Introduction
If you're in the market for a laptop that can handle the rigors and demands of an academic environment, the Lenovo Z51 might be ideal for you.
The Z51 won't win any Laptop of the Year awards, but with its $600 (£384, AU$814) price tag, there are very few competitors capable of delivering the Z51's style and versatility.
One such competitor is the Asus ZenBook UX305 – a laptop that we awarded a five-star rating earlier in the year. The Z51 also stacks up well against the Acer Aspire V7, a 14-inch laptop that performs almost as well as it looks.
That said, it's not all about looks and compatibility with other devices. What happens under the hood is oftentimes more important than how the hood looks.
Design
The black with silver-trimmed exterior of the Z51 gives it a substantive feel, like a tank or a warship. This laptop means business.
Unlike Lenovo ThinkPad units that feature mostly black textures with red lettering, the Z51's black exterior bleeds into the silver, brushed-metal finished keyboard and monitor, creating a symmetrical look that's stunning from front-facing and side angles. This laptop is more Yoga than it is ThinkPad, for sure.
Although Lenovo continues to add too much border around its display, unlike competitors such as Dell, the Z51's Full HD (FHD), 1,920 x 1,080 resolution screen is a delight to view. Images are crisp and detailed. With the screen brightness turned up you get a dynamic, cinematic feel.
Unfortunately, the screen is matte non-touch, which is disappointing given its proximity to the Windows 10 launch. The Aspire V7 and ZenBook UX305 both feature similar FHD displays, but the Acer unit features touch functionality.
I'm typically not a huge fan of Lenovo keyboards, but the Z51 has one of the best keyboards I've ever used. It has chicklet style keys that run almost all the way across the 15-inch device. The keys include a number pad for those of you who input massive amounts of data during the school or work day.
The keys themselves are super responsive, with just enough click and clack to let you know when you'd made a selection.
The touchpad features a matted finish that is helpful in letting you know how close to the edge of the pad's frame you've come. Rather than enclose the pad in a thick piece of plastic, or sink it down a few centimeters, Lenovo simply wrapped the pad in a slightly raised, silver-brushed material. Beneath the touchpad is the clickpad, which is a bit extreme at almost four inches wide, but it's not so extreme that it upset my experience.
Specifications and performance
At 15.12 inches wide (38.6cm) and 5.07 pounds (2.26kg), the Z51 is mammoth in comparison to both the ZenBook and the Aspire, both of which weigh 2.6 pounds (1.17kg) and 4.4 pounds (1.99kg), respectively.
But keep in mind, this laptop is built for students and entertainment junkies. It's not meant to be tossed inside a knapsack and forgotten about until you need to Google something. It's meant to be big, to make loud noises and to leave an impression. It succeeds at all three.
Here is the Lenovo Z51 configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
Spec sheet
- CPU: 2.1GHz Intel Core i5-5200U (dual-core, 3MB Cache, up to 2.70 GHz Turbo Boost)
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5500
- RAM: 8GB DDR3L (1,600MHz)
- Screen: 15.6-inch, 1,920 x 1,080
- Storage: 1TB 5400 RPM + 8GB SSHD
- Ports: 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB 2.0, HDMI-out, 4-in-1 card reader, Audio combo jack, RJ-45, VGA
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/c, Bluetooth 4.0
- Camera: 1MP webcam
- Weight: 5.07 pounds
- Size: 15.12 x 10.43 x 0.97 inches (W x D x H)
Being a bulky laptop, you're not missing much in terms of connectivity or storage. You can safely purchase this device knowing it can store a massive amount of data locally, all while connecting to your favorite external devices either for entertainment, educational or expansion purposes.
The fifth generation Intel Core i5 processor should be powerful enough to help you conduct multiple CPU-draining tasks at once, but more on that in a moment. The device even comes with an optical drive – something you don't see very often these days (mostly because they're not really necessary). But kudos to Lenovo for having you covered however and whenever you need to be.
Value
The Acer Aspire V7 starts at $799 (£469 or AU$1,299), or about $200 more than the Z51 unit sent to TechRadar. That extra $200 provides you with a bit more portability, a bit less style and a lot better performance.
