Lenovo M30-70 13.3" Laptop €248 4GB, 500GB, Celeron 2957U

conzy

Seems like a decent little machine more than capable of the average workload



Dabs.ie

yannakis

that Celeron can barely handle a washing machine circuit :P

Alexis Sanchez

Rubbish processor.

conzy

Yeah you could definitely browse boards faster with an i5.

_Tombstone_

Oh, burnnnnnnnnns.

ANXIOUS

So for people that haven't a clue about laptops is it not good value? Can anyone recommend one that is good for around the same price? Thank you

Balmed Out

ANXIOUS wrote: »

So for people that haven't a clue about laptops is it not good value? Can anyone recommend one that is good for around the same price? Thank you

If your not playing games, editing video's or doing anything else very tasking on a processor its fine. For most users who browse the internet, write a few emails and dabble with a word processor its perfectly good. Most people seem to buy laptops far better then they need.

evolutionqy7

Balmed Out wrote: »

If your not playing games, editing video's or doing anything else very tasking on a processor its fine. For most users who browse the internet, write a few emails and dabble with a word processor its perfectly good. Most people seem to buy laptops far better then they need.

Ugh never again. Pay extra. Make the laptop a bit more future proof.

I think it was a compaq that someone had gifted me and had the celeron. Was fine for the first 6 to 12 months then slowed down like hell, at the moment it hasn't been turned on for a year id say due to freezing and slowing down. Did a fresh windows really install blaming windows for being slow, but it was just as bad after

Cheap laptops are just a waste of money.

beauf

That story makes no sense. A cpu doesn't just slow down. Something else caused that.

beauf

ANXIOUS wrote: »

So for people that haven't a clue about laptops is it not good value? Can anyone recommend one that is good for around the same price? Thank you

That depends on what you want it for.

You're only going to get something basic for that price. You'd probably have to consider second hand to get a better laptop for that budget.

Also there's a laptop forum to discuss that. This is bargain alerts.

ThunbergsAreGo

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

Ugh never again. Pay extra. Make the laptop a bit more future proof.

I think it was a compaq that someone had gifted me and had the celeron. Was fine for the first 6 to 12 months then slowed down like hell, at the moment it hasn't been turned on for a year id say due to freezing and slowing down. Did a fresh windows really install blaming windows for being slow, but it was just as bad after

Cheap laptops are just a waste of money.

Thats just not true, I bought a laptop from the Dell Outlet for €215, 4 years ago and it is only in the last 2 months beginning to slow down. I dont use it for gaming etc.

Tempted by the above but feel that with Windows 8 and 10 touch screen is a very nice to have, and this doesn't have it

evolutionqy7

I wouldn't blame the processor but it's generally the cheap components that slow down over time. Especially the HDD probably.

It's the laptops that have the celeron processor that would indicate to me that their built as cheap as chips.

beauf

A HD doesn't slow down with time. It maybe slowed by other things, but it won't slow due to time or age. The same applies to all the other components. With exception of a SSD. The probably is your perception of speed changes over time, and the software more demanding.

TheDoc

beauf wrote: »

A HD doesn't slow down with time. It maybe slowed by other things, but it won't slow due to time or age. The same applies to all the other components. With exception of a SSD. The probably is your perception of speed changes over time, and the software more demanding.

This is typically it alright.

People will go out with a stated aim of "Oh I only need one more some work stuff and browsing the web"

But their perception of the laptop being slow is when they use taxing software or applications that they didn't even factor in when making the purchase.

Personally I hate Celeron processors and any laptop I've gotten from work with one in it I've handed back relatively quickly.

Zonda999

Okay, so this doesn't have a great processor but it really isn;t that awful either by any means. I'm running a 2010 spec Samsung laptop with an i3 with a benchmark not that far ahead of this and the same core spec's otherwise, and it still handles everything I throw at it perfectly fine, browsing and light office work.

This is still superb value for money, personally I think 13.3" is the perfect size for a casual laptop and this one has decent battery life to boot.Myabe not a bargain but a very good deal definitely

_Tombstone_

beauf wrote: »

A HD doesn't slow down with time. It maybe slowed by other things, but it won't slow due to time or age.

Bad sectors??

beauf wrote: »

and the software more demanding.

Yea, this.

Same stuff running, but its more efficent at using more resources.

