Performance: Overall this laptop's performance was very good. Tasks like email, word processing and web browsing will be accomplished quickly and you can even accomplish some tougher tasks like photo editing and mid-range gaming near top speed. It was among the fastest with writing, creating spreadsheets, video chat and other productivity tasks. It was among the fastest for mainstream gaming, viewing and editing photos and editing music, and among the fastest with productivity and Web-based tasks such as word processing, Web browsing, casual gaming and video chat.
Portability: This laptop is a good choice for traveling. At 11.75 hours, battery life was very long, enough for a full day's work with a little more battery life to spare. At 2.3 pounds, this is lightweight for a laptop this size.
Ergonomics: Some of the laptop features, such as its keyboard, touchpad, and labeling, were well-designed, and were comfortable or convenient to use. The keyboard was not full-sized. Its high contrast letters were easy to read. The touchpad was uncomfortably small, providing less space for gestures than most others tested.
Display: The display quality was very good overall. Colors were in the ballpark, though not completely accurate. The display has a wide viewing angle, especially important if more than one person needs to see the screen at a time, say, for a video or presentation. Friction on the touchscreen may prevent fast swiping, and fingerprints may take some effort to clean off.
Useful features and attributes on this model include: Laptop converts to a touchscreen tablet to be used as either a laptop computer or a tablet. There's a 128GB solid-state hard drive, which uses less power and accesses data more quickly. You can connect common external devices such as hard drives and Blu-ray burners to the USB 3.0 ports for maximum performance. This laptop is compatible with HDMI for connecting to an HDTV.
Downsides: There's no optical drive like a CD or DVD reader, so you'll have to buy an external drive if you need one. There is no memory-card reader, so you'll need to buy an external reader or connect your digital camera directly to this laptop to transfer photos. The battery is not easily removable.
