Lenovo IdeaPad S215

If you want portability and low price of a Chromebook, but can not live without Windows, see Lenovo IdeaPad S215 ($ 379.99 as tested). Powered by a quad-core AMD A4 processor, the 11-inch budget laptop has what it takes to manage your day-to-day productivity and multimedia workload home, and it'll give you more than six hours of battery life. It's slim, lightweight chassis is ideal for frequent travel, but suffers from slow performance and lack of a touch screen.

Design and Features
0.82 by 11.7 by 8.1 inches (HWD), the S215 can easily fit into most carry-on bag, and at 2.8 pounds, you probably do not know it's there. The matte-black chassis has a textured finish, and like the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E545, dual-hinge assembly cover gives the laptop a solid, well-built feel.

The 11.6-inch, 1366-by-768 display has a non-reflective matte coating and delivers crisp, well-balanced colors and a sharp picture. Unlike Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147) and the HP Pavilion 10z, Ill S215 screen touch capability, so you'll have to rely on the keyboard and touchpad for input. Fortunately, the island-style keyboard is full-size, responsive, and quite comfortable for a 11-inch laptop. You do not get backlighting at this price, however. The slightly recessed touchpad is on the small side, but there is still enough room for the motion command, such as swiping, zooming, and scrolling. The two mouse buttons are responsive and deliver a mild click when pressed.

There is a decent selection of I / O ports, considering that S215 slim chassis. The right side contains one USB 2.0 port, a headphone / microphone jack, a 2-in-1 card reader, and the power port. On the left side is a USB 2.0 port, USB 3.0 port, an HDMI video output, and the LAN port. There is a 720p webcam and microphone array embedded in the bezel above the display and a pair of tinny-sounding speakers embedded in the base. Wi-Fi b / g / n and Bluetooth 4.0 networking circuitry is also included.

The S215 contains a hybrid solid-state drive (SSHD) consists of a 500GB, 5,400rpm hard drive traditional and 8GB of solid-state storage. It has Windows 8.1 installed, as well as Lenovo Photos, Cyberlink PowerDirector, Cyberlink PhotoDirector, the trial version of Microsoft Office and McAfee LiveSafe 365, and VeriFace face recognition software that Lenovo. Covered Lenovo S215 with one-year warranty.