Performance: Overall this laptop's performance was Poor, well below that of many other models and you may notice slowdowns in such things as boot-up, application launching, and video editing. Compared to other tested laptops, performance was okay for common tasks such as web browsing or video conferencing, but may be very slow for more demanding tasks. You would notice this most particularly when opening up applications or during group video conferences. Performance was okay but on the slow side when composing documents, working on data spreadsheets, and running other productivity tasks, and it was so slow that it was difficult to manipulate images, edit videos, and calculate simulations.
Portability: This laptop is a Fair choice for traveling. Battery life lasted 7.75 hours in a light load of web browsing tests, and 3.75 hours in a heavier load of 4K video playback tests. Results were sufficient to get through most of a workday of mixed use tasks, but not as notable as similar laptops. At 3.4 lbs, weight was typical for a laptop of this size category.
Ergonomics: Some features of the keyboard, touchpad, and labeling, were well-designed, and were comfortable or convenient to use. The keyboard has large keys and was comfortably sized. Its high contrast letters were reasy to read. The power button was conveniently located, but its labeling was hard to read when the laptop is off.
Display. The display quality was Fair overall. Colors were in the ballpark, though not completely accurate. The display had a narrow viewing angle, so you'll have limited flexibility in how to position the screen for optimal viewability for one user, and it will be difficult for more than one person to look at the screen at the same time. Its display produces a smaller array of colors and has worse contrast than on most other tested laptops, which may lessen the realism of videos or slideshows.
Useful features and attributes on this model include: There's a 32GB solid-state 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. Gigabit Ethernet provides fast transfer of data over a local network. This laptop has a full-size HDMI port for connecting to an HDTV or monitor.
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. The primary drive only has 32GB of storage, which can quickly run out of room. There is an SD card reader for adding extra space, but you may need to delete unused files in order to install large system updates.
