Lenovo Laptops

I have a Lenovo. And once I'd removed all the unneccessary crap, it was fine.

Errant Lobe said:

I am thinking of purchasing a Lenovo. Are they worth the money?
Is it just about the name of the brand?

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The base Lenovo, not so much IMHO. Not very good quality for what you get, but to be honest the competition isn't better.

The Yoga series are nice if you like that style of laptop, though not as good keyboards and battery life compared to the rest of their lineup.

The Y-series are nice gaming laptops for the price.

Lenovo Thinkpads are awesome. The best keyboard on a laptop is on the Thinkpad T450s. Just they are expensive, and the upgrades can be costly. It's typically advised to buy the base model of a Thinkpad with the best screen you can get, for example the Thinkpad T450s can get a 1080p screen (non-touch), and whatever processor you prefer, then you buy a SSD and more RAM to add into the computer elsewhere to save money--of course, you can have Lenovo do this, but you'll pay more. In a few months I'll be upgrading my laptop and I'm debating on either getting a Macbook pro 15 or Thinkpad T450s. It's a hard choice.

Errant Lobe said:

I am thinking of purchasing a Lenovo. Are they worth the money?
Is it just about the name of the brand?

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I got one of their laptops last year (can't remember the exact number, but it's a Y-series gaming model that had gotten good ratings and was a better price than other brands with similar specs), and while the processor is fast (it plays games like Dragon Age on pretty high performance settings) it does have some issues.

1. The trackpad is large and awkwardly placed, so it's impossible to type without resting your wrists on it and making random functions pop up unexpectedly. This happens even when I have a mouse plugged to one of the usb ports, so I have to go in and manually disable the trackpad each and every time I boot it up (no way to permanently have the trackpad turn off when a mouse is plugged in).

2. I can't quite get the "feel" of its keyboard, so my typing is really slow. This is an issue with other laptops for me, though. I tend to type more on full-sized desktop keyboards. I bought it because it actually has a larger keyboard than some laptops (even has a keypad to the right), but it's still sort of cramped.

3. The monitor display is rather washed out unless you're looking at it from a very fixed angle. This is particularly problematic in brightly lit rooms.

Moderator's note: I moved the posts relating to Lenovo laptops to a new, separate thread since this is a separate issue from the original post.

Errant Lobe said:

Thank you, Osulagh.
If Lenovo is not immediately the best choice for a new laptop, what non-gamer's laptop would you recommend?

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Someone in one of the tech-help threads mentioned ASUS as being top of the line.

I've never met a Lenovo I didn't like. So far. Can't say the same for a lot of other brands. HP tends to be good, once decrapified. Hell, they all need to be decrapified.

I like mine, but it's very sensitive to the touch and things keep popping up that I don't want. I'm learning how to use it but it's slow-going. Good luck with it all.

Lenovo puts rootkits in their laptops.

You may need to translate that.

No-no Lenovo!

KingPen said:

Lenovo puts rootkits in their laptops.

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mirandashell said:

You may need to translate that.

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Here ya go.

Lenovo has been caught using a technique, often used by some malware to withstand being deleted, to reinstall unwanted software on the computers it sells.

As reported on a number of forums and news-sharing sites, some users have accused the computer maker of overwriting Windows files to ensure its own-brand software and tools were installed -- even after a clean install of the operating system.

The "rootkit"-style covert installer, dubbed the Lenovo Service Engine (LSE), works by installing an additional program that updates drivers, firmware, and other pre-installed apps. The engine also "sends non-personally identifiable system data to Lenovo servers," according to the company. The engine, which resides in the computer's BIOS, replaces a core Windows system file with its own, allowing files to be downloaded once the device is connected to the internet.

But that service engine also put users at risk.

In a July 31 security bulletin, the company warned the engine could be exploited by hackers to install malware. The company issued a security update that removed the engine's functionality, but users must install the patch manually.

Many Yoga and Flex machines (among others) running Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 are affected by the issue. Business machines, such as Think-branded PCs, are not affected.

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How are users put at risk by compromised Lenovos? Making a secure transaction on one might be anything but secure.

Millions of Lenovo owners are being warned to not use their desktops and laptops for "any kind of secure transaction," amid concerns that the company installed adware on their machines.


Lenovo-branded devices sold between September 2014 and January 2015 through consumer online and retail stores, like Best Buy and Amazon.com, are likely affected by the Superfish adware, which hijacks secure internet traffic.


Defcon security chief and security researcher Marc Rogers, who detailed the scope and scale of the adware problem on his blog, told ZDNet that consumers should immediately check to see if their machines are affected.


"If they are affected, they should not use their laptop for any kind of secure transactions until they are able to confirm [the adware] has been removed," he said.


As many as 16 million Lenovo desktops and notebooks shipped in the fourth calendar quarter, according to recent IDC figures and Gartner figures.

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From someone who frequently has to deal with laptops, the only thing worse than a laptop with Windows 8 is a Lenovo laptop with Windows 8. That is a double scoop of suck.

I don't get the Lenovo hate...I used a Lenovo at my old firm and absolutely loved the thing. It was speedy, light, and caused me minimal headaches. The only pointless thing about it was the touchscreen, as every time I poked the screen the laptop would tip over on my desk Honestly, if I were in the market for a new laptop, I would probably go for a Lenovo over another Macbook Pro.

Errant Lobe said:

If Lenovo is not immediately the best choice for a new laptop, what non-gamer's laptop would you recommend?

