I’m glad I waited to review, because, honestly? I wouldn’t recommend this computer, or even this brand, to anyone at this point. While the computer itself runs just fine, the hardware has been steadily breaking with each passing day.

I initially decided on this computer because I had a thinkpad before this, which, while broken to the point that I couldn’t even use it by the time I was done with it, lasted me years, even when I got it secondhand, refurbished by IBM. When I was shopping for a new one, this laptop met most of my requirements, including the full keyboard and screen size.

The first issue I noticed was rather early on, shortly after I got it; A fan on the inside, for whatever reason, makes a sound like it’s being pressed on. It’s loud enough to get annoying if I don’t have headphones in. But it’s something I could ignore, for the most part.

But then, a few months ago, the right click just stopped working properly. I have to push down rather hard to get it to work, and sometimes even that doesn’t pan out, so I’ve been reduced to only the double-tap clicking method, or using a mouse. It makes clicking and dragging almost impossible.

Around the same time, the right side of the plastic that protects the hinges began popping out for no apparent reason. It get’s caught on the top right edge of the keyboard part, and when that happens, I have no choice but to force it open, and it makes an awful cracking sound. I’ve been fearing that it would snap part of the plastic protector, and sure enough, a bit of the plastic snapped off a few days ago, though I’ve had it taped in place to the best of my ability to limit how much the part could displace itself.

Yes.Taped. I am to the point that I’ve begun taping my $1000 laptop to try and keep it from falling apart. I’m afraid that the screen itself is going to start coming up. And I’m the sort of person that takes a LOT of care with my laptops. I’ve never dropped it, never pulled it open too forcefully (until it started breaking and forcing me to,) never grabbed it by the screen; I don’t even use the touch screen.

It’s just frustrating, because I do like the computer itself; It runs quickly, I’ve never had issues with malware, I like the full keyboard, and I even like the display. But I invested in this expecting it to last me a few years, and I’ll be lucky if I even make it one and half before some serious piece of hardware breaks for no reason. Seriously, just skip it. If you’re paying this much for a computer, get a better one.

I really like this computer until one time, the left hinge of the screen connection just completely came undone. It still worked, I just could not closer the laptop and therefore, could not transport it. I wondered what I must have done to cause this. Turns out, this is a very common issue that is caused in the factory production and when I called customer service to have the laptop repaired, they knew what it was and repaired it right away because it was under warranty… but they didn’t change anything about the assembly. You can see where this is going. I get the laptop back, and a few months later (by this point the warranty had passed), the top half of the screen turned a shade of green, and I could no longer see red colors in that half. It was another common issue, and they knew about it as soon as I described it. I called customer service and they could not fix it. They tried to "escalate my case." but it was not allowed. I lived with it by plugging the laptop into a monitor when I needed it for my design work. Mind you, this is the screen breaking that THEY fixed a short while ago. I was doing hardly anything to this laptop. Never dropped it, and kept it in a protective case.

Now it comes full circle; the left hinge fell apart again. I called customer service and they would not help me because they didn’t view it as a "factory issue," even though it clearly was judging by the fact that it happened twice after it was in the factory. They will not fix it, and I’ll have to buy a new laptop despite the fact that this one actually runs quite well. The laptop itself runs fine despite a lackluster battery life, but the faulty hardware has completely ruined my experience with this product. I rely on this laptop for my professional work, and it completely let me down.

If you care about having quality products and quality business transactions, DO NOT ever buy a Lenovo product. They are clearly a company with no class, and they should be ashamed that they let such a faulty product go out into the hands of a poor college student twice while they smugly denied any blame for their own issues. I’m a designer, and the designers at Lenovo were clearly not doing their jobs and should be fired. The customer service members were kind enough, they just clearly had terrible orders from their upper management who clearly have no connection to the quality of their product as long as schmucks like us keep buying them to avoid the high prices of an apple computer. Unbelievable.