Design Matters

Lenovo 3000 C200: Full Review – Review by PC Magazine

Notebookreview took a liking to our Lenovo 3000 C200 notebook, and it appears PCMag did as well. It is good to hear our much updated design is receiving good marks from the reviewers:

When the Lenovo 3000 C Series launched with the C100 early last year, Lenovo decided to take the budget laptop's design in a different direction. Bad idea. The C100 looked hideous compared with its sleeker siblings, the 3000 V100 and 3000 N100. Suffice it to say that Lenovo heard the rants and is ready for round two. The Lenovo 3000 C200 sports a new design that's more consistent with the rest of the 3000 series, and it adds brand-new components that make it one of the most affordable business laptops in the market.

When the 3000 C100 first hit my bench last March, it shared the traditional dark interior and, frankly, cheap looks of the Dell Inspiron B130. The C200 has a much sleeker design. Its silver cover curves toward the front bezel, giving it a slimmer silhouette.

My colleague Matt Kohut over at Inside the Box recently touched on the C100/C200 evolution in a post entitled Who really listens these days? As Matt discussed, the huge change from the C100 to C200 was a direct result of the initial design's criticisms.

From the design perspective, we wanted a single image across the Lenovo 3000 notebook lineup and the C100 stuck out like a sore thumb. Working to refresh the design to match the rest of the Lenovo 3000 line as quickly as possible, we launched the C200 at the end of October to replace the C100 which was launched at the end of February. If that isn't enough of a sign that Lenovo listens, then I'll just let the critics say it for me:

Lenovo has taken full advantage of its second chance by delivering a worthy budget business laptop. The Lenovo 3000 C200 offers a better design and improved performance than its predecessors while remaining below $1,000.

I’ve posted about our China designs before and wanted to point out some of the new products Lenovo is releasing in China.

This is the Lenovo 3000 H100 desktop computer, aimed as a family computer. Ergonomics come into play here, with a unique carrying handle on the top of the computer. The power buttons are also relocated there, as a lot of people tend to place their computers on the ground. These machines look far different from the jet-black ThinkCentre desktops, and for good reason. An interesting tidbit is the keyboard: it is “anti-bacterial” designed to inhibit bacteria growth. Now there’s some virus protection for you.

The Lenovo 3000 Q100 desktop is very much multimedia oriented, as you can tell from its extremely sleek and stylish design. The feature highlighted above is called the JogDial, allowing users to easily access all different kinds of multimedia.

You may have to look closely at this notebook, the Lenovo 3000 Y400, to notice what is unique here. Wait, is there no touchpad? Not quite, but it sure does look like that. The touchpad on this model is “hidden,” incorporated into the palm rest as a nice finishing touch to the sleek design. Now if we can just get those mouse buttons to be hidden and fully functional. Multimedia is the name of the game in this machine, with an integrated subwoofer and slick slot-loading optical drive.

For those who want to get a closer look at these puppies, take a look at our Flickr account for some larger images.

It's nice to see the Lenovo 3000 line get some positive recognition. The C200 is a sub-$1000 notebook is a great deal with ThinkPad quality built in. Kevin O'Brien at Notebookreview.com posted a comprehensive review of the machine.

"The Lenovo C200 is hands down an awesome upgrade over the previous C100 model. It seems as though they looked at a list of weaknesses of the previous model, and found ways to go above and beyond improving them. Performance has nearly doubled with the new Core 2 Duo, the hard drive is now the newer SATA standard, the screen hinges feel they could outlast the laptop, and the much enjoyed keyboard stayed just the same."

David Hill