The Lenovo 3000 N Series offers stylish and functional widescreen notebooks combined with popular features at a great price. These notebooks are designed specifically to meet the... more
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A review by mcc28 on Lenovo 3000 N200 0769 - Pentium Dual Core T2330 1.6 GHz - 15.4" TFT November 11th, 2007
Author's product rating:
Speed
Fast
Look & Feel
Good
Comfort & Portability
Good
Robustness & Durability
Good
Value For Money
Good
Advantages:
Good build quality, includes Vista, reasonable performance
Disadvantages:
Not sure about the Lenovo Suite of Programs included
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
== Lenovo N200 3000 0769 B5G Laptop == I took delivery of my IBM/Lenovo Laptop from laptopsdirect.co.uk about 10 days or so ago. The price on the website is £429.97 however, I took a chance and opted for a 'box-opened' model at the price of £407.44. I ordered on a Sunday evening and received it on Tuesday lunchtime at a cost of £17.57.
On opening the box I found: 1 x laptop 1 x power cable 1 x Lenovo Service and Troubleshooting Guide 1 x Safety and Warranty Guide 1 x Quick Start Guide and various regulatory notices.
The machine was in pristine condition despite the price reduction (the website does say that the machine was in A1 condition just the original packaging may be damaged).
First impressions where of a solid, quite large laptop in a silvery smooth plastic casing. The casing is rigid and does not flex under pressure, the hinges are taught and feel secure and reassuring. For the money I was impressed.
Like others in the Lenovo line, upgrading the laptop is easy without completely dismantling the entire laptop. Each area has its own cover held in by one or two Phillips head screws. This includes the ram, hard drive/wireless card, and the CPU/heatsink area. Almost any upgrade the average or power notebook user would ever need to do to this laptop throughout its useful lifespan could be dealt with through these sections.
Inputs and Outputs
The N200 has the following port selection:
Four USB 2.0
Four-Pin Firewire
5-in-1 Card Reader
Ethernet
Modem
VGA Out
S-Video Out
Microphone
Headphone socket
Security Lock
Power Connector
Switch on I powered on the machine and waited for Vista to power-up. I had researched a number of machines before I settled on this one. I had been looking for a mid-range machine with enough power for Office applications and Internet, email and just possibly Championship Manager - if I ever have the time!
I felt that the N200 offered a good screen (15.4in) with reasonable processing power from the Centrino 1.5Ghz (Santa Rosa chipset) web camera, card reader and I liked the idea of the fingerprint reader for security.
I had not seen Vista before and was initially surprised to see how quickly the machine booted, however, I soon realized that this was smoke and mirrors on Microsoft's part, arriving quickly at the log-in screen but in truth much was still going on behind the scenes.
After everything had loaded I set about some quick checks including checking for any hardware conflicts in device manager, making sure the as advertised hardware was present and generally allowing the system to update. Everything was okay. The built in wifi had connected smoothly to my router and the Lenovo network manager allowed me to easily access the WEP security key.
Software
The installed software is limited, there really is nothing apart from the OS and the Lenovo suite of applications, so you'll need to bear in mind that you need virus protection - I'm using AVG(free edition) and have done on all my machines for a while. There is no office package so again you'll need to think about this perhaps.The Lenovo suite of applications includes an Update Manager for drivers and essential software. I'm not sure about this, at the moment the jury is out, I find it slow and cumbersome and it has failed so far to install one supposed essential update.
Additional features
The fingerprint reader works a treat, although at the moment I'm not sure how much of a security improvement it really is as you appear to be easily able to by-pass this at the Vista log on if desired.
The mousepad is very good, however, although I have the settings on fast I do find that getting around the screen is not as quick as I would like. It's difficult to determine if this is the fault of Vista or the Lenovo application controlling the mousepad. The Lenovo software does allow you to customise the trackpad allowing various features and shortcuts to be used by programming certain areas of the mousepad (eg. auto scrolling), this is a real timesaver.
There is no copy of Vista, you will need to burn a recovery disc from the Lenovo suite of applications using the built in DVD/CD burner.
The screen is bright and crisp, however to extend battery life it is highly advantageous to turn this setting down. I've done this and find that I can easily get coming upto 3 hours life from the 6 cell battery whilst surfing the Internet i.e. Wifi on.
The fan is fairly quite and only runs when the processor requires cooling. One thing I have found is that if you sit with the machine on your lap for a length of time it does become quite hot, okay on these cold winter nights, but probably not so pleasant in summer!
Support
There is a one year return to base manufacturers guarantee. The Lenovo website www.lenovo.co.uk is very comprehensive and there is a good section on troubleshooting and driver updates. The large number of revisions to their machines does make it a little confusing trying to tie down what you need for your machine but after enough digging you usually get there.
