Lenovo essential B490 (59-381836) Laptop (Core i3 3rd Gen/2 GB/500 GB/DOS)

there were 4 dead pixels in the initial shipment, but flipkart replaced the product with the new one. I installed Ubuntu 13.10 and it's performance is too good, keyboard is very smooth and 14 inch display is perfect, battery life is approx 5 hours in normal working conditions with wi-fi.

I bought this laptop just three days ago, and I like it. I bought a Samsung Notebook for 21k which had a Dual Core AMD E1 or something processor and it was the worst product I have ever purchased in my life, it is literally slower than my S4. Yeah different OS, whatever.nThis laptop is nice, however I don't know what's wrong mine has 2 USB 3.0 ports and 2 USB 2.0 ports, still it's good. n- Performance is nice, I won't call it really smooth, but it's nice. Web browsing, watching HD videos on YouTube and all are totally fine. n- Battery life is decent, won't say good, cause it is not lasting any more than 3½ hours, which is okay for me. However I always run it at High performance mode, with CPU power management disabled.n- I am little disappointed with the display quality though, I mean it's not great, it's definitely good and will impress most users, but for me it was just above average. Maybe I am used with high quality displays too much :pnBtw. maybe I have a different model, but mine is NOT Anti-Glare by any means, so if you have any tube/CFL glowing at back, you will need to put the screen at a different angle.n- The best of this model is the keyboard. I mean I love Lenovo's Accutype keyboard, or whatever they call it. It's nice, will give you a nice feedback, for long typing this keyboard is really really nice. Honestly I am finding this keyboard better than my Logi G15 for typing ;) You won't feel any pressure to your fingers, even after continuously typing for say 15-20 minutes.n- Audio quality is okay, I never watch anything with speakers, so won't comment much.n- Build quality is really nice. It's sturdy, well built. The external is matt finished, which is nice, but it attracts fingerprint. So need to clean it often. I would prefer a silver colour model over black, I always find Silver as a premium colour than Black, for these type of stuffs.n- There is a fingerprint scanner/reader, use it, don't use it, your choice. It works pretty fine. You can save your favourite websites and username/pass and then just with a finger swipe that site will be opened, logging you in directly, not bad.n- This model does not have a numpad section. So I had to buy an attachment.n- Weight is moderately high. It's okay, but definitely I would have preferred a at least another 300 grams or so lighter.n- I don't like the placement of the charging port, I would have preferred it at left side instead of right.n- The touch-pad is nice, it has a dotted texture, which is very good for controlled operation.n- It has a Rupee symbol hard-coded into the keyboard. You just hit AltGr and 4 altogether and it will pop up, like this ? :) I really like it. With Windows 8/8.1 you don't need to do anything extra to get this sign, but with Windows 7 you need to install MS Update which was specifically released to support this symbol.n- I find another thing annoying, the Hard disk LED, it's placed under the right speaker grill, and is really hard to notice under moderate light, so under very bright light it won't be noticeable, which is not good. You will need to find it rather than it will find your eye.nAt the end of the day, anyone looking for a budget laptop, this is really a worthy model to check out. 3rd gen i3 will do most tasks easily (excluding gaming of course, or it might, I really can't say), Intel HD 4000 graphics, 500 GB HDD, all are nice fit. 2 GB RAM is okay for most users, but if you are into multitasking I definitely recommend buying another 2 GB additionally. Whatever, this unit feels like a rocket after using that AMD E1, which is terribly pathetic, I never thought an i3 could have been felt this fast to be honest, thanks to AMD :/nFor around ? 28000 I will definitely recommend this model, and will give it 4/5 stars.nnSaurav (ithehappy)