Lenovo Z570 10249UU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Gunmetal Grey) Review

Customer Ratings:

Fast laptop for a great price. I love this laptop. It comes with a lot of upgrades from my previous Lenovo. It has a vent cleaning system that keeps your vents clean from lint and dust. It has a feature that can speed up the time it takes the computer to boot up. It currently takes 60 seconds for my computer to completely boot up from the time I turn on the power and it gets a little shorter as the computer learns my habits. The keys are elevated for easier typing verses the flat type of key board that comes with a lot of laptops. I connect with the HDMI port to my TV and watch all of my 1080p movies without a single shutter or glitch. This computer is fast and does everything I want it to do. It has smart settings for preserving the battery life so it knows by the way you use it how to charge the battery for long battery life.

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After a lot of research, I ended up purchasing this laptop. After using it for around a month or so now, I can honestly say that I have no regrets. The price was great for what it is, I find that it's actually faster than my desktop. Has decent graphics, and the i7 is great. It runs my design and photography programs such as Photoshop and Lightroom wonderfully and I have yet to have any issue with it. It probably wouldn't do great for gaming, though. But overall it's a sleek little beast. Strongly recommend it. :)

April Update:

The honeymoon is over. Especially when the bride has run off to Lenovo "support" for multiple weeks.

About a month into use the PC just died. No charging, wouldn't start up. Called Lenovo support (after FINALLY finding the correct number) and worked with someone who could barely speak English. After a few minutes of trying to sell me an upgraded warranty, they said that it would need to be sent to Lenovo support, and that they would get a box to us. A week passes, no box. Called support again only to be told that **I** would be responsible for both the packaging AND the shipping.

A week and a half later I got the laptop back. Control sheet on the inside said "Reseat Memory. No parts replace." As someone who works in IT and has built a computer or 2 (or 20) in my lifetime, I found that a little far-fetched. Sure enough, the laptop still wasn't working. Called back and got a new work order number and this time they actually gave me a shipping label!

Long story short... still out... still waiting to get it back.. Overall it's great laptop when it actually works. But -2 stars for godawful support and, apparently, quality control.

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I finally upgraded to a new laptop and bought this one without much research. I am pleasantly surprised and the quality and speed. The only concerns I have is I don't get near 5 hours on the battery at the highest battery conservation level. Maybe I am doing something wrong, I usually get 3.5 hours. Also the ports are all over the place, this might be convenient for some but it makes it hard to plug in all the cables when at my desk. I bought a port replicator to solve this. All and all I think its a good laptop.

Honest reviews on Lenovo Z570 10249UU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Gunmetal Grey)

Purchased this for business use and am extremely pleased with the performance. Besides the speed, I particularly like the bright back-lighting on the screen. My older IBM ThinkPad gave me several years of good service, but it just could no longer keep up with running several apps, while using email and web browsing simultaneously.

Computer arrived on schedule and in perfect condition. No problems at all.

I was skeptical about Windows 7 (previous computer ran XP), but I have been pleasantly surprised with its ease of use while still giving me the control that I want. The ease with which I was able to network all of our computers that also run Windows 7 and are connected to an internet router was amazing. Easiest network I ever set up. Bluetooth connectivity is also nice. Computer immediately connected to my Bluetooth headset (Motorola H710), giving me a nice way to communicate during the webinars on workplace safety that I conduct often and should work nicely on Skype as well.

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Just got it last week. It is i7, 750 GB, 8 GB RAM. What I am not liking about it is: the place of a track pad. It pains my wrist. I am seriously consider returning it.Not comfortable at all. It could be good for left handers. I don't know which genius designed it. Igot a good deal so I bought it. Bad decision. Other than trackpad, laptop is good. sound system is good and webcam is not bad either. Just want to review so people don't make the same mistake. Make sure you are satisfied with the laptop before buying it. Don't buy without seeing it.

Review of Apple MacBook Pro ME664LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop with Retina Display

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $2,199.00
Sale Price: $1,899.00
Today's Bonus: 14% Off

I am a first time Apple buyer and I love this machine. It was fast to set up, intuitive features and layout. The Retina Display is crisp and easy to use, the keyboard has a great feel to it, the construction is great, and the machine it self if very responsive. The battery life is actually a little more than 7 hours with the SSD hard drive I average about 7.5 to 8 hours on a normal day.

The only thing to be careful of it the display there are two manufactures for the display, LG and Samsung. The LG display has an image retention problem, while the Samsung display does not. But there is no way to guarantee which machine you are going to get. But Apple will replace the machine if you do get an image retention problem.

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SUMMARY: This is a solid computer with a gorgeous display. The integrated solid state memory is incredibly fast, and so far I haven't had a single crash or hang after about a month of usage. If you know you want a Mac laptop, this is the one to get, I think. It's a nice balance of size and power and utility. Consider it a solid desktop replacement with four cores and enough screen real estate (especially in scaled mode) to really get work done. On the other hand, it's not a behemoth like the 17 inch MacBook that, and is very easy to carry.

WHAT'S GREAT (and a few tips):

* High resolution screen. In normal mode, you get crisp letters and pictures, and adequate screen real estate for most tasks. When in scaled mode, you get the equivalent of a 1900x1200 display, great for doing certain tasks like programming or using applications not yet written for the retina display.

* Solid state drive. The integrated solid state drive is amazingly fast, and uses a 6 GB/s SATA connection right on the motherboard. It also allows for the incredibly thin form factor. I'm not sure, but it seems faster than normal solid state drives. The lack of a cabled connection shouldn't matter noticeably, so maybe it's just my imagination. Either way, it's really nice to not have a spinning drive, and liberating to use a laptop without having to constantly worry about how much you're moving the computer and wondering if you're going to damage the drive.

By the way HERE IS HOW TO PICK OUT THE RIGHT SIZE DRIVE: Spend a lot of time figuring out what kinds of things you're going to do, and how much disk space your media will take up, and how those needs are going to grow in the three to four years you own the computer. And then just order the largest drive available. Trust me, you'll thank me later. The integrated solid state drives on these Retina MacBooks can NOT be upgraded later, so it's better to have too much and not need it then have too little and regret it. Even if you never come all that close to filling it, you'll have a faster computer than can do a better job keeping the drive defragmented and you won't ever have to worry about wearing out the solid state drive (they have only so many erase cycles they can handle and this gets exacerbated if you keep the drive close to full and things fragment).

* The OS. This isn't going to matter if you're already a Mac user, but OS X is really starting to hit its stride. I'll be the first to say it was not a great OS for a long time, and was slower and less reliable than Windows. However, it's really come into its own with 10.7 and 10.8. The full screen mode is a great way to reduce screen clutter and the tyranny of resizing and arranging windows, and yet is evolutionary and fits in with existing applications well, unlike the revolutionary and ill-fitting "start screen" of Windows 8. As much as I like what they are trying to do with Windows 8, right now it's a very messy OS that feels like two operating systems competing with each other. The Mac just seems more elegant and well-designed, Windows 8 feels like the middle of an awkward transition.