Problems
Not sure if this is a problem yet but on two occasions the screen has dimmed so much that I can barely see it. This has on both occasions been immediately after logging into Vista and a quick reboot has solved the issue, so again difficult to determine if it is the software or the machine.
I also experienced a BSOD (Blue screen of Death) after a Vista update which was solved by booting into Safe Mode and rolling back to a previously known good configuration.
Conclusion
So far so good. I think the Lenovo N200 is very good value for money. It feels robust and reliable and looks the part. There are some excellent features such as the webcam, fingerpint reader and card reader not always present on machines at this pricepoint. Having had Lenovo machines on two occasions in the past I think that my third machine is set to be the best yet -and the other two were good too!There is no extra software, but again so long as you are aware and budget for this - not a problem. The Lenovo Care Suite of Programs is not to everyones taste. I'm going to reserve judgement at the moment but bear in mind that if you have to reinstall the system, because you'll be using a recovery disk, then these programs would be automatically installed again.Finally, I recommend the machine if you're looking for something to surf the web, email and office applications and maybe the odd game that does not require strong graphics. It represents a solid purchase for £400.
Advantages: Nicely put together, full featured entry level notebook Disadvantages: None yet
...part. I was attracted to Lenovo because of the impressive specs for the money and reputation for reliability. A friend recommended them to me and without him I probably wouldn't have thought to go with them as all I had seen of them previously was a name on the Williams F1 car.
I originally intended to install Ubuntu Linux on this machine as it was advertised as Vista ready not as a fully installed out of the box system. I probably won't bother ... ...roll software included with the Lenovo is almost endless. We have fully functional Microsoft Office suite which includes all the usual suspects i.e Powerpoint, Word etc. There is Corel Business Centre for people who hate Office with Wordperfect, Paint Shop Pro, Quattro Pro etc. There are a number of Lenovo care utilities and a Multimedia centre and Norton AntiVirus. Compared to my previous experience of Window$ machines this one works perfectly well ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
...to search for patches. The lenovo maintenance and security options have proved useful. Bit slow to start up, but that could be due to the fact that i havnt taken as much care with it as it should. Also, the battery life is not the best, but the use of power saver option improves this greatly in my opinion. Dual core processor has made this a lot quicker than my old laptop. Overall I have found this a very worthwhile purchase. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: everything Disadvantages: volume not very loud
...off my the name Lenovo I nearly was as Id never heard of them before, but Lenovo took over from IBM computers. honestly the price is great for what you get and its so easy to use. Don't be put off by Vista either I've had no trouble at all. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
I bought this laptop in mid september, 2007 and it has been really good. It can handle all the college works, plus graphics softwares quite well, and can manage some games. Plus the price is very good according to the specs of this laptop. I love it
Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
The Lenovo 3000 N Series offers stylish and functional widescreen notebooks combined with popular features at a great price. These notebooks are designed specifically to meet the needs of growing small businesses, and come with software and multimedia tools that make them useful at home, too. The Lenovo 3000 N200 provides outstanding performance and usability with the latest Intel processor technology.
Telecom
Modem: Fax / Modem
Max Transfer Rate: 56 Kbps
Protocols & Specifications: ITU V.90
Features: V.92 upgradable
Networking
Networking: Network adapter
Wireless LAN Supported: Yes
Wireless NIC: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Data Link Protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g
1 x display / video - S-video output - 7 PIN mini-DIN
1 x network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX - RJ-45
1 x modem - phone line - RJ-11
1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire) - 4 PIN FireWire
1 x headphones - output - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm
1 x microphone - input - mini-phone 3.5mm
1 x display / video - VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15)
4 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 PIN USB Type A
Miscellaneous
Features: Security lock slot (cable lock sold separately), administrator password, hard drive password, power-on password
Compliant Standards: CE, MPR II, BSMI, VCCI Class B ITE, CISPR 22 Class B, NOM, SASO, IEC 60950, UL 60950, FCC Part 15 B, CER, CCC, RoHS, EPA Energy Star 4.0, ACA, CSA C22.2 No. 950
Manufacturer Selling Program: TopSeller
Power
Power Device: External
Voltage Required: AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz )
Battery
Technology: 6-cell Lithium Ion
Installed Qty: 1 / 1 (max)
Operating system / software
OS Provided: Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Manufacturer warranty
Service & Support: 1 year warranty
Service & Support Details:
Limited warranty - parts and labour - 1 year - carry-in
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Operating system - Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic 32
Processor - Intel® Core™ Duo processor T2050 1.60 GHz 2 MB L2
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