Lenovo Ideapad Z500

So today's blog post is about my second laptop.

Yes that momentous occassion is here mixed with sadness and curious excitement. My first laptop is struggling but mostly dying due to power problems from a broken dc jack and the various alternative methods implemented to try to rescue it and keep it going until I bought a new laptop that was brought forward a great deal of time sooner than planned because of mentioned problems. But I do plan on reviving my Samsung R730. Oh yes! My project is sort of a Chromebook idea I guess in ways although not limited to the internet. Once the device I ordered from Amazon, that lets you charge the battery directly thus solving my connector problems, (yes I am investing in my much loved first laptop still, the device cost more than £10 at least but I have faith in it and my laptop) I plan on uninstalling pretty much everything, first of all, the programs that I have running/or know run on Windows 8 such as movie maker (it did not come installed but simply navigate to microsofts websites, download microsoft essentials and pick what programs you require and then breathe a great sigh of relief!) although having said that I meant to refer more specifically to third party programs as movie maker would be handy on another laptop in case of emergency or even running two projects at the same time and so on, secondly remove any other programs that are not caught up in my transition of downloading on windows 8 and uninstalling from windows 7 so as to have more memory (500GB hard drive, seems a shame to let it just sit in my bedroom when it functions pretty darn well still) and space for any future ideas that come to me or even for having as a backup of some files perhaps, despite wanting to clear space, I could keep some files on so there may be some instances where I have 3 copies- New laptop, External 1TB hard drive and my old laptop. Finally, I will as hinted out before, delete or maybe delete some or all personal files. There may even be a clean install of Windows on the table but nothing is certain. Basically I want to optimise my old laptop for ...well maybe not internet..but perfomance so to speak. Maybe even for gaming but without other things that weigh down our all in ones. Like for example maybe no anti-virus software. What????!! Hang on!  Basically, I'm thinking if I use my old laptop for you know...youtube...even signed out if worried about being hacked although I think Youtube will be ok, I should be fine browsing without protection. Plus I can create a new Google Chrome profile so as to not affect my normal one if I delete anything, and delete history more often as not relying on it incase tabs on this Chrome don't restore, if i'm only using it for websites not requiring accounts and so on and have no bookmarks or other customisations slowing it down. The Keyboard on my old laptop is broken and the Touchpad....er... missing... as my attempts to fix the contacts on the ribbon fell through as I cut more and more off to expose fresh new contacts it of course got shorter and no longer stretched from Touchpad to laptop and now lies in my bedroom or actually in a dump, I forgot whether I threw it away or not. A inventive mind like myself :D of course had many ideas (One was to somehow open my door with a Touchpad stuck on or use the Touchpad to move something maybe a mouse icon style thing and maybe with a Keyboard stuck on too type a password to enter my bedroom) but wasn't sure what parts I needed and how much they would cost and so made a note of the project for another time). However, I have a USB Keyboard that I had bought to use with that laptop hoping to pro-long it's life and so I could sit further away from the screen and be more relaxed and I have a wireless keyboard and 2 wireless USB mice. So when I have done my resurrection procedure I have the tools to help prop it up in the hardware areas once the software side has finished.

So that is the story of my old laptop which is still much loved. It was and still is great and I wish it had of lasted longer although now the pressure is of it in more ways than one as mentioned before now that I have a new laptop for "everything" I can pick a task or tasks for my old laptop and try to help it excel in that and only using it for that and so revive it in time. Now onto...my new laptop...which is just as awesome...let it begin!!

Quick recap

(Please note, laptop specifications, price etc are from memory and I can add more details like full price and processor model later)

Laptop 1

Samsung R730
500 GB Hard drive
4 GB Ram
X2 Intel Pentium Processors
Windows 7 Home Premium
Purchased Early 2011
Cost £419.99
Purchased from Amazon

Laptop 2

Lenovo Ideapad Z500
1TB Hard drive
6 GB Ram
i3
Windows 8 (Home?? Came with no installation disk and instead built in and no mention of version)
Purchased October 2013
Cost £529/ £539.98 having paid £9.99 for quicker delivery as it was an emergency.
Purchased from Amazon

Extras

Laptop 1
Wifi built in (Standard these days but worth noting still)
CD/DVD drive/Re-writer
Webcam built in (I have recently purchased a usb webcam intended to use with this laptop but now will be with my new laptop and is not because of any problems with the built in one it's simply because it's easier to position fully for filming trading cards, pets (moving rabbit) and so on. I gladly welcomed the addition of a built in webcam on both my laptops.


