10.12
You may have noticed by another article with my byline (or somewhere else) that Apple introduced a bunch of new notebook computers today. That’s all well and good, but the prices for those computers start at $1300, which may be out of your budget. Plus, you might appreciate a FireWire port on such an expensive machine, or maybe you just want to have a touchpad with buttons. In either case, there are plenty of computers out there to fit your demands. Like the Lenovo IdeaPad Y430, for example.
I mention this computer because it was the model my family decided upon when choosing a laptop for my little brother, who will need a computer when he enters 8th grade next fall. Granted, it’s a bit early for such things, but he needs to learn to type and generally use a computer for anything other than gaming in the interim. My secondary, but more important, reason for mentioning this particular laptop is that I would be perfectly happy buying and using it for myself; it’s cheap, it seems to perform well, it’s chock full of extra features, and it’s just an all-around solid workhorse without weighing down your backpack or lightening your wallet to an alarming degree.
You may be wondering wh in the world Lenovo is. In short, IBM. The long story is that, a few years ago, Lenovo (a chinese company) bought the computer division of IBM, including their excellent engineering team. That’s why we’re talking about an IdeaPad computer, basically the consumer analog of the business-class ThinkPad series.