Video: A quick look at the Lenovo ideapad Z500 Touch running Windows 8

Once you start using touch on Windows 8 you will find it hard to go back to a non-touch device. I have been using touch with my Surface RT for a while and now end up prodding the screen on my non touch devices so it’s good to see traditional style Notebooks with touch. The latest Notebook I have been testing is the Lenovo ideapad Z500 Touch, the notebook has a Core i7 processor, 15.6 inch screen, 8GB RAM, USB 2 and 3 ports, 1TB storage and weighs in at 2.22kgs. It’s not an Ultrabook or a convertible but it is a very solid Notebook.

The first thing you notice is the glossy screen running at 1366 x 768 which is very clear and almost a little blue looking at first until you get used to it. The notebook has Dolby Home Theatre and very impressive speakers, it delivers a clear and loud sound, having used a lot of Ultrabook recently it’s refreshing to have a Notebook with a descent set of speakers. The keyboard has Lenovo’s AccuType keyboard which is supposedly one of the best Notebook keyboards on the market, I found it a little on the spongy side but I think you would get used to it. It also has full number pad in the keyboard. The case is a brushed aluminium and plastic design which feels very nice.

Windows 8 works very well on the Z500, the trackpad supports the Windows gestures like swiping in the side and has two finger scrolling. There touch screen works very well, the bevel around the screen that gives you space to access the edge gestures in Windows. The ideapad comes with McAfee Internet Security pre-installed which I removed immediately as I would rather use the built in Windows security. Also pre-installed are Evernote Touch, Skype, Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 (version 13 is the current version) and a selection of utilities. There is a metro Lenovo app which I thought could be interesting as its the first time I have seen a OEM metro app but it didn’t do anything at all which was a shame. Office 2010 trial version is installed and there isn’t to much crapware pre-installed (well not as bad as other OEMS).

My first impressions of the Z500 is a very solid well-made notebook and works very well with Windows 8. I will report back after I have spent more time with the device.

In this video I take a quick look at the Z500 and have a look at some of its features.

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