Capable and Solidly reliable
Lenovo series is one of the best machines of its generation.
In my opinion, the keyboard and touchpad are the best of the laptops.
While the W500 series is not "fast" by today's measure, it easily keeps up with everyday browsing, and student, accounting, and Microsoft Office activities. It slows only when running more than two applications at a time.
Long term, batteries are still manufactured and readily available. ($14-18) It will require a 9-cell battery to watch an entire movie on a charge. ($25-29)
I have been replacing the hard drives with the smaller solid state drives (IE: 250GB SSD). With operating system, Microsoft Office, and AVG anti-virus, I have over 200GB free. It has a slot for SDHC and SD cards for "in-system backups".
With current pricing, it is great for my son who lives by a college campus. It is not a huge investment if lost, dropped, or stolen.
Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned