Lenovo U110 | Introduction

Lenovo U110 | Introduction

Until 2005, few people had heard about the company Lenovo, but then after all the mass media about buying the company computer unit IBM, and on Russia's market gradually began to appear notebooks under this Chinese brand. At first these were isolated instances, but gradually more and more products under the brand name Lenovo could be seen on the shelves. Today we will consider a laptop in a series of U.

This 11-inch ultraportable notebook, which allows working with documents, e-mail to the mission, and enjoy movies and music on vacation. Detailed characteristics Lenovo U110 are presented in the table.

Features Lenovo U110

Processor Intel Core2 Duo L7500 (1,6 GHz), 4 MB cache, FSB 800 MHz

Chipset Intel GM965 Express Chipset + ICH8M

Memory 2048 MB DDR2-667 MHz (up to 3 GB)

HDD 120 GB (4200 rpm), IDE interface

Optical drive External DVD-RW Super Multi

Display 11,1 "WXGA (1366 x 768) LED Glade

Video Intel GMA X3100, up to 384 MB of RAM

Audio Realtek ALC888S, built-in stereo speakers 1,5 W

Network Interfaces LAN: 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet

Wi-Fi: Link 4965AG (IEEE802.11a/b/g)

Bluetooth 2.0

I / O Ports 1 x VGA

1 x Microphone / line input

1 x headphone / line out

1 x IEEE1394

1 x RJ-45

3 x USB 2.0

Power supply 4-cell Lithium-Ion Battery 1250 mAh (up to 2 hours of battery life)

7-mi elemental lithium-ion battery is an additional 3950 mAh (up to 6 hours of battery life)

Input device Full-sized keyboard

Touch-pad

OS Vista Home Premium

Size 275 x 196 x 18,4 - 22,4 mm

Weight 1,06 kg

Warranty 2 years.

Lenovo U110 | On the packaging and not only

Laptop arrived Received THG.ru in a small black-and-orange box with a convenient carrying handle.

In all facets of boxes bearing the corporate logo products with silver letters, and on the orange face, we found a sticker with the number of notebook models, detailed technical specifications, serial and serial number. There is also a great logo Intel, shows on the basis of one's CPU is built laptop. On the black granite marked stamping, as the upper lid.

Opened the box, editors THG saw, apart from the notebook, packed in polyethylene and polyurethane foam sides, a narrow brown box, which, actually was the so-called equipment. Frankly speaking, equipment we were surprised not only by the presence of some very needed in the devices, but also the lack of critical, in our view, objects. Let us examine this in more detail. The bundled attended an excellent external optical drive with connection to USB (and powered from this bus, which is important in the way).

The drive is capable of both read and write discs of all formats other than Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. In addition, the drive is made of the same matte soft plastic that myself a laptop. At the top of the drive manufacturer's company logo is placed and there is a blue LED, which shows that the drive has power and it is enough. Tray and the front panel like a standard notebook drive.

The panel is an orange LED that shows the state of the drive and the button to eject the tray from the shell. On the side panels adorn polished metal inserts with perforation. Reduce a drive there is nothing remarkable - four rubber feet to prevent sliding on the polished surfaces and four information labels. Rear - only the USB connector type B, used for connecting the drive to a laptop or computer. Accordingly, the cable was attached to the drive type 2A - B.

What does this mean? This means that when working with an external drive, so to speak, in an open field, that is, from the notebook battery is a very big chance that one USB port not "be acquired". Knowing in advance that one USB port is able to issue a 5 V and current of 100 mA, the probability of becoming a hundred percent certainty.

So that is guaranteed to take a drive in the field, you must use a second USB plug for additional current, much-needed drive when running on battery laptop. Also worth noting is a feature of this drive, as getting an external power supply, not dependent on the state of the notebook battery, as evidenced by the connector on the right side of the drive, but included a laptop power supply to it, we did not find a connector from the power supply the notebook did not fit in size. Hence this power supply can be purchased separately. However, such a function of the optical drive Editorial THG not seem necessary, that is, we could not imagine a situation in which would take power from an external adapter.

