Reviews of Lenovo ThinkPad 0578F7U Notebook - Core i3 i3-370M 2.4GHz - 14-Inch

Customer Ratings:

I was looking for a reasonable replacement for my terminally ill Sony Vaio that I bought just over 5 years ago. The specs on this Lenovo looked right in terms of speed, storage, size, and bells and whistles and was a 4-5 fold upgrade from the Sony. So far, I cannot complain. Set-up took less than 30 minutes. Microsoft Office Pro nice and fast (purchased separately). Browsing fast. Speaker/Sound nice for this size machine. Keyboard is a bit old school with the firmer key. I can see why some might not like that, but it feels like sturdy quality to me (back lit WOULD be nice). Windows 7 will take a little getting used to from XP. The notebook actually weighs 4.5 lbs, NOT 8 as advertised on this amazon product description, so that is a plus! 3 USB ports is a nice feature and I look forward to trying out a Bluetooth mouse. This Lenovo has a DVD/RW which it seems is uncommon for a Thinkpad this size and price. The fingerprint security system I am also liking so far. I also think it is somewhat upgradeable so if that is important to you, definitely check out the details. The only real compromise I made was in battery life; I was hoping to find a Lenovo with the 7-8 hour battery life, but this one advertises as 4.5 only (which is still a 2 hour improvement from my Sony). Some folks haven't been too impressed with the Intel Core i3 processor (it's a 3 out of 5 star rating) but this is faster than anything I've owned. Perhaps that will change as I collect more pics/videos/programs/junk over the coming years. Anyhow, the price WAS 599.99 plus 19.99 SH, but it looks like the price went up a few days ago on Amazon. J&R.com did have this for $550 and free next day shipping if you called them directly, but it recently sold out. Laptop Authority may still have it for around $560 with free shipping no tax. I think if you are looking for something that meets current competition standards with Windows under $600 this is the right machine for you.

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All I can say is wow. For the price, this laptop cannot be beat. Even from the beginning everything was great. Amazon shipped this computer in only 5 days for super saver shipping (7-14 days). When I got the laptop everything was neatly and securely packaged, with nothing damaged. The laptop looks great too, a deviation away from the usually bland lenovo design.

Set-up took no more than 15 minutes. Windows 7 is a vast improvement over Vista, though they may look the same on the outside. Taskbar is more functional, and this computer even comes with Windows 7 Professional, not just home premium like all other laptops around this price.

It also must be noted that quality of this computer is outstanding. The keyboard is the best I've ever used, and the red scroll cursor in the middle is a great way of navigating web pages instantly. The integrated fingerprint reader is a cinch to use, and is fun at the same time. The screen is amazing, clear and bright no complaints. My only complaint is the battery life, a relatively short 2.5 to 3 hours. However, I'm not going to complain. All the other positives of this laptop overshadow it.

The intel core i3-370m processor is snappy and quick. Web pages load fast, as do Windows Media Player, music editing programs, and Microsoft Office. The 4 GB of ram is plenty, and adds to the speed of the laptop. Also, the 320 GB hard drive is big enough, and at 7200 rpm, stores files quickly.

Hope this review helped. This model is perfect for the college-bound and the small business. I would definitely recommend buying this laptop.

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Well, less than a year later and I am having issues. The hard drive started to fail, so I called Lenovo. They said the warranty had expired in August even though I bought it in December 1, 2010 and it is a one year warranty. I had to fight with them and they finally agreed that Amazon was a covered seller therefore the changed to warranty to expire on Dec 1. So, they sent me a new hard drive, but no recovery CDs. I called back and they said they should have sent them with the hd. So, they send the discs. I formatted my damaged hd and went to install the new one and realized they sent me a 5400 rpm hd and this unit comes with a 7200 rpm hd. So, I called them back and the guy argued with me that this system does not come with a 7200 rpm hd. I told him the product number right off the hd and this is a new machine and it is advertised as having a 7200 rpm. I am still sitting on the phone with the guy and he is trying to find a 7200 hd because the one that is in this machine is out of stock. So, first the machine is not very good if the hd is going in less than a year, second Lenovo screwed up three times in trying to get the problem resolved and I still don't have the right hd.

Honest reviews on Lenovo ThinkPad 0578F7U Notebook - Core i3 i3-370M 2.4GHz - 14-Inch

Pros:

* Nice feeling keyboard

* TrackPoint

* Middle mouse button

* 180 degree screen rotation

* HDMI port

* Small power brick

* Almost no crapware

Cons:

* Arrow keys are too small

* Fn/Ctrl keys swapped (easy to change, just mislabeled when changed)

* Home/End PgUp/PgDn keys not along right-hand side of keyboard

* Glossy screen

So I bought a ThinkPad because I was extremely impressed with the quality of my used ThinkCentre desktops so I figured I'd buy a new Lenovo/IBM product. The aesthetics of the older ThinkPads were getting dated a decade ago, but I do consider them iconic. I was very surprised to see pictures of the ThinkPad Edge series. A ThinkPad that was sexy? *gasp* Yeah, it looks like a cheap MacBook clone, but it's sexy for a ThinkPad (especially the red, but I couldn't justify paying an extra $300 just for the color).

