Tough, reliable, great for a home office or student

If you are looking for a sleek, sexy laptop, this is not it (I suggest you check out the Lenovo Carbon X1 for that). On the other hand, if you want a laptop that is reliable, has plenty of power for most home offices or for most students, then this is a great option and a great value. Pair it with a docking station and it is just about perfect for most users. The Intel i5 2.5 GHz processor is not bleeding edge technology, but it is plenty for spreadsheets, word processing, email, and web surfing. 4 GB of RAM is sufficient for 80% of computers users today, but for the other 20%, you can upgrade this laptop to 10 GB by swapping a single DIMM of RAMM that is easily accessible by removing a single screw from the bottom panel. The more adventurous can upgrade to 16 GB, but the process is a bit more involved (but well documented on youtube). The keyboard has a great feel and withstands a lot of use and abuse. The screen is very clear, even in bright light. The multi-drive is a little noisy, but is also very forgiving of disks that are a little marred or scratched. The upward facing speakers sound okay (I still have external speakers, but they are not too bad, certainly sufficient for hotel use when traveling). I have several of these and have even given them to my college-aged kids. Again, not sexy, but very effective.Read full review

Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Refurbished