* It's light. Ridiculously light. If it were any lighter, it would start to feel "cheap".

WHAT'S BAD (and a few rants):

* No power or battery indicators! What the heck is Apple thinking? This is supposed to be a "professional" level computer and they screw us out of a battery or power indicator! These used to be on all MacBook Pros. Is there a level above Pro I don't know about? Sometimes it's nice to know if your computer is off or just asleep, and it's ALWAYS nice to be able to see how much charge the computer has without having to turn it on or wake it up.

* The screen isn't terribly bright. It's generally not a problem, but in a room with bright sunlight, the screen can be hard to see. Evidently the retina MacBooks suffer from the same problem the retina iPads initially did, which was that the pixel density resulted in a screen that transmits much less of the backlight than a standard resolution screen.

* The iSight camera is terrible. They call it upgraded, but I'm not sure what camera is worse than this. It's noisy, has terrible low-light performance, and if it's HD, I'm not sure where they are getting the pixels from. The driver also isn't smart enough to figure out how to expose for a central subject, so if you try to do a video chat near a window, the person on the other end will get a great picture of what's outside of your window, with your pitch black silhouette just there to just add drama, I suppose. Again, what is wrong with Apple that my iPhone has a better camera than my $3000 computer?

All in all, though, I'm very happy with the machine and very glad I purchased it. If they didn't cheese off on some of the components above, it would be an easy five stars.

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Purchased through Apple directly to get the corporate discount, since my state charges tax on Amazon purchases anyway. I've had a number of Apple laptops over the years, and (not surprisingly) this one is the best. It is slim, speedy and well constructed. No image retention problems that I've seen. Resolutions at 1440x900, 1680X1050 and 1920X1080 all look fantastic, allowing you to choose between more display space (with a little interface lag) and a standard amount of display space (with no lag). Text is crisp at all resolutions. I noticed at first that the fans were spinning up with some regularity, but since a recent firmware update I haven't noticed them once. To be honest, I just haven't seen the variety of problems mentioned in another review.

I can absolutely recommend this machine to anyone who wants or needs a prosumer level laptop. For home use, a Macbook Air is probably a better bet...its lighter and substantially less expensive. Just don't look at the retina MBP's display, because you WILL want it!

Honest reviews on Apple MacBook Pro ME664LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop with Retina Display

I replace my MacBooks roughly every three years and it has been apparent for a few months now that it needed to be done. This was a big upgrade from my last Mac with a bigger screen and hugely improved functionality.

I spend quite a lot of time on my laptop each day doing various tasks which include reading articles, books and blogs as well as photo editing for my shop and watching movies. I do play a bit of one video game as well. This laptop is amazing. The reduced eyestrain was evident after only a few hours. I find myself wanting to use the laptop over my mini ipad (but once the retina screen is available on that I will get it!).

The detail in watching a very vivid TV show such as Defiance is brilliant. You can see so much more of the background action and it actually made me pause several times to marvel at the surroundings to the plot.

Reading books on this screen is easy and reading articles an being able to click links back and forth without eye strain from changing visuals is fabulous.

The one game that I do play, World of Warcraft, runs smoothly and there is quite a bit more detail in the background. I actually think I might have to turn the graphics down a bit because there seems almost to be too much information for my brain to handle.

The various programs I use are running very smoothly and it was a matter of an hour or so to finalize the update process once I received the laptop and get everything running.

I was a bit surprised to find no DVD drive (didn't actually even think to check this when I purchased) but honestly I watch a DVD movie only rarely and it will be easy enough to purchase a separate drive. The world seems to be moving towards digital download anyway so I'll probably replace most of my DVD collection in time.

Overall I am extremely pleased with my purchase and only wish I had done it sooner.

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I got this machine to compliment my 27" Mac desktop. I needed a portable workhorse for working in Adobe Creative Suite and simple animation programs and for manipulating photography. The solid state processor is lightening fast and does not heat up. The screen gives brilliant sharp details and renders text clearly and crisply, which is excellant for writing. There are computer users whose main use for a computer is downloading music and accessing the Internet. These guys are often gamers, and want good video and speed. This machine provides that. But for Graphic Artists and those creatives using CC Creative Suite software, on the Cloud or with Corel or Bryce or Toon Boom, using a WACOM tablet its the response to your input and the color accuracy for print that counts. If you are working on a graphic novel, in Illustrator or InDesign or creating a character in Mudbox, or designing a house in VectorWorks or doing digital painting in Photoshop, this machine handles all those tasks smoothly and quickly and elegantly.

Reviews of Lenovo ThinkPad T60p

Customer Ratings:

I am using the T60P using windows XP Pro (today's year is 2012) to write this review using MS OFFICE 2003 and connected to the web via Google Chrome. I have had no issues beyond only one with this Lenovo (IBM) ThinkPad: it is a Centrino Due. A slower processor that I have not found to run hot, and it has not crashed either. All and all it is a good machine. The battery has lasted up 3.5 hours with normal use of MS office and desktop publishing. Not unexpected considering the age of which this computer came out. That also can be solved by purchasing any one of the many extended battery methods on the market. I do not use the Lenovo T60P to travel much away from home, I bought the Lenovo X41 for this and an extended battery that last me a good six hours of MS Office time (the X41 cannot handle desktop publishing but I don't require that when I am away from home--who does?). For me, whatever the subject, it has always been "the right tool for the right job!"

Oh, one more thing if anyone is reading this, I am not a rich man, if I was I would have the latest and greatest computers, one for the road and one for home as now. They still would be a laptop and a notebook computer (of sorts) but they would, most likely, be an Apple Macbook Pro and iPad. They seem to be the best system for my uses and the computer technology of today (imho).

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This laptop came with passwords installed. Took me 2 days to make passwords go away and the 'secure' passwords did conflict with fingerprint security software. This machine is still showing as it belongs to the seller. The machine is in good physical condition, however, seller never 'cleaned' past users settings/passwords to set the machine ready for the next user. Windows and thinkpad software was not updated for a long period of time. After I cleaned this clutter and updated the system with windows and thinkpad software, it is finally working as normal. It just runs hot, sometimes very hot. Battery lasts 2-3 hrs depending upon task. Bulging battery pack makes it less portable. I just use it for checking email and surf the web while I am in bed.

Lenovo ThinkPad W530 24382LU 15.6" LED Notebook - Intel - Core i7 Review

Customer Ratings:

I researched for some time which workstation class 15" laptop could replace my desktop as a portable workstation. After looking at Dells, Sangar, Toshiba, etc. I chose the Lenovo W530. I had a very good experience with a Lenovo G570 I purchased earlier for another employee and it gave me good expectations for this unit. The price and feature ratio on the W530 was very hard to beat. I really wanted the Nvidia Quadro 2K card for CAD work and few offered it or something similar as most are focused on gaming. I'm not gamer, I wanted this for my work/home computer as 75% of my work entails CAD/CAM along with IT support.