Laptop 2
Wifi built in
Bluetooth built in
CD/DVD drive pretty much the same kind of drive/re-writer
Webcam built in. HD apparently, I am not sure if my previous was but both were good quality. Coincidentally, both my laptops came with "Youcam" software to use the webcam, confirming that the software was not created by Samsung as I previously thought.
Touchscreen (Resistive I think)


My Samsung laptop was fast, arrived with a big hard drive that I debated about upgrading as I filled it up quickly with videos and so on but ultimately due to problems of course post-poned that as I sought to get a new laptop and might as well get a 1 TB hard drive that way with a brand new machine, and 4GB ram which worked more or less fine..and trust me..I multi-task! Within just one application-Google Chrome I typically have around 30+ tabs open and sometimes more than one window and often multiple video streaming sites. A typical day on my old laptop would have me with Chrome open fully loaded with my previous days massive bundle of tabs, webcam in the background for multiple uses, at least one paint program open, 1-3 word pad files open, +sometimes a game, movie maker, or both even and I always have sticky notes open and if not copied and pasted into word pad to be saved, will startup with previous days notes upon booting and I say that as unless it is my imagination sticky notes can slow down your device especially when I had filled up 3+ on screen. But still it managed. And although I have yet to fully transfer my demanding needs from my old laptop to my new, I am confident Lenovo have built a machine capable of meeting all my needs which really do incorporate pretty much everything;

Emailing
Web browser gaming
CD/DVD based gaming
Program based gaming
DVD playing
Video editing
Image editing
Web browsing
Typing
Instant messaging
Programming
Emulation software gaming and programming

... and lots more. But already that is quite a list and as previously mentioned my mind wanders so I do more than one project in one go, I like to have instant messaging services like Skype open always for instance so that can just sit there and I'll go and do other things and when someone sends me a message I can simply reply anytime. But will my new laptop cope? Well so far it has coped with the gradual increase in demands I have been testing it with. What laptop you say? Oh yes. Time to explain.

I have purchased (Coincidentally my first laptop ended up being from Amazon as I fell in love with a model and it was slightly cheaper there than Argos) a Lenovo Ideapad. My first ever product produced by Lenovo and so far I am happy for that to of been so, the quality seems the usual you might expect or beyond so I think it is safe to add them to the safe list of laptop manafacturers to consider. Unfortunately my old laptop died before I could record a full unboxing and setting up of windows as I am sure you would of liked to of seen that, the second part...ahh how can I replicate that?? But I can check how much footage I got of the unboxing and maybe upload that to Youtube perhaps with a link to this blog to crisscross the coverage of my new laptop so you can get the info here and the visuals there.