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If you have the money, Lenovo's Thinkpads would be one of my top recommendations. A Thinkpad T450s with the 1080p screen and a SSD would be a top-class laptop. Otherwise I suggest looking into Apple's Macbook Pro Retina lineup.

If you don't have much money, it depends on what you're doing with them. All companies make good and bad laptops, but mostly when you're going $700 and under they all start to be the same shitty shit boxes IMHO. While I'm not the biggest fan of Asus, their X205 is a great laptop if you just need something portable to work on. Nothing for a main system, though.


Also, it's my understanding that Lenovo doesn't put shit on their Thinkpad lineup. You can also opt out of the application as well to avoid some of the problems.

Microsoft just announced the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface laptop. That's right. A Microsoft laptop. And the specs actually look pretty damned good. No idea about price.

I don't know much about them in general, but don't get a g570. It has a blue screen of death problem which is common to that model. It also has a terrible hinge design which broke quickly after I purchased it.

Thanks for that info about the LSE. My system isn't on that list so.... do I need to be worried? I've had this since April and no problems so far. Although I do have some serious Anti-everything on it and run frequent scans as well.

Should be okay. I think it only affected certain models, was some kind of internal flaw rather than an attack or anything.

Oh cool. Thanks

I had a Lenovo ThinkPad for less than 1 year, used it gently, didn't install much on it, mostly just my text processing job and doodling. It became slower and slower. One day, I got freezes and crashes and blue screens of death while just doing my usual work on it. I fought this for over 2 hours while on the clock. At some point, it wouldn't respond to anything I did anymore. I folded it the other way a couple times, threw it on the floor, and jumped on it twice before I cranked the screen off the keyboard, smashed each over a metal banister post, then discarded each part in another trashbin throughout the mall to make sure no one could salvage and enjoy what was my rather costly loss. I decided not to go to that coffee shop for a while.

Ravioli said:

I had a Lenovo ThinkPad for less than 2 years, used it gently, didn't install much on it, mostly just my text processing job and doodling. It became slower and slower. One day, I got freezes and crashes and blue screens of death while just doing my usual work on it. I folded it the other way a couple times, threw it on the floor, and jumped on it twice before I cranked the screen off the keyboard, smashed each over a metal banister post, then discarded each part in another trashbin throughout the mall to make sure no one could salvage and enjoy what was my rather costly loss. I decided not to go to that coffee shop for a while.

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Unsure if this a total joke or not. But slowing down and crashes are no way involved with the brand of a computer. You probably had too much running at once, the hard drive was too full, or the hard drive was failing (Lenovo doesn't make hard drives, they buy them from makers).

I have a cheap ass Dell that was crashing and running slow all the time. I wiped the hard drive and did a clean install, and cleaned out the dust. Now it runs like a champ. Like an old man doing a marathon.

BTW, not sponsored by Lenovo and whatnot or a fanpuppy. Just like their laptops and think there's enough blame on makers when they all use the same components with little choice to their own wishes.

Osulagh said:

You probably had too much running at once, the hard drive was too full, or the hard drive was failing (Lenovo doesn't make hard drives, they buy them from makers).

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Too much running: nope, just Firefox and perhaps sporadically Photoshop for low-res doodles.
HDD too full: nope, hardly used that computer at all. I hate laptops and do most on my desktop PC.
HDD failing: too soon, and if bought externally they're still to blame for buying crap to put into their computers.
Joke: nope, standard reaction when out of patience.

My Mom is happy with her Dell she's had for years.

Ravioli said:

Too much running: nope, just Firefox and perhaps sporadically Photoshop for low-res doodles.
HDD too full: nope, hardly used that computer at all. I hate laptops and do most on my desktop PC.
HDD failing: too soon, and if bought externally they're still to blame for buying crap to put into their computers.
Joke: nope, standard reaction when out of patience.

My Mom is happy with her Dell she's had for years.

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I've had hard drives that have failed out of the box. In fact, I'll be returning one tomorrow that's DOA. And running Photoshop is demanding! That hardware could have also been overheating, either due to bad thermal paste, bad design, or a clogged fan (90% of laptop troubles I come across are this).

I'm not blaming you or calling you a liar, or trying to uphold Lenovo's gracious name (IBM was better), but most of the problems associated with computers are due to users or hardware malfunctions. Laptop hardware itself isn't made by Lenovo or Dell. Lenovo, Dell, HP, ect. are assemblers. They generally order a list of parts from manufacturers or help custom make stuff, build the bodies to put them in, and slam it all together. For example, just because a hard drive fails, it's not exactly Dell's fault. It could be, if they didn't provide enough ventilation in the laptop case to cool it down. But most likely it's Seagate or Western Digital who's equipment has failed.

Not to mention that some Thinkpads, due to Lenovo's shitty system, are just "Thinkpads" by name. The T, X, and W series are the only true ones due to their construction and attention to detail. The others are branded and might carry some characteristics.

If anyone is wondering: Higher-end laptops do have lower rates of failure. Apple, Thinkpads, higher-end Asus. Asus and Toshiba lead the pack, from the study I've seen, on lower-end models. HP, Acer, Gateway, and lower-end Lenovo are some of the highest rates of failures. Dell and Sony are somewhere in the middle of everything.

My hubby gave me a Lenovo Yoga last year for Christmas. The Superfish stuff was pretty easy to spot and I had it cleared out well before the ruckus started. It wasn't any big secret. The pop-up windows made it pretty damn obvious, IMO. So it was wiped off along with most of the pre-installed crap you get no matter who the maker is. Personally, I love my Yoga, but it is not my primary computer. Hubby had a ThinkPad he used for work for years that was nearly indestructible.