What software preinstalled on a laptop? Because third-party software packages include Microsoft Office 2007 (trial version for 60 days) and anti-virus McAfee (also a version for review). Of course, Lenovo offers its own utility. The main, perhaps, be called Lenovo Care, which provides a centralized interface for accessing the functions of all the others. From here you can quickly customize a power plan, a backup, create recovery disks to restore the system state from the checkpoint. Also in the utility granted access to the system service functions, such as defragmenting.

This fact should appeal to people who are intensively exploited laptop in field conditions.

Also in the box found the power supply is very small in size with polished inset on the upper side of the hull and with LED usual blue. Cable from the power supply is quite long, about two meters, and the cord is approximately the same length, so when you work on a laptop computer from the wall outlet does not have what is called, sit 'nose in the wall. "

One can see that the manufacturer does not skimp on the details. Moreover, we were surprised not to find a set of mouse and some cover. In principle, the manufacturer could be ruined on some inexpensive "bonuses" for potential consumers of its products. From the pleasant and, importantly, practical "bonuses" worth noting napkin to wipe the screen and glossy keyboard notebook.

Further, we found three disks with software and a few booklets with guidelines. In the present paper form: user manual in Russian, a guide to restore the operating system using the OneKey Recovery Center in five languages (Russian language there), safety manual and warranty information in Russian, a reminder of the initial setup as a small poster Again, in Russian, and thanks from the company's products for purchase of its products. It should draw your attention to a memo from the initial configuration notebook. When buying a first read this memo, because it is in her set with your laptop.

Consider drives carefully. On the first disk to be supplied with a laptop licensed operating system Windows Vista Home Premium, which is confirmed by the sticker on the underside of the notebook.

The second disc contains the drivers for notebook components only under Windows Vista operating system, and two remarkable text files in both Chinese and English with a detailed description of the installation of drivers on the laptop. So if you decide to install another operating system, you will need, above all, to attend to finding drivers for this OS, but now only after this "bear" Windows Vista.

As an experiment, and to prepare a notebook to the tests, we reinstall the operating system from the CD. This procedure was not difficult.

On the third drive found some interesting programs to make more use of standard equipment laptop. Of particular note are the program

VeriFace.

Lenovo U110: miniature glamorous, this notebook

Lenovo VeriFace program with built-in web camera recognizes your face and makes a digital image, determines the main features, and on the basis of all this forms an information card that is used in the future as a password to login.

Also on the disc found a program ShuttleCenter II - is a kind of substitute for the operating system of integrated multimedia player.

With ShuttleCenter II user can view the video, DVD-drives, photos, and listen to music.

Another program, called CyberLink Power2Go, allow the owner of Lenovo U110 burn a CD and DVD-discs.

The program has an intuitive and friendly interface. Moreover, it russifitsirovana and therefore understand her work is not difficult.

The disc also presents a limited-time version of Antivirus 2007 and Norton Antivirus program EasyCapture 2.5, which will shoot video and photos with the built-in web camera.

Well, in general, and all that can be found in the box for notebook Lenovo U110, and that is supplied. We turn to appearance.

Lenovo U110 | Appearance

Consider a laptop Lenovo U110 closer. From outside the notebook is made of opaque rough plastic, which, according to editors THG, is a clear advantage, because it does not have to constantly wipe their own finger prints with glossy surfaces notebook

On the upper lid and partially on the underside of the surface caused ornament in the form of various scrolls that definitely gives your laptop more glamorous look, and can serve as a good incentive for young women to consider this particular model to purchase.

In addition to the ornament on the upper lid Lenovo U110 flaunt company logo products, made of matte metal letters.