My version of this model did not come with an installation disk, Windows 8 was "built in" I simply had to set it up once powering the laptop on and choose customisations. You receive a laptop charger that is less wide than my Samsung one but contains a far longer lead which is...good and bad.. It's nice so you could rest easy leaving the extra length pulled near the dc jack so there is plenty of room so if someone trips hopefully it won't pull the adaptor and cause any dreaded DC jack problems and hopefully stop them from hurting themself or even from tripping altogether if you can get the wire to lay completely flat depending on how you use your laptop. As it's new I have been using mine on a piece of paper on top of a chair to help keep it in good condition but even at a height there is more than enough wire to follow my suggestion and keep it nice and flat. However, beware of rabbits. Our rabbit has a fondness for chewing wires, particularly ones she knows belong to me oddly. So remain vigilant if you have pets and keep them safe from any dangers. I opted for the i3 model. I had already reached £500 and Amazon stocked an i5 model and an i7 model and maybe even other versions of some of the CPU's however my reasoning was simple. I had sent my old laptop on a sports day from day one. I threw hurdles at it and it threw them back. I told it to spam Barack Obama's inbox and it did just th- ....er never mind. So I did all of those things I mentioned before and more and well let's be honest it didn't give up! I bought a new laptop because the DC jack is gone (don't ask) and yes there are some other problems which may of been caused by power problems but I was happy to support it financially and spend precious time fixing it and telling it everything will be fine. Well maybe not the last one. However there is now more than general wear and tear but I am not dissapointed or angry that I only recently bought a new charger for it or that even more recently I just ordered a external battery charger so I can revive it. Sure some might shout "Old CPU." Some might shout "Low Ram for 2013." Some might shout "Where's your keyboard? Touchpad? DC jack?" But all of those issues have thus been addressed and as for the former 2 I find that wrong and a case where as many of us know it is wrong to look at stats and say it's slow or fast good or bad. It took me from 2011 and even October 2013 and I have plans to revive it. I didn't buy a new one because it was outdated in anyway. Again I must stress I am a power user. I am a gamer and so on. So why 6 GB Ram? Well again my reasoning was simple. I had 4 GB Ram before and had planned to upgrade to 8 before my laptop started dying but I could still do pretty much all I wanted even if sometimes things went a bit slow or I had to close a few things but that was more because of low disk space as when I moved files over from Local disk C to my D drive on my partition I always noticed a difference and so it was doing pretty damn good considering often I was running my laptop with only 5 GB free space which is not recommended and sometimes a lot less, when I last used it before the battery died I had about 2 GB free space. So to not only park my laptop alongside my old one but to drive a little ahead perhaps I opted for 6 GB although I did actually consistently look for 8 GB laptops (I'm not sure why that number was haunting me and that is the reason I got a 6 GB one partly because I stopped thinking I had to get exactly double, 6 was 2 GB than before that will still make a difference surely) at first and of course all laptops are unique with software working in different ways and so on but to future proof I tried hard to find an affordable laptop with more than I had before and so settled on 6 Gb eventually. After all I pushed my old one to it's limits and beyond all without even overclocking (Ah now there's an idea...) or any hacking really and on 4Gb Ram. However...I had overlooked the strange creature looking down at me from the mountain top.

Windows 8.

I am dissapointed in myself. No I really am. What happened to me loving innovation and trying out new things? Perhaps it was the pressure to get lots of work done and things I had to finish that drove me to insist "Yes look for Windows 7 only, I want a system that I can easily find my programs for so I can get straight to it and not have to hunt for them." But alas... Microsoft, true to their nature have eradicated Windows 7 from new laptops already.. I don't actually recall one new laptop with Windows 7 or not on Amazon anyway or that met my ideal specifications. So there I was. Alone. No laptop. A shed load of online and offline work linked to online stuff that needed to be done urgently. Windows 7 had left me. Suddenly I found myself travelling down a strange path and that the path of other people's innovations was alien to me was the truly worrying thing. Once realising Windows 8 was my destiny I narrowed down more specifics, determinedly hanging onto my desired 1 TB Harddrive, passing up SSD and 8 GB+ Ram and eventually finding the very machine I am using right now to write this. Touchscreen was a new ideal that I hung on too, still not being that aware of what it would actually feel like to sit in the seat of Windows 8 I was thinking 8 was suited to Touchscreen devices so if as terrible as some people said I at least had that advantage and slightly comforted by talk online of "Classic Shell" downloads and similar things to bring back Start Menus and other Windows 7 features with Microsoft themself apparently bringing new updates soon of a similar nature if you so choose to install them.

My laptop arrived 1-3 days later. Beautiful to look at, fairly light, one charger, warranty leaflet, 1 fold out leaflet of simple instructions and one other booklet. I plugged it in and then turned it on. Nothing was ever the same again. From what I remember the instantly recognisable Windows 8 style graphics appeared with not in this order- prompts to create your user account, colour options, I think an option asking if I wanted to create a partition, (I said no this time although I seem to have one but that seems to be Lenovo created that for their unique back up system rather than Windows) and some other things, oh of course language options too and I think interestingly you can change the language again a setting. You certainly can change the time like other Windows thankgoodness! I take it this was from an American batch because it was determined that I live in American time and I even changed my time zone and it still was not right so I manually put in the time after working out where it is and it's fine now. Once done (And it was even faster to setup than Windows 7 which took no time at all) I was free to do what I wanted. Where do I start? HOW do I start? Thankfully my stupidity dissappeared and this represented a genuine highlight of my life. Duh! YOU decide where to start! If you don't know how to then find out! That's the fun of it. That's how it should be. It's not a mess. It's random. Randomness is the natural order of the world. Randomness is freedom. I had just bought Windows 8 and thought I was doomed.

It was the best decision I had ever made of this kind.

