Lenovo Offers Free Accessories And Extended Warranties This Diwali

This Diwali, Lenovo has special offers for customers of its All-in-One(AIO) desktop products and premium laptops. With a new Lenovo AIO, you get free accessories worth Rs 2,500. If you buy a premium laptop this Diwali season, you get a different set of free accessories; you can also choose a free 3-year extended warranty (worth Rs 5,000) in lieu of the accessories.

The offer is available on the Lenovo IdeaPad Z580, Z500, Y500, U310, U410, and U510 laptops, and also on the premium A and B Series of AIO desktops. The free accessories include a wireless mouse, headset, and multimedia speakers with the laptops, and a wireless headset with the AIOs. The offer started 21st October, and will end on 15th November (before which you will have to redeem the warranty option if you choose it).

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Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 Review

The Lenovo IdeaPad Z series is a rung higher than the Essential series. The latter features entry-level hardware that is ideal for those who need a basic laptop for home or office for a low budget. The IdeaPad Z series packs more powerful processor, discrete graphics, better speakers and, of course, better build. So, it is clearly for those who need a laptop to run demanding applications, entertainment and gaming.

Elegant design and powerful configuration

Design and Features

The IdeaPad Z580 is an upgrade to the Z570. You won’t be able to spot the difference between the two so long as the lids are closed. A typical feature of the Z series is the aluminium finish on the exterior of the lid as well as the entire area around the keyboard and the touchpad. The rest of the chassis is black with matte finish. 

As per Lenovo’s website, the Z580 is available in four variants, starting from the most affordable one that’s powered by the second-generation Core i3 processor right up to the fully-loaded model powered by the third-generation quad-core Core i7-3612QM processor. We got our hands on the top-end variant, which also features 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard disk, a Blu-ray combo drive and Nvidia GeForce GT630M discrete graphics with 2GB of dedicated memory. The display is 15.6-inch and it has a standard resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. We wish this had been bumped to full HD to complement the Blu-ray drive and the Dolby-enhanced speakers. An addition to Z580 is USB 3.0 ports – you get a pair of them in addition to a pair of USB 2.0 ports. Other features such as Bluetooth, webcam (720p), card reader, Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi n and HDMI output are pretty standard.

The lid is reinforced by a metal sheet with brushed finish

If you’ve already seen the Z570, you’ll find that the Z580 has a slightly different layout from the inside. The touchpad doesn’t have separate buttons for left and right click. Instead, the entire touchpad is clickable, which makes it easy to left click because you aren’t forced to use the left mouse button. The right click is detected by the driver when you press down the touchpad with two fingers together or right click the way you would with a regular touchpad. The left and right click buttons are indicated at the base. The touchpad also recognises multi-touch gestures such as pinch to zoom and image rotation. The keyboard is lifted from the Z570 and we like it. Despite the presence of a numeric keypad, the keys are large and well-spaced. Right above the keyboard is a strip of fine mesh under which stereo speakers reside. Further above are touch-sensitive buttons for volume control, mute, OneKey Theater and Sleep. The OneKey Theater button automatically adjusts the screen brightness and enhances audio quality when switched from Normal to Movie mode. Formerly, the indicators for Caps Lock, Power and Battery were placed above the keyboard. In the Z580, they have been moved on the side below the touchpad.

Build Quality and Ergonomics

The Lenovo Z580 gets a premium look and feel thanks to the aluminium finish. The build quality of all the components used in construction is very good. The chassis feels sturdy and so does the screen frame. The hinges are nice and stiff because of which the screen doesn’t wobble too easily with slightest jerks. The quality of the keyboard is also very good, however, the tactile feel could have been much better. The key travel is just as much as needed, but key presses feel slightly mushy. The touchpad has a very good feel and it’s easier to click on the bottom and the centre of the surface. With the finger placed on the top, slightly greater pressure is required. Lenovo has placed all the ports and I/O on the sides for convenient access. The left side has the video outputs (D-sub and HDMI), Ethernet port and USB 3.0 ports. The Blu-ray combo drive, two USB 2.0 ports and jacks for mic and headphones are placed on the right side.

The Z580 is certainly not one of the slimmest!

Performance

The Lenovo Z580 packs really serious power. If you’re looking at buying a laptop that will give you more punch than an average mainstream PC, this one is it. It logged 2480 points and a whopping 19583 points in PCMark 7 and 3DMark Vantage (Entry) respectively. It took 37 seconds to compress 100MB of assorted files to 7Zip format (Ultra preset) and about 20 seconds to ray trace a test scene in POV-ray. To give you an idea of what the scores mean, this laptop is almost twice as faster than the fastest Ultrabook in terms of sheer processing power. The sound quality of the speakers is excellent – they are loud and clear. The Nvidia GT 630 graphics processor enables the Z580 to handle games at the native resolution, but with settings lowered.