Sama lid is attached to the body Lenovo U110 on two spring-loaded hinges that allowed not to install latches on the case of the notebook. In this case, the lid in the closed state adjacent to the body virtually without gaps, and loops, in turn, cover a speaker cone, preventing the ingress of dust inside. It should also say that the lid is not fully expanded - the maximum, you can open it for about a hundred and twenty degrees.

At the bottom of the Lenovo U110 can see the four rubber feet, with two hind legs higher than the front, thus achieved the desired lean laptop for comfortable work. Also there are vents for intake of cold air, two battery latch and the compartment under the lid with two screws for access to terminals of memory.

I would like to note that, to avoid overheating the notebook, is strongly not recommended during work to install it on the soft fleecy surface, thereby blocking access to the exacerbation of outside air.

Pay attention to the functionality of a laptop Lenovo U 110. On the back side can be seen only from the battery.

On the left, the closer to the user, is a connector for the power supply from AC power, 15-pin D-sub for connecting an external monitor or LCD panel, the grid for the release of hot air from the notebooks, two USB sockets and a switch to on / off switch built-in adapter WiFi.

On the right, the closer to the user, we see the Lenovo U110 jack lock Kensington, RJ-45 connector to connect a network cable, port USB, 4-pin IEEE 1394 (Firewire), microphone input, headphone output, universal "reader with the support of memory cards MMC, MS, MS pro, SD, SD pro, xD. Or, we caught a specimen, or was intended as a producer, but the "card reader" there was no cap, so the editors THG advised to purchase and install a card reader any memory card. Given that the cost of memory cards is constantly decreasing, it is possible for relatively little money to get a substantial increase in disk space and avoid getting dust inside the laptop. By the way, we encourage you to read our recent review of the SD card to select the most appropriate model. Closest to the user is an ExpressCard slot 34 for modules and expansion cards.

It is worth noting the lack of Lenovo U110 RJ-11 and, accordingly, a modem to connect to the internet via the telephone network. Today, given the proliferation of wireless technologies (WiFi) access and dedicated Internet service providers from the local modem is not particularly needed. Also worth mentioning is the fact that, despite the compactness of the model, all ports are free and do not interfere with the use of each other.

At the front end Lenovo U110 are two panels of indicators, which represent a continuation Button Touch Pad, coming down with a pad to rest the wrists, and signal the status of the notebook. All the indicators there are three - two LEDs on the left panel, and one indicator on the right.

Consider these indicators in order from left to right. First - this is the power indicator. If it is lit in blue light constantly, so a laptop powered on, if blinking - notebook is in sleep mode. The second indicator shows battery status and burns orange during charging. Degree battery charge is determined by the color and condition of the indicator. The third - shows what wireless adapters are included at the moment. Orange indicates that the included Bluetooth, blue - including WiFi, magenta - includes both wireless adapter. Other indicators or connectors on the front side there. This concludes our description of the functionality of a laptop Lenovo U 110 and see what he has under the lid.

And under the lid at the Lenovo U110 - a glossy splendor. All, and the keyboard, and the framing of the keyboard and wrist pad to rest, and even the matrix is a brilliant gloss.

Matrix Lenovo U110 is a frameless screen - no frames, and the matrix itself has a black border at the same level, with no gaps. On top of the screen, in the middle of the black border, you find a web-camera with a resolution of 1.3 megapixels. The right of the web-camera has a built in microphone with two holes to improve the quality of sound recording, and the left, under the glossy coating of the screen, located antenna wireless adapter (WiFi) and an indicator of activity web-camera.

At the bottom of frameless screen on the right are the three indicators of a laptop - all blue. If you look left - right, the first indicator shows hard disk activity, the second says that the activated Num Lock, and the third - Caps Lock.

We turn to the body Lenovo U110. The lion's share of its area is the keyboard. This is a standard 83-button model, all the buttons which are made of glossy plastic. This move seems a dubious products, because after a long work on this keyboard, it looks like, to put it mildly, not neatly.

