.Skill will not fit without heavy mods _FYI
 
You got me wrong, I knew I should have said something.... to me, there are 3 kinds of "portable" computers right now.

Cheap netbooks that most people should buy,the little cheapo $200-400. These are great for most net users like your mom, uncle, or anyone over 40 pretty much who doesn't do much besides youtube/porn/twitter/etc

Then people like you, who want a laptop and don't give a crap about HD video or gaming. These people don't need to spend $800... they can simply use a netbook, or get a $400-600 laptop like I mention above.

Then you have the tech people, the ones who watch HD video and game... they are the only people who truly need to spend $500 or more on any laptop.

Why do you need an onboard laptop (12" mind you, almost netbook size) that cost over $500? Honestly..... I sell laptops and there is no good reason to own this at this price. If it was 400-600, that would be reasonable for the specs on this machine, but 900 for this puny, underpowered 12" (wannabe netbook as far as I'm concerned) is clearly way overpriced....

You are spot on here. I tried to tell this to my friend who doesn't do crap with computers but still but a $1600 MBP. Total waste. Nice computer, but is not needed. Told him to get a $500 Dell like me.

Anyway, it seems Apple agrees with you too as its bottom end iPad can handle the people in the bolded part just fine.
 
1366x768! :rolleyes:

If that display was 1600x900 it would be better. (1650x1050 for 16:10 users)

1920x1080 on that would be drool worthy to those of us with good peepers. :p
 
You got me wrong, I knew I should have said something....


You did say something. What was that in the first post if that's not what you wanted to say?

BTW there are those of us who get to lug laptops for work to locations that don't give us the luxury of having a spot to place the laptop down without it falling off right away. The difference between a 12" and a 14" is not insignificant for those situations.

According to you the Thinkpad X line as well as their tablet are crap, because they're stuck with Intel graphics, and those cost at least 1k. I guess all those who buy the Xs are just "people that don't know jack about specs and performance....." according to you :rolleyes:
 
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