Time for a new laptop. We use Lenovo at work and they seem pretty reliable. Just need to mess around with my website (wordpress) a bit of basic video editing and browsing.

Lenovo G50-70 Laptop, Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 1TB, 15.6″

£500

http://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-g50-70-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-ram-1tb-15-6-black/p1603670

20% VAT Cash back from Lenovo (after a long and drawn out claim process, no doubt) so it comes in at around £415.

Thoughts?

Bought a lenovo laptop about 2.5 years ago. Hinges went wobbly / slack within the first 6 months and it has chewed 3 HDD’s in around 18 months.

After chewing the last HDD, it has sat unused under the coffee table for the last 9 months.

It looks good though, and has a nice firm keyboard and I may of been unlucky with the HDD’s. Perhaps another new HDD and a fresh win7 install may fix it.

Me and the Mrs have Lenovo’s that have out lasted two of the kid’s new main stream laptops, and I bought them refurbished. I always go for Thinkpads though totally different class.

Wouldn’t expect the same reliability of the standard Lenovos you see in PC World. Paid £250 for my i5 about 2 years ago.

Also how come so many people seem to need to edit videos, not that you can’t, but really? Actually I think that’s only possible on a macbook…

When I say edit video, I mean crop, add captions and soundtracks etc, which I do on my old Laptop (it just takes a long time to ‘publish’ the video at the end) so you don’t need a Mac for that. I’m not talking about post-production on Lord of the Rings.

I use an X200 Thinkpad, which, though long in tooth, nevertheless still delivers. I have zero probs doing large format photo editing (via an external monitor, the onboard monitor being not so good)

It’s a sturdy beast, quiet and so far reliable in most situations (I especially like the drip tray under the keyboard) -reliable, that is until I took it long-term, camping, where one morning it decided to not wake up, to not charge, to not anything. And remained that way for some months. And then, some months later, I took it from the bag and tried plugging in one last time before sending for repair – and somehow it forgave me! And now it works again. Great mystery.

I know two other people with X series Lenovo laptops who have said they enjoy trouble free computing, but I cannot speak for the type you’re linking. Looks more than up for the tasks you mention though, capacious spec, 3 year warranty. Checked out some reviews?

I’ve a Lenovo Carbon X1. It’s a major improvement over the T400 I had before. But, it is really disappointing in so many ways compared to my rMBP 15″.

I think my biggest problem with it is the appalling trackpad and the ridiculous rubber-button-joystick pointer controller. Neither seems to control the pointer accurately or precisely.

I could probably ignore these fundamental problems except the X1 doesn’t come at the bargain price you describe for the G50-70. Build-wise, the Lenovos I’ve come across are as good as many other plastic laptops, and better than any Toshiba I’ve had. If it does what you want, at a price you like, then go for it.

I have a lenovo z575, so fairly budget, must be about 2 and half years old now. It does everything we need it to (just the usual office and web browsing/netflix etc.), given us no problems, it’s well built and is lasting fine. It’s not looked after that well, my wife drops it after falling asleep watching netflix most nights but it still looks pretty much like new.

Edit to add – trackpad works fine for me.

Our standard laptop at work is the T4x0 (T430 is current AFAIK). They’re pretty bomb proof, we’ve hundreds out there and the only failures I’ve seen are:

Smashed chassis after someone hurled one across the car park (twice).

A few physically broken LCD screens. (“I just opened it, and hey!” – right.)

A number of failed HDDs, but no more than I’d expect from natural failure.

Keyboard failures (50/50 user error and warranty faults, I’d hazard).

Rarely, a failed fan. Easy to replace.

Very rarely, a failed system board. Off the top of my head, I don’t think I’ve seen anything newer than a T410 go.

That’s it. Sounds like a catalogue of errors but really, in a hostile environment (hundreds of users with expensive tech that they don’t give a shite about) they’re about the best I’ve seen for reliability. I remember my previous employer rolling out Fujitsu “Lifebooks” a good few years back and the failure rate was almost 100%.

My daughter had a Lenova when the Chinese first bought the company from IBM. It was a decent enough machine but lasted about 2 years before conking out (same experience we had with most of our Windows stuff). We are now on Apple and although they are twice the price they last more than twice as long and you can also re-sell them as second hand market is strong.

My old work laptop was a Thinkpad, a very trusty beast.

Cheers, Rich

Just got an X1 Carbon from Lenovo to replace a T4x, its very nice, but in a price class way above its predecessor and similar to a good Apple. The T4x lasted 3 years and was very good during that time with no issues at all.

The touch screen on the X1 takes a little getting used to, as does Windows 8.1, however so far so good.

I’ve had a Lenovo ideapad z-series for the last 3 and a half years and I’ve just upgraded it to SSD and 8gb of ram. It’s the first laptop I’ve ever had last long enough to upgrade before I’d managed to break it. Highly recommended, as is the bombproof thinkpad, not so sure about their other ranges but I imagine build quality is still good.

If a macbook/mbp really could go 7 years before needing an upgrade and then still be going stong (“more than twice as long” as claimed above) I’d like to hear about it because that would tempt me to pay the extortionate up front cost.

I’m interested in any more inputs like Cougars (pretty informative I thoughts, thanks).

I’m in need of a replacement laptop and have been eyeing up a MacBook Pro in fact if John Lewis would’ve matched PCworld/Currys £100 cash back I’d’ve bought one last weekend (currently £900 with free 3 year warranty)

Pricing up a T440 on the Lenovo website it works out around £850 for a similar spec (but a 14″ screen, 8gb RAM and a 16gb SSHD).

Soooo, which is the better buy?

I bought a used think pad from http://www.tier1online.com
I had it a couple of years now now problems

Sorry , thats no problems so far 😀

(hundreds of users with expensive tech that they don’t give a shite about)

Libellous!! 😀 I hear they stand up to smoke damage very well.
Although in fairness, what Cougar says is very true. My T410 has been utterly bombproof in the 3+ years I’ve had it now. However, a mate of mine bought a lower end one (M500 maybe?) and it is truly a piece of crap! Door stop at best.
RM.

I’m in need of a replacement laptop and have been eyeing up a MacBook Pro in fact if John Lewis would’ve matched PCworld/Currys £100 cash back I’d’ve bought one last weekend (currently £900 with free 3 year warranty)

Best of luck getting the hundred quid back from pc world computer scammers ,basically the middle men dont give a toss

We’ve got one the Lenny U310s. A blatant MacBook rip off look alike.

Very well made and nicely put together piece of kit, running Windows 8.1, never misses a beat, aluminium case, great screen, good sound, feels tough and robust.

Would like to buy another one, but they’ve replaced them in the range with far more expensive ones… 🙁

Lenovo sent me a discount code for there website AUGEMAIL12 12% off everything until the 25th.

I have a bottom of the range Lenovo B590 and so far so good (1 year)