Friday, September 2, 2011

Lenovo IdeaPad Z370 Notebook Review

Lenovo Value new 13.3-inch laptop has a beautiful design, a comfortable keyboard and easy to carry. Is Intel Core i5-equipped notebook a worthy travel companion?

Specifications Lenovo IdeaPad Z370 :
  • 13.3-inch glossy 720p display (1366x768 resolution)
  • Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
  • Intel Core i5-2410M dual-core processor (2.3GHz, up to 2.9GHz Turbo Boost, 3MB cache, 35W TDP)
  • Intel HM65 chipset
  • Integrated Intel HD graphics
  • 4GB DDR3-1333 RAM (2x 2GB; supports up to 8GB - 2x 4GB)
  • 500GB 5400RPM Hitachi hard drive (HTS547550A9E384)
  • 802.11n wireless network adapter (Broadcom)
  • Internal Bluetooth v2.1+EDR
  • Integrated 2.0MP webcam
  • Built-in tray-load DVD burner (Slimtype DVD A DS8A5SH)
  • One-year limited warranty
  • 6-cell Li-ion battery (10.8V, 48Wh)
  • Weight: 4.41 lbs.
  • Dimensions: 12.9 x 8.7 x 0.8~1.3 inches
  • MSRP: $629
Design and build
Lenovo has historically done a good job of making their budget books seem more expensive than their price, the IdeaPad Z370 ($ 629) continues this trend. The wrist and the surround is brushed aluminum that feels and looks good.

The chassis is strong and resists warping and laptops in business class, it is always important in a portable notebook, because it prevents the internal circuitry of the folding and finally not because of cracks in welds (a major cause failure of the laptop).

The cover, unfortunately, could be improved. To begin the shiny plastic cover stains and scratches too easily. Also, do not share the good quality chassis construction as it folds easily, also waves on the screen when pressure is applied to the back.

As the cover is not subject to any undue stress (items placed on top and so on), this should not be a problem. Overall, Z370 is a high quality, certainly much better than expected in this price range.

Screen and speakers
The Z370 is a 13.3-inch screen has a 720p (1366x768) resolution. The display is typical for a great budget laptop. As a TN panel is good visibility on both sides, but the color faded rapidly above and below.

The color reproduction is adequate, but not exactly out of the window in a better view. The glossy surface, using the contrast a little, but a lot of ideas and it is difficult to keep clean. The resolution is limited to 720p, but no better resolution available in this screen size for the price.

This notebook has a surprisingly good set of speakers above the keyboard. They have plenty of volume and do a good job does not sound pathetic. There is even a hint of bass.

The keyboard and touchpad
Lenovo has finally decided to adopt the new style keyboard Chiclet / island range IdeaPad revised. The keyboard has a forward direction, and with enough key travel (the distance between the pressure and UN-pressure job), it is easy to type quickly and accurately.

The keyboard is relatively quiet, students should have no problem using this laptop in class. That said, I thought the old standard keyboard has a better feeling, and this new keyboard is more difficult and less forgiving. An interesting change with this new keyboard is that the left [Ctrl] is now located in the lower left corner and the [Fn] key next to it, historically, their positions were switched.

The Synaptics touchpad is a dimpled surface is generally excellent and enjoyable to use. The touchpad buttons are thankfully quiet and solid. The touchpad buttons of the portable test that many are inexpensive and are very strong, which is always nice to see a manufacturer doing things - not always and Lenovo.

Ports and Features
There is a little better than average selection of ports on this laptop, the addition of eSATA is nice to connect an external hard drive. Unfortunately, the lack IdeaPad Z370 USB 3.0, DisplayPort, and ExpressCard slot. All descriptions of the images are from left to right.

The Z370 has respectable specifications, is smaller than most laptops, because it has a 13.3 "screen and weighing less than 4.5 kilograms, making it a good traveling companion processor and RAM enough for multitasking, on the implementation of this laptop is not only good to play because only Intel integrated graphics.

Performance and benchmarks
The Z370 has a good overall performance for general tasks, including office productivity web surfing, and multimedia. The second generation of Intel Core i5 is fast enough, and 4 GB of RAM included is more than enough to run multiple programs at once.

The Z370 is the Achilles heel is unusually slow hard drive 5400, ideally, it would come with a superior performance of the model 7200, which would improve the Windows startup and load times of applications.

As noted earlier, almost the only application Z370 does not have a good game, because it is a basic integrated graphics, not strong and independent (separate) card.

Battery life
The included 6-cell battery is rated moderate 48Wh, which is normal for a consumer notebook. I have measured five hours, five minutes of battery life on standard battery of tests summary (Windows 7 the profile of the diet, screen brightness 70%, wireless active, and updating a web page every minute ). This is good if time is not impressive for a 13.3-inch notebook.

Conclusion
The Lenovo IdeaPad Z370 is a good choice for a laptop cheap laptop. It has an aesthetic design, good keyboard and touchpad, good battery life (five hours) and speakers, even decent.

No major disadvantages of this laptop, but there are some elements that could be improved. The bright difficult because of the ease of use of all reflections and a model anti-glare would make more sense. The training consisted of the unit 5400 is slow and affects performance. Finally, the shiny plastic on the cover stains easily and become a horror.

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