Lenovo C200 Review

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by Kevin O'Brien

As a refreshing update to the C series budget line, Lenovo released the C200 model to replace the older C100. Much of the laptop has been changed, it has adopted the style seen in the Lenovo V/N series, but a few parts have stayed the same. Luckily for us, the majority of the changes have been much needed improvements. Some of these include stronger hinges, a newer SATA hard drive interface, processor series upgrade, and chipset upgrade.

Here are the specs of the system I am reviewing:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 (1.66GHz, 2MBL2, 667MHzFSB)
• Operating system: Windows XP Professional
• Display type: 15.0 inch XGA TFT (1024x768)
• System graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• Total memory: 1GB PC2-5300DDR2 SDRAM (1x1gb)
• Hard drive: 80GB, 5400rpm Serial ATA
• Optical device: 8X Max DVD Recordable (Dual Layer) PATA Fixed (Fixed, but common size that can be upgraded)
• Wireless cards: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
• Weight: 6.13lbs
• Battery: 6 Cell Lithium-Ion Battery
• Warranty: 1 Year Limited Warranty

Lenovo C200 15&quot; screen laptop (view large image)

Compared to the previous C100, you can see right away that the newer model is much faster, and on par with the majority of new laptops out right now. The only part that changed from the C100 to a lesser component in the C200 is the battery. The old C100 models all had an 8 cell battery, and the new C200 is only a 6 cell. Personally I would rather take a hit on an hour or so of battery life to be able to use a much faster laptop.

Reasons for reviewing:

Well for starters, Lenovo loaned us this and I couldn't pass on a chance to review the C200 as I love new toys. Second, I personally own the previous C100 model (see the C100 review here), and wanted to see how things have changed in the laptop series. For all my friends that have been looking at low cost laptops, it's nice to know of at least one model I can recommend and that I have personal experience with. Now that the C100 is replaced, I would love to keep pointing people at this laptop line.

Build and Design:

The new model is very sleek and rounded in spots, compared to the older model which was very squared off much like a textbook. The smooth edges are actually welcome, as it can slide into my laptop bag much easier and without as much effort. Another change is the screen hinges. They are very strong, and feel more like the ThinkPad line. You actually need to hold down the laptop with one hand, while lifting the screen with another! Once up, it still holds strong, with no play whatsoever like the C100 had. The latching mechanism was also improved, with 2 latches, compared to a single centered latch of the C100.

Notice the curvy design at the back of the C200 (view large image)

Move to the sides of the laptop, another thing that some C series users will notice is that the optical drive is mounted on the right hand side, not the front. The front mounted design of the old C100 did cause some problems if you had the laptop on your lap, as opening the drive meant you had to hold it away from your body. Now it just pops out from the side, like every other laptop out right now. Another really nice improvement which might not be noticed as quickly is the SD card slot. The old model didn’t allow the SD card to sit entirely inside the unit and flushed with the design. This could cause some problems if you stuck the laptop into a carrying case, and forgot to remove the card. It might have damaged the card, or pulled it from the slot possibly losing the card. The newer C200 has moved to a spring loaded slot that allows the card to be fully inserted. I really enjoy this design, as you can leave a card always in the laptop to save files to, and quickly remove if needed. This would be similar a USB flash drive, but internal and not obtrusive.

A look at the underneath of the C200 (view large image)

Aside from the changes relating to card slots and the optical bay, the rest of the port assortment has stayed the same. The laptop is still equipped with 4 USB ports, now spread across both sides of the laptop, a single mini firewire port, VGA/S-video for external viewing, 10/100 Ethernet, and audio input/output ports. Most have switched position, but are still just as easy to locate.

Screen:

A look at the screen of the C200 (view large image)

The screen is one of the items that stayed the same from the C100. In fact, it’s the exact same part number from the older series. It is very bright and can crank up high enough to view on a sunny day outside in a park. When viewing directly head on, text and images are very clear to read, but the viewing angle and contrast is lacking compared to other screens on the market. This usually is never an issue if you are using the computer right in front of you though.

Light leakage is non-existent, and just like my C100, no dead pixels. Colors and lighting are very uniform throughout the screen, making it very pleasant to look at. I sat in front of this screen for 5-6 hours a day, and only had a sore neck from looking down at the laptop. I found little to no eye strain viewing this screen, which is s great for me, as I easily get migraines.

Speakers:

The speakers are on the small side, and not meant for music enthusiasts. They can be fine for watching a movie or TV show on an airplane, but don’t think it will make the neighbors windows shake from the bass. I found them to be just fine for basic things, like playing streaming music from my local radio station.