The one feature I REALLY wish it had was a 10 keypad and the Ctrl & Fn keys reversed in position. The G570 has a 10 key in a nice chicklet style keyboard with the Ctrl & Fn keys in the correct position. Why Lenovo can't give this keyboard style in a high end laptop is beyond me. At least the included keyboard is very nice to type on, except for occasionally hitting the little red navigation nub above the B key. I could get along without that nav button just fine. It works, but I don't make great use of it and it interferes with typing more than it helps with navigation. Luckily I mostly use the unit with a USB full sized keyboard and mouse.

The other aspect of the W530 I am not very fond of is the Intel LAN/WiFi cards. This is for 2 reasons. First, I have found the Intel WiFi cards to be the least compatible with routers of all the WiFi cards I've used in laptops. I have had the same experience with Sony VAIO laptops using the Centrino cards, they are very finicky to connect. I had to reconfigure my FiOS router at home to get it to connect and most of the time you need to turn off the Ivp6 feature in the card settings or it won't connect. I have never had this problem with Atheros, Nvidia, or other WiFi cards. It is also not readily recognized by many Linux Distros, a fair sized negative in my book. Second, I do NOT like Intel's PXE boot agent which interferes with accessing the BIOS menu. After the Lenovo Tech support agent failed to help me get around it, and much trial and error on my part, I found out if you simply hold down the F1 key for an extended period it will eventually go past the irritating PXE boot agent menu and into the BIOS settings. I cannot find a way to turn this feature off and I have zero need for it. Since it's built into the on-board BIOS Intel's bootutil program won't control it, I tried that option and it doesn't work with on-board PXE. My beef is more with Intel than Lenovo.

The Webcam is pathetic, seriously. For a high end laptop the Webcam is not even in in the ball park for this decade, it's nearly useless. I tried to skype with it twice, gave up, installed my Logitech 9000, and things rocked, super clear, no lag etc., the way it should be. Do not plan to use the Webcam, just forget it's there. The built-in microphone isn't much better. It works but the audio quality is poor, my skype recipients told me I sounded like I was in a barrel. I just switched to the microphone on the Logitech and bingo, audio quality was right there.

The Speakers are pretty decent for audio playback, movies etc.

Other than the above issues I have been quite happy with the unit. I bought it with the 4GB of RAM option with the plan to upgrade it to 16GB. I was stoked to find out they ship it with the 4GB in the hard to access primary RAM position under the keyboard and the 2 slots for extra RAM on the bottom empty. I was able to plug in the 2 x 8GB sticks I bought and end up with 20GB on board in a matter of minutes, very nice. I have no complaints on the speed of the unit.

The Nvidia Quadro 2K (2GB) card has been so so. It's compatible with my CAM/CAM software but not nearly as fast as I'd hoped it would be running packages that use surfaces. You can use Nvidia's software to configure which GPU runs your applications, either the Intel HD 4000 or the Quadro, or let it choose automatically. You can also configure details of the Quadro. In many instances I find the HD 4000 GPU just as fast which doesn't speak highly for the Quadro card. This isn't a reflection on Lenovo but rather Nvidia. After some research on the card I found they really choked it in terms of the RAM R/W speed. If this feature is a big part of the buying decision (as it was with me) do some research on the card's performance first. This is my one disappointment.

I have been using the system with Lenovo's MiniDock Plus Series 3 and it works great, love it. I run a twin screen setup off the docking station plus the built in screen for a total of 3 screens and it works very smoothly. I have also used the VGA out port for a single extra monitor which works fine. The Win 7 Pro OS is very good about remembering your settings for different monitor setups. I think the docking station approach is completely worth the extra couple hundred dollars, plus you get a second power supply, that's hard to beat. Speaking of power supplies, the 170w supply is a beast. It pumps out the power but sure is a brick to carry around. I'm thinking of getting the smaller 90w unit just to keep in my carrying case and leave the other two 170w bricks at home and work.

I have the 9 cell battery and the life is pretty good if you set it up to optimize battery life. I've gotten 4-5 hrs of run time from it which is pretty dang good for a high powered laptop. The 9 cell battery does stick out the back an extra inch or so. If you want a flush fitting battery you need the 6 cell which would also make it slightly lighter to carry. If you carry it around a lot I'd suggest the 6 cell and 90w power supply, the two would shave off more than a pound from the combo I think.

I have not had any problems with the unit and it's been rock solid in operation. I'm pleased with the 1920 x 1080 HD display. I recently replaced the 500GB HDD with a Seagate 750GB hybrid drive to improve speed and capacity. I cloned the new drive using the Apricorn USB 3.0 SATA kit and it worked flawlessly. The new drive booted up like it had been in there the whole time. I was able to resize the primary partition during the cloning to give me a sizable second partition for my data files. I set the fully configured OEM drive aside as a backup. The HDD bay is easy to access but be careful of the screws holding the caddy on the drive, they are ultra tight and I think have some thread lock compound on them. The first time you remove them have a good fitting screw driver and be very careful or you'll strip the heads of the screws. Once you get them out it's no longer an issue.

To recap, overall I'm very pleased with the laptop and would recommend it. It has a VERY solid build feel and an excellent array of ports. The ultrabay is nice for swapping in other drive options. I had to buy a mini display port to HDMI adapter cable to connect to a big screen TV but it works fine. You'll most likely find that cable in the MAC stuff, it's common for them. If I had a choice I would not get the Intel net cards but you may not have the option. They do work once you tweak the settings. If you can't connect to WiFi try turning off the Ivp6 option first. If you come face to face with the stupid PXE boot agent menu hold down the F1 key for a long time, it will get you past it and into the BIOS setup.

Final note to Lenovo, offer an updated keyboard with a 10 keypad and the Ctrl & Fn keys reversed, ie just like the keyboard in your G570, you know how to do it. And PUT IN A REAL WEBCAM!!!! Professionals use WebEx, Skype, etc for business video calls more and more, it's an essential tool for remote communications. My wife's $350 ASUS netbook has a far superior webcam in it.

If Lenovo fixed the keyboard layout and gave it a state of the art webcam/microphone I'd rate it 5 stars.

I hope this helps somebody considering this laptop.

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I bought a W530 with a Pantone color callibrator from Lenovo Direct, and went through an awful experience with Lenovo's customer service department. The color callibrator in my machine didn't work, right out of the box. I've used Lenovo laptops exclusively for the last ten years, and have really enjoyed them. I've had everything from the 12 inch mini to the 15.6 workstation. They've been fast, tough, and reliable. But of the eight Lenovo laptops I've bought for myself and my family, I've had two that have been defective right out of the box, and my son received a lemon, too. Each time, we've been run through the time-consuming and frustrating process of working through Lenovo customer service to get a replacement. Long waits on hold, shut down, reboot, retest, finally send the machine into engineering, etc. This last time with the W530, almost six weeks passed between the time I first called Lenovo and the time I received a replacement computer that worked. My replacement W530 is humming along fine, and it is clearly the fastest, most powerful computer I've ever owned. The callibrated, high resolution screen is fabulous. It's been a month and it hasn't crashed or even hiccuped once. The machine I now have is a five star, but my experience with Lenovo support and the sketchy three out of eight lemon rate makes me downgrade to a three star at best, and I have to wonder how many lemons Lenovo lets out. I tried posting a review describing my unpleasant experience on Lenovo Direct, and .... big surprise, it isn't posted. So I'm posting it here at good old Amazon to let you all know. I think my new W530 is a terrific machine, but I sure have received a lot of lemons.

