Lenovo IdeaPad U300s Ultrabook Review

CyberLink YouCam 3.0 is fairly representative of the web cam software suites that are being issued with ultrabooks these days.  Some manufacturers have gone the private label route, with the company name stamped on as window dressing but Lenovo left it untouched.  YouCam 3.0 is good enough to get the job done for your own local side usage but for conferencing, you'll want to enlist the help of third party software like Skype etc.  Lenovo's bundle OneKey package offers a really nice implementation of an automated system back up and recovery solution.  You can start the software by clicking the desktop short cut or pressing the OneKey button on the left edge of machine.  It's a solid safety net, so backup early and often as they say.

The other software trimmings of the U300s that we'll discuss are small utilities that start up in the system try upon boot and you can get access to these panels by left or right clicking on the icon in the tray. Lenovo's Energy Management package offers a lot of knobs and sliders to play with in an effort to dial in a power profile that fits you best.  For testing, in battery mode, we used Lenovo's preset Energy Star profile and as you'll see later, it offers a nice balance of performance and battery conservation when untethered.

Lenovo's SRS surround sound audio software offers a three different sound customizations, depending on the source material you're listening to and your output device type.  In action, the settings performed as suggested, with the Music setting offering a fuller bottom end sound when we plugged in a set of ear buds to try it out.  The internal speaker system in the U300s isn't bad either but this is an ultralight notebook, so you should set your expectations accordingly.