Windows 8 is Awesome. Period. I've never used that American phrase before and it's not wasted. This is a whole new world..not too late or too soon.. You decide when. In this case Microsoft to sell it. In this case us to buy it too. Become a part of it. I am so glad I did. Windows 8...is just ...genius...brilliance....excellence... Where to start... that is it... Start where you want. No more Start menu or even short cuts if you don't want them. In one way you say this is simpler, that now you merely have your programs already presented on one screen and click/touch them or load ones you use less often from the desktop. Yes. And No. It is so much more because it is nothing and everything. It is you. It is more expressive of you. You even get to keep the massive picture on your desktop and if you wanted I am sure you could do all you wanted to from there anyhow so Touchscreen or no Touchscreen I really fail to see the hate of poor Windows 8. When you want to you can switch to the APP world and that brings with it what you can call anything-simplicity, uniqueness, fluidity, colour, brightness, speed, convinence but whatever the word it is great.

I will hopefully upload some videos to show you later. For now words downloaded from my brain.
When you log on (or in accordance with my current settings anyway) you are presented with some kind of welcome screen consisting of a bright picture which I am sure can be changed somehow and then when you press a key you get a log on screen with a picture of your windows Avatar, mine being a picture of Avril Lavigne and you simply type in your password as you do on Windows 7 or Vista and XP even and well perhaps most Operating Systems. I actually seem to remember being asked if I wanted a password for my account when I set up Windows, unless I imagined it. Logging on for me takes no real time at all and I have downloaded 10 or so Apps in the few days I have had my laptop. Also I am not using full power, I am still on a power conserving energy plan most of the time (Yes they carried that over it seems from the other Windows) and also I do have *Shudder* Viru- er Anti-Virus software like McAfee which I am convinced single handedly brought down my old Laptop that had it shipped with it. Thankfully the virus is only a limited edition and expires after about a month so then I can get on to finding real anti-virus software or maybe even trust Microsoft dare I say. Maybe it is partly to do with being seduced by Windows 8 (I know, not wording you expect to hear on my blog nor words I ever thought I'd say from anything related to Microsoft other than Xbox series and Windows 7 but just don't dwell on it too long and you'll be fine. Definitely do NOT start picturing any scenes. Sleep is so scarce these days. Don't punish yourself) but I hear some people vouching even for older versions of Windows Defender and similar products and I'm not deluded do not fear. I do not think viruses do not exist simply because to the best of my knowledge I have never had one. Although I did hear someone say it's harder in some ways to get serious ones now but regardless, on my old laptop I took it seriously and installed many applications before eventually settling on Advanced System Care as my main one and things like Panda Anti-virus to boost it although none of them have either reported a single real problem (One insists a game that lets you pretend to crack your screen is a threat, apparently it's a known problem) which as I always say- I am not sure if is a good or bad thing. However and perhaps in part because of my desire to not tinker for no reason with my brand new machine and new operating system, when McAfee-let-me-install-things-when-you-aren't-looking-and-shutdown-your-computer-without-your-permission expires, I will not seduce their staff into extending my free period as I did for a little while with my old laptop when I panicked and was not sure about the whole free anti-virus software thing, and instead just let it die and maybe leave Windows on it's own to cope. I say this because I have no doubt McAfee slows down devices and certainly eats up my Ram as Task Manager shows. Ah! There is a story! Task Manager has been redesigned. Yup. Now you can view items in sections such as "Apps" which could be confusing as App simply means application and well we can call anything an application if we want to and yes that is important to note. While Sticky notes can be launched from the App screen and no doubt from the Desktop too if you make a Shortcut, it counts it as an App as it does for Google Chrome even if you loaded from the Desktop as oppose to the
special App you can get (There are differences between the two, I can explain later). Ram as you might of figured gets used very differently by each Apps. I seem to remember the Finance App using a lot of Ram oddly and others barely any. Some a few Mb some 100+. What I like and some others may not is that if you right click an item in Task Manager its gone! No "Are you sure?" The reason this is particularly nice is because of the annoying Skype that asks you if you are sure you want to quit when you try too and I dunno...Task Manager seems more natural here maybe it's the speed of my new machine but I hated loading it on my Windows 7 machine just for the sake of closing skype without it asking me if I wanted to, I guess here it settles in easier and can still be minimised or maximised but doesn't seem like an odd thing you launch when your computer is really slow or you want to do something sneaky. I guess because I spend time on the App screen a lot more too, as I said to my brother really why not get rid of the desktop altogether? We can still have the nice big picture by simply putting it as the picture behind all our Apps or move it somewhere else. On my second phone I had this really neat feature I loved so much! Pick an image....I tried it with cartoons, actresses and other things. You set it and basically that pictured stayed on all screens, behind all icons and everywhere and you could change the transparency. Once I got used to my phone enough I turned the icon completely invisible so I could navigate just by touching parts of the picture or so it would seem to the unknown. You could have something like that in windows and even keep in the transparency part for bonus points for customisation is the key to success. Some people like to customise everything. Here you could customise how visible icons are for you and how visible the picture in the background is. Something to think about Microsoft. But you have pulled it of. Something new and exciting. Task Manager's new informal look and features is just a small beginning.

