Lenovo IdeaPad Z400 Touch - 59362573 Pro Reviews

This solidly built notebook features a great touchscreen display, an even better keyboard, and a huge and fast hard drive. But Lenovo’s networking component choices are a bit disappointing. Lenovo laptops are the models of choice for many corporate IT departments, and the company manufactures some very good consumer-oriented machines, too. The IdeaPad Z400 Touch is a case in point. You wouldn’t mistake it for a sleek Ultrabook—it’s thick and heavy, and its battery life is wretched—but the Z400 did finish second on Notebook WorldBench 8.1 in our five-laptop competition. And despite Lenovo’s copious use of plastic, the Z400 is built like a brick outhouse.

Ultimately, it's not that the Z400 Touch is a bad deal; it's just not a dazzling one. It goes back to what we said about workhorses versus thoroughbreds and plain vanilla versus fancy sprinkles: If you like the looks of the Lenovo or have had good experience with the company's service, the Z400 may be just the kind of solid performer you're seeking.

The multitouch display and Windows 8 make the Z400 Touch a particularly good deal for the money. The display’s resolution isn’t particularly high (1366x768) but laptops with higher-end screens in this price range often don’t have touch. If touch is a big deal to you, then you’ll like this display. As we mentioned earlier, it’s very responsive to touch and it looks good too. If you could care less about touch, you’ll probably find that the display is just fine. Text is crisp, video is bright and clear, and colors are vibrant. The laptop’s muted stylishness also works in its favor. The chassis is sleek and the dark colors give it a professional look. And typing on the Z400 Touch’s keyboard is a much more comfortable experience than you’ll get on many competing laptop keyboards. That’s mostly due to the space between the keys (alleviating the cramped feeling many laptop keyboards have), but it’s also thanks to the keys themselves, which offer resistance much like some quality, desktop keyboards. Given the style, comfort, and performance you get for the price, the Lenovo IdeaPad Z400 Touch is a good deal. Keep in mind that you’ll need to check Amazon for the configuration we reviewed, but if your budget has flexibility, you might want to check out Lenovo’s site for additional configs.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Z400 Touch is a desktop replacement laptop with plenty of great features that make it stand out from the crowd: namely performance and features that help ease the replacement of an older laptop.

As a commodity package of specs, the price-to-value ratio of the Lenovo IdeaPad Z400 Touch could be attractive. But I think laptop buyers should think beyond that. As a portable product in the current landscape, it's downright old-fashioned, with the exception of its touch screen. For its price, you could get something far thinner and lighter, or, alternatively, more powerful. Better yet, I'd just suggest you wait a few months or consider another alternative. This is not a laptop we can think of recommending for any specific shopper as our first, second, or maybe even third choice.