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This is an interesting product with useful features, from the ability to use expresscards to add connectivity and functionality to a lovely LCD screen. Review the features list carefully, and proceed if you need those features and can't find them elsewhere (expresscard slots, for instance, are increasingly hard to find).

I was excited to get my new ThinkPad W530, but it was nonfunctional out of the box--something wrong with the communications sequence, from the motherboard to the antenna which makes any kind of internet connection not an option. Lenovo tech support had me reload the OS, replace the hard drive, re-reload the OS (from media this time), use an ethernet connection (luckily I have one!) to run the dreaded Windows updates, run hardware diagnostics, and more. All to no effect. A decent company (and you know they're out there!) would have had me ship them the machine for repair and shipped a new one for me the same day and fixed up the defective one for sale later on.

A month later, I'm finally in the queue for a repair which will take a week or so. I have to deal with the repair process, evaluate the repaired machine, and had to argue with staff to ensure that I was still eligible to return the thing if I don't like the way it works when I get it back.

Lenovo Customer Support, particularly on the sales side, is grossly inefficient. None of the people you talk to when calling them with issues has real authority to help you. This can be very frustrating if you are an individual or a small business. Tech support is competent but not well linked to sales side in the event you need to return product, so techs lean to having customer make repairs on their end instead of asking you to send them the unit to repair at their leisure while providing the customer with a functioning machine.

Do not purchase from Lenovo unless you have strong internal hardware support staff and a dedicated person to manage communications with Lenovo...or just really need a particular feature on their machines. If you have issues with CS, press to speak with supervising staff and express concern with their process. Currently, staff are reluctant to let you go to supervisors, probably due to internal regulations that penalize sales staff for putting customers first. Perhaps they can improve.

Honest reviews on Lenovo ThinkPad W530 24382LU 15.6" LED Notebook - Intel - Core i7

I recently made this purchase via the official Lenovo store due to my old laptop's battery giving out and have had nothing but grief throughout the entire process.

First of all, I was deciding between this and the M6400, but decided to go with Lenovo due to talking to a sales agent and getting assurance that it would ship before would. What he failed to mention was the delay that would be caused by customs, and the fact that it also ended up shipping 2 days after the stipulated date that he assured me of. 48 hours is a long time when you have deadlines every day in the actual working world.

But that's just overeager sales people, right? So secondly, when I finally checked my order status, I was shocked to discover that the configuration I had listed no RAID whatsoever. I had to look up the product manual to discover that there were some W530 models that actually did not have the RAID mboards in them, and after going back and forth between Lenovo sales/tech phone support (thanks for redirecting me everywhere and not actually answering my question, by the way Lenovo), I ended up getting a solid answer from the user forums: that there ARE no RAID models available at the moment, and not for a few months at least.

I'd like to point out that at NO POINT in the ordering process was this mentioned, anywhere. And on the main product page, it mentions that it supports RAID. If not for the fact that I needed it urgently and had no time to go through the process of cancelling the order and going with a instead, I would never have gone through with this purchase.

So anyway, I finally get the laptop, set about stripping out all the existing software and going with a fresh install of Win 7. And then I get BSODs whenever the AC is unplugged, which took me yet another 4 hours to diagnose before I discovered that the BIOS wasn't updated. After flashing it, now the ExpressCard slot no longer works (thankfully that's not a critical problem, since it just means I lose one USB port). The customer support tech I contacted had the gall to tell me that I had too much RAM that was causing the problem!

Additionally, if you do end up choosing to go with a W530, do yourself a favour, and get the full HD screen (I got the 1600x900 because I hate having screens with anything higher than 90DPI). The lower-end screens have absolutely b ad colour gamut and viewing angles (completely out of whack white point and blue gamma). It's worth mentioning that this is the first ever screen I have actually had to use a colour calibrator to correct gamma, instead of eyeballing it like I usually do. It's that b ad. And I've calibrated Phillips screens before.

Build quality, despite what most people think, is actually not-so-good. The keyboard panel sags, the general material used (with the exception of the screen housing, which is actually quite well-built) is crappy plastic all over and the new keyboard rubber dome feel is not as crisp as other manufacturers' (Acer/Asus actually has better feel)

Also, the lack of a numpad. I knew I was already going to miss it, but it boggles the mind as to why Lenovo chose this new layout, presumably to fit in larger drivers for the speakers, which are massive. Unfortunately, I think it's a poor compromise (who the hell mixes on laptop speakers anyway?) since the speakers don't sound that good at higher levels, and have b ad response through the mid-range of tones. I always use an external sound card and monitors for my audio, anyway, so it's not a huge issue for me. No Caps Lock/Num Lock indicators, however, which means you have to rely on a OSD display, which takes up RAM and CPU, along with GPU draws to screen. So, pretty annoying.

So...the good points. The general aesthetic is actually alright, the matte finish is welcome, and the arrangement of ports (with the exception of zero USB ports on the right side) is alright. The RAM slot positioning and HDD slots are well thought-out, making upgrades accessible and less frustrating (but to be fair, almost every manufacturer has caught onto this these days)

In summary, however, with all these problems of reliability, fraudulent sales, and absolutely useless tech support, there is no way I could recommend this to anyone, or any Lenovo product for that matter, considering this is the way a professional product is being marketed and supported. I am terribly disappointed that in a already small market for workstations, Lenovo has chosen to blatantly disregard its offering, I suspect, in favour of its probably more profitable consumer lines.

Just remember: we're the ones making the actual entertainment media for those products.

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The hardware is great, everything you would expect from Lenovo in a workstation grade laptop. However, you may spend an entire day chasing drivers and loading the color calibration software yourself. When mine arrived, it barely functioned and had no wireless, discrete graphics, optical drive, or wireless monitor capabilities and the device manager was full of exclamation points. I had to load the X-rite software myself and run the first color calibration routine, something Lenovo claimed they would do at the factory. Once you actually get the laptop up and running with the right drivers, it works great, but I wouldn't recommend this to someone who need a machine that works right out of the box.

Buy Lenovo ThinkPad X130e 2338 - 11.6" - Core i3 2367M

Customer Ratings:

I figured, rather than settle for a high end tablet which looks pretty but bottom line has only 1/3 as much versatility and capability as a laptop, I'd go ahead and drop the half grand for this baby.

Liked right out of the box...super sturdy/solid/durable, which explains its hefty weight despite its small size (it was designed for the K-12 classroom environment of hard knocks)...feels just as heavy as my 15.6" Thinkpad T520! The only small gripe I have is that the T520 has an old style keyboard, whereas the x130 has a chiclet keyboard...but it's quite nice for a chiclet keyboard anyhow.

