Lenovo 3000 Y410

One major grouse I had immediately with the Y410 was that for a 14.1" laptop it’s just too big and heavy. Though the physical robustness, reinforcement of hinges and screen area, and thick plastic are vintage Lenovo, there's a lot of wasted space around the keypad and a rather ungainly profile. The extensive use of plastic has imparted some extra flab that makes it uncomfortable to lug around.

Quite a few manufacturers have improved in this area by using lightweight materials that offer the same level of rigidity and strength, and this is something Lenovo needs to look into. In an era of the slim and svelte, the Y410 is the proverbial fat boy riding around on his bicycle desperately trying to lose weight so that he can look cool.

However, not everything is gloom and doom. There are saving graces. Thanks to all the plastic there's less flex in the laptop and when you add in the reinforced hinges and the literally bolted-down screen, there's a sense of stability that other brands sorely lack.

The keyboard of the Y410 is an enigma, in the sense that it’s just a little too firm. The trend is to offer soft keys that will firm up over time and still be usable some years later. Lenovo seems to have bucked the trend and offered a very firm set of keys that while being comfortable to use will definitely get a lot harder and might become plain annoying later. Another thing is the elevation of the keys is a tad higher than required. This may cause users to feel as if they're hammering away.

The LCD panel of the Y410 is, on the other hand, simply brilliant. It has a native resolution of 1280x800 and offers excellent brightness and contrast levels. The screen area for a 14.1 inch is very good and reading text is a pleasure. The enhanced brightness, contrast levels, and uncommonly good viewing angles make it a pleasure to watch movies on this laptop.

In the same vein, keeping in mind the multimedia aspect of the laptop, Lenovo has thoughtfully provided a Dolby-compatible 2.1 audio speaker system for the Y410. This offers vastly improved audio when compared to other laptops, and is in many ways comparable to a decent mid-end system. It packs a decent amount of bass with good stereo output, and does not distort even at fairly high volumes.