GROUP TEST: High-speed laptops

Lenovo IdeaPad Z570

A well-built all-rounder with higher performance than its price suggests

Lenovo’s IdeaPad Z570 hides its budget heritage well. Instead of the usual glossy plastics, Lenovo has employed brushed aluminium across the lid and wristrest to create a laptop that feels more luxurious than its $1329 price suggests.

The base is stout, and the lid does a great job of protecting the display. We’ve no doubt it will last on a commute.

Nor does that sturdy build come at the expense of hardware. Intel’s Core i5-2410M processor and 8GB of RAM keep the system feeling spritely, and Lenovo has managed to shoehorn a Blu-ray reader and dedicated Nvidia graphics into the budget. Whether it’s playing an HD movie or firing through the latest game, the Lenovo punches well above its weight – as testified by an overall benchmark score of 0.66.

Interestingly, though, Lenovo hasn’t opted for Nvidia’s Optimus technology, choosing instead to utilise the older Hybrid SLI. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing: where Optimus automatically switches between the Intel and Nvidia chipsets as it sees fit, the Z570 has you swapping chipsets at the flick of a switch, which you could argue gives you more control. Sticking with Intel’s integrated HD Graphics 3000, the Z570 lasted a healthy 5hrs 27mins in our light-use battery test.

The Lenovo edges further ahead of its rivals thanks to its sensible, user-friendly features. The hardware wireless switch is a welcome addition, as is the row of touch-sensitive buttons along the keyboard’s top edge; a tiny shortcut key that sits alongside the backlit power button launches CyberLink’s backup and recovery suite.

It all makes for a laptop that’s a pleasure to use. A swift dab of a finger adjusts the volume, mutes the speakers or cycles through the Lenovo’s display modes and fan-speed settings. These features are useful: toggling the display’s movie mode slightly darkens the image – which we actually preferred to the default setting – and the fan control makes it possible to drop the speed right down in silent mode, or crank it up to full for gaming.

We could complain that squeezing in a numeric keypad leaves the Enter and right-Shift keys on the narrow side, but the keyboard’s scooped keys have such a crisp, precise feel that it’s a minor compromise. The touchpad, too, is one of the best here.

In fact, there’s only one thing that the Lenovo lacks, and it’s USB 3. That minor omission aside, Lenovo’s IdeaPad Z570 is tough to criticise for the money and when you consider that you’re getting a superb all- rounder with Blu-ray and switchable graphics for only $1329, it’s hard to be anything other than impressed.

TOSHIBA Qosmio f750

The venerable entertainment line gets a sandy bridge makeover

One of the slightly confusing aspects of living in an internet-enabled world is that products can vary in subtle, but often dramatic ways between countries. Generally speaking, Australia gets higher CPU specs and GPU power than Europe, for example, but despite being known as performance-hungry types sometimes we miss funky features as well.

Overseas the F750 comes with a 3D capable screen, while in Australia it doesn’t. Not that it matters – 3D is still a novelty and despite a slow dribble of content it is far from a selling point. Even without the 3D the F750 is a well-rounded entertainment offering, based around the familiar Core i7-2630QM CPU and Nvidia GTX 540 combination. Backing this up is a stonking 8GB of DDR3, Blu-Ray reader and 750GB hard drive.

Designed with matt black innards and a textured red lid, the Qosmio is a tough unit. The lid has a little too much give for our liking, but we don’t see this as a dealbreaker.

As befitting a product line borne out of the Media Centre PC craze, the Qosmio packs a few features missing from other entries in the grouptest. It has a TV tuner, which neccesitates an airiel connection on the back of the chassis, and the 3D isn’t completely neglected with support for 3D Blu-ray playback to a compatible TV via the HDMI port.

Audio is delivered through Harmon Kardon speakers built into the hinge for the lid. Sound quality is excellent, if a little lacking in the bass department, and befits the entertainment focus of the laptop.

This isn’t Toshiba’s gaming-specific Qosmio model but the combo of Core i7 and GT 540M graphics mean that it’s no slouch in that regard. In our medium Crysis benchmark it delivered a playable 34fps at medium detail.

We didn’t expect to be hugely impressed by battery life but it eked out a very respectable 5 hours in our light-use test. We can put a lot of

this down to the use of switchable graphics – historically a Core i7 laptop packing an NVIDIA chip wouldn’t be able to stray too far from mains power, but Sandy Bridge has gone a long way to torpedoing that expectation.

For those who want a laptop for both work and play, the Qosmio is a fantastic choice. If you don’t need the 17.3in luxury of the ASUS N73SV this is a solid all-round entertainer.