Above the keyboard on the left are: push button Lenovo U110 and tiny buttons "novo". It is extremely interesting. If the laptop is turned off, then when you click on this button starts utility OneKey Recovery (restoration of the operating system a key). Using this function must be very careful, as there are likely to lose all data on drive C. When the power is on and laptop operating system is loaded, pressing this button you can change the configuration of the system power consumption.

More fine-tuning system adjusts the power button and "novo" can be done in the program Lenovo Energy Management. Generally, vesbma was strange to find a laptop special button start the recovery process. How would this, on the contrary, did not cause unnecessary problems. Surely the owners of Lenovo technology so often have to restore your operating system?

Right above the keyboard Lenovo U110 is another interesting development - inductive touchpad. Initially this panel to dim orange indicator lights to reduce / increase, as well as mute the volume. To activate the touchpad and see the other buttons to hold your finger along the panel. The panel consists of five buttons, framed by ornamentation, right two buttons we have already mentioned. The first button on the left opens a window for setting the function Dolby, the following two are customizable and the user can "hang" on these buttons to launch any program.

Under the keyboard is the panel for the wrist rest and touch-pad with two buttons. Panel for the wrist rest is very small, just put it on your hands, but rather, it is not lack, as the panel size is determined by the dimensions of a laptop and its keyboard. In this model, the manufacturer opted for the keyboard, and we on our part to fully support. Pro Touch Pad nothing special to say, it is also small, with good accuracy, with no false positives.

Lenovo U110 | Ergonomics and first impressions

Housing, which compiled laptop Lenovo U110, made of good plastic, with the push of nowhere does not bend, does not creak. But if you close the lid of a laptop with only one hand, the distinctly heard some pops and slight creak. Therefore, to avoid potential problems with the screen in the future, editors THG recommended to close the lid Lenovo U110 with two hands, holding the corners of the screen.

Display Lenovo U110 glossy and supports HD-ready resolution of 1366x768 pixels, which corresponds to the aspect ratio 16х9 is cinematic and increasingly popular among manufacturers, so the viewing of videos on a laptop Lenovo U110 will be quite comfortable if you do not take into account the small screen diagonal. Display pleased excellent contrast and clarity, it has a large reserve of brightness, which will work even in bright daylight. However, it is said that when working in the premises must have a laptop so that the light source is behind the screen, otherwise the matrix will display a glossy luster and your face. Overall we liked the screen.

The keyboard installed in the notebook Lenovo U110, we are also very pleased. Despite the glossy finish, quality of the keyboard itself is very high. Keys for such a small notebook rather large, triggering confident, clear, type the text - a pleasure. The only downside, in our opinion - a fairly dense arrangement of the keys relative to each other, so the lady with manicures at risk to get a fingernail between the keys and break it.

As we already mentioned, touch-pad has a good accuracy, and works with no false positives. The surface of the touch-Pad slightly rough, finger slides on it with confidence and at the same time, easily. The only complaints about the buttons - they are pressed gently, but somehow vague, there is no clarity.

Audio system Lenovo U110 us a little disappointed. At the maximum volume level almost unheard of. Rather, for the sake of design, than common sense, the manufacturer placed the speaker cone so that they are not directed to the listener, as him. Speakers and so weak (half a watt), but still play in the other direction. Would be logical to advise those who would like to sound normal, carry a mobile headphones or speakers.

Lenovo U110 runs very quiet, despite the constantly running fan, but given the background noise in a typical office, the laptop can not hear at all. Even with the CPU load of about seventy percent of the noise level has not increased, the fan speed is not increased, and the body as a whole, not warmed, the temperature increase is felt only on the left side where hot air is emitted. There Corps to become a little warmer, so to work, holding laptop on his knees, can safely, without fear of burns. Also manifest-designed cooling system and use Intel processors with low power consumption and heat dissipation.