The Apps I have downloaded so far are;

Glee Quiz
Batman Almanac
DPD tracker
who poke
magik
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
dronbbl quiz

manga
show vidoef ome


Some of the pre-installed (Already installed) Apps are

Finance (Believe me, I wouldn't of downloaded it, however it is handy for people who deal in shares as it gives a live update of FTSE variations and it also has full screen news pages of "Financial stories" such as the Royal Mail privitisation which I do find interesting so really every App I have used and will use again. Good call Microsoft. I'm dead serious.







video of window 8 apps


lofocrussmentoon musicapfree  andcnaugetwhtsappapponwindows



ableotprsuttoinswitnoticeosmtihnehr,ebitslowdown,wift,rthergetnonescreneodwmore,dekstopgo,usitllfuncutonapp





Here is an Amazon link for my Laptop :) Please note as is customary, there are many variations not just for the same series of Laptops but even the same models might have changes in later versions. The Ideapad Z500's on Amazon are being sold with quite a choice of different CPU's which is nice. Not sure? Let me put it this way...while I have never caused a country wide blackout with my power usage.. I used my old laptop for a wide variation of tasks and always multi-tasking. YES of course I did experience slow down (Find me a CPU that can survive my mult-tasking) and the new technology is nice but do be careful before thinking about paying for a higher priced CPU. It can seem a confusing world with so many out there now and terms like Hyper Threading and so on...but technology is relatively fast now no matter what in the sense.. You want to Email? Pick any CPU. You want to record through a microphone? Any CPU. You want to game? Ah. Of course it's not that simple and as I have said earlier I gamed a LOT on my "old" CPU on my old Laptop and things like Hard drive size and RAM play a role. Trust me...move some files from one part of your hard drive to another if you have a partition, when I was low on memory I did that and the speed increase was significant. So if you can afford to, keep plenty of hard drive spare, well you know..i'm sure 100 GB is fine...but 10 GB is warning level I would say. Bearing in mind "Warning" as in may not be any problems yet but you are still using your laptop so may be downloading more soon and so on so that may become 8GB by tomorrow (1 if like me). So gaming does not have to demand a higher CPU (By the way, if you are unsure which is more suited to you, I know a little about them so you can ask me or there are lots of forums and websites online and Intel's websites has a lot about all of their CPU's and their speeds and other Stats. From what I have read (and I have no problem believing, makes sense to me) CPU's are not clearly more powerful than another, always, and some may perform better than others even if slightly older. The Ideapad I purchased had a i3 variation. It also shipped with i5, i7 and one or two variations of those and maybe even another branded CPU I think. Yes if I had a bit more money I might of been tempted to get an i5 or i7. Why? Not because of capabilities or I would not of paid £500+ for this laptop if I did not think it would do me one day's work let alone 3 years. But for (Here comes my catchphrase) future-proofing, just an extra boost and so I had not just a device that was capable but that was MORE than capable not in the sense of pointlessly wasting money, but to ensure things would be and stay smooth. But I had faith in the i3 and so far it has done well. I of course forgot for a second that Windows 8 would be shipping and did not factor in different demands on memory, CPU and anything else but thankfully my missed oppurtunity to factor that in does not seem to of done any damage as Windows 8 has been smooth, sleek and swift so far. Maybe Touchscreen laptops use more power, I would of thought at least to some degree and maybe Windows 8 does too and so my CPU is not as "Powerful" as it would be with Windows 7, but even if that is true I do not regret it at all, this laptop is awesome.

