Ideapad u330 - New owners :-)

Yeah, Intel Inside.

It is noticeably light. My colleague uses a new Mac book. In hand, the U330 feels lighter. The U330 also feels much lighter than a T400. It is thinner than the T400, and of course, much better looking. The Mac book is a hair thinner than the U330.

You must be a democrat. Either way, you have missed the point.
Point being, no laptop can perform like a desktop.The U330 has top notch graphics for an ultra-portable laptop.

To address your point, Crysis does run very well on MAX settings, but it is not playable w/o a high end SLi rig.
“Not playable” means you can play it at MAX settings, but frame rates are too low for accurate shooting, and game play experience is otherwise severely reduced.
“SLi,” when read together in the context of the paragraph, referred to a HIGH END SLi rig that could run Crysis at max setting. Two top of the line nvidia cards, and Sli mother board = $800. I can’t post links here yet (not until my 15th post), but if I could there would links to confirm this.

Speaking of lectures, I posted while keeping up in tax law lecture yesterday. That's why I did not elaborate on points off topic. There is always one of you though.

I just tweaked the advanced settings in the WINDOWS power management. I changed a lot of settings, including “max processor state.” I set this to 30%. Comp is still very fast (thanks to 1066mhz bus and ddr3).
By the way, anyone notice that battery life is not reduced by the U330 when under high load?? Last night, I had [modified] power saver setting on, and was copying files from external USB, while downloading wirelessly, and organizing itunes/playing music. This did not eat away at my battery life at all! The U330 is not a power hungry machine, but seems to have a glitch. The low power consumption under load is a remarkable testament to this. I am sure the glitch will be worked out, and we will see even better life.

Agreed, I got carried away. It is likely that people are experiencing some “first batch” problems though.

What if I am using sleep mode? Does pressing Fn + F1 cause this “glitch?”

It’s a mistake to think that. There is one color scheme. The lid looks black, but put it under bright light and you will see dark metallic blue. The rest of the laptop is black.

 

hmmm... I dont why some websites are saying it comes in two colors. Guess it was just a press release.

 

Seriously, Lenovo, no trackpoint?

 

It's not a ThinkPad.

 

No Ideapad has it...

I have a question for those who already own this laptop. When I tried the Crysis demo om medium settings, it was really lagging. It was even a bit laggy at places on low settings. This is of course with the ATI Performance setting. Is it because I only have 2GB ram?

 

RoyCohn:

I'm still trying to figure out what causes the greater energy usage glitch. I know it happens for sure whenever you resume from hibernate without shutting down. I don't THINK it happens when just using sleep but I haven't tested it with the voltage program yet. Just haven't gotten around to it as I'm quite lazy lately.

RoyCohn's post about Crysis has already covered this a but anyways, it's just a HUGE resource hog. I don't recommend playing it on this notebook... or for that matter any notebook that is not intended as a desktop replacement. There's simply no laptop that can be this small and pack that much power.

If you ever open up a desktop you'll see that, NO EXAGGERATION, a strong video card will by ITSELF be bigger and use more power than this entire laptop. No joke.

However, some very new system intensive games like Mass Effect can run pretty well at 800x600 res and medium settings. Oblivion plays very well at max res (max resolution for this notebook that is) also.

 

Guys got a quick question, they told me a 50buck credit. My laptop has shipped and I still have not got the credit back. How long before the credit showed up?

I have a C200 with T7200/3gb and comparing to Ideapad I don't notice any big difference speed wise. My C200 has taken some hard abuse. I really dislike the led lights everywhere on the ideapad. The led screen is awesome. The weight is pretty dam good. The lenovo software is kinda buggy. Overall no defects on the laptop. Ran need for speed at 800x600 if I remember correctly without much lag. At higher resolutions the laptop starts to struggle. Good for some budlite gaming. It would have been awesome if battery life was better. As some of you guys have said hopefully they correct this problem soon. Laptop kinda gets hot on the right side near the fan/cpu. Fan kicks on and off without any problems. Laptop is pretty sturdy. I am on the fence if I should sell it or keep it. Hmmmm BTW: I ordered 8/24 it shipped last friday.

Looks like the CPU is not fully stepping down on the clock speed. I find it interesting I think this is what is causing it to have a somewhat bad battery life. I noticed my t7200 clocking down all the way to 970mhz. While the idea pad is only going down to 1500mhz. Weird. Lenovo better fix this!

 

I found where to make these adjustments for the AMD card. Where do I go to adjust the Intel settings?

Thanks!

 

Right click on the Intel GMA icon when you are on Intel Graphics in the tray. (Doesn't show up if you're on ATI graphics.)

