Lenovo IdeaPad Z40 Review

The IdeaPad Z series is Lenovo's second-tier notebook line designed for home and multimedia use; it's more fully featured than the entry-level IdeaPad G series. The 14" IdeaPad Z40 we're reviewing has a sleek design, good overall performance for most tasks and several unique specifications like an inbuilt optical drive and user-replaceable battery, both of which have become relatively uncommon in consumer thin-and-light notebooks. Aside from its subpar display, we ultimately found the IdeaPad Z40 to offer solid value and give it our recommendation.

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It's amazing how, in just a few years, user-replaceable battery and optical drive have become "unique specifications" instead of something so predictable it's not worth mentioning.

But for something marketed as a multimedia device, even a budget one, a "subpar screen" and "anemic speakers" are hard to accept.

 

Lenovo's marketing does it to themselves; the IdeaPad Z series has barely enough features over the entry-level G series to warrant charging a bit extra for them. Personally if I were buying a notebook on a budget, I'd either spend $400-450 and get a base level G or save up a bit and get a true higher-end model for around $750-900, the main reason for that being the display choices. PC makers have not and from what I can tell, will not offer anything but bargain basement displays on their entry-level computers because computers in that price range are straight commodities with almost no differentiation; they sell because they're cheap.