While Lenovo is best known for its high-end ThinkPad laptops, it also offers a small range of high-quality entry level machines.  Lenovo G550, part of its 'Value Line' range, was designed with the price-conscious consumer in mind. The laptop features a dual-core processor and performance notably betters most rivals around this price.

Lenovo G550 Specs:

Microsoft Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium

Intel Pentium Dual-Core T4200 

3GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM

250GB Western Digital 5400RPM HDD

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD

15.6-inch glossy 16:9 display (1366x768)

6-Cell 11.1V 48WHr Battery

Weight: 5lbs 9.0oz

Lenovo G550 Review

The 15.6" LCD is average compared to most 15-16" notebooks, with bright and vibrant colors and decent viewing angles. The screen offers a glossy surface, which helps improve colors and contrast at the cost of added reflections and glare.  Viewing angles aren't great, and you need to position the screen carefully; move slightly off-centre and the screen looks overblown with a lack of colour. The LCD display also has a native 16:9 aspect ratio, eliminating black lines when viewing DVD movies and movie files on the laptop. Compared with 16:10 displays the user gets a little more screen width but loses a few pixels of height from their desktop workspace. 

The Lenovo G550 has a Comfortable and solid keyboard. The keyboard is easy to type on, sharing the same comfortable and durable feel. The keys have a well-measured stroke length and a firm feedback point. 

the Lenovo G550 falls squarely into the category of office notebook, equipped with an Intel Pentium T4200 processor, an Intel GMA 4500M graphics chip integrated into the GL40 graphics chipset, and 3GB of RAM.  The Core 2 Duo T4200 and 4GB of RAM are a powerful combination, and the G550 did extremely well. The 320GB hard disk provides plenty of storage space, and is a welcome improvement from the previous model's 250GB disk. The machine has three USB 2.0 ports, LAN (RJ-45), VGA output,  headphone and microphone jacks and a Kensington lock slot; no card reader, expansion slots or digital video connection. The 2.5kg chassis is relatively light and can be comfortably carried on short journeys.

The Lenovo G550 is a very solid and durable laptop. With its impressive usability, power and mobility, the G550 ticks nearly all the boxes required of a family notebook. With its powerful processor, it will certainly deliver for that purpose.

Buy Lenovo G550

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The Lenovo G450 falls into line with other G-series budget laptops, offering similar performance as the G550 with a slightly smaller keyboard and display. It could be a good notebook for students as they certainly have to be cost conscious and portability is necessary to be able to easily carry a notebook in your backpack. The Lenovo G450 is not only inexpensive, it also comes with a great screen, a desktop-like typing experience, and a bevy of multimedia features.

Lenovo G450 Review

Lenovo G450 Specs:

Processor: Intel T4300 2.10GHz processor

3GB DDR3 SDRAM

250GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500

Screen: 14-inch, 16:9 format LED backlit (1366 x 768 resolution)

Wireless: Broadcom 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi

Ports: Three USB 2.0 ports, ExpressCard/34 slot, Ethernet port, monitor-out port, headphone out and microphone in

Weight: 4.9lbs

The screen for the G450 is nice and bright, Lenovo rates it at 220-nits, which is good. The display of G450 is very wide, having a 16:9 ratio and 1366 x 768 resolution, this is good for watching movies in widescreen format. Horizontal viewing angles are extremely good, so you won't have any trouble sharing a movie with a friend or two.

The keyboard is black.  The keyboard for the Lenovo G450 is comfortable for typing, the keys are actually very “desktop like’, they’re chunky and are protrude up more than an average laptop keyboard with flatter keys.  The keyboard on the other hand has decently sized keys, including the big right Shift keys. It’s got a very nice feel when typing thanks to its just right key travel stroke and overall firmness.

Overall the Lenovo G450 is a good laptop for the price.  The Lenovo g450 is a well-rounded laptop, thanks to its features for a reasonable price and great performance. Whether you’re a gamer, a businessman, a student or an average user, the Lenovo G450 has all the features that you would need. 

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The Lenovo G560 is Lenovo’s entry-level 15.6” laptop. The Lenovo G560 is for basic, everyday computing, which is made up of a variety of 14- and 15.6-inch models that share similar designs and features.

Lenovo G560 Specs:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Intel Core i3-330M dual-core processor 

15.6-inch 720p (1366x768) glossy panel with LED backlighting

4GB DDR3-1066 dual-channel RAM (2x 2GB)

320GB 5400RPM Western Digital hard drive (WD3200BEVT)

Integrated Intel HD graphics w/ shared video memory

Weight: 5.73 lbs.

6-cell Li-ion battery (11.1V, 48Wh)

Lenovo G560 Review

The G560 has ample performance for basic use like surfing the Internet and office productivity.  The machine is powered by a Core i3 350M processor, from one of Intel's latest generation of chips. Windows 7 works very fast on this computer with super fast start up and shutdown. The integrated Intel GMA HD graphics card is also suitably powerful, so you can stream HD movies and even carry out some basic video editing.

The G560 has a 15.6-inch screen with a 720p resolution and LED backlighting; this is the only available screen. This display is still impressive, providing a great deal of detail thanks to the 1366 x 768-pixel resolution, and both colour vibrancy and brightness are excellent. Movies look great on the computer with surprisingly crisp colours and a wide contrast range. The picture quality of the display is passable at best; it has a low contrast ratio of 150:1 and lacks sharpness.

The G560 has a full-size keyboard with separate numeric keypad. The keyboard is one of the highlights of this laptop; it feels solid and is pleasing to type on.  When typing, the keys convey a clear stroke, a precise pressure point and a firm (but not hard)attack. The keys are full size and work relatively purposefully. The G560 uses a single-piece touch pad, which integrates the mouse buttons directly into the touch pad. The keys have a low stroke and give off a hollow yet cheap-sounding clicking noise.

The Lenovo G560 is a solid entry into the consumer budget laptop market. The laptop is powered by decent components and delivers performance and battery life that are above-and-beyond the average for its class. All in all, the G560 is recommendable provided you invest in an external mouse. It is one of the best on the market for its price and I would definitely recommend this to anybody as a value notebook.


Buy The Lenovo G560!

Pros:

Good build quality and keyboard

Very elegant design 

Cons:

Display not perfect

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