I also appreciated the easy expandability...just 3 screws to take off the back panel, and you can replace the hard drive with a Solid State Drive and upgrade the memory. I ordered 2 sticks of 4GB memory to go with it, and it was a nice little upgrade, I like being able to leave a gazillion Chrome tabs open without fear of memory slowdowns. This is a distinct advantage over the super-thin "ultra-books" that are not upgradeable because the memory (and sometimes, even the hard drive) is soldered into the motherboard. I'd much rather have the expandability and accept having a little bit more bulk and weight.

The Core i3-2367 processor is more than adequate as long as you're not a gamer (I'm not), definitely a step up from the AMD processors often found in laptops of this size. Everything else works great, battery life is respectable, a solid 6 hours or so...I'm putting in an SSD this week, so I expect it to increase a bit. There is some bloatware but not that much compared to say, a Dell or HP, and it was easy to remove using the Revo Uninstaller freeware. It would've been nice to have a backlit keyboard or an LED worklight like my T520, but that's not a dealbreaker for me. Getting stuck with Windows 8 would have been, so I was happy that it came with Windows 7!

>> update 3/31/13: when installing an SSD or HDD, make sure it's the slim 9.5mm thickness not the standard 12.5mm ... I went with the Samsung Pro 128GB SSD which is the correct thickness, and have been very happy with it (see my review of that product). Did a clean reinstall of Windows without all the Lenovo bloatware, which now makes this baby SCREAMING fast!

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Love this laptop. You can see the thought in design of this little laptop. It's almost bulletproof and performancewise it is outstanding. The 11.6" screen makes this big enough for real use... It has Windows 7 Professional so no dealing with an unfamiliar "Metro" interface (Windows 8) . I highly recommend this laptop.

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Product exactly as described... If it says fulfillment by Amazon.... I give it 5 stars.... I love the sturdy feel of it, plus, it not that heavy to carry around... And most of all, the best keyboard laptop there is in the market

Review of HP Pavilion DV4-2140US 14.1-Inch Laptop (Black)

Customer Ratings:

I wanted a laptop for cruising the internet and general purpose use. I don't do gaming. This laptop fit the bill in nearly ever respect, but I was quite disappointed by the short battery life. It seems to discharge at a rate of about 1% per minute, so that gives 1.5 hrs of on-battery use. Yeah, you could extend the uptime by dimming your display but that makes it quite difficult to read. I'd say, if you want this laptop, plan on spending from 75 to 150 more for a 12 cell battery prices vary depending on if you get it from HP or aftermarket.

Lots of people have commented about the metallic touchpad but I don't find it an issue.

I love the touch sensitive volume control and mute button. Very handy, no fumbling around looking for the right key or key combo to adjust volume or mute.

Lightscribe works as advertised, kinda fun to make CD's and label them, but it does take a while (5-10 minutes).

I was tempted to give it just 3 stars (It's OK) vs 4 (I like it) and decided on 4 due to the value delivered.

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I bought this laptop a year ago, and I regret it with all my heart. It just died, for no reason; never fell down, never spilled water on it, it just died. I wish I could give it five stars, since it was really an amazing laptop, was very stable, powerful in multitasking and visually nice. I was warned not to buy HP because of its overpriced, made-to-fail products, I've rejected to believe so, and now from my experience, I will never ever buy any product from HP. And to make things worse, a crappy customer service. Really, don't buy it. Just don't buy it.

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i bought this laptop february 10th of 2010 february the 5th of 2011 my processor stop working i contact HP and they told me that my warranty expire and the cost of repair was $400 ... ohh i didnt see this one coming so i'm with out lap thanks to HP. my tecnitian told me that the dv4 series was produce with a processor failure and they recall 5 million out of the market to change the motherboard because it overheat to much.. bottom line this lap didnt last the year u loose your money no refund no repair nothing GOOD LUCK TO ALL WHO HAVE BOUGHT THIS TRASH

Honest reviews on HP Pavilion DV4-2140US 14.1-Inch Laptop (Black)

I purchased this laptop directly from hp. In less than a year the battery died, the left mouse pad button was loose, the key board in the upper right corner became unattached, and the laptop made this weird buzzing sound. Luckily the warranty wasn't up yet so I received free repair. However, it wasn't long after the repairs that it started giving problems again (the same problems minus the keyboard detachment). I've had this laptop for 3 years. The left mouse pad mutton eventually fell out and now the mother board has crashed (not before costing me hundreds of dollars for repairing it the second time). Two of my friends have the same laptop and they both had the same problems as I did (they have also had their laptops for roughly the same amount of time that I have). One of them is still using hers but I doubt that will last for much longer. I definitely would not recommend this laptop to anyone.

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Last summer, i was saving up enough money to buy a macbook or macbook pro. The reason? I needed a computer to use for school. When i saw this laptop, and compared it to a mac... it had more then double the memory and less then a third of the price. MORE FOR YOUR MONEY... isnt that what it's all about nowadays? Overall, great laptop i love it.

Review of Acer - Aspire 15.6" Touch-screen Laptop - 4gb Memory - 500gb Hard

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $849.99
Sale Price: $464.99
Today's Bonus: 45% Off

I've been saving for my own laptop for a while, so I did a lot of debating before I purchased this one. Now that I have it I know I made the perfect decision! I'm on it all the time and I haven't had any issues with it at all. In addition, it just looks really nice. Overall, the price was definitely worth it and I am thrilled with my purchase!

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exactly like in the picture, great job guys. at first i was sceptic but now no more, the item is great and arrive in perfect condition

Buy Sony VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC VGN-P588E/Q

Customer Ratings:

I've owned this exact unit for more than six months now. I purchased it strictly for road trips, as I have several custom-built desktops and a larger/luggable Lenovo notebook at home. It's a terrific travel UMPC. You need to get used to the still-usable smallish keyboard (with a Return key way too close to the up/down arrow keys) and the very tiny fonts/display (even when enlarged to 125%), but still very good. It's terrific having the SDD instead of an accident-prone spinning HDD. There's no need for a separate PC case, it fits right in my carry-on along with its very tiny power supply.

My only issue is: even upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium with all Intel and Sony video driver patches, it still can't do video of any quality or size without stuttering/hiccup'ing, which is very annoying for any netbook/notebook in this premium price range.

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Buy Velocity Micro NoteMagixU450 14-Inch Ultrabook

Customer Ratings:

This machine has great specs at a very affordable price. Similar machines from bigger brands sell for hundreds more at Fry's, TigerDirect, and MicroCenter. The only issue is, the manufacturer of the wireless card (Ralink) offers shoddy support for its product in Linux-based systems, and the driver they offer causes a kernel panic I was never able to resolve. However, if you plan to use Windows out of the box, there's no reason not to buy this machine!

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So far so good. Been the best windows computer ive owned but we will see if it lasts me three years or more.....

