woncoolone wrote: CPU Benchmarks

Nice. Never seen this before. So is it saying the processor is mid to low range?

snang wrote:A newer version of this laptop is available at Best Buy for the same price, brand new.

bestbuy.com

That's also a decent laptop but it's difficult to compare Intel and AMD processors so I won't even try. Before deciding either way I'd dig a little deeper and see how various metrics add up.

Hey, has anyone noticed that on the Left Profile photo this Laptop could have had an HDMI connector. You can see the molded cover on the side.

What? Lenovo couldn't spend a few extra Chinese Yuan to add an HDMI connector?

HDMI out isn't exactly a necessity, but with so many computer users migrating to online streaming for watching movies and television shows, having an HDMI connector for your LCD / LED / Plasma tv would have been a great touch.

snang wrote:It's an IBM company.

Lenovo bought IBM's PC division lock stock and barrel in 2005. They quit using IBM's name somewhere around 2007 but kept the Thinkpad name. Just plain Lenovo branded laptops (like this one) aren't part of the Thinkpad 'family'.

I bought this laptop at BestBuy about two months ago. I LOVE it. Lenovo computers come with lots of extra software for security and keeping your pc running efficiently. Their marketing is phenomenal. If you look for them on facebook they ask in-depth questions to help create a more efficient and pleasant experience for their users. This laptop is built very well and is tough as nails. I highly recommend this amazing deal. I paid 100 dollars more for it on clearance.

I'm curious to the breed of the dog... I want to say shiba inu because of the size/curly tail but I can't be certain. Anyone know?

acidoverride wrote:Wow... and same price too!!! $299.99

Compare:
Best Buy / Woot

4GB RAM / 2GB RAM
250GB HD / 320GB HD
1.6GHz AMD / 2.13GHz Intel
1MB Cache / ?

The Best Buy model has HDMI port, Woot doesn't. No HDMI is a dealbreaker for me.

robio wrote:And with 2GB more RAM. (Granted the HD is smaller, but for most folks 320 is overkill anyway.)

As a heads up, the amd e-350 is a combo graphics card with processor. The graphics do decent for a budget computer, but the Pentium p6200 is a better "processor." In other words, the e-350 will probably do better with graphical applications, the pentium will be better in other applications.

Because neither of the laptops can be used for gaming, the graphics, for most people, will not mean much.

You may want to add $40 for another 2 gigs of ram though.

Agreed on the hd thing too, get an external if you need more room.

Yell0w wrote:are Lenovo laptops any good? never brought from that brand before. looking for a lightweight laptop that i can bring to school, but this one weights 4.9 pounds.

Lenovo is the new name for the old brand "IBM." It is the same company, they just changed the name a few years ago to seem cooler.

The bestbuy laptop is technically $20 more, because of tax... this one for $300, the specs are about right. Nothing to go crazy over though. And no hdmi. Real deal killer

NocturnalOne wrote:That's also a decent laptop but it's difficult to compare Intel and AMD processors.

Not really, if you know the product line.

Even though it's an Arrandale, a Pentium will outdo the E-350 in everyday tasks, though the APU will drastically outperform the Intel integrated graphics controller on any rendering/video task.

That other one has a chiclet keyboard as well.

coryb13 wrote:
Because neither of the laptops can be used for gaming, the graphics, for most people, will not mean much.

Oh ye of little faith.
In what world does 4GB of PC-10600 cost $40?

Compare this lappy against a netbook. Bigger and faster. Trade portability for performance for about the same money. For $300 this looks like a decent computer. If you can spring an extra $200 or so try to get an i3 with a bit more memory. Of course there's always an opportunity to spend an extra $200. This will do fine for light work and for outdoor applications where you're not going to cry too much if it gets banged up or dirty.

Consider that you can just about get a decent android tablet for this price with much lower specs all around. Laptops are dirt cheap in comparison. Or maybe it shows how expensive tablet really are. Ergo how quickly the touchpad sold out when it was finally cheap enough to be interesting

just pointing out that it has an ESATA port.

acidoverride wrote:Nice. Never seen this before. So is it saying the processor is mid to low range?

