Lenovo u430 touch

Did some more customer service interrogation... Seems like 8/27 is a tentative date. I'm a back to school student but I just might wait for holiday season to get a new laptop cause she hinted at a new Yoga too (i'm assuming haswell upgraded)

check it out

 

pssh i dont trust anything they say anymore. talk to another rep right after and i bet he'll say september 27th. its pathetic they cannot be given a universal "estimated date" to tell customers and every rep is giving a different date. i was told august 13th and now im being told to wait an additional 2 weeks from that when school is starting up? nice going lenovo.

 

Yesterday I bought myself a U430 touch, pretty happy with it so far. :thumbsup:
The specs:
14 inch LED Touch 1600x900 (AIDA64 says it's a: CMN1482)
Intel Core i7-4500U
8 GB (1x 8GB - DDR3-1600 - Timings: 11-11-11-28 1T)
128 GB SSD (Samsung MZ7TD128HAFV-000L1)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 730M (2 GB)
Intel 7260 (a,b,g,n and ac -> not sure)
Bluetooth 4.0

Price: €997 ($1329)

+ Keyboard backlight is very nice.
+ Overall nice looks
+ Silent during normal operation,
+ Smooth touchpad
+ Camera gestures are a nice touch (scrolling through photo's)
+ Touchscreen is responsive and seems to be fairly fingerprint resistive
+ battery life (for now I think I managed a +- 8 hours with wifi and keyboard lighting on. Just doing a bit of browsing watched a couple of youtube vids)

- Keyboard travel is very short
- only 1 USB3.0 port

Also there are screws on the bottom of the housing so I'll will certainly try to take a peek inside

 

Most of the Best Buys near me say they have it in stock to pick up today. Could be an inventory error but I doubt it at that many stores...

 

Nice. Would you mind providing some comments on the screen and speaker quality? Also, if you plan on playing any games on it, I'd love to know if it stays relatively cool when running the GT 730M. I had an MSI X460DX (similar concept of a thin-and-light with dedicated graphics) that ran super hot.

 

Is it a 9cell or 6cell?

Also, im glad youre happy with the laptop, but unfortunately it's out of my price range, and if my budget were in that price range i would have probably gone for something more performant (i wont list because i dont want to derail).

 

It's a 4-cell battery.

@raptir
The screen is bright enough for indoor use. Hopefully I can test it outside this weekend.
Horizontal angle is ok but verticle angle isn't that good. Colors start shifting fast.

Sound is clear listening to a 192kbps internetradio stream. No real bass ofcourse. Volume is more than enough. I'm listening at 20 (max. 100) and it's overpowering the tv which is a couple meters away. So volume is very good and clear. Enough for internetradio and youtube. Concerts? bring your headphones

I will try to take some photo's this weekend.

 

HOW DO YOU GET 10 HOURS OUT OF A 4 CELL???

I know someone with a 9cell Thinkpad and he can only get 8 hours...

 

4-cell according to the shop. Probably incorrect.
AIDA64 lists the battery as follows:
Brand: SMP (Smart Power Technology)
Type: L12M4P62
Designed capacity: 52540mWh

 

the store near me had a display model out and I played with it some

 

How were you able to purchase a u430 touch that hasn't been released yet?

 

If I can buy it it's released.
I will post some photo's as proof if you insist.

Oh and yes, the Lenovo box claims it's a 4-cell battery too.

Last night I ran into a problem. Updated Windows 8 and now the Bluetooth is broken. Can't switch it on.
Went back to a earlier restorepoint from the night that I bought it, bluetooth functions again. Now I only updated Windows, besides Chrome I didn't a install a thing. After the update the bluetooth went out again. Already reïnstalled drivers, no fix.
That sucks ;(

EDIT:
Managed to fix it after uninstalling, installing, deleting hardware etc. Glad it works again.

Photo's:
http://s49.photobucket.com/user/maniac2003/library/Lenovo U430 touch

 

Even though it's a 4-cell battery it's a 52Wh capacity which is pretty decent. Considering the U410 ran about 6.5h of web browsing on a 4-cell it seems reasonable that the Haswell model could run for 8.

