I have used an Lenovo IdeaPad for my favorite laptop which is used to blog my blogs. when I was about looking for the new and good laptop to replace my old computer,I was surprised by its thin and light body and beautiful design ,and it costs about 500 pounds . It is made by a big company which I love and trust,so there is no problem about hard ware .And the battery life seems lasting about 4 or 5 hours in normal situation,it depends on the energy mode. I should appreciate the new energy star options for its brillant function. It has a very nice design for its users.As I know, when you buy this new stuff,you will see that It has loaded the Microsoft Office already in a trial period ,I personally think it take you about some time to observe the performance before you have to buy it,but at least you don't have to load the microsoft softward by yourself. Sometimes ,I find the lack of an optical drive can be a big issue if you have programs on disk you need to load as I do with my screenwriting programs, but I find I can download them from the company's site with the proper registration codes, so it is non-problem when you need to use the programm. As you and other users have mentioned, when you start up for the first time ,the pop-ups is annoying and even the time consuming to navigate past, but once done, they don't generally bother you again. All i think it is OK,I dont use it for games and HD films,I am happy with its good performance.