Configured with a 2.3GHz Intel CPU (the midrange offering in Intel's current mobile chip lineup), Intel integrated HD 3000 graphics, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB 5400-rpm hard drive, and the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium, our evaluation unit cost $629 as of August 21, 2011.

That's a pretty low price compared to the going rates for top-rated models on our current --but those models generally deliver much better performance, and many of them have 15-inch displays. Most of the 13.3-inch models we review fall into the category, but the Z370 is too thick (at 1.4 inches) and too heavy (at 4.7 pounds) to qualify as an ultraportable. It turned in a score of 113; the top-rated Core i7-based earned a mark of 134.

Gaming scores were typical for a laptop with integrated Intel graphics, topping out at 28.2 frames per second for Far Cry 2 at the lowest quality setting and 800 by 600 screen resolution. That's less than half the XPS 15z's frame rate at the same settings--but the XPS 15z also costs more than twice as much and comes with discrete GeForce graphics, so the disparity in test results is no surprise. In short, don't buy this laptop for raw computing power or serious gaming.

In our battery drain tests, the Z370's six-cell lithium-ion battery ran for 5 hours, 13 minutes--a middle-of-the-pack figure for this notebook class.

The IdeaPad Z370 shines in multimedia performance, especially for travelers. The aforementioned built-in stereo speakers, located on top of the keyboard at both corners, deliver great sound for a notebook in this price range. Crisp and relatively loud, they made listening to streaming audio, watching YouTube music videos, or playing a film on the built-in DVD-recordable drive a real pleasure. The superior audio also helps with video chat over the built-in 2-megapixel webcam, which does an acceptable job of capturing images.