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It's been about 5 months now since it arrived. It was nice the receive the laptop and have to do very little work to do to start using it. The very little included NOT having to find and delete the junk software my previous computers came with. I did have to load my personal software & data. It has only two USB ports, but they cannot run my external hard drive, I have to use its power supply. It runs a 4-port dongle with USB devices just fine. So far my max has been 4 total USB devices at once. One each HDMI, audio, and SD ports. All the plugs and such are on the right side. :-)

When you start trying to find the DVD, its on the left side and opens/closes with Fn key + F1. It is also easy to turn off the touchpad (Fn+F2) since I prefer a mouse.

I hope it lasts a long time! I already plan to have my next PC to be a Velocity Micro product too! Oh! I almost forgot one very important feature.... it is made in Virginia, USA!!!

Lenovo 438343U 15.6" AMD E-300 Dual Core Laptop with Windows 7 Reviews

Customer Ratings:

This model is made by Lenovo specifically for Best Buy's Black Friday 2011 sale. It was sold for $178 and many people thought they got a great deal. After all, a laptop with OK specs from a name brand manufacturer. What they didn't realize is that Lenovo stripped as much as they could off the laptop to meet this price point. That includes replacing the stereo speakers with a cheap monaural speaker. Yes, the sound comes out of only one side of this laptop. This does not affect people who listen through headphones, it's just that this fact was mentioned nowhere in the technical specs nor the Black Friday ad.

For anyone looking to upgrade RAM, this also only has 1 DIMM slot, so the max you can go is 4GB on a single DDR3 stick. If you're fine with the above, go ahead and make the purchase. But buyers must be aware of these facts.

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I bought this at Best Buy and think its a pretty decent computer. The standout feature was the price though. Good PC for basic computer users. Good for browsing the web, email, and occasionally creating documents.

Like the other review states this model was specifically manufactured for Best Buy's Black Friday promotion and does have some limitations.

Among the Cons:

Only has 1 speaker (mono sound).

Only has 1 RAM tray, max at 4GB on one ram stick.

No memory card reader

No HDMI

Case feels a little like cheap plastic.

Hard Drive partitioning is kinda weird. There is a Drive 'C' with about 180gb and a Drive 'D' (Lenovo) with 30gb (about 26gb of which are free; applications and drivers can be found here).

The Processor AMD E-300 is both a PRO and CON. It is a very basic processor with low CPU Benchmark results.

The Good:

THE PRICE! $180 @ BB on Black Friday.

Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit (again you can only install 4gb of ram though)

Webcam; with face recognition login software (your webcam will recognize you and automatically log you into Windows).

Microsoft Office 2010 Starter (Functional Word, and Excel with ads included; no PowerPoint, Outlook though... that's what OpenOffice/LibreOffice is for)

Lightweight

Good keyboard and track pad

Good battery life, and battery management software

Very little bloatware (some programs don't come pre-installed; rather you need to install them from the Lenovo Drive, in the 'Apps' folder).

Small and compact AC adapter

Google Chrome pre-installed faster than Internet Explorer

Good HD graphics, because of graphics card

Processor (Con and Pro): It gets the job done!

Overall:

Great computer, for the price, for basic computer users. I got this for my mother who uses the computer pretty much only to surf the internet, and check email. For the price, and what she'll use it for its perfect. Again, for basic everyday computing this laptop will get the job done, but not for those with high resource needs (specially because of RAM/Processor limitations).

Best Deals for Lenovo 438343U 15.6" AMD E-300 Dual Core Laptop with Windows 7

First let me say that this laptop and it's reviews are going to be far more subjective than most other laptop reviews. Mainly due to the E-300 CPU.

One's opinion of it will REALLY depend their usage requirements:

what you plan to use it for

what software you plan to run on it

will this be your first laptop

are you just going to use it for web surfing and/or checking email

do you normally have just a couple windows open when using a laptop OR are you the type of person that must have 25 windows open, with 25 apps running simultaneously

Myself, my only other "personally owned", "portable" computing device has been an emachine netbook, purchased two years ago.

However, I have owned over 10 desktop PCs over the past 15 years.

So when I compare this unit's functionality to my netbook, the experience is the same and/or better than the netbook.

When comparing to one of my quad-core desktop computers, the performance gap widens quite a bit.

[Note: The performance index I got from this Lenovo was 3.4; due to the CPU].

Pros:

the screen is thinner than my netbook (and laptops I use at work). Yet the screen is large enough to view most anything I've looked at while using the unit.

6 cell battery. Longer running time than my netbook with it's measily 3 cell.

built-in optical device (my netbook requires that I carry a slim line external DVD drive).

so far it has been adequate for light usage: surfing and email

Cons:

performance index is lower than other computers I have used.

one memory socket that requires removing the existing So-dimm module and replacing with a larger one.

no HDMI (I knew this going in)

one speaker (as noted by another reviewer).

If you plan to buy one, I'd suggest trying to find a computer on display somewhere which uses the E-300 CPU. That way you can test drive to get some idea of how it might work out for you.

For some people on a budget, they might be able to forgive it's slower speed.

If you currently have an AMD quad core computer and you want this as a new laptop, more than likely you will be quite irritated by the slower speed than what a quad core runs at.

If you just need something to check email and web surf while away from home, it might work out fine.

Honest reviews on Lenovo 438343U 15.6" AMD E-300 Dual Core Laptop with Windows 7

I'd love to come upon another offer to purchase one of these Lenovos for the same amount of money. I purchased it as a gift for my husband and he was thrilled with it. So am I, because I no longer have to wait for him to finish using my p.c. to get work done.

Reviews of Samsung NP365E5C-S05US 16-Inch Laptop (AMD Dual-Core A6-4400M

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $899.99
Sale Price: $449.99
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I really like this laptop because its fast and has two 3.0 USB ports for my external hard drive. It also has an AMD Radeon HD 7520G graphics card which performs better than the Intel 4000 that comes with Intel based computers. Overall this is a good computer for a student or casual user.

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This is a very nice and speedy laptop -2 core 2.7 gHz processor, 4GB memory, and a large hard drive. In a pinch it could pretty easily replace my desktop PC. The first thing I did was to wipe the drive to get rid of all of Samsung's junkware and Install Windows 8 Pro. For various reasons I would have preferred to install the 32-bit version of Windows 8 Pro, but it turns out that that is not possible, as this laptop has the more modern UEFI firmware rather than the older BIOS firmware. But except for that, I am extremely happy with this laptop.

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Exactly what it said it was.... Could use a bit more ram for the 64 bit OS... But plenty of computer for the dollar.

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great products, excellent materials and fast warm, $ 400 for the product is great and good materials greetings from Venezuela

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I received my new Samsung laptop on Monday and have spent the last two days acquainting myself w/Samsung products outside of or other than Samsung Handsets. This system is definitely for the casual-student user. It has its basic functionality as a machine but the feel is somewhat "toyish" and the mouse cursor of course jumps back and forth, all over the screen until you make whatever adjustment necessary.