Processor and Performance:

In terms of battery life and raw performance, you really can’t beat the new Core 2 Duo line. This model was equipped with the Intel 5500 Core 2 Duo, clocked at 1.66GHz. I found this more than enough to handle any thing I threw at it during my testing. Lighter applications like a word processor or spreadsheet open lighting fast, with little to no lag. More tasking programs like movie players playing 1080P HD movies really make this processor flex its muscle. It handled the largest 1080P Apple trailers without problem, reaching 50-70% CPU usage, and didn’t stutter or pause at any time. I didn’t try any games on this laptop though, as it only has the Intel GMA950 integrated video.

Benchmarks:

Super Pi

Super Pi is a program that forces the notebook processor to calculate Pi to 2-million digits of accuracy.  The Lenovo C200 took 1m 19s to calculate this value with its 1.66 GHz Core 2 Duo T5500 processor, here's how it stacked up to other notebooks:

 

Notebook	Time
Lenovo C200 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo T5500)	1m 19s
Fujitsu LifeBook A6010 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo T5500)	1m 22s
Dell Inspiron e1505 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 16s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Toshiba Satellite M100 (2.00GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Lenovo V100 (2.00GHz Core Duo)	1m 19s
Dell XPS M140 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 41s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s

PCMark05 Comparison results:

Here's how the C200 stacked up in PCMark05 results against other notebooks.  This result considers system performance as a whole (processor, graphics card, hard drive) and is a better indication of how the C200 performs compared to other notebooks:

 

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Lenovo C200 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo T5500, Intel GMA 950 graphics)	2,867 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook A6010 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo T5500, Intel GMA 950)	2,994 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1501 (AMD Sempron 1.8GHz, ATI Xpress 1150)	1,912 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Toshiba Tecra M6 (1.66GHz Intel T2300E, Intel GMA 950)	2,732 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks
Sony VAIO C140 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo T5500, Intel GMA 950 graphics)	2,911 PCMarks

 

HD Tune Hard Drive Results:

HDTune gives benchmark results for the hard drive performance, in this case an 80GB 5400RPM drive.

(view large image)

 

Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard stayed the same as was seen in the C100, and I love it just the way it is. It is made by NMB, just like some of the ThinkPad keyboards are, and can’t be beat for comfort when typing. The touchpad surface is about the same as the C100, but the buttons now have more feel to them, and are easier to click. They also put out a softer click sound, that doesn’t attract stares from across the classroom.

Ports:

Here's a tour around the sides of the C200 to see what ports you get. There's not much to complain about with what's included, given the fact it's a budget notebook and sells for under $1,000 the port selection you get is excellent:

 

Left side: Kensington lock slot, heat vent / fan, USB port, FireWire (IEEE 1394), Ethernet port, PCMCIA card slot, 5-in-1 card reader (view large image)

Microphone and heaphone ports, 3 USB 2.0 ports, optical drive, monitor out (view large image)

Back: S-Video, modem port, power jack (view large image)

Heat and Noise:

I think this is one category where the new model really shines. Heat output feels about the same, but it is almost inaudible when cooling itself down. You can barely hear it when its in its low fan mode, the only way to sense it is on is by placing your hand next to it, and feeling the warm air. In its high mode, you can somewhat hear it, but nobody outside 5 feet will. This is a definite change from the old C100, which even on its low speed could turn some heads in a quiet classroom. Heaven forbid if it turned onto high mode if some program hung in the background, and you might even get your professor looking your way. The C200’s fan update would probably rate #1 if I was comparing each upgrade and change between the 2 models.

Here are the heat readings for each area on the notebook underside, overall not too bad -- the back area gets most of the heat (view large image)

Battery:

The battery on the C200 is roughly 2/3 the size of the old C100 version. It is a 6 Cell battery and gets between 2.5-3 hours of use with screen at a mid brightness setting, and active web access through the wireless card.

Software:

Like most laptops these days, some of the included software isn’t always welcome. The difference between out-of-the-box performance and after a good spring cleaning can be like night and day. If you decide to go with a fresh Windows install, I would have to recommend you at least reinstall the rescue and recovery care package, along with the Lenovo updater program. These 2 programs are very unobtrusive, and the rescue program has become one of my most favorite to date. I use it to make monthly images of my C100 laptop to my network server, just incase anything happens. The one time that I tested it out from a formatted drive, it took about 40-50 minutes to go from a blank drive, to typing in my password at the windows login screen. I almost wish I could install it on my desktop, but it is Lenovo only.