Select graphics properties.

Then color correction.

 

I got the $50 credit too. They charged my credit card for the total amount of the invoice and then made a separate negative $50 charge after shipping. Keep an eye out for that on your statement.

 

I believe i asked this before, but never got a solid answer...

Is it possible to do a system restore on the u330, formatting the c drive and returning it to the state it was when brand new (software/drivers installed, but nothing else)? My old toshiba laptop had a recovery dvd it came with that did this. I don't feel i need to format yet, but if/when i need to i want the option.

I figured there was the equivalent of a recovery dvd image on the d: drive, and that the OneKey Recovery software did this. However, when you run it, it has two options. Create Recovery Disc burns an image to a dvd, but there is no default image to burn. Selecting Back Up, then Full Backup and choosing Quick Compression, wants to make an image, requiring 96 gb, of my entire computer (as is). This is not what i want at all.

I know that thinkpad's have similar software to the OneKey recovery, and that they also do not come with recovery discs; but there seems to be a more straightforward way of burning an original recovery disc for them. How to do this on the u330? If its not possible, my next step is to call lenovo and complain, and requesting they send me one of these disks (they MUST have something of the sort). I'd rather just burn one myself though, if possible.

 

When searching for a walkthrough on here earlier, I found these directions for a thinkpad:

This sounds like what I am trying to do, but searching for Recovery Media does not provide any results. So if it's even possible to do this on the U330, the method is different.

 

Guys, you don't need a recovery disk.

It's simple to recover the notebook to it's original state.

Turn off the notebook.

Instead of turning it on via the power button, press the One Key recovery button next to the power on button.

This powers on without going to windows.

From there follow the self explanatory directions to restore the notebook to it's original state.

You do not need to have created an image of the laptop when you first got it to do this.

 

Considering the U330 has such a nice frameless display, is there a privacy filter available for it that won't detract from the look?

....and I sure wish they didn't have that "1.3M PIXELS" and other print at the top of the frame!

 

Check these out buyviewguard . com

The 1.3M Pixel lettering is worthless, but its very small and unobtrusive.

The one key recovery is great. If you need a clean install just press it.
On the other hand, the image is good to use if you have spent some time loading fundamentals on your computer and want to restore it to that state. I have made an image to do this.

Also, like others, I have noticed that the processor in the U330 will not clock down under 1.5ghz (when on battery power saving mode). The Intel processor in here is capable of much lower clocks, and it should not be running at such a high clock in power save mode. Another glitch? My battery life is still 4 hrs under moderate load/use though. My previous post of 4.5 hrs still stands, however, 4.5 hours out of the U330 is a less realistic average.

I mentioned before that the battery life on my U330 is not affected much under heavy load. Does anyone else notice this?

 

Has anyone placed an order for the U330 On 9/25 and any date after that. Have any of you recieved your order yet. It's been 6 delays now for me.

 

haha. I ordered 8/24 and got it last week. you have a month left.

 

Ordered mine on 9/12 and received it last week.

Just some quick notices about my U330:
-I am in class right now and have the intel graphics card running with super energy saver setting with the sound card turned off, bluetooth off, screen brightness to 1, lan card off, color quality medium, wifi on and according to the battery life being said by the battery life management system, it says I have 4.5 hours left having google chrome running and powerpoint and microsoft word running. Oh and I turned off readycomm.
- Some of my keys are squeaky.
-screen was washed out but I messed with the settings a bit, it is fine.
-I had the graphics card ONCE have a glitch since I have received the laptop. For some reason it would not switch from the ATI to the Intel.
-Also, a few times, I had the "little circle thing" on the cursor(like when you start running a program) go on and not go away. Both the graphics card and this problem were gone after restarting the computer.
- Veriface sometimes take a long time to recognize my face

All and all, my overall review is that I really like this laptop but those of you expecting to receive the quality of Thinkpads, I am sad to say I feel that the U330 is nowhere near to those standards. Quite honestly, The keyboard on my Dell Inspiron E1505 felt more robust than this keyboard and I have seen friends with the same Dell laptop with keys popping off. This only makes me wonder how long this keyboard will withstand. This laptop has some great features and is definitely cutting edge but like I said, I only wish that the quality of this laptop was of that of the thinkpads. Please take caution in my short little review due to me being an expert in laptops. So make the decision for yourselves if this is the right laptop for you. Personally for me, this is fine. I am a student and the 4.5 hours is enough for me to do my class work. If I was getting 3-3.5 hours like some people are receiving, than I would be very upset. Also to note, the customer service I received during my wait for this laptop was ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. I was lied to twice and did not feel respected. I am deciding to keep this laptop because of the price I got it at and what it comes with was quite a deal. I am only hoping that it will be able to withstand the test of time.

