Lenovo N100

I own a Lenovo 3000 N100 and use it daily for personal use. I also use a Dell Latitude D620 for work, but I will try not to compare them too much to each other in this review.

I acquired the Lenovo after my previous Laptop (a Medion) died and couldn't be resurrected by the Insurance company - so I didn't actually go out and buy this one specifically. In actual fact, it is much better than my Medion, although this may be due to the passage of time and better technology.

Technical Bits:
The laptop has a Core Duo processor (I think mine is 1.7Ghz not 1.83 as listed in the header). It has 512MB RAM, a DVD writer, fingerprint recognition and a nifty web cam in the lid. It has built in Wifi which works well. It has 4 USB ports, although annoyingly these are on the side - I prefer them at the back (especially fr the mouse). It also has a built in modem. The display is clear, but the speaker quality is quite poor. I have fitted external speakers to get around this.

Living with it:
I do find the Lenovo is slightly slower to boot up than my Dell. This could be down to many factors, particular as the whole family has a log on and we have the fingerprint recognition turned on. The fingerprint scanner is a nice feature. It comes with some software that allows you to pre-fill known websites with your details (e.g. Ciao, Hotmail etc.) and every time you go to that website it asks you to scan your finger. One scan populates the ID and password fields and also simulates hitting the enter button! Cool!!

The built in web cam is fine, although not as good as some external ones I have seen. The pre-installed software is fine.

I think I may have a problem with the 80GB Hard Drive though. It seems to be accessing all the time and this does impact on performance. I have re-installed the laptop using the factory CD's, but still have the same problem. I am tempted to call Lenovo, but at the moment it just isn't bad enough to bother.

I use the laptop mainly for internet and word processing and photo editing etc. so have never installed any games on it. I rarely use it off the mains, so not sure about battery life. The weight of the laptop is fine and I like the fact that the hot air blows out of the side rather than underneath (keeps the lap cooler!).

Customer Service:
I didn't receive any rebuild CD's with the laptop (probably as it was sent by the Insurance company) so I called Lenovo support. They were really good. Without any issue they sent 7 CD's straight to my house, which arrived from Hungary that week - excellent. I will enquire about the Hard Drive one day and update this review with the experience.

As I didn't pay directly for this laptop, I can only compare it to the original price I paid for my old Medion (£600). I think this is a fair price, the Lenovo support team were very good and I get virtually hassle free daily use out of it. The fingerprint technology is cool and it really works.

All in all a decent family laptop with some nice features (fingerprint and webcam) but seems a bit slower than my business Dell laptop.

I would shop around for the best deal. If the Lenovo was well priced I would buy it, but there are probably loads of similar laptops out there so it is a tough call.