lenovo n100 mini-review

hey all, just bought a lenovo n100 and here are a few quick opinions.

first the important part, the specs:
intel core2duo 1.6mhz t5500
15.4 brightview xga 1200X800 screen
80gb sata-150 hard drive
fingerprint reader
bluetooth 2.0
intel abg wireless
more or less, i'm sure i'm forgetting some stuff.

first opinion has to go to
build quality:
I got to say here is whrere i'm impressed, this thing is built like an old chevy. I can honestly say that it's like if i threw it against a wall, the wall would take the brunt of it. The lapy has a solid feel and construction that actually feels overbuilt instead of underbuilt like some of the "not to mention any names" (crappy fujitsu here in europe) that you find in alot of the stores. It's this overbuilt quality that actually give the machine the look of something that could be from the 80's.
the only place i could complain is the pannels underneath that hide the memory, hard drive and processor compartment, there larger than need be, and have flexing thin plastic. They make mee nervous as be too fragile, but this could just be my own paranoia, but i would have preffered something more solid.

Screen quality:
This is more or less wonderfull. My lapy has the brightview xga screen, and it's beutiful to look at. It's sharp for text, has wonderfull rich deep colors, and bright as hell. Now what about the less part you ask, there is definite light leak at the bottom and the lower corners are noticebly less bright than the rest of the screen. Do you notice these two problems, in normal use (internet, office apps, and other basics) you don't notice them, but with you have a bright image perhaps with a dvd or photoshop, you will notice. As far as the backlight bleeding at the bottom, do any glossy screen not have this nowadays?
all in all a good screen that most people unless nitpicking will be more than happy with. Although you must understand, i only have 1 week with the lapy and have not performed any specific tests other than a dead pixel test which it passed without nary a dead pixel.

Keyboard:
Here is the bell of the ball, it's wonderful!!! I learned to type on a IBM selectic II electric typewriter which was the best typing keyboard ever made, thus i'm real picky here. This keyboard has wonderfull full stroke, solid feedback keys that feel just as good as a ibm think pad (there was one in the store side by side with the n100 and i could'nt feel the difference). If your a typer this keyboard simply can't be beat, period. or as we say in spain, "punto en boca!"

Trackpad:

This is pretty **** good also, it's a little smaller than i would have liked, but still a acceptable size. It's surface has a good smooth but not sticky construction that gives your fingers no problem in gliding across, and the bottoms are th short throw solid loud click type. I know that a little of people prefer the feeling of a quiet, soft, long throw trackpad button, but i'm not one of them. To me they always feel on the point of breaking. These buttons give me the solid feedback i like, and i'm more than please.

Heat output:

What heat output? I have encode mp3 and decode dvd's and the laptop stayed cool enough to keep a ice unmelted resting anywhere on it's surface. Ok, that's a bit of an exageration, but you get the idea. The only clue that this baby is even being stressed is a non-obtrusive fan. Yes you do here it when it come on, but it's very quiet compared to the turb jet on my old fujitsupc s6231.

Weight and feel:

I won't say what the exact weight is, because i don't know so i'm assuming it's the 6.1 pounds that the specs say, But i will say it feel heavier than that. It's has a very thick clunky feel to it, and i have'nt tried balancing it on my lap yet. I think i might be to fragile This is one are where the HP business line has a clear advantage. a thinkpad t60 it aint.

Complaints:
my biggest complaint has to be the HL-DT-ST gma-4082n DVD-writer which I believe is a LG. What a piece of garbage. Under both speed test with nero speed test, and actual usage with audiograbber encoding several different cd's, this baby (bad baby) never get faster than 8x. To me that's pretty **** slow. as a matter of fact my 2 year old DVD/CD-reader from my fujitsu s6231 never goes uner 12x in speed under that same conditions. What does this mean, if you do a lot of cd/DVD encoding or writing, this is going to piss you off like you can't believe. Not only this when i tried "DVD shrink" with two different dvds, it could'nt finish reading one of them, where as the drive from my old fujitsu has no such problem. I reapeated the test several times out of dis-belief, and always got the same result.

Is it a keeper:

Here is where i'm not sure. Where as i love the screen, and the keyboard is tops in any class, the DVD-writer is a piece of garbage that make the laptop feel like an older machine from 4 years ago. For this one reason i might be taking this machine back and trying out a HP nx7400. It's a shame that such a great laptop is ruined by some as easy to fix as DVD-writer, but i don't feel like spending that money and time to replace this. It's new after all and i'm not a beliver in re-building new laptops. To me it' defeats the reason for buying a new laptop in the first place.

anyone have any first hand ownership experience with the HP nx7400 or nc6320? the actual models, and not ones "just like it except....)?

for all my grammar, typos, poor english, and general bad writing, this is being written from spain after staying up to 4:30am last night to watch Peyton Manning and the colts finally beat the Pats. Go COLTS!!

Randolph

 

Nice review. Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks Randolph, love the quote on the build quality. Most people seem to be impressed with it given the price.

And I have to say, though not a Colts fan, it was nice to see Peyton finally make it to the big dance. Good luck to him!

 

if i remember correctly almost all new notebooks these days have a max write speed of 8x for cdrs....

 

thanks for all of the kind replys. Actually i'm not a colts fan, but like you said, it's nice to see peyton go to the big dance.

as far as the cdr write speed, it's not the write speed that is 8x, but the read speed. I kind of thought that an 8x read speak is kind of slow, oh well.

now let's see payton win the big one!!

 

Well all i'm sorry to say that today i returned the laptop for a refund. While i did like the machine why did it go back?

Well there were a few glaring problems that i couldn't get by, the most important being that it just did'nt seem to correctly read my usb2.0 external drive which my 5 year old fujitsu s6010 had no trouble with even with it's usb1.1. I tested this through several reboots and re-connects, no go, the lenovo just did'nt behave correctly.

While it was'nt a deal breaker, i just did'nt like the uneven backlighting of the screen. it was a shame because the screen otherwise looked pretty good.

VERY slow performing 8x dvd-cd reader. i should be getting my better performance from a new machine.

Worst of all, the machine re-booted twice by itself just for haing the usb2 external drive connected.

in the end it had to go back. what a shame because there was a lot of good with this machine including the best keyboard i have used on a laptop.

oh well. Maybe i'll try a hp nx7400 matte screen or hp nx6320 matte next. anyone have one of these?

 

One must consider that notebook drives are made with size and power consumption in mind. Laptop drives are just never gonna be as good as a desktop drive in terms of speed or ripping. I wrote the review for the n100. I liked it quite a bit. I can't speak to your experiences, but I thought the LG drive was pretty good. Most laptop drives burn a full DVD in the 13-14 minute range. I was able to burn a full DVD in under 11 using a TY disc, plus the write quality was good which in the end is the most important thing. I also don't think uneven backlighting is unusual thing in a consumer notebook. I saw a nx6325 not too long ago. I thought it was pretty good.