It took a while for tablet rivals to emerge to Apple’s iPad, but Lenovo has wasted no time in coming out with a laptop competitor to the new MacBook Air.
The IdeaPad U260 will go on sale on Monday on Lenovo’s website starting at $899 as “the world’s first 12.5-inch ultra-portable consumer laptop, giving users a 16:9 widescreen dimension in a 12-inch form factor for the first time.”
Like the Air, it is made out of a one-piece magnesium-aluminium alloy frame and is very thin – less than an inch thick and weighing three pounds.
The U260 goes for a higher-capacity regular hard drive rather than the Air’s solid-state drive, while battery life with a four-cell battery is predicted at four hours, lower than the five or more offered on the Air.
The Windows 7 machine has a more up-to-date processor – a Core i3 or i5 from Intel – and apparently better audio with a Dolby surround sound system, as well as a video advantage with its HDMI output.
Lenovo has added high-end features such as a glass multi-gesture trackpad and a leather-textured palm rest with an exterior in mocha brown or clementine orange.
The magic of the Air is its cool, quiet operation and lift-the-lid on capability. Lenovo says its “Enhanced Experience for Windows 7″ delivers speedy boot-up and shutdown times, but it will be interesting to see how the U260 matches up to the Air’s performance.