Wait, what...

beauf

Zonda999 wrote: »

...this one has decent battery life to boot...

Where do you see that?

beauf

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Bad sectors??

Bad sectors don't work slowly. They simply don't work.

Zonda999

beauf wrote: »

Where do you see that?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-M30-70-Notebook-Review.121117.0.html

Apparently it gets 3:40 hours wifi surfing which beats many other laptops. You can;t expect ultrabook battery lief at this price point too remember.

EDIT: I realise that revirew is of the i3 verison but according to the spec's of this laptop, its meant to get 5 Hours, hard to imagine the battery life of this version would be any worse than the i3 version

_Tombstone_

beauf wrote: »

Bad sectors don't work slowly. They simply don't work.

Bypassing them takes time.

myrns

Just bought one of these in for the office, looks good but its really only for surfing the web, using email, word, excel, basic stuff and am afraid the keyboard section is pretty poor, it lifts up slightly from the actual laptop frame.

beauf

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Bypassing them takes time.

Bad sectors are a software or hardware problem. It got nothing to do with a Celeron, or other components slowing down over time.

A 250 laptop is not going to as fast a 500 laptop. But if your just typing the odd letter and doing online banking its not going to matter.

For me the the quality of the screen and keyboard would be my priority and its impossible to judge this with out trying it for yourself in a shop.

The_Conductor

conzy wrote: »

Seems like a decent little machine more than capable of the average workload



Dabs.ie

For a handy laptop for an odd bit of office work (Word/Excel etc) and browsing the internet- its remarkably good value. Its a very handy size- and more than capable of the usual sort of everyday stuff that you might throw at it.

Note- it is *not* touch screen- one of the posts above suggests it is.

Also- it comes with 4Gb but supports up to 8Gb RAM- if its the 64bit version of Windows 8.1- I seriously suggest getting a little extra memory for- depending on what you're doing- it might make a noticeable difference. Note- this is only valid if you have the 64bit version of Windows 8.1- unfortunately the specs don't say.

Also- its a Lenovo. Use PC Decrapifier on it- before you use it for anything- the bloatware on these is interesting...........

beauf

Especially this...

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/internet-security/1000410/how-to-remove-superfish-from-your-lenovo-computer

I generally remove everything.

duridian

The_Conductor wrote: »

Also- it comes with 4Gb but supports up to 8Gb RAM- if its the 64bit version of Windows 8.1- I seriously suggest getting a little extra memory for- depending on what you're doing- it might make a noticeable difference. Note- this is only valid if you have the 64bit version of Windows 8.1- unfortunately the specs don't say.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-M30-70-Notebook-Review.121117.0.html

Just wanted to add some info I spotted in this review.
It seems that the entire bottom cover must be removed to do any maintenance like changing of the ram module. This would be more difficult than doing so on a laptop with a small access panel for the memory. Also seems to indicate that there is only one memory slot, so presumably to upgrade to 8GB you would need to remove the 4GB and replace with a single 8GB

Also just noticed in the review of the i3 version that the i3 model comes with 64-bit Windows version. I think there's a fairly good chance that they also used this in the Celeron version as it has the same amount of ram.

beauf

The screen gets poor review in that link.

km991148

good deal - every couple of years I buy a 'house' laptop like this and stick an SSD in them -

Performance is grand for word/browsing etc and for the laptop that gets thrown about the sofa/used when youtubing random Sh!t etc

Good buy for the price - screen crud but meh!

JJJJNR

The mouse pad. :mad:

Tinie

JJJJNR wrote: »

The mouse pad. :mad:

What about it?

duridian

JJJJNR wrote: »

The mouse pad. :mad:

Tinie wrote: »

What about it?

I think JJJJNR may be referring to the way some laptops now have touchpads that instead of conventional left and right buttons use multitouch and gestures to indicate a right click, scroll etc.
I must admit I have used one of these a few times and not liked it either. (Although the one I used was a Core i3 based ASUS laptop costing ~€470, not this Lenovo.)

JJJJNR

Sorry was on mobile, I used one of those touchpads for a while an whomever came up with that design should be fired on the spot, they are horrible to use on a day to day basis, I had a T440 for a couple of months and had to bring an external mouse around everywhere, horrible yokes, thanks for destroying the T series Lenovo, I can only presume that this is the same "huge pad fail".

