Good Ultrabook, but poor Webcam

I: wrap, weight, mass and appearance

The PC was delivered well packaged, in a rather large packet in which put the actual packaging. The board wrote a weight of 3.4kg of what frightened me, because the PC allegedly loud Lenovo should weigh only 2.3kg. I push it out the box, the upholstery, the charging cable and the few information booklets drumrum, even if you barely make 1.1kg.

Despite my (cheap) Luggage Scale claiming 2.4kg Weight without power supply. Anyone (like myself) makes the weight for purchasing criterion, ie the weight of 1,9kg can be trusted on Amazon NOT. Lenovo has made the weight at 2.3kg - there is therefore currently a database error on Amazon are present. The power supply weighs about 500g, so you should just 3kg einrechnen for the necessary components in the journey. Moreover, it is with dimensions (38,5x26x2,5cm) is currently almost impossible to find a matching bag that will not break the usual baggage dimensions or in the PC "sloppy" because it is too thin.

The PC is very noble, once you have it in front of him. The surface is very cool because aluminum, silver exterior and black interior. While the outside looks hardly fingerprints, you can see it on the stronger side of the keyboard - just as every speck of dust. I had after 2 hours already use the need to clean the PC properly. Also on the touch screen you can see fingerprints extremely fast, even through the black piano lacquer frame. From antiglare I notice anything because the PC still reflects quite strong - help only high brightness settings, even in direct sunlight still something to see.

II: EQUIPMENT AND SETTING UP

The PC came with Win8 which splits the IT world: some adore it, others curse it. I wanted to personally actually skip Win8 and wait until Win9, but unfortunately I had to now but a PC with Win8 establish because Win7 now is as good as extinct in new high-quality computers. Accordingly, I learned when you first start the update eternal loops much described as the Win8 image is obviously a bit dated. However, the update process was not longer than setting up my previous laptops with Windows Vista, where the process took several hours - there were about 1-2 hours.

The system came with all kinds of apps that are more or less useful: one with news from around the world, one for e-mail, the desktop app, so you do not feel as an oversized smartphone, two weather apps (from Lenovo and Microsoft), Skype, Evernote, Ebay, Dragon Assistant (very good voice control and dictation function!), a Lenovo Support App, an app with free online TV streams, Office Trial, McAfee (only until 30.03. 2014 only!) ... For the first few days, it is sufficient in any case, even if I would advise everyone to look pretty quickly, which you really need the apps. Many of Lenovo are more advertising as a useful helper.

On the desktop you will find 3 more flashy programs: McAfee, Dolby Home Theater v4 and Absolute Reminder. It is the above-mentioned virus program that I recently replaced by a free, because McAfee wanted me necessary per day for at least 6 times to purchase a subscription. Absolute Reminder is a monitoring tool with which you can track and lock the PC, it should be stolen, I have not tried yet (but will try). This is a trial version for 90 days. Dolby Home Theater v4 enhances the sound of the speaker clearly with different settings, such as for film, music, dialogue or games.

For Windows 8 I can not say much more because I have changed quite fast because of various crashes of Win8 PC from friends and family on Windows 8.1. That has worked pretty easily - I had only for the Dolby Home Theater again 8 play, because otherwise it no longer recognized the current playback the old audio drivers from Windows.

III: BATTERY, HEAT AND OPERATION

The battery always surprises me with its longevity. As I write, it depends on the Internet, the screen brightness was quite high and listen to music, he has "Balanced" mode and 78% battery charge still around 4:20 hours rest time. This information is even coincide with reality, as I get along 5.5-6.5 hours without power on average. I look on Youtube in full screen mode and with 480p-720p resolution, there are still 3-4 hours, which he keeps loose. On battery so there's nothing to complain about, especially since he is quite fast again fully (approximately 3 hours in operation).

So far I have only once managed to get the PC was noticeably hot. This happened while playing a game published in 2012 on the highest graphics settings with the NVIDIA instead Intel graphics card (you can choose which is to be used). After about 1-2 hours, the keys and the upper left edge heated considerably, so I prefer interrupted play. Since Ultrabooks are not sold innately as gaming PCs, if only because of the lack of drive, I do not do the PC to charge. In all other applications (office, internet, image processing), he remains cool and is hardly ever heard.

In daily use it is very pleasant, although I must still get used to the keyboard and me often mistype. My old PC had not so large (covered) spaces between the keys, a significantly larger shift key and no numeric keypad, so I accreting often too far right and I mistype thereby. This can be a PC but hardly blame. The keyboard is otherwise very pleasant, has a good pressure point and does not ever long time to write in your fingers hurt.

What I celebrate on this PC, the backlight for the keyboard. I never could as nice touch in the dark, as it is extremely light in a pleasant shade of white and not only the key border, but also illuminated inscription. In addition, Lenovo has made a very intelligent key assignment by the useful hotkeys (flight mode, touchpad on / off, app switching, Volume up / down / off, brightness up / down, update, screen on / off, ...) not only need to press the Fn key. Instead, the combination with Fn needed (just for the switching on or off the keyboard illumination) for the F-keys.

What is not so well resolved, is the touchpad. If you have a touch screen, it irritates much so that one the same gestures can also use the touch pad to and so the mouse sometimes does the opposite of what should make them. In the Control Panel, this behavior can but turn off, so that the touchpad is not as inaccurate, as is often claimed. For that I would have liked well-defined mouse buttons, you can also sensing and not just see. In the dark, the touchpad is not illuminated, so it is often a guessing game, where you must now press precisely so that it "clicks" and open the context menu.

The PC is extremely fast: The start-up takes less than 10 seconds from sleep mode, it takes 1-2 seconds before you can enter your password. Only the complete shutdown devours a little more time (about 20-30 seconds). This owes to the PC among others the operating system (8 / 8.1) and - in my case - the combination of i7 processor and SSD hard drive.

So far, the PC has never hung. Every now and then he complains, however, you should restart a drive, because you had been separated for too long of it - I guess times on it, that it has to do with my external hard drive, as it only after use of these occurred. However, the error should be rectified.

What I find beautiful, the OneKey Recovery function of Lenovo. With this, you can back up and restore data very convenient once you have pressed the button - which is only possible with tools such as felt-tip pen caps. The button is so small and flat that you him (rightly!) Can not activate with your fingers. After an accidental restore the factory state, or the last backup was irreversible, ie once started, there is no turning back. The factory settings can be restored, because the PC has an approximately 20GB large Lenovo partition, rests on the approximately 3-4GB the "backbone" of the operating system (and the apps?). If Windows so eventually strike times, you can boot up your PC by pressing the one-button recovery and bring back up and running. At least that's the theory, I did not have to try so far.

The webcam has completely disappointed me this: What is here advertised as "HD-Cam" is the purest joke. Although the camera really solves at 720p, but with just under 1 megapixel (see Product Data Sheet!) Is the image of an ordeal. Everything seems washed out and grainy, so that even the webcam of my 6 year old laptop provides a better picture. But the sound of the built-in microphone is crystal clear and the functions of the preinstalled program "Youcam" are quite funny - but not really save the image.

IV: CONCLUSION

Although the Ultrabook has its small flaws, I do not regret buying so far: It's nice, fast, stable and energy-saving, even if you run right power guzzlers. Whether Windows 8 would have exceptional works without crashes, I do not know - with Windows 8.1, there are no significant problems. However, I can only 4 stars awarded because the Webcam (except for the sound!) Is really an underground operation and you should not advertise with "HD" if the result is worse than with 360p resolution.