Lenovo z570a
Fresh from Lenovo's consumer-based IdeaPad stable comes the Lenovo IdeaPad Z570A which manages to hit a great balance between power and price.
There's something about the faint, almost purple tinge to the brushed metal exterior that looks a lot better than the basic black designs offered by other more traditional laptops.
The metal is only an overlay, set into a plastic chassis, but it's enough to make it stand out. We would say that in a line-up, only the Dell Inspiron 14z looks better.
Inside, the purple colouring is offset with Lenovo's traditional black keyboard and several backlit hotkeys. Two rectangular speaker grills are present below the screen hinges which are themselves buried into the chassis.
The 15.6-inch screen is covered with a Super-TFT coating for extra colour depth and isn't interrupted by a particularly thick bezel. It does wobble slightly on its hinges, although viewing angles are very good here. Because of the Super-TFT coating, however, the screen is reflective and in bright light these reflections are quite noticeable.
The IdeaPad Z570 has the same 1366 x 768 pixel resolution as its rivals, so although 1080p video is out of reach, you can still watch 720p high definition from sites like iPlayer.
Using the keyboard is a pleasant experience – providing you don't use the Return key too often. For some reason Lenovo shrinks this key to a fraction of its usual size, which we find particularly irritating.