Alternatively, the ZenBook ($699, £401, AU$902) is only $99 more expensive than the Z51, with comparable performance, an equally attractive design, but fewer inputs and a lot less versatility in terms of ports and storage.
Performance
If you can't already tell, I was well on my way to giving the Z51 a stellar review. I like its looks, its accessibility and the way it feels, but what good is a Corvette if its engine sputters?
Here's how the Lenovo Z51 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
- 3DMark: Ice Storm: 40,779; Cloud Gate 4,228; Fire Strike: 549
- Cinebench CPU: 238 points; Graphics: 20 fps
- PCMark 8 (Home Test): 2,153 points
- PCMark 8 Battery Life: 2 hours and 31 minutes
Compared to the Acer Aspire V7, which runs on a previous generation Intel Core i5 processor, the Z51 got whalloped, scoring almost five thousand fewer points than the Aspire. The same can be said of the Cloud Gate test, on which the Z51 scored 1,000 fewer points than the Aspire. Even more extreme were the results of the Fire Strike test, which proved the Aspire to be almost three times as capable as the Z51 to perform taxing productivity tasks.
If we relegate the Z51 and its Core i5 processor to a subdivision to compete against laptops packing an inferior Intel Core M processor, you'd think we'd see a marked improvement in head-to-head matchups. Not so much.
The Z51 beat the Asus ZenBook and its Core M chip by a little more than 100 points on the Cloud Gate test. Both units registered the exact same score on the Fire Strike test. What's shocking is that the Z51 actually produced fewer frames per second on the Cinebench graphics test, despite the ZenBook having a weaker Intel HD Graphics 5300 card, compared with the Z51's 5500 card.
The tests were run twice and scores were in-range each time. We double-checked with Lenovo to make sure these scores were in-line with their internal tests, just to ensure there were no glitches. Lenovo's scores were slightly higher, but nothing to suggest this unit was damaged in any way.
Battery life
As you can see from the PCMark 8 Battery Life test, the Z51 isn't built to run all day without a charge. The 2 hours and 31 minute score attributed to the laptop is about an hour shy of what I was able to achieve playing Guardians of the Galaxy on a loop.
When performing basic business tasks, such as spreadsheeting, chatting and flipping between about a dozen open browsers, the laptop performed better than its benchmarks indicated, but the laptop only lasted about 3 hours.
For the sake of comparison, the Acer lasts for 5 hour and 32 minutes. The ZenBook lasts for about 5 hours. So, if battery life is your main concern, you'll probably want to avoid the Z51 at all costs.
Verdict
I want to recommend this laptop. It looks good, it feels good and it performed very well during the basic tasks I put it through in my testing. The machine is cheaper than similar alternatives and it's a joy to watch videos on.
But when it comes down to the nitty gritty – what separates notebooks that help maximize output versus notebooks that run annoyingly slow after a few months – I just can't give the Z51 a raving review.
We liked
The Z51's beautiful black and silver design will complement any desk space. Lenovo's wide, number-pad-packing keyboard is a peach to use, even if the clickpad at the bottom is a bit too wide. The FHD display makes watching content enjoyable, even if you can't touch the screen.
We disliked
There's no point looking good if you don't outperform the competition. A laptop with a Core i5 processor should not get trounced in head-to-head benchmarks against laptops with previous generation processors, let alone a much weaker processor designed for tablets, like the Core M.
And when you factor that poor performance into the laptop's dreadful battery life, you're looking at a device that performs slightly better than a smartphone, lasts almost as long, and weighs 10 times as much.
Final verdict
Spend a little extra money and buy a laptop that looks as good as the Z51, but performs as well as its competitors. Both the ZenBook UX305 and the Acer Aspire V7 are better-suited for the student and educator, despite lacking the same number of ports and connections as the Z51.
While I don't recommend the Z51 entirely, I will say that if a stunning, non-touch FHD display and a slick-looking chassis are your priorities, the Z51 excels in both departments.
from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/1DNHhyy
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