Lenovo essential B490 (59-349110) Laptop (Core i5 3rd Gen/2 GB/500 GB/DOS)

I bought this laptop from Orient Technologies Bangalore not Flipkart but I just have to write this review... I will start with cons first then pros: --- Cons: 1. Smooth matte finish, I actually prefer the rough texture of the original B470 and B480... This is not really a problem as this is because of my personal taste... 2. Windows key is too big and I keep hitting it during gaming... Lenovo Y580 and MSI laptops have Windows key on the right of spacebar... But this too is not a major con as this is a business/college laptop and not for gaming... 3. This laptop is actually lighter than my sister's Macbook pro 13.3 inch but it is too thick - when closed it is almost twice as thick as Macbook pro... 4. Sound quality while satisfactory could have been better and the speakers lack bass... --- Pros: 1. i5 Ivy Bridge CPU is crazy fast 2. Integrated Intel HD4000 can actually run many modern games on medium and moderately demanding games on high... I am running Crysis 2 on medium @ 27 fps @ 1280x720 resolution and Counter Strike Global Offensive on high @ 39 fps also @ 1280x720 and 35 fps at native 1366x768 resolution... 3. Put in 4GB more RAM to make it flex mode - multitasking is a breeze now... 4. Unlike B470 and B490, display and display bezel are now full matte plastic which is nice and high quality... 5. 7200 RPM HDD for this price is unbeatable... It is slightly slower than other 7200 RPM HDDs but Lenovo did this on purpose so that you still have a fast HDD compared to other laptops in this price range but does not generate as much heat or consume as much battery power as other typical 7200 RPM HDDs... This is awesome... I put Windows 8 Pro 64 bit in this laptop and thanks to this HDD, boot up time is 8 seconds - and that is with tonnes of games and apps loaded into this thing... 6. Battery backup is by far the best for a budget business laptop... Lenovo India claims only 3-4 hours and Lenovo USA claims 5-6 hours... While browsing and doing college/office work, I get backup of 4.5 to 5.5 hours on power saver mode with display brightness at 40% which is exactly what Lenovo USA claims... 7. Lenovo Accu-type keyboard is better than Macbook pro's - best keyboard ever... 8. Synaptics touchpad has very nice rough texture... It is not very smooth once new but after installing Synaptics touchpad driver from Lenovp website, it is butter smooth... 9. I installed Windows 8 pro and after downloading latest updates for this OS, there is no compatibility issues and I can actually run Project IGI which is a 2000 DX8 game... Windows 8 is also easy to get used to for those who have experience with Windows XP and 7... I got used to it in less than half hour... 10. Full matte plastic build is of the highest quality for this price range... This laptop is durable believe you me... 11. Despite the thickness, the tapered blade like edge makes this laptop look much thinner than it actually is and it totally looks sexy... It is one of the best looking business laptops around... Though Dell Vostro is slightly better looking, B490 is much higher quality and has double the battery backup and much better keyboard... 12. This laptop runs cool while gaming... Thanks to the thickness, air flow is good and the cooling fan is quite... Cool looking and cool running laptop this one...

The cheapest ever in the range of core-i5 series. Typically a business laptop and provides a good battery backup of around 4 hours on windows 8 and Ubuntu. But i am quite dejected by a few things. It is mentioned core-i5 3230. Actually it is core-5 3210. A processor with 0.1 ghz less than mentioned. Secondly I expected it had power management software that limits battery charge to 80% which almost all lenovo laptops provide. Its not present here. Satisfied though. Quite good for programming purpose.