The trackpad looks nice and spacious. Is the keyboard backlighting as uneven in person as it looks in the picture? Or is it just the angle at which you took the picture? I know the y410p had uneven backlighting and had hoped they wouldn't carry that over to the U430. Still, it's purely a cosmetic thing so not a big issue.

 

Yes the backlight is uneven, Some keys light up more than others, for now it does not bother me. Later I will add a photo from normal viewing angle.

 

Ah, not a big deal. I guess it's the cost of getting a backlit keyboard in a consumer level laptop.

 

Maniac any chance you could run some battery tests? Maybe one just with it on standby with high brightness, then one with some HD video playing and multiple Internet tabs open?

I hope US pricing will come out to be slightly less. I was hoping to be able to configure with FHD and one of the higher processors for $1300.

I still have hope this will release on the 13th, please Lenovo!

 

Hi Cernio,

No problem.
Is BatteryEater a good tool to test? It has a Idle and 'Classic' test (minimum runtime according to the website)
Also I can try to run Big buck bunny HD1080P in a loop.

 

I didn't have a specific way to do it but that sounds good haha. Thanks!

And, is there anything you dislike at all or wish was better on the laptop so far since you have gotten it and played around with it?

 

Prices are typically cheaper in the US. For example, the base U410 in France costs $1337 (heh) compared to $949 ($749 currently) in the US. That's a 40% markup over the base price and an 80% markup over the current sale price. I don't know if the same markups apply in The Netherlands, as I'm having trouble accessing the site, but it should still be cheaper in the US.

 

Maniac, how did you get your hands on a u430? Where are they selling them?

 

lol did you make an account just to ask him? he's in the netherlands. all of us in the US are still waiting

 

Lol I made an account just to join the fray as well. US here, and with a lot of questions

Is there a difference between the u430 and u430p? They seem to have different specs (u430 advertised as 4.2lbs, but the u430p at 3.8lbs, among other differences).

Also, do you guys think we can configure it fully, or will we have to choose between select models? Problem is I really want some upper configurations, but I specifically don't want the NVDIA 2gb graphics. Have had bad (battery sucking) experiences with discretes before, and I never really utilized them anyways - don't game, or do crazy software stuff. I know lenovo normally just gives you a choice between 4 models, which I am not a fan of...

And to maniac, eagerly waiting battery life figures! Advertised 10, but I hope it's 7-8.

 

U430p doesn't have touch. I doubt it's going to come out along with the U430 though because it hasn't been mentioned or seen at all on the US site.

You can configure pretty much to whatever you want. Each of the pre-set models are usually customizable so there shouldn't be a problem.

If this isn't out on the 13th I'm probably just going to buy the Acer V7 482PG. Maniac, do you own that one as well? If so can you comment on which machine you enjoy more or think is better?

 

Ohh that explains why it's lighter and slightly different. Thanks.

@Cernio, are you sure about the customizations? Usually "customizing" involves which insurance plan you want, if you want a leather case or not, and not really the specs themselves.

Also, have you guys seen this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O562giUDLLQ

Design is wayyyy different from the 410, looks better. The build quality seems to flex a lot, some of which seems intentional... like that screen (yikes). Wish it had a 180 degree hinge though, and am loving the red!

 

Not sure what you're talking about. When I choose a Lenovo computer to customize I see options to upgrade different things such as CPU, RAM, GPU, etc.

 

By customize, do you mean choose which model?

When I select a computer, it shows me around 4-5 available models to choose from. No customizing from there, besides warranty stuff and cases and whatnot. It gets inconvenient when say the spec config I want isn't in the color I want, or etc. Or that I'm forced to get the discrete graphics on higher end ones, etc. No?

 

Yeah, I actually just made an account for this. I'm looking for a laptop for back-to-school, and this looks like the one! That being said, I really hope it comes out Aug 13 or I won't have a laptop when school rolls around.