The first thing I notice is the Chiclet keyboard. It looks so clean compared to the older ThinkPads. I can see that the designers were inspired by the MacBook. Beyond the aesthetic, the keyboard is a pleasure to type on. I am typing this very review on the keyboard. It feels very solid with almost no hint of cheap plastic. It even sounds like a high quality keyboard. In fact, this keyboard is better than every desktop keyboard I've typed on. Comparing the Edge's keyboard to other laptop keyboards is like writing with a nice ink rollerball pen versus a cheap ball-point pen. It is an amazing difference.

The key layout on the right-hand side is strange to me. It makes the keyboard look more centered though. I use the Home/End and PgUp/PgDn keys frequently when navigating text and I'm used to them all in a column along the right side of the keyboard. I hate the smaller arrow keys. The up/down, left/PgUp, and right/PgDn buttons combined are the size of a normal key. The PgUp/PgDn keys are also shorter in height than the arrow keys. I also don't like that the Fn key is where the Ctrl key should be. The functionality can be swapped in the BIOS, but you can't change the physical appearance of the keys. I have muscle memory of the normal position of the Ctrl key, but I have a momentary brain lapse when I look down at the keyboard for the Fn key's function.

For the mouse control there is the traditional IBM TrackPoint in the middle of the keyboard and a touchpad. I've never used a laptop with a TrackPoint before, but it was easy to get used to using it. Having both options means there are twice the mouse buttons as well. The touchpad's buttons are actually too narrow to use comfortably. The buttons are flush with the touchpad and they drop too much when pressed so it feels awkward. I also seem to hit the area on the touchpad above the buttons when I try to press the button quickly. The TrackPoint's buttons below the spacebar is much nicer since they are beveled and have a nice red accent stripe. As a bonus, there is a middle mouse button! It has bumps on it and reverse beveled from the left/right buttons. It comes in handy for me because I use the middle mouse button all the time for Firefox.

The screen is nice and bright, but I wish it wasn't glossy. I believe it can be special ordered with a matte screen, but for most off-the-shelf computers the glossy screen is standard. It has an auto-dim feature that will dim the screen based on the color of what's on the screen. For example, if you view a webpage that has mostly dark colors like black and gray then the screen will brighten and if you switch to Word to type something the screen will dim from the white. Thankfully this annoying feature can be turned off in the Intel Graphics control panel. One cool feature of the screen is that it will flip all the way back so it is parallel with the keyboard. The screen can also be opened with one hand albeit slowly (the ridge for the lid is on the right instead of center so it pushes harder on that side of the laptop when opening).

The Core i3 is a pretty good little processor. It can handle full-screen Hulu and Netflix without a hiccup unlike the Pentium Dual-Core which lags badly even on the lowest resolution Hulu video. The battery life is decent. It's nowhere near 4 hours with casual use. The best I got was 3.5 hours and that's just reading blogs and watching a few videos on YouTube using WiFi and the screen set at 50% brightness. That is still pretty impressive though as my old Compaq and Dell barely made it two hours unplugged doing the same things. The 4 GB of RAM is more than enough for most people. For comparison when I'm at work and have 4 instances of Visual Studio as well as instances of Word, Outlook, OneNote, and Firefox with eleventy billion tabs open I'm hovering around 2.5 GB RAM usage.

The computer comes with Windows 7 Pro preloaded with Office Starter. You can read about Windows 7 being amazing everywhere so I'll focus on Office Starter. This is the full version of Word and Excel 2010 with the advanced features removed. It is not a trial as there is no expiration date. It also has a right-had sidebar with a small 1.5" rotating banner ad. It is perfect because everything you do here is compatible with every other version of Office unlike MS Works. Plus there is an option to save Office Starter to a flash drive to use on a different computer. It boggles the mind how far Microsoft has come to pleasing users! Besides the Microsoft software, there isn't very much crapware on the laptop either. It just has a suite of Lenovo tools that contains an app that shows diagnostics, a password manager linked to the fingerprint scanner, a back-up disk creator, and a hardware update program. There is not much to uninstall except for the anti-virus trial. Uninstall that and install Microsoft Security Essentials instead (which is free, monitors in real-time, and it doesn't take up a lot of system resources).

This laptop exceeded my expectations so it is an excellent value. I am pleased with the quality and features it has. You can definitely feel the quality in this machine. It isn't a supercomputer, but I didn't intend to game or run any intensive programs on it as that's what I have a nice desktop for. I would definitely recommend picking this up over the other name brands just for the lack of crapware alone. It's perfect for sitting on the couch and doing some leisurely reading/video watching or catching up on some office work.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Lenovo ThinkPad 0578F7U Notebook - Core i3 i3-370M 2.4GHz - 14-Inch

Bought his laptop in Nov 2010. Has a nice look and feel. But somehow lenovo's attempt to sexy up the thinkpad line kinda falls flat for me. From the perspective of functionality, speed, and reliability it is definitely a thinkpad. No issues there. But it lacks the solid rockhard feel that experienced thinkpad users usually look for. I could go so far as to saying that it looks kinda cheap. It is also not very slim. Has a bulky feel to it (though not heavy at all). Its best feature is the keyboard. An amalgam of the Apple chiclet style and the robust thinkpad keyboard that we all love, this is probably THE best keyboard on a laptop I have seen/used. Bottomline, if u are looking for a cheap functional laptop, this is the way to go. If u really want a thinkpad in performance and feel pay a little more and get a T-series. It will be worth it.