First off, the touchscreen works fine. I'm on version 100.0.4896.133 and had absolutely no issues. So whatever plagued this model previously has been resolved. Now then, lets focus on the laptop.
The first thing I noticed was the screen. In an age of almost no bezels.... Holy bezel Batman! Is this a bad thing? Eh, maybe to some. For me I'm OK with it. Realize the laptop itself is about the size of a 13.3" laptop. I haven't looked into it but I suspect there's a laptop in this chassis with a 12" or 13" screen. But in day-to-day use, it's fine for me. The smaller screen gives a good pixel density and colors look fine. Very good viewing angles too. So all in all, I like it. Touchscreen seems very responsive as well. No issues at all there. Oh, and in the bezel there's a webcam. 720p, does OK in low light, no physical shutter so get your stickers ready :P
Going down the laptop we have the hinge. While I'm not a fan of tablet modes that leave the keyboard exposed, it does what it sets out to do just fine. The pivoting action feels very smooth with a fair bit of resistance. Folding over into tablet mode, everything works as expected with good orientation control. So while something I won't use much, it's a nice feature.
Down further, we get to the keyboard. Keys have a nice feel to them though travel is a bit short. Not Lenovo's best but certain better than other keyboard I've used. I'm a little disappointed it doesn't include the usual "F" keys given I use Linux on here but so far it's not caused any issues...
Finally we come to the touchpad. I must be honest, I despise most any touchpad without physical buttons. However, I must confess this one is actually very good. It's proven to be very responsive with almost no hiccups. At times I will have a small lag if I try and use two fingers (resting one finger on the "button" and moving with the other) but it handles this better than other cheap machines I've dealt with. The physical action is rather mushy but taps work just as well.
Finally, we come to the speakers. This is probably the weakest part of the whole machine. I find underside speakers become obstructed way too often. Of course this depends on how it's used, but I'd much prefer top-mounted speakers. But judging what we have, they actually works pretty well. If you're on a hard surface, they have decent sound. Nothing phenomenal, but about what you'd expect from a machine at this price point. And then if they are covered, you can still get OK sound from them.
I guess the last point will be I/O. Charging is via USB-C, and yes, this port can be used for other USB devices too. You also have full-sized HDMI, a USB 3.0 and full-sized SD card slot. SD cards aren't flush when inserted so that's a bit disappointing, but I'm glad Lenovo at least opted for full sized ports and such. Now on the adjacent side we have power, volume and a headphone jack...not much to say there.
Finally the guts of the beast. At the heart of this machine is an ARM based processor. I was very curious how performance would be using ChromeOS and more importantly the Linux dev environment. Results have been mixed but generally very good. As a Chromebook for surfing the web and watching videos, it works fine. Pages load quickly, videos play without issue, etc. The only hiccup I've found is playing a video in the background. The video remains frozen for a bit when returning to it, but this is only a minor quibble. I've not had many issues with Android apps either. My library is really only productivity software, but it's all worked as expected. Over on the Linux side, the processor is a bit labored. Chromium under Linux is obviously slower than the baked in Chrome, but I'm sure Linux running as a VM doesn't help.
Lets end on usage, or more specifically heat and battery life. I've not done any specific testing, but I'd say 10 hours out of this machine wouldn't be difficult at all. And then even while under a load and charging, there's almost no noticeable heat generated by this laptop.
If you're looking for a good all around Chromebook and can overlook the oddly sized screen, I highly recomend this machine!
| Standing screen display size | 11.6 |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1366 x 768 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 1366 x 768 Pixels |
| Processor | 2.1 GHz mediatek_mt8173c |
| RAM | 4 GB LPDDR3 |
| Memory Speed | 2400 MHz |
| Hard Drive | 64 GB Flash Memory |
| Graphics Coprocessor | PowerVR GX6250 |
| Chipset Brand | PowerVR |
| Card Description | Integrated |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 4 GB |
| Wireless Type | 801.11ac |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 1 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 10 Hours |
| National Stock Number | 82HG0006US |
