Lenovo Z50 80EC0087US Laptop (Windows 8.1, AMD Kaveri A10-7300 1.9 GHz Processor, 15.6 inches Display, SSD: 500 GB, RAM: 8 GB DDR3) Black

I have not owned a laptop since 2008 when I last had a Dell with a single core celeron processor in it, so this is quite different than what I have experienced before.Overall, build quality is good, laptop seems slightly flimsy, but being as large and as thin as it is, I suppose it can only be so rigid. Screen looks good, resolution could be higher, but still looks good, not too glossy. Computer is fast, but could be faster without the Lenovo bloatware. Trackpad is accurate, definitely one of the better ones I've used.Things I like: Fast, lots of ram, lots of storage, good trackpad, lightweight for the size. Graphics performance is very good for integrated. Can play most of the games that I play on my gaming desktop, although at a lower resolution and detail setting.Things I dislike: The keyboard could only be worse if it was on a Windows Surface tablet, but I'm nitpicking because I'm used to typing on a mechanical keyboard. Battery Lift is advertised around 4 hours. You could get that with very little use....closer to around 2.5h when doing excel work, with a little internet browsing. (There is also no alternative to the 4-cell battery in this unit, so look elseware if you need longer life) Lenovo's pre-installed software needs to go. The bottleneck in this computer is definitely the HDD, I'll be reimaging the computer with an OEM copy of Win8 once I upgrade to an SSD, that will fix many of the issues I have with this unit. The 5400rpm drive just doesn't do any justice for the rest of the hardware in this unit.Final Thoughts: Overall, this is a great unit, definitely worth the money, and will be much more useful to me after an SSD upgrade. For most consumers, this is more than they will ever need.

Scene from a Lenovo design department meeting:"Okay, to summarize: we are putting plenty of RAM and a decent hard drive into this new laptop containing AMD's Kaveri A10 processor. This is a great chipset. The processor is fast and the graphics processing will make this laptop capable of office tasks as well as gaming. The laptop will be pretty light and thin. it has a dvd burner. It is going to be a great seller."Let's just make sure that we put it in a very weak plastic frame. Oh, and let's put a piece of aluminum on top of the laptop and let's make sure it is super easy to scratch. I mean, if we just make it a plain black laptop it will maintain its looks for years. We have to put a piece of hardware on the machine that scratches up and looks like crap immediately, right? Hey, and while we're at it, you know that space where people rest their hands when typing or using the trackpad? Let's put something on there that shows every single remark and smudge. Great. Any more ideas? Yes, Chester? oh yes, good point. Let's put such a small battery in the laptop that it can't run for more than about 2 hours. Now the laptop is perfect!"If a laptop manufacturer could build a 15.6 inch matte finish screen A10 Kaveri laptop in a simple black framewith a d_v_d, I'd buy it in second. The cheap construction and shortcomings noted above make this laptop a no go. The 1 I ordered came already opened and already scratched. Terrible.i. Is a middle of the road general purpose laptop built to an entry level, low budget quality standard. Not good enough Lenovo. I do not need a touch screen. I do not need a piece of aluminum on the top of the laptop to scratch up. I do not need a fancy design.

I've owned this computer for about 2 months. Thankfully I haven't encountered the worst problems some others have. The keyboard, mousepad, monitor etc all seem to work fine. I actually like that the touchpad has real buttons rather than virtual ones because you don't accidentally click anything... The AMD processor seems to perform just fine for my basic use. I don't see the value in spending $100+ more for an Intel. In the task manager, I disabled just about all of the startup tasks and the startup is very fast and I haven't had any loss of performance from those apps.ConsFlimsy monitor, not great quality picture, but good enough for me and has held up so far.Sharp edge on front where the palms of your hands sit. I've sort of gotten used to it, but its annoying. That said, most all of the Lenovo's I looked at have this design...Tons of bloatware, including some adware and liabilities that took me a while to figure out how to remove. I did a lot of web searching about the various apps and it helped a lot. In the end, I removed just about all of the installed software except the power manager and dvd burner/player and I haven't missed any of it. I did also have drill in a bit to remove some of the hidden bugs but now that its gone everything works smooth and quick.ProsFast startupVery quietDoesn't get hotOptical drivelight weightcard reader8gb ramlow priceI would recommend as long as you aren't hard on a computer and use basic internet, office programs, etc.