Lenovo IdeaPad U430 59399722 i7 Touch Ultrabook Review

Lenovo IdeaPad U430 Touch Ultrabook
via Amazon

Silver Lenovo IdeaPad U430 is a slim 14 inch touchscreen ultrabook in a trendy alloy shell, providing maximized performance in a super mobile package. It comes with a powerful Intel i7-4500u processor, very long battery life, unique features like Dragon voice recognition capability and motion control, a touch display supporting 10-point multitouch gestures and more, with an affordable price tag.

Lenovo IdeaPad U430 comes with a Haswell Intel Core i7-4500U mobile processor at 1.8 GHz speed (200 MHz processor 4MB cache allowing for demanding stuff like games), 4GB SO-DIMM DDR3L SDRAM memory at 1600 MHz for enhanced multitasking, a hybrid hard drive (500GB Serial ATA-600 hard drive at 5400RPM rotating speed and 8GB solid state drive) for speed and storage space as well as the web based Lenovo Cloud Storage to let you have access from any device and send content to mobile devices. The SSD allows the Lenovo to start from zero in seconds and from hibernation in just over a second. Operating system is the 64 bit version of the latest Windows 8.1, and the system is highly customized for it.

14 inch HD+ (high definition) display with 250 nits (1600 x 900 pixel resolution) and 16:0 cinematic aspect ratio supports 10-point multitouch gestures (10-point means all ten fingers can be involved at once on the screen) delivers very sharp and vivid images. Intel HD Graphics 4400 is decent enough to support enhanced graphics and some games. And the Dolby Home Theatre v4 audio offer impressive clear and full stereo sound through the integrated stereo speakers. 720p HD camera (1.0 MP) is good for video conferencing and Skype chats.

The well-known AccuType keyboard of Lenovo is designed for your comfort to make typing easier, while minimizing errors. You'll find an efficient buttonless touchpad underneath that is also quite responsive. There is not an integrated DVD/CD drive on this model but certainly doesn't lack other useful connectivity options, such as 802.11bgn wireless, Bluetooth 4.0 to synchronize with other Bluetooth enabled devices, HDMI port, Intel Wireless Display- WiDi to direct content to your large screen HDTV without cords, a USB 3.0 port for much quicker data transfers, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, an integrated 2-in-1 media card-reader (SD/MMC), , 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN and a 2-in-1 audio jack (microphone and headset).

The Lenovo U430 offers a modern steel alloy exterior and it looks beautiful. It weighs only 4.17 pounds and is 0.8 inch thin (0.19 inch at the thinnest point). Its light 4-cell lithium-polymer battery gives you as much as 10 hours of battery life, which is great for when you are out and about, this is thanks to the Haswell processor and also the Lenovo Energy Management system that helps with reliability of battery in the long-run and also increases the time you can work on it between charges.

Conclusion: Lenovo IdeaPad U430 Touch is lightweight, compact and beautiful to look at with impressive image and sound quality. Battery life is advertised as 10 hours and you should get it in not so heavy use. The i7 processor is suitable for very demanding tasks like multimedia editing and advanced games but the standard Intel 4400 graphics card may be holding it back a little. Build quality is really good with the metal exterior and the quality of internal components, so it is not going to break easily in a few years. It is definitely good value for how much it costs, as it is a modern ultrabook that is a great powerful performer.

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