AlekSmart

duridian wrote: »

I think JJJJNR may be referring to the way some laptops now have touchpads that instead of conventional left and right buttons use multitouch and gestures to indicate a right click, scroll etc.
I must admit I have used one of these a few times and not liked it either. (Although the one I used was a Core i3 based ASUS laptop costing ~€470, not this Lenovo.)

Phew...thank God I'm not alone so.

I too accquired an ASUS machine running an i3 processor complete with 12 Gig RAM (Installed) and Windows 8.1.

So far I am seriously underwhelmed by the general performance and particularly by the crappy Mousepad or whatever they call it....haven't ventured in to tweaking it yet,but I sure hope I can do something with it.....otherwise,the Skip beckons !!!

beauf

People underestimate the effect of the screen and keyboard and track-pad have on usability.

The_Conductor

Buy a decent USB or a wireless mouse. I bring a Logitech USB mouse with me everywhere- in case I ever have to sit at someone's computer and it has a bad mouse or trackpad. I inevitably use it a couple of times every week.

stevek93

Laptop arrived today, can't see what all the fuss is about. I installed an SSD 120GB so got to see the inside, build quality is very good. Also Lenovo a use western digital hard drive and Samsung memory. Unlike Acer were most of them Ive seen use Hitachi. The sound is very impressive better than my old Dell latitude, the screen brightness could be a bit brighter bit still good. The CPU can handle 1080p in Youtube also the GPU is decent enough.

Currently installing updates at moment so Ill post back later. so far am very impressed.

Also forgot to mention it is VERY light.

Edit: Coming from an 2008 Latitude the touchpad isn't bothering me all that much yet, after installing the drivers I thought it would enable multi touch, guess not. Ill mess around with it later see can I get it to work.

Update: took all day for updates to install, I was coming from a 2009 image of Windows probably why. The screen is a bit washed out/ of colour, again noticeable as I just came from my Dell but nothing to annoying, software might be able to fix the problem. Again I am very happy with it.

Just messed around with the contrast there in settings seemed to help a bit.

OK, last update as this thread seems to be now dead, installed Windows 8 in full EFI mode, works wonders, cold boot takes less than 2 seconds laptop itself is very speedy with SSD. No need for better CPU when all you do is browse the web.

ThunbergsAreGo

So how is it holding up after a few days use?

And how easy was the ssd installation?

imitation

stevek93 wrote: »

Laptop arrived today, can't see what all the fuss is about. I installed an SSD 120GB so got to see the inside, build quality is very good. Also Lenovo a use western digital hard drive and Samsung memory. Unlike Acer were most of them Ive seen use Hitachi. The sound is very impressive better than my old Dell latitude, the screen brightness could be a bit brighter bit still good. The CPU can handle 1080p in Youtube also the GPU is decent enough.

Currently installing updates at moment so Ill post back later. so far am very impressed.

Also forgot to mention it is VERY light.

Edit: Coming from an 2008 Latitude the touchpad isn't bothering me all that much yet, after installing the drivers I thought it would enable multi touch, guess not. Ill mess around with it later see can I get it to work.

Update: took all day for updates to install, I was coming from a 2009 image of Windows probably why. The screen is a bit washed out/ of colour, again noticeable as I just came from my Dell but nothing to annoying, software might be able to fix the problem. Again I am very happy with it.

Just messed around with the contrast there in settings seemed to help a bit.

OK, last update as this thread seems to be now dead, installed Windows 8 in full EFI mode, works wonders, cold boot takes less than 2 seconds laptop itself is very speedy with SSD. No need for better CPU when all you do is browse the web.

I did a similar job on a 11" acer I got a with a Ivy Bridge Celeron, it was unusable when I first got it (due to the 5-6 hours it took to update to win 8.1). I banged in another 2gb of ram and a SSD and the machine is perfect now, I even play a few lightweight games on it like WoW and Heros of the storm without any issue.

There was a time when celeron and intel GMA were a byword for horrible performance, but I think these days the biggest issue is manufacturers bang in cheap mechanical hard disks that should be only be used in external disks. These are a source of constant pauses in windows and applications while the disk seeks information, so I honestly think that for a surfer, a cheap laptop and a self installed ssd is probably a better investment.

TerrorFirmer

Spec's are generally grossly over-rated, unless you're doing specific tasks, entry level processors in the new atom-based range are perfect for the casual web browsing, office work, etc.