Lenovo U110 | Detailed specifications

At the beginning of this article, we have a table with specifications Laptop Lenovo U110. Now it is time to further investigate these parameters. Laptop built on Intel GM965 chipset with integrated graphics GMA X3100, able to reserve for their own use up to 358 megabytes of RAM.

Since laptop Lenovo U110 is not positioned as a game, no one expects that this video will show any high performance in 3D-shooter games or benchmarks. GMA X3100 is enough to accelerate the Windows Vista Aero and watching videos in HD-resolution, as it will be enough to run World of Warcraft or some level of Quake 3. The processor in the Lenovo U110 is installed with low power consumption and, consequently, with reduced heat, allowing the system "live" from the battery for quite a long time. For more information about battery life, you will learn below. Chip Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo L7500 is made for 65-nm technology and is based on core Merom. The nominal clock frequency of his equals 1.6 GHz, while working in a power saving mode clock frequency is reduced to 1,2 GHz.

As for RAM, then such a decision rather typical for technology Sony - in the Lenovo U110, one gigabyte, soldered to the motherboard, and the second set in the slot. In such a configuration capable of carrying a laptop on board to three gigabytes of RAM.

Lenovo U110: miniature glamorous, this notebook

Disk system from Lenovo U110 notebook for this class characteristic - in a typical laptop computer installed with a PATA-HDD spindle rotation speed 4200 rpm and a capacity of 120 gigabytes. In this twenty gigabytes you can not see because they are reserved for hidden partition and contain snapshot of the operating system with drivers and programs needed to restore using the utility OneKey Recovery. The rest of disk space is divided into two logical drives, one used by the system, the second - under the "pantry". For ultra-compact laptop all the characteristics of logical. We are, however, surprised the hard drive with PATA interface obsolete, while most modern notebooks and netbooks are equipped with hard drives with interface SATA, and some have already come and SSD-drives. Why does Lenovo have done so for us to remain a mystery. Apparently, the producer their views on the subject. However, we note that the PATA interface energy is lower than that of SATA.

Make interim findings. Judging by the hardware stuffing, the laptop Lenovo U110 is fully fit for purpose compact mobile system for the road.

Lenovo U110 | Testing: definition of productivity

It's time to tell about the performance of Lenovo U110. THG editors spent several standard tests, the results of which are listed below.

As a result of the tests confirmed that gaming laptops Lenovo U110 is not in any way. His destiny - run old games, the work of Windows Vista Aero and video. Lenovo U110 is a working tool in the road, occupying minimum space in your bag. Then go to the results in PCMark05, which estimated the overall system performance and performance components of notebook components. The results can be seen in the chart below.

In PCMark Vantage, we measured the performance of laptop Lenovo U110 in the solution of various problems - from office and multimedia (including encoding and playback of HD-Video) up to games. The program evaluates the complex processor, memory, hard drive, performance and video quality and much more. Results can be seen in the chart below.

It is safe to say that the Lenovo U110 shows quite decent and the expected results, if you do not take into account the behavior of Lenovo U110 laptop for graphics tests, but it is not designed for this. But to work in office applications, Internet, e-mail capacity notebook Lenovo U110 enough to spare. For entertainment, such as movies and music, too, there are no obstacles.

Of particular note one awkward situation at the time of testing. When you run PCMark Vantage test with the regular drivers, we were unable to remove evidence - the test was interrupted. Downloading the driver from the laptop manufacturer's website and reinstalling it did not help. Only after the GMA X3100 driver was downloaded from Intel site and installed, the graphics system Notebook Lenovo U110 ran at full capacity, with up to fifteen per cent faster. If you plan to buy a laptop Lenovo U110, editors THG recommends that you reinstall your graphics card driver by downloading it from Intel site immediately after purchase.

Lenovo U110 | Testing: Temperature and battery life

First on the temperature regime. During the stress test the processor and hard drive, conducted using Everest 4.50 an hour, get the results shown in the chart below.

