NetbookShow

It’s been almost a whole month since Lenovo pulled the IdeaPad U160 thin and light notebook off their product pages (you could not buy it).

Stranger still is that there was no talk of this anywhere. I did not see anyone pick this news up, not a word on twitter or Lenovo’s own forums. The good news is that now the Lenovo IdeaPad U160 is back and a wee bit cheaper with the addition of an Intel Core i3 processor model priced at $949 – still nowhere near the initial announcement  of $699 but any drop in price helps if you don’t mind a slower processor. The Core i7 model which was $1000+ has been removed and the Core i5 model remains.

Specs for the Core i5 and Core i3 model remain the same – 11.6″ 1366 x 768 display, integrated HD graphics, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 320GB HDD, b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U160 11.6-inch ultraportable laptop with Intel’s new ultra-low voltage processors is now available for purchase in the US.

There are two models offered by Lenovo.com – the lower-end U160-08945JU with the Intel Core i5-520UM ULV processor, a 320GB hard drive and Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit, and higher-end U160-089455U with the i7-640UM ULV, 500GB HDD capacity and 64-bit Home Premium.

The IdeaPad U160 “weighs a mere 2.9 pounds and is 0.9 inches at its thinnest point” and features Intel’s integrated graphics, up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 6-cell battery, and optional external DVD burner.

Its 11.6″ glare display has a resolution of 1366×768-pixels.

Lenovo’s U160 also includes a 1.3MP webcam, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet, a 5-in-1 memory card reader, and a multi-touch touchpad.

The U160-08945JU and U160-089455U start at $1,049 and $1,149, respectively, with the estimated shipping date “within 13 business days”.