Additionally, it is fast booting, and playing simple games (although it was purchased for business use), viewing documents, switching between all the gizmo's that Windows 8 has thrown at us. However, I would not recommend this product for the business owner neither the corporate traveler....just doesn't feel like it will hold up to the pressure of multi-tasking needed to run a business or operate w/multi-channel devices simultaneously.

Discount ASUS Q500A-BHI5N01 Laptop Computer

Customer Ratings:

I bought this laptop from Best Buy back in November 2012 and I just love everything about it from the backlit keyboard which makes operation easy in a dark room at night to the ease of Windows 8 Professional. It is definitely a worthy purchase if you are a student or otherwise.

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I bought my ASUS Q series laptop from Micro Center in Chicago, refurbished but felt very much like a brand new machine. I was only looking for an affordable laptop that was up to date and better than my Dell Inspiron 1200, which frankly was good enough for what I needed it for. This ASUS blew me away. Windows 8 is far easier to use than all the reviews I had read, since I was coming from XP PRO and was very used to it. W8 is a total breeze, easy to use OS. The 2 x 3.0 + 1 x 2.0 USB ports plus the HDMI port along with the SUPER DVD drive is a perfect setup. This is an amazing laptop and I definitely recommend one. Also the black ALUMINUM shell is better than all those HP, etc. hard plastic ones. Its lightweight (was shocked at how heavy my Dell was in comparison) and the backlit keyboard is terrific. I got mine at Micro Center in Chicago for about $479.00 i5-750G HD, 6G ram. Also, when I fired it up the laptop was right at home with my ASUS RT-N66U Black Night wireless routerif you're looking for an incredible router, check it out. AMAZING!

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Good design, processor and capacity. So far has worked pretty well. The battery life is acceptable. Aluminum finish adds a touch of elegance to the design of this laptop.

Honest reviews on ASUS Q500A-BHI5N01 Laptop Computer

Great for price, especially refurbished as i purchased it.

Very lightweight (compared to the gaming laptops i had purchased).

I havent played any games with it, and the battery is limited to a few hours, but other than that this has been a great laptop for just fooling around on.

it also has never had any problems running some more advanced simulation with excel models, if you are looking for something for school.

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Powerful, fast, love the backlit keyboard!

Bottlenecked by the harddrive though and would do well with more memory too but for what I payed for it this is really good!

Review of Lenovo IdeaPad U310 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Graphite Gray)

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $719.99
Sale Price: $589.98
Today's Bonus: 18% Off

Got for $599 last week from another vendor. First Lenovo and I am happy with purchase and tech support. First one received did have dead pixel on arrival but vendor instantly sent me a replacement with next day Saturday delivery. This is an upgrade from my 4years old Samsung netbook which served me very well. I find the u310 touch to be very fast, screen is very nice and clear after making fine adjustments, track pad very smooth after making fine adjustments, touch screen a nice addition. Did not have any dropped WIFI connection and have found operational distance to be good. Very nice build and like the aluminum outer shell.

Windows 8 must be given a chance. Like everyone else and based on bad reviews I did not want to give it a try and was going to install Windows 7 the next day. After playing with it for a day I realized that it is not as bad as everyone that didn't give it a try had stated. It was like having a touch pad and laptop in one. Being that I don't have a touch pad anything this was nice for me as I can download apps from Microsoft and use them accordingly. It was just a matter of knowing where everything has been relocated to. God Mode is great addition to the OS allowing one location for all kinds of adjustments. Desktop was a bit frustrating at first as I did not know where everything was relocated to, especially the Start menu. After reading up on tricks and tips articles there are third party software that adds Start menu back to desktop. I installed Start8 and now desktop works just like Windows 7. All my old software that worked on Windows 7 work just as well or better on Windows 8. Very happy with my purchase. Only reason I did not give it 5 stars is that I had to adjust quite a few settings to make it work to my liking.

30 Days Update -

Having used my u310 Touch for 30 days now I'm enjoying Windows 8. The option of having a tablet apps platform is very welcomed. It is like having 2 devices in one. The live windows in the apps are nice but bear in mind it will keep your ram running at 50% and draw on battery power. You can turn off the apps live windows.

The touch screen is very responsive and smooth. I have 2 iPads in the family and the u310's touchscreen is comparable. Although I have used it occasionally it is a nice option to have.

Desktop is working great with installation of Start8, I don't miss Windows 7 at all. Lenovo tech support has been great. I had a few more kinks to get out and all it needed was driver updates. I called Lenovo tech support and they took care of the needed updates for me. I had an Acer before purchasing the Lenovo and when I called about an issue the Acer tech support just instructed me to go to their website and download & install the latest drivers.

The 2 drivers needing updates for me are the Mouse/Touchpad and Lenovo Power Management. Mouse/Touchpad was getting stuck when I right click & hold down to highlight or to activate scroll bar. Driver update corrected the problems.

Battery life for me is averaging 4.5-5 hours. Not great but not too bad.

Speakers are nice and loud enough for my needs. I have not had volume turned up more than 50% setting. Computer speakers are what they are and I never expect to listen to room filling music sound from them. The Acer I returned was so "tinny" that it hurt to hear sound from them.

No problems at all with wifi connections.

Processor is fast and smooth. When warranty is up I will upgrade to 8gig ram.

Although a lot of tweaks to get this ultrabook to perform to my preferences I am still very much enjoying it and for me it's a keeper.

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I've nothing to complain about with this purchase, which is saying something, indeed. Once upon a time, you had to pay high prices for the power to support a multimedia and gaming platform, and I tend to buy very high-powered laptops over the years as a rule, because I cannot stand the performance of machines that are designed to be energy efficient and preserve battery life. While this isn't on the level of getting an overclocked i7 desktop with the latest Nvidia graphics card and liquid cooling ... let me put it this way: it's so efficient it doesn't need the cooling. For comparison, this is replacing an old 2006 Vaio laptop of mine that runs XP (not one of my high-powered machines, but one that I had converted for multimedia use). Merely playing a lot of youtube videos on that old Vaio would cause that machine to run so remarkably hot that it was painful to touch. This Lenovo, however, stays very cool for the entire duration of playing movies or games. W/r to games, unless you're playing the most demanding games (e.g., Skyrim or SWTOR with the highest details and options set), you likely won't notice any performance issues, either.

The real attraction of this laptop, however, is its touchscreen. I was unwilling to purchase a Windows 8 laptop without a touchscreen mostly because Windows 8 -begsfor touchscreen capability, as the mouse/keyboard alternatives aren't exactly intuitive. This is a nice, small, light laptop that does just about everything you might ever ask of it (outside of the most performance-demanding video games), and has full touchscreen capability with all of the Windows 8 touchscreen-enabled apps ready to go. Add Office 365 and VPN, and it fulfills work, play, email, video needs.

It's interesting what they leave off, to keep it small and light: it has no CD/DVD drive. Once upon a time, CD technology was fast and light and way more efficient than the alternatives. Now, it's far more economical to stream videos on the fly, or download games online services, instead of buying several CDs or DVDs to install/play. Technology is still leaping ahead, folks, in spite of the current economy, and this is a remarkably frugal means to get the latest tech and play with it.

