Lenovo 3000 N200

A lot of people are making a shift from desktops to laptops and hence are in a lookout for a cheap and reliable notebook PC that also has good enough performance for day-to-day needs. Lenovo 3000 N200 is one such laptop that does everything mentioned above. There are not many similar laptops sub $900 that would deliver the same performance.

Lenovo 3000 N200 specifications:

• Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo T7300
• Dimensions : 14.2″ x 10.5″ x 1.5″
• Display : 15.4″ WXGA TFT 1280 x 800
• Graphics : Intel GMA x3100
• RAM : 1GB DDR II
• Hard Disk : 160GB
• DVD±RW Drive
• 5-in-1 card reader
• 1.3 megapixel webcam
• 6-cell battery
• Approx. price : $900

The Lenovo 3000 N200 is an inexpensive laptop but has a very good configuration for the price tag. This one gives a strong competition to the Compaq series and the Dell Vostro series which are targeted at low-end users.

The N200 has no great looks but certainly fairs better than its Acer counterparts! The case is silver on the outside and has a dark gray color on the inside. The overall build quality is quite good but its weight is a bit on higher side.

The display is a 15.4″ TFT display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 which is good enough to view HD movies also.The display is no where as good as compared to either Dell or HP but it is certainly not bad. It does it job well. Lenovo is known for its great keyboards and N200 is no exception. It features a comfortable keyboard that makes it a breeze to type. The touchpad isn’t the same as the keyboard and moving the cursor with it is not an easy task. You better buy a mouse! There aren’t any media keys to play around with though.

The speakers built-into the laptop aren’t very good and movie watching experience will be subdued due to this. The speaker have a very soft sound and the volume isn’t high which will dissapoint you. The built-in webcam though is pretty good and video conferencing is quite smooth.

The performance of N200 is very good to set it straight. The T7300 processor is fast enough for day-to-day tasks and can play HD movies smoothly. 1GB RAM is good for multi-tasking and can also handle memory intensive applications like Photoshop etc. Gaming performance is not much to talk about as the onboard graphics are average but they can run Vista to its full effects.

The battery is a strong point of the laptop and it has a good backup time of 3 hours while watching movie which is very good. It is certainly one of the best backup times on a 6-cell battery.

Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Good performance
• Excellent keyboard
• Great battery backup

Cons:

• Average looks,bit bulky
• Average display
• Bad touchpad
• Lousy speakers
• No dedicated graphics card

Final Thoughts

The Lenovo 3000 N200 is a good laptop for people looking to make a shift from desktop to laptop and need a budget laptop. Strong performance is its biggest positive point followed a great battery backup which are two things that are hard to find together. Although it is not a good multimedia laptop due to its display and speakers.

My Rating : 3.75/5

Canon PowerShot SD1100

One of the best selling 35mm point and shoot cameras was the Canon Elph. It was an instant hit with its small size, numerous functions and great picture quality. I got one of the first Elph’s when it came out and have been using it ever since (yes, I still use 35mm cameras). It out performs all of my other point and shoot cameras, and that’s why I’m excited for today’s review.

The Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS is essentially the Canon Elph, but digitized. The SD1100 features a 8.1MP sensor, 3x optical and a number of features like face detection and motion detection.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the PowerShot SD1100 IS:

• Street price: $249.99 approx.
• 8MP
• 2.5″ LCD
• ISO Sensitivity: 80 /100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600
• Shutter Speed: 15 sec to 1/1500 sec
• Image Stabilization

Things I like
Before I get into everything I like about this camera I need to say that I love Canon cameras. For some reason, most other companies are removing the optical viewfinder from their point and shoot cameras and in my opinion, this is crippling the functionality of the camera. Canon has included an optical viewfinder in the SD1100 IS and its really nice because it means I don’t have to rely on the LCD screen to view the shot I’m about to take.

There are a number of things I like about this camera. The menus and user interface is brilliant. All of the controls are intuitive and it didn’t take me long at all to learn a new interface. Often times cameras have very complex menus and it’s hard to navigate around them but this is not the case with the SD1100 IS.

I also like the image stabilization and the motion detection sensor. Basically this tries to reduce the blur that you get when you’re camera shakes or you move it to try to capture a moving subject. Its not perfect, but it does greatly reduce the blur from camera shake.

Things I don’t like
With the LCD screen on, the battery life isn’t the best. With stabilization and the LCD screen on, I only got approximately 230 shots before I needed to charge the battery. This is on the low end of most point and shoots now.

I also don’t like the flash that’s included with this camera. To me, it feels a little underpowered, but that’s probably because I’m used to my Digital Rebel flash.

The only other thing I don’t like about the SD1100 IS is the manual controls, or lack thereof. This camera really isn’t meant for the photographer who wants total control over their shots.

Pros:

• Excellent menus
• Optical Viewfinder
• Image stabilization
• Inexpensive

Cons:

• A little sluggish
• Underpowered Flash
• Lacking manual controls

Final Thoughts
The SD1100 IS is a good camera. The optical viewfinder, good picture quality and intuitive menus make up for the lack of manual controls and a lacking flash. Overall, its a great buy.

Rating: 3.8 / 5