The Lenovo Ideapad U300s matches the ASUS UX31 almost spec-for-spec and both appear to be ready to go. Pre-order pages are up (see our information page for the Amazon affiliate links that are available) and at least one website has one for testing. The first statement from James Kendrick, the reviewer for ZDNet was that the Lenovo U300s is “already the best Windows laptop I have ever tested.” Let’s hope there’s no showstoppers as the testing progresses.
While the U300s only has a 1366×768 resolution screen against the UX31’s 1600×900 screen, there are other differences deeper in the specifications. Customers are going to have a hard time deciding between the two…
| Lenovo U300s [Full Specifications] |
ASUS UX31 [Full Specifications] |
| 999 Euro | 999 Euro |
| 1.6Ghz Core i5 (2457M) | 1.7Ghz Core i5 (2557M) |
| 1366×768 resolution | 1600×900 resolution |
| Full size HDMI | Micro HDMI + VGA |
| Wi-Di confirmed | No Wi-Di confirmed |
| – | SD Card slot |
| Fast Charge | – |
| BT3.0 | BT4.0 |
| – | Sleep ‘n Charge USB |
| Glass trackpad | – |
| 1.3Mp webcam | 0.3Mp webcam |
| Availability: November possibly earlier in Europe | Availability: Now (USA) |
Obviously some of these specs are subject to change but those are the main specification differences we see right now. As for the important real-world reviews, it looks like we’ll get some detailed information during the course of the next week.
Watch ZDNet for the review next week. A gallery with comments is already available.
This is the ultrabook I really want, this, or the u400. If i’m right, the u300s got a more premium feeling to it, and I now laptops are more then just hardware specs, its the overrall experience that counts (SSD, trackpad, buildquality). But the dedicated GPU of the u400 is tempting too. I really hope the u400 is a mixture of premium and specs. Because I really like to play an old mod on a game like Company of Heroes, which isn’t really possible on de integrated GPU’s on Intels CPUs.
Company of Heroes will play on these GPUs, which is a big improvement over the last generation. Even the last generation was playable, these ones will let you crank most of the settings to high.