By Aaron Tan, a freelance writer

IF YOU are having second thoughts about buying that swanky netbook because of its puny screen and equally puny ability to perform, a new class of ultra-portables may just be what you need.

These notebook PCs, powered by Intel's new consumer ultra low voltage (CULV) platform, offer the portability of netbooks, along with the bigger screens found in regular notebooks.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U350, for instance, comes with a 13.3-inch widescreen LED backlit display, a full-sized keyboard and a promise of up to five hours of battery life.

Its 1.6kg plastic frame will not weigh you down.

It also exudes a touch of class with chequered patterns embossed on the lid and metallic-like strokes on its inner surfaces.

In a minimalist approach, the notebook PC has only the power and mute buttons, plus a dedicated button to fire up Lenovo's OneKey system recovery software.

There are no dedicated buttons for volume and screen brightness, which can be controlled using the arrow keys on the keyboard.

The connector ports, which include three USB ports, one HDMI connector, a VGA port and a memory card slot, are also nicely fitted into the thin chassis.

The touchpad is good: it is bigger than what you get on netbooks. While the raised dots on it provide good friction, the accompanying mouse buttons are flimsy and you must press them harder to register a mouse click.

Inside, the IdeaPad U350 uses Intel's single core Pentium SU2700 1.3GHz processor which handles everyday tasks such as word processing and Web browsing with ease.

With 3GB of DDR3 memory, Windows Vista Home Premium ran without a glitch even when I had several applications running in the background.

However, when it comes to more complex tasks, the machine stumbled a little. In Windows Photo Gallery, there was a slight delay when I scrolled through multiple photos while editing images at the same time.

The notebook comes with one of the best-sounding speakers around. The Dolby sound-enhancing software delivered MP3 music that was bigger and punchier than what I have heard from most notebook PCs.

Battery life, as stated, ran out in just over five hours while I was working on this review, browsing the Web and had MP3 music playing in the background.

Lenovo has packed in a host of useful software with the IdeaPad U350. The VeriFace facial recognition software lets you use your facial features as a user authentication tool while the Active Protection System protects the hard drive from shock and vibration as you lug the notebook around.

Final say

While the IdeaPad U350 lacks an optical drive, it offers great portability for its screen size.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.

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