More like bottom-end when compared to the Top 10 Common CPUs...

We have one with the i5-2410M CPU processor and it's really fast. It also costs a lot more.

Placement of the FN key kills it. Possibly the most irritating laptop "feature" ever.

brucedoesbms wrote:More like bottom-end when compared to the Top 10 Common CPUs...

That's one of the most misleading graphs I've ever read. Every single one of those other processors save one is a desktop CPU.

snang wrote:A newer version of this laptop is available at Best Buy for the same price, brand new.

bestbuy.com

Might want to take a closer look...

The B.Buy computer has and AMD E-350 processor. The Passmark Score for that processor is only 724, this Lenovo on Woot uses the Intel P-2600, Passmark score is 1630. Seen here: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/
In other words, it's about twice as fast overall. This one also has a slightly larger hard drive, but 1/2 the memory. Between the two of them, I'd go with the faster processor because you can add more RAM if you need it later for a very low cost. (Like, ~$12-$15 for another 2G.)

Overall, since this refurb also carries a 1 year warranty (instead of the usual 90 days) I'd say this is a good deal and at least worth consideration for a non-power user. (ie: like any other $300 laptop, this is NOT a gaming rig.)

NocturnalOne wrote:That's also a decent laptop but it's difficult to compare Intel and AMD processors so I won't even try. Before deciding either way I'd dig a little deeper and see how various metrics add up.

Why not. You can start with the Passmark Benchmarks. Woot's is rated around 1600 and the one at Best Buy is rated only 724. That's the speed of a netbook... the Best Buy one isn't even comparable IMO.

Perfect specs for UBUNTU Linux
http://www.ubuntu.com/
You won't believe how fast a machine like this is after you free it from windows!

At work we switched from dell latitude (newer model) to the Lenovo G770. Best decision ever. They are super fast, dont freeze, plastic is a little flimsy but overall its a good brand to go with. pay a little more and get a better model with higher specs. Lenovo G770 was around $499 on sale at Fries.

We talked to computer repair people before we bought. They recommended Lenovo and HP. We bought a Lenovo Think Pad and love it. We have a very old, very slow IBM Think Pad. The Lenovo and the IBM are equal in quality. The Lenovo is lighter weight and has a number pad on the right side. It comes with Windows 7 Pro which allows you to run Windows XP which is a major advantage to us. The Home edition does not support XP.

The repair people advised against buying bottom-of-the-line computers of any brand unless you're willing to spring for a new computer in 2 years.

Tygress wrote:Lenovo is the new name for the old brand "IBM." It is the same company, they just changed the name a few years ago to seem cooler.

Nope. Lenovo is a Chinese company that bought the Thinkpad (and other laptop) line from IBM in 2005, then subsequently dropped the IBM name from the laptops. Not the same company as IBM. Lenovo is its own company, not a spinoff of IBM. IBM still exists but not in the laptop business.

But yet, they do make pretty good laptops, mostly for business.

theguruguys wrote:That's the speed of a netbook...

Not really, and that's comparing the rarer dual core pineviews.

The Radeon 6310 will also annihilate the GMA3150.

gslander wrote:what? no trackpoint eraserhead?

That's only on the Think Pad models.

IT'S A LCD WITH AN LED BACKLIGHT

It's a great feature for a laptop because it saves battery, but to me "LED display" implies new technology beyond that. It should be noted that, like all LCDs, the image quality is dependent primarily on the type of panel which is independent of the type of backlight. Since no viewing angles are specified it's safe to assume that this is sporting a TN panel, which is cheap and responsive but has lower bit-depth and poor viewing angles. Not that that's bad; there's just nothing special about it.

Also it's 1366x768. Unfortunately most new laptops seem to be migrating to this, but that doesn't change the fact that it's hideously small.

