Lenovo IdeaPad U410 review

We had no trouble working on the U410, thanks to its spacious Chiclet-style keyboard and sizable all-in-one touchpad. Each key has plenty of travel and a springy action. The layout is fairly standard, although the function keys have been remapped to perform multimedia and system shortcuts. It was a little disappointing to see so much flex in the keyboard tray – it bounces up and down with every key press, becoming quite distracting once you notice it.

The glass touchpad is better and lets you glide across its surface. It was both responsive and accurate, with the left- and right-mouse buttons integrated into the bottom of the pad.

Considering you’ll spend all your time sat in front of it, the 14in screen is a little disappointing. Its 1,366×768 resolution is fairly standard but brightness is disappointingly low. With a glossy finish that makes light reflections troublesome, it can be difficult to see what’s on screen in direct sunlight or under bright overhead lighting. At least colours were vibrant and contrast was reasonable. Tight viewing angles mean you have to sit straight-on to get the best image quality.

Although it’s one of the few Ultrabooks with a dedicated graphics card, the basic screen and a few issues with build quality means the IdeaPad 410 falls a little short. It’s powerful, able to play certain games at reasonable levels of detail and has a fantastic battery life, but you’ll have to learn to live with the keyboard flex. At the same price, the HP Envy 6 is the better choice.