Lenovo IdeaPad V570-1066AJU

The Lenovo IdeaPad V570-1066AJU ($629.99 direct at Best Buy) has the kind of amenities that most frugal laptop shoppers can't resist. When you glance at its components?an Intel Core i5-2430M processor, 6GB of memory, 750GB hard drive, and aluminum frame?and then at its price, you may end up calling over a salesperson to make sure it's not a mistake. Look around, and you won't see anything else comparable. The IdeaPad V570-1066AJU has excellent performance, forward-thinking features, and offers an excellent typing experience, all at a very reasonable price. It receives our Editors' Choice in the budget category.

Design
Aluminum, once the material of choice for premium laptops, has now found its way to the budget laptop category. Budget laptops, like the Asus U56E-BBL5 ($649.99 list, 4 stars), HP Pavilion dv6-6013cl ($649.99 list, 4.5 stars), and of course, the V570-1066AJU, sport aluminum frames. The V570-1066AJU's lid and palm rest areas are draped with brushed aluminum in a grayish hue. It's as sleek as the Asus U56E-BBL6 and HP dv6-6013cl, and appears thinner than its plastic counterparts, such as the Gateway NV55S05u ($580 list, 4 stars) and Toshiba Satellite P755-S5215 ($719.99 list, 3 stars). For a desktop replacement, the 5.4-pound V570-1066AJU isn't a huge burden on the road and is even a smidge lighter than the 5.5-pound Asus U56E-BBL6 and 5.6-pound HP dv6-6013cl.

The 15.6-inch widescreen provides plenty of screen real-estate to multitask with two windows side-by-side, though, the 1,366-by-768 resolution is as the highest you'll get from any budget laptop, including this one. Still, its baseline resolution can show 720p high-definition video. The chiclet-style keyboard is similar to the ones found in the Asus U56E-BAL5 and Gateway NV55S05u, but with a compelling twist: Lenovo gave the keys some curvature, shaping each one so that it fits the contours of a finger. There was also enough room to add an adjacent numeric keypad, which is a boon for number crunchers. I have no complaints about the navigating experience; the mouse buttons were soft, and the wide touchpad was responsive.

Features
The feature set is about as complete as you'd expect from a $630 laptop. It uses the standard tray-ejecting DVD drive that can also be found in its peers. Its four USB 2.0 ports are the most you'll find in a 15-inch laptop. One of them even doubles as an eSATA port, for storage expansion. You might not need eSATA, since the internal hard drive can fill 750GB's worth of photos, videos, and other files, which is slightly more than what the Asus U56E-BAL5 (640GB) and Gateway NV55S05u (640GB) are offering. It has an HDMI port and a multimedia card reader. I thought its speaker system was more impressive sounding than that of the systems mentioned in this review.

Like its predecessor, the Lenovo IdeaPad V570-1066A9U ($629.99 list, 4 stars), the V570-1066AJU ships with the second iteration of Wireless Display, or simply, WiDi 2.0. Not only does it stream family slideshows or Powerpoint presentations to an HDTV, wirelessly, but the new improvements include streaming 1080p video (previous version was limited to 720p) and protected content (think DVD movies). You will, however, need to buy Netgear's Push2TV receiver ($100 option at Best Buy), which has to be tethered to the HDTV at all times. WiMAX is often referred to as 4G wireless. It spans an entire city, as opposed to Wi-Fi, which covers a short-range. Throughput speeds range from 3-8Mbps, which is as fast as many home DSL packages. Best of all, pricing plans are cheaper than many internet packages, and you don't have a dongle hanging off of a USB port.

Best Buy also has an extended warranty program, which offers customers an extra year of protection beyond the one-year warranty of most system manufacturers. There are two plans in this extended warranty program. The standard plan ($119.99) covers the system against normal wear and tear, power surge damage, and includes a "No Lemon" guarantee in which Best Buy will simply replace the computer if it requires more than 4 repairs during the coverage period. Best Buy's advanced plan ($219.99) offers all this, and also covers the system against accidental damage from drops and spills. Other special offers can be found online or in stores, like discounts on printers, software, and tech support plans which are available with any new consumer PC purchased through Best Buy.

Performance
The 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-2430M processor and 6GB of memory are reassurances that you're absolutely getting your money's worth in terms of performance. It's one of the fastest laptop configurations I've seen in the $600 range, barring the refurbished models. The laptop scored 2.69 in Cinebench R11.5 and 1 minute 52 minutes in Handbrake tests, beating out the Asus U56E-BBL5 (2.66 in Cinebench; 1:55 in Handbrake) and HP dv6-6013cl (2.04 in Cinebench) (the latter two equipped with a slower processor). The V570-1066AJU scored top marks in PCMark 7 (2,275), a 10% increase from its predecessor, the Lenovo V570-1066A9U (2,066).

If you're a gamer, the V570-1066AJU can take on most 3D-intensive games, though they have to be played at medium-quality settings. The Gateway NV55S05u, on the other hand, will allow you to crank up a few of these quality settings, since its AMD gaming chip is superior to Intel's integrated graphics, which is what you'll get with every other system in this review. The V570-1066AJU's 48Wh battery is the smallest one in this group, yet it still managed 5 hours 59 minutes in battery tests. A big 74Wh battery gives the Asus U56E-BBL5 the clear advantage in battery tests (7:34).

The Lenovo IdeaPad V570-1066AJU took the absolute best components for this particular price and found room in the budget for an aluminum chassis. The Core i5 processor, 6GB of memory, and 750GB hard drive will no doubt surpass performance expectations, and the rest of its features are worthy of praise as well.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Lenovo IdeaPad V570-1066AJU with several other laptops side by side.

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