Shinespark wrote:Oh ye of little faith.
In what world does 4GB of PC-10600 cost $40?

Lol on the ye of little faith. I stand corrected, but I played starcraft 2 beta on my 8 year old 2.6ghz pentium 4 while my real computer was having a motherboard and processor replaced by Asus. Warranty, thanks Asus.

And its easy to find. Maybe even for $30 for a good set on sale. Check out newegg, or buy it full price for $27 at staples. Dunno how good it is, but it is kingston, and I like them.

http://www.staples.com/Kingston-4GB-1333MHz-DDR3-Non-ECC-CL9-SODIMM/product_376285

coryb13 wrote:Lol on the ye of little faith. I stand corrected, but I played starcraft 2 beta on my 8 year old 2.6ghz pentium 4 while my real computer was having a motherboard and processor replaced by Asus. Warranty, thanks Asus.

And its easy to find. Maybe even for $30 for a good set on sale. Check out newegg, or buy it full price for $27 at staples. Dunno how good it is, but it is kingston, and I like them.

http://www.staples.com/Kingston-4GB-1333MHz-DDR3-Non-ECC-CL9-SODIMM/product_376285

The GPU and low voltage are what saves it. I wouldn't try the same thing with the P6200 though, even if single-thread performance is superior.
And I meant that $40 seemed an egregiously high amount for memory to put in a low-end notebook.

gslander wrote:what? no trackpoint eraserhead?

http://xkcd.com/243/

nyisless13 wrote:Placement of the FN key kills it. Possibly the most irritating laptop "feature" ever.

Fn key to the left of Ctrl key is an awesomely stupid idea.

But anyone who doesn't need CAPSLOCK, which is anyone who is not a mouthbreather or not in a the field of professional data entry, should immediately switch their CapsLock to Ctrl, as God intended and implemented before IBM f@#$ed it up. Try it. It's amazing how much easier it is on your pinkie... and then you don't care where that Fn key is.

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Map_caps_lock_to_escape_in_Windows

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/disable-caps-lock-key-in-windows-vista/

The picture of the packaging is what sold it for me.

http://sale.images.woot.com/SN13350C_Specs03-1.jpg

Incidentally, the Intel Pentium P6200 processor in this Lenovo Laptop has 3 megs of cache compared to only 1 meg in the one at Best Buy.

Another reason this processor will perform considerably better than the AMD.

Intel P6200 Specs at Intel's website

themelon wrote:IBM sold Lenovo a long time ago.

Still affiliated.

GreySplash wrote:Still affiliated.

How are they still affiliated with IBM?

I think I have too many, one dedicated to Magic Jack, one for hypnosis MP3’s in the bedroom, one for my wife’s business, a little one for traveling, an old one dedicated to MP3 music to an fm whole house transmitter, another old one loaned to my daughter. Not to mention my Galaxy-S and two desktops. Now I’m thinking of a tablet, where does it all end?

jimray wrote:I think I have too many, one dedicated to Magic Jack, one for hypnosis MP3’s in the bedroom, one for my wife’s business, a little one for traveling, an old one dedicated to MP3 music to an fm whole house transmitter, another old one loaned to my daughter. Not to mention my Galaxy-S and two desktops. Now I’m thinking of a tablet, where does it all end?

Probably with a case of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). Or maybe you'll just go broke, that would be better.

woot4jam wrote:Yes.

Agreed, CPU speed is overrated, most people never uses them in their laptop anyways.

nyisless13 wrote:Placement of the FN key kills it. Possibly the most irritating laptop "feature" ever.

You can swap Left Ctrl and Fn in the BIOS

Roostalee wrote:How are they still affiliated with IBM?

http://www.pc.ibm.com/ww/customerqa.html

TL;DR: business partnership, warranty and service fulfillment, preferential purchasing, providing Lenovo products through IBM Global Services, marketing support, etc.

that dog isn't too happy about netflix raising the dvd service price either.