The result was a decent - if one hundred percent load on the CPU temperature never rose above 56 degrees. Affected by the use processors with low heat removal system and well thought out hot air. The temperature of the hard disk does not exceed 45 degrees, which is also pretty good. All these calculations indicate that the heat removal system is built correctly, and also correctly matched components.

To determine the backup time we have used three scenarios. Initially considered a standard battery, and then expanded. In the first case we tested the script with viewing the movie in 720p resolution. This power system was placed in balanced mode with screen brightness at 50 percent. Quite low brightness of the screen due to the large range of brightness, while viewing a video with lots of dark scenes (Hellboy II: The Golden Army) did not cause discomfort.

In the second scenario was considered an imitation of work at low load. Power system mounted in a low power mode with the brightness of the screen is only 20 percent of the maximum. In this mode, we find out most of the time of the Lenovo U110 laptop battery life in austerity. The figures can be considered as the limit of what can attract thrifty users of laptop batteries.

In the third scenario, we simulated game load, although Lenovo U110 laptop because of its weak graphics performance is clearly not a game. This test we wanted to find out how much time "live" with the laptop on battery power at maximum load. Power System installed in high performance mode with the brightness of the screen at 100 percent. For extended battery of tests took place on the same three scenarios and with the same settings of the power supply as for the standard battery. Results you can see in the chart presented below.

What can be said on the results of tests on the battery life? In the view of the editors THG, the standard battery can be used only for a short stint with the e-mail and editing documents. In all about all you will have about two hours. Watch the movie completely, and even more to play will not work. Take a laptop with a standard battery only makes sense in situations where you are assured of a number of sockets, and you do not have long to remain without power.

As for the extended battery, there already is, where to turn. More than five and a half hours in office applications, more than two and a half hours for watching videos and even one and a half hours for the game if you play the game with three or four years ago. Editors THG recommended to use an extended battery as a full-time, but if its charge is not enough, then you can set the less capacious battery, to finish the unfinished work. Two batteries will give the opportunity to work together from 2,5 hours to about eight hours, depending on screen brightness, power settings, and volume load on the components of the Lenovo U110 (processor, hard disk, video card, etc.)

Lenovo U110 | Conclusion

According to the editors THG Notebook Lenovo U110 has an excellent stylish design, targeted at a female audience, with enough performance and battery life to be a smart choice for business trips and work on the road for a long time. Not surprisingly, being built on a full-fledged dual-core processor, it is easily performed by any "heavy" office programs, capable of showing HD-video and even run some games.

It is logical U110 will look purse, but build quality and excellent keyboard with a good touch-padom provide comfort during work. Traditional for the production of Lenovo as an input device is observed in Lenovo U110.

There are some shortcomings that we have not included the negative qualities, but who would like to mention. For example, the lack of fingerprint scanner (instead implemented a system facial reading through the web-camera, causing some issues). Program guard - a program VeryFace - this is certainly good, but already known to some curious ways to circumvent it. In this regard, access to fingerprint still more reliable. As supplied, it is also very bad - and an external optical drive, and a second extended battery would be really useful. It is a pity that the Lenovo U110 is not built additional 3G-modem to the Internet could really go anywhere. However, with WiFi and Bluetooth, Internet access can also be found without problems, either through hostpot, or through almost any modern cell phone.

Advantages.

Stylish appearance (especially the red model);

long-term autonomous operation by two batteries;

excellent keyboard;

Compact, lightweight;

availability of complete recovery disks

included the presence of an external optical drive;

quiet and cool.

Disadvantages.

Glossy finish keyboard - fingerprints do notebook messy;

hard drive with outdated interface - not the best option upgrade ever;

absence of complete cover and mouse;

inarticulate Button Touch Pad.

Lenovo U110 | Photo Gallery

As usual, THG editors have prepared a large number of photos, so you can better assess notebook Lenovo U110. To see the photos in high definition, just click on one of the following thumbnails.