The laptop itself, physically is beautiful. Now this maybe a downside, if the battery detoriates...which, well sadly I thought all laptop batteries do in time but the battery is built in. I can attach a photo sometime but basically, compared to my Samsung laptop that has a battery the bottom where you slide two tabs and slide out for easy removal and replacement, this one is flawlessly, smoothlu intergrated for a very nice look. But yes...replacement... Well I am confident there is a way to replace it if/when the time comes maybe even just simply taking a few screws out and lifting the cover and hopefully Lenovo's built in plan to not fully charger your laptop does increase it's life, although of course as someone mentioned it is good to tailor a battery plan to your usage. Also of note, oddly suddenly my Lenovo IS fully charging yet I don't remember changing any settings... But my advice is... keep your lead safe and stationary so it does not get jerked and hopefully your DC jack will stay robust so at the most a battery change is required someday. Yes I do talk a lot about DC jacks because I have been a victim of said problems and know the trouble it can cause! The lid. Upon lifting up your lid, which I would not really describe as heavy or any different to my Samsung and gives the feel of good strong hinges, you are presented with a bright (when on) 15.6 inch screen. Now I am not going to say "You will love this" because we all like different things but I do and think you will. The screen is clear and at some angles I can see my reflection but where I sit I have always had lighting problems with my old laptop espeially with photos taken from webcams so it is more an issue of lighting. You can easily see what is on screen still in any "normal" light or maybe intense but I have yet to travel to my nearest desert to bask in such conditions. The screen like I said is bright. I do have Windows set on the second brightest opton (There may be a Lenovo built-in brightness adjusting type piece of software as often Windows and built in branded software criss-cross with some features, although surely there is a limit to how bright a screen can go or limited for safety or whatever and so Windows no doubt lets you go as high as you can) but bear in mind on my Samsung I had the brightness up to the highest always and only in recent months trained myself to cope with lower brightness by turning it down gradually so this does not mean this screen is not as good. Being new you get that "Oh amazing, let me worship you forever" and then later on when your laptop is still legendary but less new, you can get over the emotional attachment (What?) and see any faults clearer. So far it has held up well. I have been doing the usual use it only on a chair and not my lap, for health of course but as it is new to protect it as well and no scratches have appeared anywhere. The touchpad comes with a weird kind of protective film which I am sure I never had on my 1st laptop and I was not sure what it was at first despite guessing that, until bubbles appeared and I decided to "Damage" it further to find a tear to peel off in the hope it was some kind of protective layer or I had just ruined my new Touchpad. Thankfully it was and once you have a tear the rest comes of easily, revealing a ridiculously smooth Touchpad. Also this is testament to the awesomeness, bearing in mind like I said I left the layer on at first, as in other words I was using the laptop how it was not meant to be used explaining why the Touchpad was a little slower than I was used to yet still functioned fine so you can even keep it on and use it! Once you do take it of however, and maybe it's the illusion of being new but to me it is the fastest Touchpad I have used. Another thing to remember is the meeting point of Software and Hardware! You CAN change the speed of any mouse device on Windows 7 and surely 8 as well. Like on my old laptop I did switch the mouse buttons to help with my left handedness, so the Right button was left click and vice versa. I quickly counted around 110 keys, over 100 I am sure. You have the classics, naturally- Caps Lock (Displayed as "CapsLK"), a Tab key (When you fill in forms press it, trust me it's swift, 2 shift keys (The usual arrow pointing up), two Control keys (Displayed as "Ctrl"), Space bar (With a picture of a speaker like icon on it, yet to work out it's function, a nice size, not one of those pointlessly long Space bars and nice and thin but a fair space although I like that as after all, every word (like I'm doing right now) requires a space usually so it's nice to hit it without to much attention paid to check you are hitting the right note...er key and to be able to teach from greater distances, bouncing of from your last letter), 1-0 (Some keyboards vary with what dual functions a number represents, these seem to consist of the sort of usual Exclamation mark for 1, Quotation marks for 2, Pound sign for 3, Ambisand for 7 and percentage, dollar, asterix and brackets for the others except for 6 which has an odd arrow pointing up and I am not sure what it replaces?), A-Z, AltGR (Never used that key once..), 1 windows key (A useful key for Windows 8, trust me), FN, Arrow keys, Num Lock, Insert, Delete, Print screen (PrtSc), and on the right the "Num area" with more arrows, Home, Page up, Page down, another Enter (The traditional largish one is to the left of the Num area) and so on. Now on top of all of this are the advanced keys. Far left is Escape (Esc), F1-12 are next with icons attached. F1 is a very handy mute key, great for annoying pop-up adverts too. F2 is a volume decreaser key and F3 is a handy nearby increaser (My old laptop did have volume keys but they were twinned with the arrow keys and you had to hold FN where as this you can simply press without the FN key making me wonder just what use that key has here? It's not needed for F4 as I keep unfortunately finding out when I hit it accidentally and close Google Chrome). F4 keeps with tradition and is either a hero for closing buggy programs and freeing up RAM or whatever it is you people you kid yourself you have saved the computer world doing :P or a nightmare. I have no idea what F5 does and it will be fun working out although I am not feeling brave enough to press it right now and it is next to F4 so it could be related... But judging by the two arros on it with them pointing at each others tails hinting at an exchange or cycle, I would guess they refresh your web pages, so that would be handy if they do. I don't like the look of F6 as it shows a line through your screen so I may prise that key of (I'm joking) but I think it may just turn your screen of, why I have no idea, although maybe for debugging problems it could come in handy, sometimes it's good to remember something for today may not be pointless, tomorrow is always the next day. There's some Philosophy for you, normally I charge, F7 is a curious one. Even without the picture of an Aeroplane I knew it was for "Airplane mode" as I keep seeing the setting under the now combined Wifi and Bluetooth Windows screen but what it does I do not know. I have heard of phones having a mode and thought it just turns of your signal, so how it varies from just turning of your Bluetooth and Wi-fi, if at all I do not know. F8 shows 3 things I think are computer screens and my old laptop did have a key for switching screen output quicker so this may be that. F9 shows an X by a square which I already guessed is to turn your Touchpad of and on as my old laptop had that key. F10 however shows a definite computer image with an "Oval-Square on the left, seperated only by a thin line which could be yesterday's copy of The Daily Mail, so maybe this is the key for switching/duplicating screens? Which begs the question, what is the other one for?  F11, ah first time I looked at F11 and F12 properly but we mentioned brightness earlier. F11 clearly turns down brightness, F12 the opposite and I did test them out so don't be afraid of closing programs, you don't need the FN key either, with my old laptop you had to press FN and either DOWN or UP or LEFT and RIGHT to toggle. I love the shortcuts though of brightness and volume control, nice thinking. To the right of them are just keys mentioned before that are somehow taking seats among the keys of legend, except for INSERT key. That key you really should prise of your laptop! No really! The amount of wars that key has started..I have campaigned tirelessly to have that key removed from all new Laptops and while none of that is true I feel it should be.