For me, the lenovo website only gives me 4 options to choose from.. I don't get to choose specs other than the 4 premade options.

 

It depends on the model. If you look at the current U series for example

IdeaPad U Series: Designer Laptops & Ultrabooks | Lenovo | Lenovo (US)

When you click add to cart you are taken to the customization page, but you can only customize the accessories and services. You cannot customize the laptop at all.

That said...

If you don't mind the increased cost, I wouldn't worry about having the Nvidia graphics. With Optimus you shouldn't have any issues. If you're not running an application that needs the discrete graphics it will turn them off to save power, and you can even manually set it to never use the discrete graphics.

 

Thanks for the clear up! Interesting with the Optimus... hopefully it works as advertised...

What are general experiences with hooking up the computer to another monitor (20" 1080p) - does that drain battery life, how would that factor into the u430's intel 4400 and discrete graphics? Just wondering what's optimal since I'm fairly certain I'm getting the u430

 

Optimus has been around for a couple years. I've personally used two different laptops with the option and have definitely been satisfied. It's very easy to control through the Nvidia Control Panel and will allow you to manually configure different programs to use a different GPU.

If you are using the external monitor as your only display or using the clone display feature, there should not be a significant hit to battery life. if you are using the extend desktop feature you may see a slight hit as the chipset needs to generate the image for two displays. Still, it should not be huge unless you are playing a game or something across the two displays.

The Optimus technology actually uses a single framebuffer (when it is enabled the Geforce writes to the Intel HD framebuffer), so there's no real difference with using an external display. The laptop will continue to choose the appropriate graphics card based on your settings.

 

Can you comment on the WiFi performance on the u430 touch? There are a lot negative reviews on u410 touch's poor WiFi connection. I hope Lenovo improved on that.

 

I dont own a u430 but i do own a y410p and it has the same wireless card. That said, my poor connection issues were solved by doing the following:
- Rolling back the drivers to 15.6
- Uninstalling Intel PROset
- Setting the Wireless mode to Auto instead of 20mhz.

 

Wow thanks a lot for the pictures, I wouldn't mind if you took more! You should do a full comprehensive review on this.

I have a few questions since you are the only person to have a lenovo u430.
How is 1600 x 900 resolution on that? Is it decent or good enough that you don't regret not going for 1080p display.

There are also two color options, gray with white and red with black. Why did you choose the gray with white one over the red one?

 

Oohh yeah. Wouldn't mind pics of the side profile too!

How's battery life on the touch version?

 

Well the Bluetooth / Wireless is a bit hit and miss. I have a Microsoft 5000 bluetooth mouse and it does drop the connection after a while. A restart of Win 8 will repair the connection most of the time.Sometimes after the Bluetooth has dropped the Wireless will drop too, a restart of Win 8 will repair the connection.

I bought it at MediaMarkt (Deventer). They had one on display and 3 boxes on the shelf.

The 1600x900 is fine for me, I think Windows icons / text is marignally bigger then on my previous notebook (see signature).
They only had grey ones, I didn't have a choice.

Goal for today:
e-learning (Java based) through the workday.
Battery tops of at 96% with the charger, to prevent overcharging I guess.
It's about 8.15AM local time when I turned my system on.
- Brightness full
- WiFi + Bluetooth on (mouse connected)
I will let you guys know how it paces through the day

Update 1:
9.25AM -> Bluetooth connection lost. Switched it off. Can't turn Bluetooth back on without restarting the system.

Update 2:
1.18PM -> did +- 1 hour of browsing during lunchbreak, 25% battery left aprox. 1.5 hours.
So the estimate is that we hit 6 hours total with screen brightness full on and about an hour of bluetooth. Not bad...

Update 3:
2.08PM -> got the 10% warning (+- 25 min. left) so time to give it some juice.
So 6 hours is certainly doable.

 

Wow thanks so much maniac! Totally appreciate it.

Is full brightness necessary? I have a (crappy) dell but the one thing that's good about it is that the brightness, even at lowest, is fairly bright. My friend's lenovo (g580) is much dimmer at the lowest setting, and so going full brightness is much more necessary than it is for me.

