This isn’t an entertainment device by any means, so having more than one or two people viewing the screen isn’t a scenario we can expect the Z140C to find itself in often. The viewing angles are a bit of a mixed bag, with good enough visibility when viewing straight on, even when tilted back, but losing quite a bit of detail and colour when viewed off to the sides. So you can almost flip the lid open to be flush against the surface when tilted backwards. The panel isn’t the brightest around, but delivers good colour reproduction. Where the display does struggle is with deep blacks and contrast, making the images appear washed on the whole. The unit sports the standard 1366x768px resolution, which in itself isn’t bad either given that many larger-screened units also have the same resolution with much lower pixel density. The Z140C has a reasonably-sized, 14″ IPS panel, which has a matte finish, so it doesn’t reflect too much light. I quickly switched back to my wireless mouse before too long. Clicking on the physical keys takes a lot more effort than should be necessary, with the gesture-based button not picking up the tap at least 50% of the time. To make matters worse, both the touch gesture and buttons aren’t great either when you need to click on a button once you’ve managed to align the cursor. I’d often have to make minute adjustments only to hope that I land on the correct spot to select what I wanted. When testing it out, I found that the precision of the touchpad using the cursor is far from great. I’m not the biggest fan of the touchpad, to begin with, but the one fitted to the Z140C was probably one of the worst I’ve used in quite some time. The final issue I had is more down to build than the design. I can only hope that nothing would happen if someone were to accidentally do just that. On one or two occasions I almost made the mistake of plugging in the power cord into the 3.5mm jack only to realise that it wasn’t the correct port. The second design choice I took issue with was the strange decision to make the power jack the exact same size as the 3.5mm jack. Thankfully, turning it back on wasn’t a tedious waiting game as it simply powered back on to the same spot I had left it. This meant that for the first few uses I accidentally pressed the power button, only to put the unit to sleep.
The positioning of the power button as one of the keys has always been a pet peeve for me with a few laptops in recent times, but on the Z140C the button is placed where most other units would position their “delete” key. For starters, while the keyboard keys aren’t too shabby, the layout is a bit questionable. The design, however, isn’t without issues. Keeping the weight to a minimum for a budget device is no small feat, so it is definitely something worth mentioning.
The unit has x1 USB 3.0 port, x1 USB 2.0 port, a mini-HDMI port, 3.5mm auxiliary port, as well as a built-in microSD card reader. In terms of physical connectivity options, there are a few. The notebook is fairly nimble with a frame measuring just 333x220x18mm and which weighs only around 1.4KG. I didn’t pick up any creeks or too much bend during normal usage, which is also a good sign when it comes to the longevity of the product, especially when purchasing a budget unit. Thankfully, the unit has a decent enough build so you won’t have to worry about it falling apart on you, even when under a bit of stress. There’s no getting away from the plastic, though, even with the faux, brushed aluminium design. Given the white frame, I feel that the colours could have extended to further around the device just to tie the aesthetics together. The white, however, is contrasted by means of the black keys, touchpad and screen. The all-over white frame is not something you see too often with modern-day notebooks.
For starters, it has a predominantly white plastic build. Right from the off the Mecer Xpression Z140C Notebook is different to many other units.