Conclusion:

The Lenovo C200 is hands down an awesome upgrade over the previous C100 model. It seems as though they looked at a list of weaknesses of the previous model, and found ways to go above and beyond improving them. Performance has nearly doubled with the new Core 2 Duo, the hard drive is now the newer SATA standard, the screen hinges feel they could outlast the laptop, and the much enjoyed keyboard stayed just the same.

Pros:

• Whisper quiet cooling system
• Very strong screen hinges
• Comfortable Thinkpad grade keyboard
• Improved spring loaded SD slot
• High performance with the Core 2 Duo CPU
• Sleek Design

Cons:

• Battery life dropped slightly from the old C100 model
• Screen could be improved with higher contrast, or better viewing angles

 

It looks good but they need to learn how to say 'widescreen' and canada. Maybe they just trying to clear old inventory.

 

I agree with you about that spring-loaded SD slot, I use SD cards very often to - in the old days I used 1.44 disks, then switched to CDR's (though I dissliked them for physical size), and now have a nice, tiny SD's, a whole collection of them, ranging from 16MB to 2GB, all in nice small plastic cases. he he

here is what i'm talking about:

http://www.fullshot.jp/img_server/co_img1/fullshot/item/pqi_sd2gb.jpg

 

Look at the V and N series for wide screen. Its 2 different form factors, 4:3 isnt going to go up in a puff of smoke anytime soon.

Oh yea, did I mention that this thing is QUIET

 

btw, thanks for the review. any thoughts of changing your current C100 to C200?

 

Nice review!

 

Looking at those USB ports on the right side they're all vertically aligned. I don't know why but I just prefer horizontal, it always seems less awkward when plugging them in.

Overall the features for this C200 are really great for a notebook that costs less than $900. The port selection is especially good and it sounds like the screen and build standout for a budget laptop as well. Thanks for the review!

 

Nice to see Lenovo churning out these great designs. Who'd have guessed this from a Chinese company? Makes me proud to be a chink.

Speaking of which, anyone knows when the Y4 would be out it North America?

 

I also want to know more about the Y400. Sorry to post this is the C200 review

 

Y'know, Lenovo's notebooks are starting to look appealing. Although I still wouldn't get one yet, because I don't like the touchpad and buttons. Nonetheless, even the Lenovo 3000 series are looking pretty nice now.

Yep, cy007. I'm Chinese too (but living in Canada, with perfect English)!

 

One nice thing with the vertical slots is they are spaced far enough from each other where USB memory sticks can be put in one by one. With the old "2 clustered up and down" method, anything short of a keyboard/mouse plug would jam against the other plug next to it.

Also, I really see the C200 shining best for those looking at the baseline model. For the features you get at a sub-600 level, nothing can beat the quality. HP, Compaq, Dell have nothing on the feel of this laptop. It is surprisingly sturdy and strong compared to other cheap laptops.

 

The Lenovo 3000 series is nothing but trash. I'd think you would be very lucky to have a good working piece with you; They are poorly tested, and their service depot does not even re-test their laptops after they repair.

I and a friend bought a Lenovo 3000 series (N100) for 700$. From right out of the box, both laptops had serious problems with sound when the wireless connection was used - whats worse, the wireless connection itself was shaky, broke often and abruptly cut off connection to the router. The sound quality stutters, breaks, or gets noisy whenever the inbuilt wireless card is used. To see if this was a RAM issue, I played the same CD and same Mp3s on a much slower system (256mb ram, 1.4 celeron) Sony Vaio system, and it worked great.

I immediately called up their support and sent the Laptop to service center - this, in the first 5 days of purchase. The laptop came back after 5 days with lots of jargon about parts being replaced. I open the laptop, connect wireless to my home router, and play music. Guess what? The problem reappears all over again - same old wireless connectivity issues and sound problems. This indicates just poor tech repair service - they couldn't even test the laptop before sending it back to me.

Since this was just within 10-12 days of purchase, I got the laptop replaced.

The replacement laptop arrived this Monday. Out of the box, and what do I see? The sound does not work with wireless enabled, and the wireless connectivity is as bad as ever.

This happened to 3 laptops with different serial numbers.

All of which indicates, Lenovo has serious quality issues with their Lenovo 3000 lines. I mailed their product manager and David Churbuck (at lenovoblogs.com), who admitted there was "certainly an issue" which they should look at and they've forwarded it to their engineering teams, but nothing has come out of it, yet (and that's almost 2 days now).

So here am I stuck with a laptop since 15 days, both of which are practically useless as neither the soundcard nor the wireless network works correctly, and Lenovo has done nothing about it.

