Before you say, “Oh, another ultrabook,” look at the price:

• Lenovo Ideapad S300 at Php21,995
• Lenovo Ideapad S400 at Php24,995

That’s essentially half the price of other ultrabooks and around the same price of a brand new base model iPad, which is a good thing. Because I don’t know what PC makers were smoking when they cranked up their assembly lines: MacBook Air (MBA) knock-offs but with Windows and at the same price as an MBA.

That’s why Lenovo’s approach makes sense: significantly slash the price, stay with the ultrabook PR inertia, and bet on the typing comfort and sturdy work laptop image that Lenovo is known for.

Since ultrabook makers run mostly the same features (I’m oversimplying here, I know) – Intel chips, big enough hard drive, no DVD-tray, large touchpad, thin and light frame, 13 inch-ish dimensions, acceptable battery life – that means the distinguishing factor, if you really want a thin laptop and not a fugly netbook, and not an iPad, and not a mid-end desktop gaming rig, is the price.

Fine, here are the innards (specs), because you can’t believe the price (I know I don’t):

Lenovo Ideapad S300

• 21.9mm thin, weighs 1.8kgs
• 13.3 inch screen
• HDMI out, 3 megapixel webcam, stereo speakers
• Intel Pentium Processor
• 500 Gigs Hard disk
• Up to 4GB DDR3 memory
• Up to AMD Radeon 7450M Graphics
• Accutype keyboard with rounded keys for typing comfort
• Intelligent touchpad with multi-touch capabilities
• 5 hours battery life
• Comes in cotton candy pink and silver grey

Lenovo Ideapad S300

Lenovo Ideapad S400

• 21.9mm thin, weighs 1.8kgs
• 14″ HD widescreen
• HDMI out, 3 megapixel webcam, stereo speakers
• 3rd Gen Intel Core i3 Processor
• 500 Gigs Hard disk
• Up to 4GB DDR3 memory
• Up to AMD Radeon 7450M Graphics
• Accutype keyboard with rounded keys for typing comfort
• Intelligent touchpad with multi-touch capabilities
• 5 hours battery life
• Comes in crimson red and silver grey (Whatever is wrong with simply saying, “It comes in red and grey”?)

Lenovo Ideapad S400

(See what they did? The secret to the low prices is that these are not real ultrabooks as per Intel specs. Rather, they use lower-priced processors and are slightly thicker and heavier than ultrabook spec… but they are almost-ultrabooky. So if you like the form factor… -ed.)

Both the S300 and S400 come with:

• a Quick Start ‘instant on’ function, so you can get online (ehem, Facebook) without booting into Windows.
• OneKey Rescue System, which lets you back up and restore data, recover corrupted system files, and run a complete virus scan.
• and a feature an all-day-typer like me would love: the touchpad can distinguish between your palms and your fingers. No more cursors accidentally jumping around!

The Lenovo Ideapad keyboard and touchpad

Pros:

• The price. Yes, the price. No, really, the price.
• The typing comfort. The signature rounded keys are really great.
• The lightness. If you’ve been lugging around an old but sturdy laptop as heavy as a two-year old, as big as a serving tray, and as thick as two college textbooks, you’ll appreciate this – especially if it’s a thin notebook you can afford.
• The touchpad that can distinguish between your palm and your fingers.

Cons:

• Plasticky feel all over, as in your hands know you’re not lifting something aluminum-solid. But perhaps you can get used to it.
• Odd-feeling touchpad. There are no visible left and right “mouse” buttons at the base, although you can tap them, they’re there. Also, you could tap slightly harder on the center of the touchpad to get that click feel. But you know you’re tapping on plastic, not a solid-to-the-feel glass touchpad. Again, probably something you can get used to.

Hopeful:

• Minimal heat. There are grills on the left side and at the bottom of both notebooks, and if the same heat dissipation tech applied to the U300 ultrabook is present, you can probably put this on your lap and not feel under-the-laptop hot.
• Graphics card good enough for some games. One hopes.
• Battery life holding up to expectations – which is really the peeve of some office pips, as people at work can be so toxic that you need to get the crucial crunching at Starbucks.
• Probably good enough as a workhorse laptop – as in tens of MS Excel spreadsheets loaded side by side hopefully without crashing the notebook. But I need an extensive review to confirm this, not a brief hands on after the Lenovo models stepped away from the notebooks (although I think they stepped away from me and not the notebooks).

Bottomline:

If you absolutely need a notebook for work, because sadly not all of us can get complex MS Excel work done on an iPad, the Lenovo Ideapad S300 and S400 seem like a good deal. The price point is eyebrow-raising, really, but whether the plasticky-feel-compromise is acceptable is something we have to agree to disagree on.

Launched last September 19, both Lenovo Ideapads will be available come the third week of September 2012.

Here’s the Ideapad video:

Irwin Allen Rivera

Irwin Allen Rivera loves his wife's cooking so much he's now twice the man he used to be. His English essay placed 3rd at the 2012 Palanca Awards. His philosophical-horror story is included in Philippine Speculative Fiction 8 (2013). He was managing editor and lead writer of Sites and Symbols 2 (2005), a coffee-table book about buildings in UP Diliman - his alma mater (BA Philosophy; MA Creative Writing continuing). He worked at the UP Diliman Information Office before shifting to web content writing full-time. His sudden fiction, "Notwithstanding Pigs," initially a Friendster testimonial, appeared in Philippines Graphic (2006) and in Very Short Stories for Harried Readers (2007).

email: swirlingovercoffee@gmail.com