Other information (Added random times)

60Hz display. Battery is of course new but so far the Windows estimate is definitely accurate at least within half an hour or so as unplugged like for today example in the morning, I watched an interview, Neighbours 15-20 minutes and the interview was at least a few and before that I did typing, browsing etc for at least 1 hour, so already we have 2 hours, plus it was about 2 hours later that I got the warning sign. What was the estimate then? 4 hours, give a few minutes or so, which is also interesting not just because we know videos use more power and thus faster power consumption or with today's technology anyway or with my laptop anyway, but also as some people have said they found the same or similar model to last 3 max hours. Well I can say confidently I saw 5 hours remaining the other day, perhaps I ought to fully charge, unplug and immediately check to see what the score is? I do have the brightness fairly high but as I may of mentioned before the lighting is bad in our house. I am told brightness is a big power killer so if you can manage witth lower settings you might get more time, theoretically of course, if you game every second the battery will die but I have yet to discover a laptop that can last under that intensity, aside perhaps from Samsung's new ATIV range with 8 hour or so battery life which even if halved when playing games, watching videos etc would still be close to what some laptops have as a maximum. So don't be afraid to toggle carefully with some settings, brightness, wifi and bluetooth off if not using, apparently they use a fair bit of power, also I actually read the other day that just muting your main volume regardless of if in use or not can save a tiny bit...so who knows. I hope you enjoy my little review, like I say I'm adding more information when I can and if I think of something new when using it I can mention it.

*More details may be added to the above section randomly.

P.S. The box (Or my one as that kind of thing may change a lot for same models even) even had a little orange plastic handle on, nice to put your laptop in and carry until you can buy a case. Like I did with my first laptop, I've kept the foam bed the laptop came cased in and put it back in there each night (early-mid morning) to try to keep it new and all that, today I have thrown the box away after having my laptop a week or so and will keep it just in the foam polystyrene thing until I can get a case or see if my old one will do for now, even though this laptop is 15.6 and my case is for my old 17.3 laptop.