I’ve been searching long and hard for the right laptop for a while now, and when this one was on sale I didn’t hesitate even though it wasn’t exactly what I wanted in terms of specification. If this one would have either 16gb ram soldered or at least 8 with the option to upgrade to 16, it would have been perfect. I also wanted a 14 inch screen as I feel that 15.6 is too large, and I wanted a nice screen to boot.

There were a few deal breakers on my list of requirements, one being USB-C charging, second, low to no fan noise, and the other being a nice screen. There were many nice choices around my price range with all but the full function USB-C port. Having USB-C charging means I can basically charge anywhere without having to lug around a massive brick as you’d be hard pressed to go anywhere these days that’s more than ten metres away from a phone charger or power bank.

This machine has all three, but I had to settle for 8gb ram. Initially this was also a deal-breaker, as many YouTubers are happy to state that 16gb is a must and any lower will result in your laptop melting into a puddle when browsing with more than one browser tab open, but on checking my work laptop spec which is a Lenovo ThinkPad, it too has 8gb of ram and I regularly have up to eight Chrome tabs open (a couple of those being Excel Online spreadsheets), Microsoft Teams and a couple of offline Excel spreadsheets on top of that without issue.

On removing it from its very simple packaging, I was happy to find that it is supplied with a 100w charger as opposed to the 65w I was expecting as this isn’t stated on the Amazon product page as far as I could see. It charges very quickly and the plug appears to be secure in the port while moving around but time will tell how it lasts. The brick of the charger is small and the cables are plenty long enough but the brick does get rather hot as is expected with higher watt chargers. That’s all that’s in the box, one laptop and one charger.

The aesthetics of the machine also played a part in my decision to buy, and it does look quite nice with its blue casing. The lid is aluminium (fingerprint magnet!), and reminds me of the styling of older MacBooks, close inspection revealed a tiny scratch on it but nothing that can be seen without holding it at a specific angle so I’m not concerned. The main body is a matt plastic, which has a rougher texture to it and feels better than cheap laptops in my opinion. The hinge feels good, but right now can’t be opened with one hand although this may change with a bit of use.

The casing is solid, and doesn’t flex when weight is applied even in the middle of the keyboard which feels nice to type on and as far as I can see in reviews Lenovo laptop keyboards are considered to be some of the best. It is backlit, which is another feature that I like as I use computers in quite dark conditions a lot of the time.

Turning it on, I was surprised by the quality of the screen even with the prior knowledge that it was OLED. It is bright and sharp at 1920×1200 16:10 and in normal indoor use I’m finding that 55% brightness is more than enough and lower than the 60% long-term that most people who know recommend to avoid image retention. On that front, I’m not too concerned but it is in the back of my mind knowing that this can be a limitation on this type of panel. Having the correct power saving settings for screen timeout etc. should be enough to keep this at bay, but I’d like this laptop to last a good few years so I’ll do all I can to maintain the quality of the screen.

During the usual Windows setup and bloatware removal (there’s not a lot to be fair, Lenovo mostly, but also Mcrapee) I was expecting to hear a lot of fan noise as older laptops I’ve used were terrible, but was pleasantly surprised. In normal use, there’s nothing. Not a peep. The underside gets warm slightly during charging and CPU load but the keyboard and palm rest are even cooler.

The camera is Windows Hello compatible, and most of the time logs me in the instant the lid is opened which is a nice feature to have in the absence of a fingerprint reader for login. The trackpad is nice and accurate so far, with the far left for scrolling brightness and far right for volume.

Battery also appears to be good, writing this review in notepad at 55% brightness (SDR) and balanced power plan, Windows reports 54% battery and 11h29m remaining which is obviously not accurate but using it off battery here and there I haven’t needed to charge it in 24 hours. Idle (sleep) battery drain is very low and I don’t think that it dropped more than a few percent over night.

In the couple of days that I’ve been using it, I’m more than happy with its performance but I do wish that the ram was upgradeable and the fact that manufacturers are still soldering it onto the board in 2023 is ridiculous. Dropped star for that, otherwise it would have been a five.

Note: Windows started automatically encrypting the drive after initial setup, so ensure that you have a copy of your encryption key or you turn off device encryption as soon as you can. BitLocker IS only available in Windows Pro versions, but a more limited version is still used in Windows Home to encrypt the drive.

Also worth a mention as I don’t think that there was any on the Amazon page, the machine comes with three months of Game Pass Ultimate. Bonus.

Pros:

Nice looking
Durable feel
Nice screen
Nice keyboard
Silent in my usage
Good battery
USB-C full function

Cons:

8gb ram
Soldered ram!