A little bit about myself: grad student, casual gamer, and a(very) amateur photographer. I am gonna come right out and say it: for the money, you would be hard pressed to find a better all-around laptop for a person in my same situation. AMD is crushing the game and gives me all the CPU/GPU I need at this price point. This laptop replaced my 2012 Dell Inspiron 1500, and honestly, that thing is still kicking with no signs of slowing down, so I have a lot of faith in the reliability of this new one. ON TO THE REVIEW! PHYSICAL FEEL: This is a "heavy" laptop - not in the sense that you are going to have tired shoulders from carrying it around, but it definitely isn't a chromebook(and that's a good thing). I like the heft, and the fact that it feels extremely sturdy. Handling the laptop is a lot like closing the door of a really nice car vs the tin-can doors of a Honda Civic. The brushed aluminum looking finish also looks stellar and doesn't leave smudges. PERFORMANCE: I use laptops for three things and three things only. 1. Browsing the internet: I spend all of my time on YouTube and Reddit. Guess what - it's 2018 and every laptop made this year can handle both of those things. YouTube plays in a crisp 1080p without issue, and it never has any issues while I'm browing /r/prequelmemes. 2. Playing games: when I say "games" what I really mean is League of Legends. Yes, I know, I'm old-school cool. I open up my laptop, fire up LoL, lock in my main man Garen, and spin to win. 3. Photoshop/Lightroom: I take a lot of pictures - mostly of my cats. I like to make them fancy with photoshop and lightroom. This laptop handles these tasks without issue. I rarely shoot in RAW, but when I do I have no lag when editing. 4. ??? I guess I use it for school sometimes too. BATTERY LIFE: The battery life is good. Obviously battery life is going to depend on what you are using it for. I can't say that I have found myself trying to play games for 8+ hours without access to power, but it can last about that long when writing essays for school. RELIABILITY: I haven't owned it for long, but I have been a long-time user of Dell Inspiron laptops and I have zero complaints about the long-term reliability. TL;DR - Dope laptop for not a lot of money. It also has a NUM pad, which I like.