Lenovo 11e 11.6" Quad-Core 128GB Notebook

Pros: - Windows 10 Pro x64 - 4GB RAM -128GB SSD - Celeron Quad-Core (what??) - Bluetooth / AC Wifi - Lightweight - 6+ hours battery life - Minimal bloatware - Decent keyboard feel - Screen Mirroring works - Sound quality Cons (very few minimal cons at this pricepoint): - Only two USB ports - No physical wifi switch (dedicated hotkey though) - Hotkey FN button disabled out of box but keys work I picked this up on an impulse buy last week. This was on sale for $199. I know PCs and this was a steal at that price and is still a great deal at the currently listed price of $270. I have a custom built desktop for gaming and everything else at home and a bunch of workstations at work but I lacked an ultra-portable. The main use for this will be as a backup in case something goes wrong with my home PC (need to be able to get work and school work done) and to take with me on trips if needed. It's also nice to be able to do homework or light browsing somewhere other than the home office. What I like about it - The laptop has some great hardware specs (true quad-core!) and runs Win 10 effortlessly. It's not a powerhouse but it's definitely a few steps above your average Chromebook or under-powered "netbook" that you can get for the same price. Very little bloatware came installed. I removed McAfee and a few Lenovo add-ons that weren't necessary for normal operation of the hardware / software. Took maybe 20 minutes to go through. There are a few things you'll want to keep so don't go uninstalling anything that says Lenovo (will update and provide a list later). Battery life states 6+ hours on full charge. With the screen at 25% brightness, the estimated jumped to 7 hours 22 minutes. Impressive. The design is simple and functional. Nothing too flashy. The bottom of the laptop and the bezel for the lid is coated in this grippy texture that makes it nice for use on your lap or other sloped surface. It doesn't slide. What I dislike about it - I use the term dislike very loosely here but the only thing I noticed that wasn't right was that the hotkeys did not work out of the box. There are an assortment of functions like volume, screen brightness, wifi off/on, etc. that can be controlled by pressing the Fn key and another key but none of them worked for me. Not a big deal since I use the controls within the OS primarily. Still something I will investigate further. **EDIT - so as of week or so ago, I discovered that the hotkey options in the BIOS were set to disable the Fn key and just use F1 - F12 as hotkeys. I switched it back to what I am accustomed to (Fn + punction key for hotkey function) and all is well. There are also options to switch the CTRL and Fn key which I may still use since the Fn key is in a weird spot. Only two USB ports available, with at least one being USB 3.0. Other uses: - This will be an outstanding student laptop if what you want an actual PC to do homework, browsing, media playing and maybe light (very light) gaming. - It's also just a great little PC to have in place of a Chromebook or even a tablet if you're considering a portable device. Windows 10 (and Windows 8 / 8.1) have screen mirroring technology built into the OS so as long as your hardware supports it (most new devices will) you can mirror the device's screen on a smart TV or other smart display. All in all, this is a great deal and you should buy it while you can, even at $270. **EDIT** - So as promised, I went back and made a list of the bloatware that I removed in case someone could benefit from it. Software Removed: - McAfee (should be self explanatory as to why I removed it. Windows Defender (aka - Microsoft Security Essentials) is perfectly fine as an antivirus / antimalware SCANNER. If you want live internet security you want a better full security suite like Bitdefender Internet Security. - Active Protection System (only needed for a HDD, safely stops HDD if the laptop is dropped, not necessary for SSD). - Lenovo Quick Optimizer ("toolbar that allows the user to view computer optimization status, quickly optimize the computer, and launch the Lenovo Companion universal app." So in other words, it allows you to manage PC status like temp files, settings that can be done from elsewhere. To me it's unnecessary and redundant if I can do these functions in the OS so I removed it.). - Lenovo Battery Gauge (simple battery gauge that can go on the task bar. Windows already has one so I removed). - REACHit (a cloud service from Lenovo for storing and managing data. I like simplicity so I have one Google account to store important data and that uploads my pictures from mobile regularly. No need for another product that does the same thing, removed). - Lenovo Experience Improvement (feedback tool for Lenovo. I can submit feedback and bug reports on my own, I don't need an added program to do that, removed). Software Kept: - Lenovo On Screen Display (displays hotkey status as a message on the screen. Have yet to get hotkeys to work but the messages do work for caps lock button) - Lenovo Power Management Driver (probably only needed to use the built-in Lenovo power profile but I kept it just in case. It doesn't look like it uses many resources if any.) - Lenovo System Interface Foundation (have yet to evaluate this one but apparently it is tied to Lenovo Companion so that it can access the MS app store. I don't think I'll use the app store so I may remove both. Kept for now though).