Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch Review

Pros

• Affordable
• SSD Cache
• Compact Design 

Cons

• Short Battery Life
• Poor Speaker Quality

Quick Take:

The Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch is compact affordable notebook with a solid level of performance. 

overview

Ultrabooks are typically known for their flare and style, but the Lenovo IdeaPad U310 goes against the grain. While most Ultrabooks focus on an aesthetic ideal, the Lenovo IdeaPad U310 is a simple utility driven device.

Sure Lenovo U310 Touch still offers a sleek clean form factor, but it doesn't sport the gleaming stylistic appeal that so many Ultrabooks strive for. Instead the U310 Touch is all about value; equipped with an Intel i5 processor and 500GB HDD (with 24GB SSD cache), the IdeaPad offers a solid level of performance for its competitive $700 price point.

However, does the Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch offer enough in its small package to entice consumers? Read the full review to find out. 

Build and Design

The Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch employs a sleek design with curved edges and a slight curved slant across the edges of the top of the display case. The metallic chassis is comprised of two colors, a darker grey across the top and bottom portions of the chassis and lighter silver running across the body of the machine. While the design is rather generic, the device produces a clean understated aesthetic perfect for business.

Measuring at 13.7" x 8.9" x 0.71" and weighing in at 3.9lbs. the Lenovo U310 Touch is lightweight and easy to carry, making the device ideal for travel. Considering its sleek design, the U310 touch does offer a suitable level of durability. While testing the device the chassis held up well only flexing slightly when adequate pressure was applied. The display also flexed a bit when pressure was applied with noticeable distortions occurring on the corners of the display. The Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch certainly isn't a tank, but it should hold up to the normal wear and tear of travel just fine.

Ports and Features

The 13-inch ultrabook isn't loaded with ports, but the device manages to cover all of the basics. The left side offers an Ethernet, an HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports. The Right offers a headphone/mic combo jack and a USB 2.0 port.

Left: Ethernet, HDMI, two USB 3.0	Right: headphone/mic jack, USB 2.0

Considering the limited selection of ports it would have been nice if the Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch offered more space between the two USB ports on the left side of the chassis, but besides that everything else is spaced adequately and easy to reach.

Display and Speakers

The Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch is equipped with a 13.3-inch LED Back-lit 10-point touch enabled HD display with a 1366 x 768 resolution. The display offers a clear image with solid color contrast perfect for watching media or reading text. It's nothing spectacular, but for an affordable 13" ultrabook its more than acceptable.

The display offers fairly decent viewing angles as well. On the horizontal axis, image quality holds well past 100 degrees. On the vertical axis however, the display proves far less forgiving with image quality becoming distorted when the display is tilted forwards or backwards. With a glossy finish the display can become reflective at times, but it's only a serious issue in heavily lit environments.

The touch enabled display is also a welcome addition to the device, especially when paired with Windows 8 live tiles. Given how well the touchpad works on the Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch, I honestly didn't find myself using the touchscreen all that often, but when I did, it was quick and responsive. Even multi-finger inputs read well on the display with little to no disruptions.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch offers two speakers located just below the hinge that connects the chassis and display case. The speakers offer a suitable amplification, which is certainly loud enough for personal use and small groups though the notebook may struggle to provide an entire room with audio.

The more serious issue for the speakers is the lack of quality. Below 80 percent capacity the speakers manage to offer clear audio, however once users bypass that noticeable distortion becomes audible. Additionally, at 100 percent capacity the speakers produced a noticeable hiss in the background. As previously stated, the speakers are function especially below 80 percent capacity, but users looking to view media will likely want to use an external device.

Keyboard and TouchPad

The U310 Touch offers a Chiclet style keyboard. The keys have a smooth finish and offer a decent level of compression given the small form factor of the device. Tactile feedback is consistent, but feels a bit lackluster. It's still easy to type quickly and efficiently on the device, though added feedback might make the experience a bit more pleasurable.

The U310 Touch offers a generously sized touchpad, especially for the size of the 13-inch machine. The pad (equipped with a synaptics driver) is devoid of mouse buttons. Instead the machine designates the bottom left and right portions of the pad to act as the left and right mouse clicks respectively; as denoted by the small graphic and slight downward slant of the pad. The design of the touchpad is actually quite similar that seen on the Lenovo IdeaPad Y500. Both devices use the downward slant of the pad to help users understand where the left and right click portions of the pad are located.

