Lenovo G550 Laptop Review

Lenovo’s ThinkPad range is synonymous with high quality business laptops. Now they’re attempting to recreate that success with their Valueline, a small range of high-quality entry level machines.

Lenovo G550

They keyboard takes up most of the space between the 15.6inch widescreen display, it’s a little soft to type on and does not match the quality of the more expensive Lenovo models such as the ThinkPad series. Lenovo have squeezed in a small numeric keypad but it’s a little too thin to use and is quite honestly just tacky.

The core specification of a 2GHz Pentium Dual Core T4200 and 3GB of RAM are what you would expect at this price range. The onboard Intel GMA 4500M HD graphics is quality for this price range and the 320GB hard drive provides plenty of storage space. This machines processor and performance notably betters most rivals around the £400 price tag. Even though it is apparently a portable system it weighs in at 2.5kg with a battery life of just over four hours the G550 is most suited for the indoors yet is relatively light and can be comfortably carried on short journeys.

There are obvious signs this is a budget laptop, whilst the 1,366x768 screen is bright, evenly lit and capable of bright whites, the colours lack vibrancy and text isn’t that sharp, as a result the viewing angles aren’t great and the screen needs to be positioned carefully to make up for the lack of colour.

For a price of about £400 you wouldn’t and you don’t receive anything in the way of ports and only three USB slots and a VGA port output sitting alongside the built-in DVD writer. The stereo speakers are quiet and have very little bass but for a budget laptop the best is not expected.

Even though in certain areas the Lenovo is evidently a budget laptop the usability is quite honestly excellent. The keyboard is wide and makes best use of the space given and incorporates a full numeric keypad on the right hand side and makes it quick and easy to input data. However, the large keys have a slightly spongy typing action yet not enough to hinder use.

With its impressive usability, power and mobility, the G550 ticks nearly all the boxes, considering the decent build quality and low price, required of a family laptop. Whilst its graphics aren’t amazing it more than compensates in all other areas. Lenovo’s G550 is a reliable, decent budget laptop.