Moving inward from the left, you have a blocked of infrared port. Yes, that’s right. There is no actual IR Receiver, but the cutout is there. This is because Acer uses the same chassis for higher end models, which have an IR receiver. It is quite annoying. LENOVO IdeaPad U150 Battery
Further left, we have 2 LEDs. The first is the power status LED, which is green when on and red when in standby, and the second is the charging status LED, which lights up yellow when charging and green when fully charged.
Continuing left, we have 2 button/LEDs. The left is to toggle the power of the Bluetooth chip, which does not exist in the laptop. But once again, since this chassis is used in other models, they left it in. Pressing the button actually results in saying “No Device” on the OSD, so the button is wired in correctly. One would assume if they added in Bluetooth via the mini-PCI slot, it would begin to function, and presumably light up blue. The other LED, which lights up red, toggles the WiFi power. It blinks red when connecting, and stays red when connected, and off otherwise. lenovo ideapad u450p 20031 Battery
The left side of the laptop houses the “removable” optical bay. At first glance, one would assume it’s removable, since it looks like it could easily slide out, but on second glance, one will see that once again, we have a cut out for a place where one could release the optical bay. So the only way to remove it is to take apart the laptop (not completely, of course). LENOVO G550A Battery
On the right side of the laptop, starting from the left, we see another cutout for a mini FireWire port that does not exist. Moving along, we see the Type II PCMCIA PC Card Slot. Above that, we see a nice place for say, a multimedia card reader! But once again, we only see a blocked off piece of plastic. Moving along we have twin USB 2.0 ports, followed by a cutout of what you would presume to be an S-Video port. That’s right; this has no TV-out. Further along, we have the RJ45 LAN jack and the RJ11 Modem jack. We finish with the HSF vent, which blows out warm air whenever the fan is on. LENOVO G550 Battery
The back side of the laptop houses the battery, VGA out, and security lock. The battery has both a release and lock lever, and feels very secure in place when locked. (And in case you’re interested, when you take apart the area around the VGA port, you guessed it, there’s a cutout for a DVI port!). lenovo ideapad u450p 3389 Battery
Before I continue, let me tell you I’m on my third TravelMate, and this is the best in terms of quality. My first one I picked up was faulty. When I closed the screen, it would BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) and the picture would scramble (and if anyone cares, it had Samsung ICs on the RAM). Also, the screen hinge wasn’t as tight as my current one is. lenovo ideapad u550 Battery
After exchanging it for a new one the problem was fixed, and over all, the laptop wasn’t bad. But after about 3 days, my space bar started “squeaking.” I popped it off, put it back, and the problem was fixed, until the next day when it squeaked again. I once again popped it off, tried putting it back on, and noticed one of the plastics tabs had broken, so although the space bar could go back on, it was a lot more “wobbly.” Now I’m not going blame this one on Acer- but I can tell you I’ve popped off a lot of space bars, and this is the first one to go. LENOVO G550G Battery
After convincing Circuit City to give me another one, I noticed something pleasantly odd about the third one. The palm rest area (left and right side of the touch pad) was quite a bit sturdier. Before, I could flex that area down quite a bit, but now I can’t. To my surprise, there is a layer of thick foam under the palm rest- something that wasn’t there in my previous two TravelMates. How did I find this out, you ask? The PC Card slot “flap” would not go down! I had to exert quite a bit of force to make it go down (as if I was inserting a card), and when I finally got it down, you can clearly see the foam above it. Then as I release the flap, you guessed it, it would not return all the way up because it was stuck on foam. I kid you not. Of course I was able to finally force it up, but I was ready to go back to Circuit City, but I was reluctant because I would never be able to find a deal like this again. Plus, the palm rests are a lot sturdier now. LENOVO G550M Battery
With that being said, this laptop is both a “flexer” and a “wobbler.” Yes, the screen wobbles like no other. Now the hinges them self don’t move- in fact, you need to exert quite a bit of force to change the overall tilt of the panel, but give it a slight push on the top center part of the screen, and watch it yo-yo back and forth slower and slower over a period of 5 seconds. IBM ThinkPad R30 Battery
The keyboard has a slight flex to I when pressed down, but nothing that would affect your typing, but annoying none the less. The black area above the keyboard (in line with the launch buttons) flexes down quite a bit with some pressure. As mentioned, the palm rest area is quite sturdy. Beneath the laptop, you can easily flex it some areas, mainly the removable compartments. IBM ThinkPad R31 Battery
The hinges are made of cheap plastic, and they feel the same way. They can move vertically quite a bit, and if your shirt gets stuck on it, chances are the hinge will break off before your laptop moves with it.
When closed, you can press down the front screen edges to make it touch the bottom portion of the laptop, but the center is firmly touching. On the back end where the hinges are, you can press down that area as well, because the hinges have some give. I don’t know if this is due to poor build quality or if it’s a feature. The hinges are surrounded by plastic. I will also say the screws around the hinges could be screwed in quite a bit more than how they were shipped. Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 11inch Battery













