Lenovo's 11-inch IdeaPad now available
Lenovo first introduced its new consumer notebook line, IdeaPad, back at CES in January. Now, the smallest--and arguably best-looking--of the bunch is set to ship to consumers very soon.
The U110, Lenovo's foray into consumer-oriented ultraportable notebooks, is now available on Lenovo.com, with other retailers soon to follow.
The U110 IdeaPad from Lenovo.
(Credit: Lenovo)The U110 comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6-gigahertz processor, 120GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM, and comes loaded with Vista Home Premium.
The screen is 11 inches wide with no bezel and weighs in at a mere 2.4 pounds. The battery life with the original battery is 2 hours, which leaves a lot to be desired. (But the extra battery increases your mobile computing time to 8 hours, Lenovo's vice president of consumer products, Mike Kuptz, assures me.)
The U110 also comes with Dolby-branded sound with four speakers plus a subwoofer, as well as an integrated camera with face-recognition software so a person's face can be used in place of a password.
But the look is what will lure most potential buyers in. Lenovo's clearly spent a lot of time trying to make their ultraportable standout from its all-gloss white/black/pink competitors. The U110 comes in red or black, but has a great vine-patterned texture on the outside lid. The price, however, is not nearly as appealing. The basic version is $1,899. That's more than a MacBook Air, which is aimed at essentially the same market: the person who's always on the go.
The U110 will be sold in some national retail chains, like Office Depot, Micro Center, and Tiger Direct stores, but it won't be available at the largest outlets for notebook sales, Circuit City or Best Buy stores. It will, however, be available at BestBuy.com, NewEgg.com, TigerDirect, and others.
Make sure to check out the CNET Reviews hands-on video here.
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica. 
