With its magnesium alloy chassis and orange (or brown) lid and bottom, the Lenovo IdeaPad U260 draws attention. It’s the world’s first 12.5-inch ultraportable laptop and has a low-voltage Intel Core i5 processor under the hood. So how does the machine fare in real world usage?

Simply put, the IdeaPad U260 is well worth its $899 price tag, but it fails to come up with respectable battery life.

Design and build quality.

The U260 measures just 0.7 inches thin and weighs 3 pounds. It is easy to carry and has an extremely attractive design that is sure to turn heads. Build quality is good.

Heat

Heat levels are normal. Lenovo’s breathable keyboard design and Intel’s advanced cooling techniques help keep the laptop reasonably cool during operation. The areas near the rear vents below the screen
the hinges, however, get uncomfortably hot. We think it’s not very lap friendly.

Keyboard and touchpad

Lenovo laptops have always been famous for their large keyboards. The IdeaPad U260 is no different. It has a chiclet-style keyboard that is quite comfortable for typing. The keyboard is also waterproof. The glass trackpad has two discrete chrome mouse buttons that are quite responsive. The touchpad supports multitouch, but Laptop says that some gestures, like pinch-to-zoom, feel a bit sluggish.

Ports and web cameras

Port selection is satisfactory. The laptop has a miniPCIe slot, 2 USB ports, VGA, Ethernet, HDMI, WiFi on/off switch, dual headphone and microphone jack, and a spare slot for a card reader. It also has a 0.3 megapixel webcam.

screen and audio

The IdeaPad U260 has a 12.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. There’s also an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust screen brightness. The one-watt stereo speakers are backed by Dolby Advanced Audio digital sound processing technology. The audio quality is quite impressive. But if you tend to listen to a lot of music on your laptop, you’ll definitely need to invest in a pair of headphones.

Performance

The IdeaPad U260 has a low-voltage Core i5 470UM processor, integrated graphics, 4GB of RAM, and a 320GB 5400rpm hard drive. On the PC Mark Vantage test, it scored well above the AMD-powered HP Pavilion dm1z. However, the Aspire TimelineX 1830t, which has the same price of $899 but a Core i7 processor, scored nearly 1,000 points higher.

In terms of real-world use, the U260 is a capable performer. It can handle just about anything you throw at it. Boot times are also fast. Because the U260 doesn’t have a discrete graphics card, it doesn’t offer impressive graphics performance.

Battery duration

The IdeaPad U260 has around 4 hours of battery life. That’s not too bad, but the Aspire TimelineX 1830t lasts for over 6 hours.