Good luck to all.

 

Grats on your new u330.

I am selling my zeroshock 13.3" bag , i want go with a backpack instead.
35 dollar including shipping. Will Ship very fast.
New condition, barely used.
if anyone is interested, send me a email at [email protected]

 

Anyone else?

 

Installed XP SP3 Working fine after installing all drivers. Anyone have any questions about install please ask. Anyone else installed xp works pretty dam good expect you can't switch graphics. I don't really care because I can swap hds if I have to use ati card. I am not sure about battery life. It seems like xp has worse battery life. Something is wrong anyone have any ideas?

 

Yes, ordered mine on October 21st, it was shipped on the 24th, and I got it on the 28th

 

A brand new one costs $36 including shipping.

I'll pay you $15 including shipping

 

If you uninstalled Vista then you lost Lenovo's power management software. This is likely why you're getting worse battery performance out of XP.

 

***...LENOVO

I just got an e-mail saying that my order for U330, placed since 9/25 will be cancelled if do not reply to this e-mail within 5 days. Due to high demand of lenovo products.

You Gotta be F*****g Kindding Me.

~~~~~~~~~~ ANYONE ELSE GET THIS E-MAIL? ~~~~~~~~~

 

Yes, but I installed the software back from the lenovo site below "Lenovo Energy Management Driver" from link below..

I did not uninstall vista. I have separate hard drive on which I have installed xp on. Just to see how it likes xp so far it’s pretty fast and if I can get the battery to perform as in vista it would be banging.
Lenovo Energy Management Driver is what I have installed looks like a ****ty program.

consumersupport.lenovo.com/lenovo/Drivers/list.aspx?CategoryID=849


Anyone have any clues?

 

JARJAR, I've heard that happen before. Just reply for it and call up and tell them to hurry up. The wait is worth it, don't cancel...

 

It's good to know people feel my pain... This U330 must be some hell of a laptop!

 

Go yell at the FTC. It's their regulation since 30 days have passed since the item was ordered.

 

Buy one off Ebay. With live cashback it might be a little cheaper.

 

I thought this thread was "New Owners" not "awaiting buyers".

Does anyone use an IR remote with there U330? I am looking into getting one. Any suggestions?

 

I thought this thread was "New Owners" not "awaiting buyers".

Already bought bro' just waiting for it...

 

Question: My displays keeps turning off when I am idle for a few minutes but I have already gone into power management and changed the settings.

 

Grrr just noticed my front right speaker is crackly. Eh, will wait until summer to complain due to school.

 

did u change it in the lenovo energy management software...i believe it overrides the windows power settings

(open the energy management program and double click on the profile, such as Balanced, and then u can adjust a bunch of settings)

 

Just received mine. Ordered Sept 27, shipped Oct 27, received Nov 4 (Canada). I expected a fairly long processing time given other peoples experiences. It was delayed a few times but never received an email about order cancellation. Also went with the lower spec one.

I've been reading the reviews so far and I knew what to expect, but here are my initial impressions on some things I was concerned about. Just to note, I plan on using this laptop for mostly work (putty, eclipse, VMWare), some multimedia (still need to test the HDMI) and very little gaming.

Power brick. Big and cumbersome. I had seen a few pictures before, but it didn't do it justice. I've had a T42, T60 and V200, the 65W travel brick is very manageable, the 90W brick was acceptable but the U330's is a tad too big. The U330 brick has the same plug as the T4x but the voltage/amperage is different by a bit (forgot to check polarity but it is probably the same). 19V/4.74A (U330) vs 16V/4.4A (T4x), can someone comment on if it is potentially harmful to use a lower output adapter?

Preloaded Vista build from Lenovo is quite slow, I don't use Vista normally, so I can't compare it to a vanilla Vista build...yet. There is the usual preloaded bloatware, removing them and stopping un-used services helped a lot. Will do some tests against my V200 once I install XP

Veriface was fast but is not strict enough when matching faces (or eyes or however it does it). My friend and I tested this by taking a picture on his iPhone (in a medium-low light environment). The picture was kinda grainy but still recognizable. He used that picture off the iPhone screen and was able to log in. I didn't expect much out of Veriface and wasn't going to use it anyway.

Keyboard feels clicky, something that I've never experienced before on an IBM/Lenovo keyboard. The keyboard flex that I had read about is there, but not really noticeable unless you're typing hard. Overall it doesn't feel as solid as their previous keyboards.

The whole laptop is a dust and fingerprint magnet. Almost anything you touch will leave an imprint. I find myself always cleaning it though I'll probably stop once the novelty wears off.

That's it for now. Most of the other aspects of the U330 are already covered by others, which I share similar opinions.