Touch-sensitive buttons above the keyboard

The battery life is just about average. With the laptop doing nothing else besides scrolling a text document, one full charge lasted for about 3.5 hours. It should last for about 1.5 to 2 hours with medium to heavy load, which is acceptable for the powerful hardware that needs a lot of power to run.

Verdict and Pricing in India

At Rs. 64,990 (end user price), the Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 might come across as expensive. But the quad-core Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive and Blu-ray combo drive quite justify the heavy price tag. If Lenovo would have included a more powerful graphics processor and full HD display, this laptop would have been a killer deal. Nonetheless, if you want plenty of power for serious multitasking and casual gaming, you should consider the Z580.

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Lenovo's ThinkCentre M72e And M92p Stake Claim To "World's Smallest Business PC" Title; Prices Start From Rs 23,500

The idea of a small but powerful desktop PC appeals to many. Addressing this market segment, Lenovo has introduced two new computer models — the ThinkCentre M72e and ThinkCentre M92p. Both models boast of a very small form factor, yet can pack in quite a punch in terms of performance. Made-to-order for enterprise customers only, the PCs can be fitted with third-generation Intel Core i5 processors and equipped with up to 16 GB of RAM (32 GB for the M92p), along with a 1 TB HDD (or 128 GB SSD for the M92p). On the connectivity front, they offer the usual Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a number of USB 2.0 ports (USB 3.0 for the M92p).

 

So how small is the product? Its dimensions are 1.4” (w) x 7.1” (d) x 7” (h) — as a frame of reference, it is slightly bigger than a 3.5" external hard disk enclosure. An alternative comparison, which the corporate types will find easier to understand, is that the PC is no thicker than a golf ball. Since the products are meant for businesses, their build quality is impressive. The PCs ship in a rugged metal enclosure, with a VESA mounting bracket for multiple mounting options — say, behind the LCD monitor's stand, or even under your desk.

The ThinkCentre M72e and M92p are priced at Rs 23,500 and Rs 26,500 respectively for the base variants, which include an Intel Celeron Dual-Core processor, 2 GB of RAM, and a 320 GB hard disk. Unfortunately, both products are not available for home users. The Lenovo rep at the launch event did hint at introducing a model for consumers, but declined to comment officially. So unless you can find 50 or more other fellow-purchasers for these products, you'll only find them at the unfriendly neighbourhood soulless corporate's office.
 

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Lenovo Launches A310, A410 Ultrabooks, A270 All in One in India

Lenovo India has announced the addition of three new products to its existing portfolio of notebooks and All In Ones. The new launches include two new Ultrabooks and a stylish, premium All in One system. The new Ultrabooks include the IdeaPad U310 and the U410. Both these devices feature brand new third-generation Intel Core processors as well as large capacity SSD’s, fast boot up times ,instant resume feature and prolonged battery life.

If you recall, the The IdeaPad U310 and U 410 ultrabooks were first seen at this year’s CES held back in January. Like the name suggests, the U310 gets a 13.3 inch display while the U410 has a 14 inch screen. Both the Ultrabooks tip the scales at 1.7 kg and 1.9 kg, respectively. They are also quite thin measuring just 0.7 inch (18mm) and 0.83 inch (21mm) across, respectively.

While the IdeaPad U310 gets onboard Intel GMA 3000 HD graphics, the U410 makes hay with NVIDIA GeForce 610M 1GB graphics. Thanks to the third generation Intel chips, both the devices support Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) Technology as well. Both the Ultrabooks are available in a wide gamut of colors.

As for the pricing, both the devices are available in a variety of configurations with the base versions starting Rs. 49,990 and Rs. 52,990 for the U310 and the U410 respectively.

The next major launch announced by Lenovo is the IdeaCentre A720. This is claimed to be the world’s slimmest 27” All-in-One. It is just 25.4mm thick at its broadest. The A270 boasts of a frameless display supporting 10-point multi-touch. It also gets a widely adjustable screen angle which ranges from -5 degrees to 90 degrees. This according to Lenovo gives the consumer a wide variety of options to choose how they place the system customized to their needs. Like the two new Ultrabooks, the A720 too is powered by a 3rd gen Intel Core processor.

The pricing of the A270 starts at Rs.89,990 which makes it a premium product and also ends up competing with the iMac from Apple.

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