For the record, this is the 3rd laptop I've bought from Amazon, and I find shopping for laptops this way to be far superior to checking out whatever happens to be in stock at local stores. The detail in the description and reviews is more than enough to determine whether it is a good purchase. I'm used to being disappointed. I expect disappointment. I was always disappointed with store-purchased laptops. Amazon-purchased laptops haven't disappointed me yet.

The only issues that I might imagine anyone having with this laptop are that it's Windows 8, and the UI is very touchscreen-oriented. If you aren't used to the new OS or touchscreens, it can be a bit of a leap from Windows 7 with mouse and keyboard.

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I recently was in the market for a laptop for school, as my old macbook's days are numbered. I originally was looking to get a macbook pro, but after doing some research and looking around I landed on this Lenovo Ideapad. I really like the build quailty, it feels very sturdy and has a refined look. The touchscreen is also a must for Windows 8, it comes in handy quite often. It boots up extremely fast, and runs very cool. I also saved about $600 over the Macbook pro, so I was very pleased. For the price, you can get a Lenovo Ideapad and a new iPad instead of just a macbook, can't really beat that.

Pros:

Touchscreen

i5 processor-very fast

Runs cool

Great battery life: I get about 5 hours watching video, and 8 hours doing surfing or typing documents.

Very thin and light

Cons:

Screen does get fingerprints, guess that's to be expected though.

As with all new laptops, has a good amount of bloatware. I got rid of most of it, and it does run even faster now.

Not sure why I keep reading about the wireless issues? Mine has been great since I got it, not one issue. I heard they fixed this back in July of last year, with the introduction of the touch screen models.

In conclusion, this is a great laptop. It runs fast and cool, has an awesome touchscreen and has great battery life. For the price of only $599, it is hard to find anything even close to this laptop (believe me I have looked around). Lenovo is quality, and this laptop is no exception. I recommend this product to anyone wanting a nice light and thin laptop with great battery life. This is great for students!

Honest reviews on Lenovo IdeaPad U310 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Graphite Gray)

Got it this afternoon, and typing on it.

It feels really nice, beats my expectation. It is nice looking, thin and light (compared to my 6 pounds E430). It is fast enough for my need programing, web browsing, watching video, editing picture etc. The display is better than expectation too, even readable under direct sun when set it to highest brightness.

Touch screen is good, and very useful too.

But, wifi, what should I say, so disappointing.

When it closes to the wifi access points, it works great. But when moving far away, the download speed dramatically reduced, sometimes even disconnected.

Here is my test results comparing to other laptops (response time/download/upload, I tested 3 times each access points, exact same location)

1. HP DM4(i5): 43 ms/9.53M/1.35M

2. Lenovo Edge E420 (i3): 35 ms/10.02M/1.42M, similar for the other access point.

3. Lenovo Edge E430 (i7): 35 ms/10.56M/1.41M, similar for the other access point.

4. U310: 135 ms/0.89M/0.67M for one access point, 415 ms/0.14/0.36 for another access point and disconnected several times during testing.

I also tested it using a Airlink 101 wireless dangle, with it, I got more than 11M download speed.

I really love it, but can not accept the low wifi speed. I am thinking switch to another one and give Lenovo another chance.

BTW, this is made in April 2013.

Updated: I tried another one, similar results. I test against two wifi routers and all set to N/G combined. I updated drivers, and did all the tricks I can find from web. No go.

I tried a Yoga 13, got very good wifi reception. I think I may keep the Yoga.

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Ive had this for about a week now, and this laptop is excellent for this price range. I searched quite thoroughly for laptops in the 500-700 dollar price range for class, and this was by far the best value. Keep in mind, this is not a gaming laptop. It seems to be able to run most lower end games fairly well, but that's not what i got it for. I use it for college and for programming.

Windows 8:

I want to start off with windows 8 since this was one of my major concerns, i had seen it before and was not overly enthusiastic. However, after having a chance to play with it and set it up my way, it is actually a pretty good. I can not imagine trying to use windows 8 without a touch screen, or at least touch pad gestures, but luckily this laptop has both. If you do get windows 8, i recommend taking the time to play with it instead of immediately installing the add-on that makes the desktop mode like windows 7.

Touchscreen:

The touchscreen is fairly nice, it does not have as much of a terrible glare as some other touch screens. It is crisp and responsive. It may smudge a bit, but this comes with touch screen territory.

Keyboard/Touchpad

This is my only real complaint, but i did not find it worth subtracting stars, especially for the value this laptop has presented for the price range(550$ at the time of purchase). The keyboard does in fact feel a bit cheap. They keys a spaced slightly too wide for my taste, and are not a "normal" size, but this is personal preference perhaps. I don't personally notice any flexing or bending as i type, just the spacing of the keys, it makes it kind of odd to apply the right amount of pressure, im sure i will get used to it though. I am typing on it right now. The touch pad has a good response, though the left and right buttons are part of the touch sensitive pad instead of being independent, previous laptops have been separate buttons. This has its draw backs as the mouse can shift when you right or left click depending on how your finger moves, but it also provides the benefit of a wider touch pad, and with the touch screen, i don't really care.

power/graphics:

its a low price ultra book, i did not expect a power house. It is powerful enough for what i need it for, school, programming, and moderate smaller gaming. The i5 ultra low voltage is good for battery life, but can still get stuff done.

Battery life:

fantastic, i can get upwards of 6 hours of light to moderate use on a full battery. great for class, just dim the screen, and try not to access the hard disk drive, it goes to sleep. also i find it worth mentioning as i like to when people bring up battery life. Lithium batteries are not like the old nickle-cadmium batteries. don't let it die , ever. If you do it actually harms maximum capacity. Let it drop below 20% once a week ideally and at least once a month, and below 75 percent once or twice a week, ideally as well. Yes this consumes lithium recharge cycles, but its important to do so for the health of the battery. most batteries have AT LEAST 1000 cycles, upwards of 3000 or 4000, and lithium cycles are not like the nickle cycles. If you charge 50% 100% you have used a 1/2 of a charge cycle. And using 1-2 cycles a week is not bad at all, that will last you a while. The only reason i bring this up in such a way in a review is the fact the battery is NOT removable on this model without taking apart the case. so replacement is not as easy. Luckily for those concerned with battery life this does include a "Battery Health" mode which will only charge the laptop to 59% and alternate charging on and off, if you want the mode on that is.

Wireless:

This seems to be a major concern among other buyers. I will say that in the same room, or within a reasonable distance, i get fine signal strength on "Balanced" performance mode. If you run this in "High performance" maybe it will get a larger distance. The only time i have had an issue was when i was clear across a house and through several walls/objects. I'm not using this for games, so if it has a mild or even poor signal strength at these distances its not a major concern. And it was only at that location, so maybe a issue with that router. No issue at all in same room, or adjacent room( of router ).

Size/weight/durability:

The laptop is thin, lightweight, and feels durable and well built.

All in all a great value for the price.