Lenovo IdeaPad Y430 14.1-Inch

Lenovo IdeaPad Y430 is a great laptop at great price.

Why to choose it:

Solidly constructed, comfortable keyboard and touchpad, HDMI, one-touch back-up, versatile wireless adapter, light weight, low price - under $650.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y430 at www.notebook-online-store.com

Product description:

Intel Pentium Dual Core T3200 2GHz / 3GB RAM / 160GB Hard Drive / Intel GMA X4500MHD / DVD+-R/RW / Webcamera / 802.11AGN / Vista Home Premium 14.1 diagonal WXGA (1280 x 800) Glossy VibrantView Display 1.3 Megapixel Webcamera Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500MHD with up to 1277MB Shared Video Memory DVD+-R/RW Drive with Double Layer Intel WiFi Link 5100AGN 802.11a/b/g/n 10/100 Ethernet LAN 6-in-1 Card Reader (SD/SD pro, MS/MS pro, MMC, XD) ExpressCard 34 Slot Ports - 3 x USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, Headphone; Microphone, VGA, HDMI, RJ-11 (Modem), RJ-45 Approximate Unit Dimensions - 13.1 (W) x 9.5 (D) x 1.5(H) Approximate Unit Weight - 5.2 Pounds

What I like:

• Great battery life. 3.5-4 hours of web surfing, 1.5-2 hours with more strain (i.e. Photoshop). I haven't tried to watch DVDs as I didn't buy it for that reason. Not bad for a small PC though on battery life.
• Snappy. I have a desktop that I built myself with similar specs and this seems to be slightly faster in some respects.
• Illuminated media controls and equalizers above keyboard.
• Light weight. Weighs in at about 5 pounds or so. A little heavier than I would like but a lot better than my previous HP that was 8.5 pounds. Dell's are also notorious for being heavy as bricks.
• HDMI out. I cannot stress how much this came in handy for me over the last few weeks. I use my Xbox 360 to stream media across my network but when I got a Red Ring of Death (my first in 3 years) this little laptop was my life saver. I bought a $4 HDMI cable, hooked it up and was back in business.
• Media card reader. Great feature, though I wish it read CF cards as well.
• The design. I love it. textured top is not a finger print magnet and the laptop actually feels really sturdy.
• Built in webcam. Pretty much a standard on any laptop these days but the camera is nice. I use it for Skype all the time.
• On that same note, the built in mic is nice as well for Skype.
• Keyboard. I love the keyboard (with the exception of the Function Key). Keys are nicely spaced, spring is nice and very comfortable.
• Vista Premium. Forget all the nonsense surrounding Vista. After the Service Pack it is really a stable and secure system. I cannot go back to XP and the plus is this laptop will run Windows 7 nicely.

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