Someone above noted that it’s VERY SOLID. Yes, and that may be the ONLY good thing about them. So is a brick and the brick might actually work better! I have one of these and it’s the WORST computer I have ever owned. Glitchy, slow, terrible touchpad. Added to max 8GB RAM and hardly any help at all. Customer support is NON-EXISTANT. Could be why these are on Woot every other day. Sorry, wish it was better.
Can anyone comment on performance running online games like Roblox and Pirate 101? Looking for a portable for my 10yo son, which has a touch screen and decent storage.
I have the older incarnation of this machine. Wow… I work at a university, so I paid one of my computer sci students $20 and they did the memory upgrade for me, mine had a 256gb non-ssd which I switched out for a 500gb ssd (It was a Christmas prezzie from my brother, who accidentally bought the same thing as my spouse… so I had it extra lying around doing nothing…)
Processor not fastest, and VERY slow with only 4gb ram. REALLY needs the 8gb upgrade…with fastest compatible ram. Perked up immediately upon upgrade. Further speed with SSD! (Which this one already has tho smaller!) I also have 2TB western digital drive which FLIES on the usb 3.0 port mine has… also have 256gb thumb drive for when I want to be less conspicuously media consumptive.
Allows for use of machine for my extensive music/podcast collection.
Is this the fastest surfacepro book quality machine? No… does it fi in a small computer/tablet bag and fit in my car armrest… yes! I can even charge it there on my way to work. It takes a long time for a full charge, but a 1/2 hour top-off will get you a couple hours! I know not gr8 for the battery…
Easily lasts 6 hours w/low screen lite/ energy setting. Allows for web surfing while note taking to look up relevant references–important for me because I have started a degree program in a new area of study where I don’t know all of the jargon…
Keyboard is reasonably quiet for note taking in a graduate level class setting. Has ports for connecting to projector for presenting.
As a portly gentleman, I cannot use a tray table on a plane. Lying about that isn’t helping (but losing 10 lbs and counting since feb 1 might eventually) Because this will go all tablet style I can actually use it on the plane!!! Amazing!
Warranty: I bought a supplemental one for accidental damage etc from lenovo… haven’t used it yet… price not unreasonable… you could also try a Sqare Trade one
You may also want to hit ebay, to get a spare charging cord or two… the design seems to lend itself to shorting at the end of it near keyboard… mine hasn’t, but I bought 3 extra for $15 each.(I am like this you don’t need to be!) One lives in my bedroom charging station, one lives in my car armrest, one at my office charge station, and the original in my briefcase… yes I have adhd, and my office is an hour from my house… The only one of these
“Upgrades” you really need to do is the ram upgrade! I list these things I do, because they make the machine a really fun experience for me, and you may like it too!
To be honest, I am toying with getting this one to set up as a touch screen compatible media player for my 70-year-old parents’ living room. With a chromecast and bluetooth… wow…
I could even use ethernet connection from router to machine since their router is in the living room! Hmmmmm!
interesting model
I was able to do this… I think its in display settings in personalization in win 10. I took it to 12pt. Ymmv.
Woot specs say Intel N3160, but Amazon says N3150 for presumably the same model. Is it really N3160?
Tell that to the Lenovo customer support people who I had to deal with over and over until my warranty start date was finally changed by one of their reps in Argentina. Here is part of an email from them on what they were saying about my purchasing a Lenovo product off Woot:
“Please be advised that warranty dates will only be changed if the purchase was made from an authorize Lenovo business partner AND the machine is bought brand new. Not all users who sell Lenovo products are business partners.”
I bought one of these and its ok. Scrolling on long websites like craigslist or amazon is a nightmare. You have to use a separate mouse or the pg dn/up keys. Its fairly sluggish and needs more more ram. Its ok. The screen is tiny and I wish it filled out the 1" border around it so it wasn’t so tiny. It was cheap and the build quality is nice, but I definitely have buyers remorse.
I’m a little hurt by this. I purchased one of these a few days ago from Amazon.com when it was one of the “Today’s Deals”. Paid $10 bucks more. But due to the blizzard, it’s delayed, has not arrived yet, being held at UPS for me to get tonight. The order even though purchased from Amazon said the laptop would be fulfilled and sent from Woot.com. Any chance I can get a refund on the difference, or credit or something???
Thanks.
Thats because this is a male lenovo. Only the females have the clitoris. (aka. trackpoint)
How does this compare to a chromebook?
Lenovo had no problem changing the date on mine also purchased from Woot, using the form I linked to above.
You should be able to scroll either using the touch screen or using two fingers on the touch pad
They didn’t have a problem changing mine either…after over a week’s worth of phone calls, emails and filling out request forms. Buyer beware.
performance will be decent, but ONLY if you teach him not to multitask while doing games. having a ton of tabs open in the browser + other software running in background will make those unplayable. he could get away with having the game and facebook open in chrome/firefox and a music app open with a bit of breathing room on the default 4gb one, but if he wants to be able to have 5+ browser tabs open alongside roblox, facebook, skype, itunes, etc, this might not be a good fit even if you put in 8gb of ram.
if you are aiming within a budget, I’d look at some of the amd a6/a8 options on this site instead, HP 15-BA020CA, HP 15-BA113CL, etc, or go with an i3-6100u/i3-7100u intel system, with touchscreen might be outside your budget, the cheapest one on here with over 4gb of ram is HP Pavilion 15-au067cl at $450 ish.
the 3rd gen has been seen with different configs, some come with N3150, some with N3160, some with 4405U, some with i3-6100u.
the only real difference between the 3150 and the 3160 is the higher boost frequency by 200mhz or so, but this can actually be detrimental if cooling is inadequate (see windows tablets with the x7-8700 being overall speedier compared to the x7-8750, the 8750 plays lite gaming around 5 fps lower because it heats up faster and throttles down the clock sooner) That isnt an issue with this build though from what I’ve heard (cooling setup is very well done). You wont see much of a performance gain or loss between the N3150 and N3160 as that little bit of boost isnt going to be visible in real world usage.
Thanks
I haven’t tried Pirate 101, but I have enjoyed Wizard 101 on this machine for well over a year. I team up with my son and we go to town on all the bad guys. I do use an external monitor, though.
I bought four Lenovo 11e’s for my family over the past year. My daughter (sophomore in high school) has this model, I think. She uses extensively for school work. And, I found out last night, she has published work she has written on this on some fan fiction sites. She loves the touch screen function.
I use one for university work. I teach classes, and this machine connects to the classroom projectors with no problems. It runs everything I need for research, including some pretty big statistical packages.
I do recommend the 8gb memory upgrade. Also, for use at home I have an external monitor, mouse, and keyboard.
I love these things. Nearly indestructible, and do the work my kids and I need to do. We have separate machines for gaming, but I run some low requirement Steam games with no problems. I am ordering another one today for my son who goes off to college next August.
Any recommendations on the best RAM to use. I’ve seen Patriot 8GB(1x8GB) Viper Series DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) CL9/ Voltage 1.35V Laptop Memory - PV38G160LC9S recommended.
Anything better/cheaper?
I finally pulled the trigger after looking at this for a year.