Some people may disagree, but I feel that 13.3-inch and 14.1-inch notebooks are the perfect size for laptops, because they hit that sweet spot between portability and usability. Naturally, your preferences and requirements will affect how you feel about the size of a laptop. People who need something much lighter and more portable are willing to use a smaller keyboard and possibly weaker specs. On the flip side, people who are using their laptops as desktop replacements may not place nearly as much value on portability and may opt for a 17-inch (or larger) notebook instead. From what I recall, Gary falls into the latter category.

If you’re like me, though, you want to find that healthy middle ground and one of the better options that I’ve encountered is the Lenovo Ideapad Y430. When Lenovo took over the ThinkPad business from IBM, some people expressed concern about quality. Now that some time has passed, I think most of us would agree that Lenovo notebooks are just as good as the IBM-branded ones that preceded it. This is especially true for business and enterprise-level customers.

The 14.1-inch Lenovo Ideapad Y430 is dressed up in a simple but attractive black and it comes powered by an Intel T3400 (2.16GHz) processor, 4GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, DVD-RW drive, and an integrated webcam. These specs aren’t top of the line, but they’re far from bottom of the barrel too. If you need a reasonable level of portability and an acceptable level of performance, the Ideapad Y430 may be for you.

You can find the Lenovo Ideapad Y430 on Amazon.ca for $899.95.