And, if you did happen to be doing specific works that demand more than what budget processors can provide, what an earth were you doing buying a cheap as chips laptop?

All in all, budget laptops these days offer exceptional value.

Dell have a laptop at the moment delivered for 199 - perfect for casual use. Friend bought one, we play Dawn of War on it online!

beauf

Windows really does hammer hard drives especially Win8. So the advice about SSD is good.

keithclancy

beauf wrote: »

Windows really does hammer hard drives especially Win8. So the advice about SSD is good.

SSD is one of the best performance upgrades you can stick in a laptop.

When people say "My laptop is slow"

They usually mean its slow for a program to appear after double clicking on the icon.

This is usually caused by disk fragmentation and seek times, gets exponentially worse over time.

SSD removes all of that.

ThunbergsAreGo

keithclancy wrote: »

SSD is one of the best performance upgrades you can stick in a laptop.

When people say "My laptop is slow"

They usually mean its slow for a program to appear after double clicking on the icon.

This is usually caused by disk fragmentation and seek times, gets exponentially worse over time.

SSD removes all of that.

How easy is one to install? Or get the OS over?

stevek93

naughtb4 wrote: »

So how is it holding up after a few days use?

And how easy was the ssd installation?

Great, anything I was able to do on my old Dell latitude e6400 I can do on this machine. Dreamweaver Photoshop all works fine.

As regards to the SSD was fairly easy look at the link here http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/m30-70_hmm_en.pdf

Just noticed the IBM bit in that link

The_Conductor

stevek93 wrote: »

Fairly easy look at the link here http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/m30-70_hmm_en.pdf

How the hell did they pad the hard-ware manual out to 79 pages.......
Its quite straightforward- is the answer...........

stevek93

The_Conductor wrote: »

How the hell did they pad the hard-ware manual out to 79 pages.......
Its quite straightforward- is the answer...........

Lol, just shows you how good Lenovo is.

keithclancy

naughtb4 wrote: »

How easy is one to install? Or get the OS over?

Usually pretty easy, if you get a kit that includes a USB Enclosure you just plug it in via usb, boot from the CD that comes included, copy your disk image over to the SSD, shutdown the laptop.

Replace the drive in the laptop with the SSD Replacement that you've imaged, turn the laptop on and your done.

You can then stick your old drive in the enclosure and use it as a Portable hard disk

Responsiveness difference is huge, startup times are drastically reduced, Microsoft office and other apps work much better, clicking on Chrome it just instantly appears.

imitation

I would recommend a kit or decent bit of transfer software alright, I use easeus partition master but it always seems break windows, so I have to use a recovery disk on top of it to get it back up and running.

stevek93

imitation wrote: »

I would recommend a kit or decent bit of transfer software alright, I use easeus partition master but it always seems break windows, so I have to use a recovery disk on top of it to get it back up and running.

Drive Imge XML using a PART PE disc, I used in the past with XP it might still work with Windows 8 not 100%. Norton ghost is what Samsung recommends.

Also does anyone know where to get a sleeve for this laptop in the city centre?

mighty magpie

Hi Guys
In the market for a new laptop/ultrabook/notebook (whatever they are called these days). My budget would be about 600eur. Can someone recommend anything a bit more advanced than the lenovo in the OP. something around the 13", light with good battery. does the laptop in OP have a big brother i could consider?

stevek93

mighty magpie wrote: »

Hi Guys
In the market for a new laptop/ultrabook/notebook (whatever they are called these days). My budget would be about 600eur. Can someone recommend anything a bit more advanced than the lenovo in the OP. something around the 13", light with good battery. does the laptop in OP have a big brother i could consider?

It has an i3 model which is 550 I think.

Chimichangas

Well I was interested in a lenovo, and then saw it was dabs.ie.
Last item I bought from them wasnt a bargain, but it was the last laptop I buy from them.

And people are saying it could be cheap components used, and dabs? Not a reliable enough combination imo.

delboy76

Chimichangas wrote: »

Well I was interested in a lenovo, and then saw it was dabs.ie.
Last item I bought from them wasnt a bargain, but it was the last laptop I buy from them.

And people are saying it could be cheap components used, and dabs? Not a reliable enough combination imo.

Do you mind me asking what the bad experience with dabs was?