I feel like this is a laptop that aims squarely to meet many practical needs without trying to go beyond or making an effort to take a big step toward what people need without going a step further to include the kinds of things they're usually told they need. The screen is a great example of this. 1366 x 768 on a 15-inch laptop is perfectly fine for the vast majority of users and what they do do when they sit in front of a laptop. In fact, having a lower pixel density (as opposed to a 1920 x 1080 screen or even a 4K one) is a great way to reduce both the price and the power consumption of the device. There are certainly people who need more pixels, but for most this is actually a pretty nice sweet spot on a 15" screen that balances the power requirements and price point with what they will realistically use it for. So is 8GB of RAM a really solid amount for the average user on Windows 10. By including the additional 16GB of Optane memory, it runs faster than you'd expect from 8GB of RAM and a standard hard drive, as it acts as an additional storage location for the things the computer needs to look up most often. Most importantly, it does this job entirely on its own, without the user having to do anything at all. (I have SSDs in my desktop that I added myself and use to store things from which I believe need to run fast, but this approach requires me to actually think about what goes in there and how I do it can resolve the data, and most people just don't want to do it). The range of ports available is pretty solid and the inclusion of a USB-C port is particularly nice as many people aren't using that standard that much just yet, but it's clear where we're going and it will help the laptop fit into remains useful for years to come. The inclusion of the number pad and DVD-RW drive was a little more surprising to me given that so many devices have moved away from integrating these and they take up space that could have helped make the laptop smaller, but I can see how they fit into the overall scheme, considering this is an ultra-convenient device rather than a cutting-edge showstopper The feel of the keyboard and trackpad is certainly nowhere near the best I've used, but they're pretty standard, as far as mid-range laptops go, so there's nothing particularly bad to complain about there (however, if you do a lot of writing or something like that, I always highly recommend getting an external mouse, since mice are so much simpler than trackpads). Overall, I'd say there's nothing here that gets a "Wow!" it is. Barring disasters like something spilling or a part failing, I could easily see it serving as a solid computer for web browsing and word processing tasks for 3 or 4 years, and it will be good for light gaming too, if someone is so inclined. If I were to buy a laptop that could really solidly meet the needs of someone like a typical high school or college student, I'd be pretty happy with my choice of this laptop. I wouldn't choose it for someone installing Linux and doing serious development work who is focused on high-end graphic design or has an intense gaming hobby, but all of these people will likely want something more expensive and more tailored to their needs. Overall, I'm really impressed with how well Lenovo does the core Picked out specs for someone who just needs a computer and wants it to be powerful enough to be fine for at least a few years and did so with no extra frills so they could try charging 50% more.