I had purchased a Lenovo 3000 series after much thought and hopes that they would be reliable; They've been nothing but a pain.

But of course, I would expect them to send a thoroughly tested unit to reviewers . They after all would want great reviews on a inferior product.

My recommendation: Stay away from the Lenovo 3000 series!

 

... I don't know that it's fair to assume that the whole 3000 line will suck just because the N100 may have... The improvements on the C200 over the N100 have specifically been mentioned in reviews. This is a C200 thread. Why discourage people with blanket certainty unless you have first-hand experience.

Well, I should know soon enough. I used a C200 for a few days (more on that in another post) and now have one on the way. I know that the build quality of it was sturdy and excellent; it may not have been specifically slick looking but definitely wasn't dowdy, cheap, boxy or otherwise 'embarrassing' looking (I liked the looks just fine); and the standard aspect matte screen was exactly what we happened to be looking for, not a minus to us but a huge plus. Our main uses are business and web research related, and the 'viewability'/readability of this screen over newer kinds can't be overemphasized (IMHO obviously).

I did adjust the contrast, so the washed-out effect mostly disappeared. And I increased the apparently (& oddly, if so) native color setting -- maybe not doing so worsens perceptions of the display on the C200. With colors adjusted, I even think they are richer than on a glossy and/or higher resolution screen, and no fuzziness or low-quality image reproduction. (Now, off to post on whether it will piss the system off to stay set that way lol. Because it is a crucial improvement.)

Ok, more to come sometime next week or soon after, I expect!

 

I agree with most of what you said. The cooling factor is great. But what you said about the keyboard is not true.

I just returned a c200 because of that problem. When I spoke to customer service, which by the way is one of the best in the computer industry, they said the keyboards for these series is not the same as the ones built on Thinkpads. Not only that, but I made a trip to a nearby retailer that carries Lenovo, and surprisingly, they had on display the N series and a Thinkpad and I can assure you the keyboards were not the same than the one built into the C200.

It’s a shame they used such a cheap noisy keyboard on this otherwise magnificent laptop.

For anyone interested in Lenovo, go for the N or Thinkpad. Better yet; try before you buy. You wouldn’t want to pay 15% restocking fee, do you?

I just wanted to clarify that.

 

Well, to each his own as we know. I've "experienced" lots of laptops, and like the C200's keyboard a lot (except for needing to use hot key combos for Home, End, Page Up, Page Down). I'd be surprised if most people didn't like it fine, and really surprised if people returned it for this reason. But yup, to each his own.

The N series wasn't an option in our case because we wanted a standard aspect matte screen.

Oops, this reminds me, I was going to post a fuller review. O well I doubt anyone lost any sleep over it! It took some doing to get it properly configured, but now (knock wood) it's "dreamy."

 

In 2007 January I ordered a Lenovo C200 Model 8922. About two or three weeks ago I bought an Orion Starshoot Solar System II camera that hooks the laptop to a telescope and displays the telescope image on the computer screen. From what I can tell with it, it seems like a webcam redesigned to fit into the eyepiece part of a telescope. It is a USB device.

I followed Orion's instructions. I installed their software, then installed the camera driver, then tried to get the camera to work. The machine said "Found new hardware". Following the instructions, I clicked "No, not this time" for Windows update, Find Driver automatically, and then when it said that was not an authenticated program of some sort, followed Orion's instructions and clicked "Continue anyway". It ran a percent bar, ran through some files, and then put up a window that said, "This device cannot start (code 10)".

A friend in my astronomy society tried his Starshoot on my computer. It would not work - the same problem. I tried my Starshoot on his Toshiba laptop. It worked fine, and gave us a good shot of the Sun. I tried disabling all of Norton Internet Security I could. That did not help. I installed it OK on my desktop, but that does not help much - I need a laptop so I can carry it to a dark sky site. I successfully got a Canon A510 camera to download pictures to the laptop. I was able to HotSync a Palm PDA. I bought a PCMCIA card with two USB ports on it. That did not work. I bought a Creative webcam, and after some conniptions with the installation, got that to work OK - it went through the exact same windows as did the StarShoot but it came up with "Successfully installed" or something like that. I tried all 4 ports. None of them worked. A diagnostic program said, "Misconfigured device". I called Orion and they gave me a diagnostic program that would not work because that required that I get past the Code 10. I called Lenovo and the most they could do is say that the USB ports are not getting enough power. The mouse and touchpad are jumpy at times.

Has anyone else had problems with the USB ports like I had? I would buy another laptop, but I don't want one with Vista. In fact, the Starshoot won't work with Vista. My present Lenovo laptop uses Windows XP Professional.