Lenovo IdeaPad U430 Touch Ultrabook 14-Inch Touch-Screen Laptop, (Intel Core i5-4210U processor, 8GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive + 8GB SSD)

I bought one of these a couple years ago and totally loved it at first. It felt really sturdy, with the heavy aluminum MacBook-esque design. It ran really well and I enjoyed having the touch screen. Unfortunately, that touch screen came with some major drawbacks. After about two years, the plastic around the metal hinges just gave out under the weight of the touch screen. Because of the design of the screen, however, the hinges, usually a pretty inexpensive repair, could not be replaced without purchasing an entirely new top cover of the laptop. The screen itself would have cost over $140 on top of regular repair costs! I'm pretty disappointed in such a glaring flaw with an otherwise really nice laptop.

I've been using this laptop for Univesity for the last couple semesters. Overall the laptop looks very nice. Some people have mistaken it for a MacBook when glancing (Which I take as a compliment). The laptop in very smooth and has a great feel about it. The touch screen is very responsive, but I don't use it very much because I don't like fingerprints. One thing I was afraid about when buying a laptop was that the keyboard would be too small, but this keyboard is great. It doesn't slow me down at all when I am typing my 5-10 page papers. I love this laptop. It is great quality, especially for the price.On the flip side, there are a couple things that I've found to be a problem. Some HDMI cables don't stream very well from the laptop to the tv. It makes the videos lag a little or lose frames per second. At the beginning every update caused me to lose my Wifi, but I had a tech guy download something that fixed this. I don't have the problem anymore but it was a little strange while it was happening.

The computer worked great for 5 years of college! Screen is a little dim and the pivot isn’t sturdy enough to make the tablet mode too user friendly. This computer was a gem running simulations and large Excel spreadsheets.

I bought this laptop directly from Lenovo!! Its a nice laptop but with a major flaw. Believe it or not I cut my finger with this laptop. It has sharp edges on the lid. Close the lid and try to feel the edges on the llid then you will realize how sharp it is. I didn't notice it before, but today when I was taking it out of my bag I cut my finger.

Great as a second computer. I have had mine for over a yer, and it does exactly what I want. I was looking for a travel machine with reasonable battery life, a smaller form factor, enough storage, and a readable screen for spreadsheets and documents. This is it. I have had no trouble, and have been pleasantly surprised at how much I have come to rely on the touch screen. I will always get a touch screen from now on. I find the screen to be very readable, although reading it in the sun is not all that you might like. The truly easy volume and brightness controls in place of the function keys are truly useful. You can also easily shift between your open programs by pressing what would be the F8 key. This is very, very useful if you are switching between Word and email, for example. The function key icons are quite self-explanatory.The actual "functions" are available by simultaneously pressing the FN key, but they are hardly used any more. I love the backlit keyboard - will always get that in the future, even for my desktop machine.Two caveats:1) I hate Win 8 - hate, hate, hate. But, that's not the fault of the computer.2) I never use the touch pad, Instead, I plug in a $25 wireless mouse, because I do a lot of spreadsheets. Again, this is a personal thing. The touch pad sensitivity is set so that I never trigger it by accident - perfect. It's there if I want it, but never gets in the way.In summary, for the price, this is a relatively light and very convenient machine with enough capability to do a lot of work.

I have had this laptop for over 2 years. It has served me well for those 2 years without signs of slowing down. Great Purchase.