Keep us updated!

 

Not necessary. Although anything below 50% (screen brightness has 10 steps in total) is only usable with less surrounding light. I'm now working at 80% which is bright enough in a office with incandescent lighting (TL-tubes).
Battery is charging rapid ~ 80% now

 

Couple quick questions, is the ram upgradable unlike with some other Lenovo ultrabooks and are they planning to release a u330 this month (I'd prefer a lighter/smaller 13.3" one).

 

Opening up this laptop voids the warranty.

 

Seriously? Even for a HDD upgrade? Where did you learn that?

 

Maniac, what is the build quality like? Ex. Do you think this would handle a 1-ft drop? Oh and also, what do you think about the screen quality?

 

There are screws all over the place, I will see what it looks like

Here in The Netherlands / Europe this is not applicable. According to EU law / guidelines you, as a customer, have the right to open up YOUR device and see if you got what you'd paid for. Also normal service should not void warranty.

 

So is 8 hours feasible for this laptop, or 6 is around the max it can probably get? would constant HD streaming probably get 5 hours, or less than that?

Maniac, how do you like the keyboard and touchpad?

 

Build quality feels solid.Only the back of the screen flexes a bit to much if you put force on it. A Thinkpad doesn't have this I imagine. I tested Series 9 from Samsung and the Ativ 9 lite. They also suffer from the ripple effect when you press the back of the screen. I think it can survive a little drop without falling into pieces but I wouldn't want to bet on it. Got myself a Case Logic 14" sleeve.

@cernio
Yes with the screen brightness dimmed to 50% it should be doable, based on initial usage when I got the Lenovo from store.
Right now with 50% screen brightness on WiFi. Battery is 92% and states it goes for another 8 hours and 49 minutes.
Keyboard types fine, no flex, smooth keys but short travel.Backspace is a little short maybe.
Touchpad is also smooth and big. reacts good to touch. Clicking noise is not to bad, wouldn't mind if it was even less,

 

Well I played around with the floor model in Best Buy today. The laptop itself seems great but I still can't get myself to want a touchscreen on a laptop. It just seems clunky to me. I guess I'll wait to see if the non-touch model hits the US soon.

 

I checked out the u430 at my local best buy and the build quality was pretty good. A little heavier than I thought it would be though. I asked an employee and he said you could upgrade the ram to 8 gb for $70 with a $50 service fee. It also came with 24 gb ssd, according to the employee. I'm probably picking it up later today.

 

What does keyboard short travel mean? Does it mean that the keys don't move enough when typing?
What about your impressions with the Nvidia GT 730m?

Is it only the RAM that is upgradeable, what about CPU? I don't mind the 1600 x 900 screen but an i5 starting at 1.6ghz even with turboboost doesnt sound good to me. I will most likely hold off on the best buy version but like everyone else, I need to get to one and start see it in person!

 

With short travel a mean the distance the key moves downwards when you press it. So yeah the movement is very short, be sure to test it before buying. Inside the store I had my doubts about it but in use it's not so bad. You just need to get used to it.
Haven't had time to play any games on the notebook, so I can't say anything of the GeForce 730 right now.

EDIT:
Internal shots added:
http://s49.photobucket.com/user/maniac2003/slideshow/Lenovo U430 touch

 

I'm not sure, but I'd be surprised if you wouldn't be able to. The i5 is good enough for my needs (I think) as all I need it for is college, music, and some light gaming. But, I'm still hesitant to buy it since there's not much reviews on it. However, I do need a good notebook asap.

 

I wonder how much 1080p + touch screen will reduce the battery. 6-7 hours from maniac's experience --> 4 hours? =\ That means it'll be 2-3 hours in 1 year.

Maybe I'll get the Acer S7 and constantly lug around a 1 TB external in my backpack. Sounds unappealing, and the screen size is a bit small for productivity (window snapping etc). Really want to get this u430, but not so sure.