Last thing, the U330 ALMOST fits in Brenthaven Edge I 13.3" messenger bag. I could probably get it to fit if I forced it but it's too snug for my liking. It also doesn't help that it doesn't have any space or pockets at all for the power brick.

 

LADIES & GENTLEMEN....today I recieved my shipping notification.
Now I just need my tracking number and an actual U330 that is to my specs sitting on my lap.

 

For those of you that got the compensation, can you have it used to buy other products from lenovo, ie. mouse, webcam?

 

I started using my U330 this week and the laptop is absolutely beautiful. So far I could not find anything wrong with it. The screen is excellent.

On a 99% charged battery, power saving mode, 30% brightness, max processor state set at 36%, Intel GPU and everything on, my battery lasts on average about 4 hr 20 to 40 minutes just surfing the internet with few downloads sessions and occasional use of the DVD drive for transferring files onto the desktop. This is how long the battery lasts even when I have yet to uninstall all the bloatwares.

At 36% maximum processor state setting I did not notice any significant delays in launching apps etc. The laptop is quite responsive.

With exactly the same setting as above but on ATI GPU, the battery lasts about 2 hours 30 minutes.

O... I guess the only complain I have at the moment is that I wish Lenovo uses better speakers for the laptop. But this is just a minor complain.

I am planning on playing with x64 Vista Ultimate under VMware once I figure how best to do my first backup of the factory partitions.

I don't like the way Lenovo partition the drives. Just wasting too much disk space.

Why can't Lenovo installs the OS on a 30GB partition instead of putting the OS on the large partition. This makes backing up the OS partition a big hazel.

With Live.com 5% cash back, plus CPP discount, plus $50.00 credit due to the delay, this is one sweet deal.

O... I did check out the new MAC. And my conclusion is I'd still prefer U330 over the MAC in a heartbeat.

It definitely worth the long wait.

Absolutely beautiful machine.

 

Im wondering, when is this machine being released in europe?
And, i'm a bit confused, does it come with a matte or glossy screen?

 

Glossy screen. Not nearly as bad as some others though, ie the new Macbook.

edit* bad as in visibility in bright light conditions (sunlight especially)

 

Yeah the MAC book is really bad. I had trouble with it. And I was trying the new MAC book in the store so it was not even outside but the glare was really bad on my eyes.

In my opinion the U330 screen is not very glossy at all.

 

What makes me wonder is that some reviews post it as glossy display, the one here for example, and at thier homepage in US they say this;
Display type
13.3 WXGA TFT with integrated camera AntiGlare 1280x800

Glossy is deal breaker for me.

 

my order shipped on the 10/24, but the 50.00 credit still hasn't posted. How long before it should post?

 

Hi, concerning the drivers, can we download the drivers Catalyst from ATI or are we obliged to take those on Lenovo's website ?? (same question for others drivers like Intel VGA, sound card...)
I just bought my laptop and I would like update the drivers...

Thanks

 

Call your sales rep and remind him/her you still have not received the $50.00 credit.

If he/she does not reply keep bugging him/her.

Lenovo is not known for responsive customer service.

 

You are not obliged to take only those from Lenovo. But if I were you it would be my first choice; since if their drivers causes problems you have them to blame.

And of course if you are good at backing up you drivers you can then play with newer drivers downdloaded from the internet.

 

If I wanted to buy the smallest aftermarket power supply that will provide all the power this laptop needs, what would you recommend?

 

Hey, should the Readycomm software be disabled and just use vista's utilty?

 

Do not just disable it. Uninstall the app.

When I have a new laptop, I usually either do a clean install of the OS to get rid of all the bloatwares; or I opt for uninstalling all the bloatwares on the factory installed OS. But the latter option takes a lot of time and you must be very careful what to uninstall.

You have to decide which one to uninstall.

In the case of ReadyComm you should be able to uninstall it without causing any problems.

I would suggest you use the new laptop for a week or so to see if it is running stable and then decide what to rid of.

I must warn you - before you do anything BACKUP you existing OS. If you don't know how to do it try to figure it out first.

Also, get a good uninstall application such as Your Uninstaller and use it to uninstall your programs. Do not simply use Microsoft uninstall program since it does not clean the registry completely in some cases.

The Lenovo default disk partitions is not very user friendly. So if you decide to backup your OS think through it carefully before you do your backup.

I am sure many experienced pros here can give you help. Just ask.

And last but not least back up all your drivers before you do anything.