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Two-Pounder From Lenovo Might Be Too Light For Comfort
MojoKid writes: With the advent of solid state storage and faster, lower-powered processors that require less complex cooling solutions, the average mainstream notebook is rather svelte. Recently, however, Lenovo announced their LaVie Z and LaVie Z 360 ultrabooks and at 1.87 and 2.04 pounds respectively, they're almost ridiculously light. Further, with Core i7 mobile processors and fast SSDs on board, these machines perform impressively well in the benchmarks and real world usage. If you actually pick one up though, both models are so light they feel almost empty, like there's nothing inside. Lenovo achieved this in part by utilizing a magnesium--lithium composite material for the casing of the machines. Though they're incredibly light, the feeling is almost too light, such that they tend to feel a little cheap or flimsy. With a tablet, you come to expect a super thin and light experience and when holding them in one hand, the light weight is an advantage. However, banging on a full-up notebook keyboard deck is a different ball of wax.
I tend to agree with you less when it comes to laptops, and more in terms of phones. Often enough, when I use my laptop, I'm seated someplace close enough to a power outlet. My laptop has something like an 11 hour battery life, so effectively I pretty much never run out of battery life unless I've just been totally careless. I'd generally rather have lighter weight so I can save my back from some pain. My phone, however, is always in operation and usually in my pocket. Charging isn't terribly convenient, and if I don't charge it every night, I'll probably end up stuck someplace without a working phone.
However, in the case of this laptop, I completely agree. The reviewer says that the battery lasted around 5 hours with light web browsing, which is too short in my opinion.