The touchpad also performs admirably reading swipes and clicks with clarity and responsiveness. Multi-finger gestures also read well on the pad with only a few mis-reads occurring during my time with the device. Additionally, the smooth texture of the pad makes it easy to glide your finger across it, providing added sensitivity and precision; making the touchpad perfect for more detailed functions such as reading text.

Performance and Benchmarks

Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch Review: Performance

Our Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch review unit includes the following configuration:

• Windows 8 (64-bit)
• 13.3" (1366 x 768) LED Back-lit 10-Point Touch-Enabled HD Display
• 1.8 GHz Intel Core i5-337U Processor
• Intel HD Graphics 4000
• 4GB DDR3 RAM
• 500 GB HDD (5400 RPM) + 24 GB SSD
• 802.11 b/g/n
• 3-cell Li-Polymer battery
• Dimensions: 13.1" x 8.9" x 0.71"
• Weight: 3.7lbs.
• MRSP: $700

The Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch offers a solid level of performance, especially given its competitive price point. Equipped with a 1.8 GHz Intel i5-337U Processor, Intel HD Graphs, the machine is able to tackle basic word and web functions with relative ease. With 4GB of RAM, the notebook was also able to multitask fairly well running multiple programs with no noticeable drop in performance.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch is able to tackle more demanding Office tasks such as complicated excel table with relative ease, but the machine does begin to slip in performance when juggling multiple demanding tasks.

The integrated graphics prove to be another bottleneck for the machine's performance. While suitable for most functions, users will be unable to tackle graphically intensive functions such as HD video editing or newer games. With its limited media focus,

The 24GB solid state drive is a welcomed addition to the machine's main 500GB hard disk drive (HDD). The faster data retrieval is nice, albeit users have limited space. However, users will get full access to the 24GB drive and be able to decide which applications/ media they store to the drive.

wPrime processor comparisons (lower score means better performance): 

 

PCMark 7 is a newer benchmark and measures overall systems performance (higher scores mean better performance):

 

3DMark 11 is a benchmark that measures overall graphic card performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance): 

 

Crystal DiskMark storage drive performance test: 

 

Heat and Noise

The Lenovo U310 Touch is an equipped with a single fan located on the left side of the chassis. The fan manages to keep the machine relatively cool especially for how quite it is. Unless the U310 touch is pushed to capacity the fan is inaudible, and even then it only produces a light hum. In those instances small amounts of heat will emanate from the vent, but it's still comfortable to use as a laptop at all times. 

Battery Life

To test battery life, we used our new PowerMark benchmark in balanced mode. The test consists of a combination of automated web browsing, word processing, gaming and video playback workloads. The test is far more strenuous than our previous test, measuring the machine under a litany of scenarios to better simulate real life use. With the test being far more demanding the scores are understandably lower than our previous benchmark.

In our tests the Lenovo IdeaPad U310 touch ran for 3 hours and 10 minutes before shutting down after reaching the 5 percent battery reserve limit. Running just above three hours the Lenovo U310 Touch offers lackluster battery life, especially for a sleek 13" ultrabook designed for travel.

Luckily the notebook does offer substantial battery gains when running basic productive-oriented programs The Lenovo U310 Touch ran for 4 hours and 43 minutes before shutting down after the 5 percent battery reserve limit when testing the machine under productivity mode.  However, if users plan on viewing media in any capacity, it's likely best to have the power jack on hand. 

Conclusion

The Lenovo U310 Touch is an ideal ultrabook for the cost conscious business user. The sleek design is great for travel, and the Intel i5 processor with 4GB of RAM provides the performance users need to stay productive at an affordable price point.  

Media intensive users will likely find the machine's short battery life (while playing media) and lackluster sound system serious deterrents. However, the Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch isn't for them. The Lenovo IdeaPad U310 is best suited for users who want a portable device that offers adequate utility at an affordable cost. 

Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch Review: Conclusion

Pros:

• Affordable
• SSD Cache
• Compact Design

Cons:

• Short Battery Life
• Poor Speaker Quality

Individual Ratings: *

Software & Support 
Upgrade Capabilities 
Usability 
Design 
Performance 
Features 
Price/Value Rating 
* Ratings averaged to produce final score