Review of Lenovo's N20p Chromebook

The Lenovo N20p laptop is a consumer-friendly alternative, and Lenovo's first Chrome OS not aimed at either business or education buyers. It's a slim, lightweight ultraportable laptop that takes the central idea of a Chromebook -- a low-cost, simple clamshell for online use -- and adds better keyboard and touchpad than Chromebook users may be used to.

The system will be coming to the UK as well, and is listed on Lenovo's UK site, but without price or availability information, but converted pricing would be about £200. As for Australia, no price or release information was available, but converted pricing would be about AU$370.

Much like the Windows laptop line calls Lenovo IdeaPad, the hinge on the N20p folds back past 180 degrees. Unlike fold-back hybrids, it doesn't go all the way back a full 360 degrees, allowing you to use it as a tablet. Instead, like the Flex, it stops, somewhat abruptly, at 300 degrees. That allows you to fold the screen back for use in what we call a kiosk mode, with the screen facing out and the base, keyboard facing down, as a kind of kickstand. It's marginally useful, more so if you're playing videos or presenting PowerPoint presentations, but unlike the Yoga hinge, it's probably not a system-selling feature.

Despite the trick hinge that might not get much use, the N20p is one of the better Chromebooks we've tested. The body is well-made and slim, the keyboard and touchpad are excellent for a budget-priced ultraportable, and the touchscreen, while not as useful in Chrome OS as in Windows 8, is still an occasionally handy extra. Yes, you could pay less for a Chromebook, but you'll be getting less, too.

 

 

Design and features 

 

For a laptop intended to grab the eye of the consumer (compared to Lenovo's better-known conservative business systems), the N20p isn't exactly flashy. A matte black interior is connected via a chunky central hinge to a lid covered with dull grey and a small Google Chrome logo on one side, and edge-to-edge glass over an 11-inch display and wide bezel on the other.

Like many ultraportable laptops, the chassis tapers towards the front, helping it feel thinner than it actually is. The N20p is 0.7 inches (1.8cm) thick and weighs 2.8 pounds (1.3kg), versus 0.87 inches (2.2cm) thick and 3.1 pounds (1.4kg) for the Yoga 11e. That may not seem like much, but in the hand, there's a real difference between the two, and it's obvious which one would be a better daily travel companion in your shoulder bag (unless you're especially accident-prone, in which case consider the tank-like Yoga 11e).

 And Lenovo used that strategy to great effect, crafting one of the sharpest Chromebooks seen yet. However, talk about combining two of the most divisive technologies into a single machine, neither of which seem like much of a fit for Chrome OS. And to think that Lenovo brought even more primo hardware to Google's laptop spec.