User Review Lenovo G50-70

Background:
My needs were: a budget Laptop for home use

Ultimately took the plunge and bought this Lenovo G50-70.
  • 1.9GHz Intel Core i3 4030U Processor
  • 4GB RAM
  • 1TB Hard drive
  • 15.6-inch Screen, Integrated Graphics Processor
  • DOS Operating system
  • 2xUSB 2.0 & 1xUSB 3.0
  • Ethernet/LAN
  • HDMI
  • Card reader built-in

Paid: Rs. 24.990, free shipping.

Intro:
I had set it up and handed over to my kiddo. My impressions are in the brief time (~24 hr.) I handled it:

The Lenovo G50 laptop will satisfy anyone who has the need for basic tasks like:
- Internet browsing
- watching YouTube videos
- watching HD movies
- Office apps / word processing / spreadsheets / ppts
- music
- and other similar simple tasks primarily for home use or, for school children

Packaging:
Packaging was excellent from Cloudtail / Amazon.in. The laptop box was surrounded by lots of air bags and the placed in a larger box.

Build:
Build quality is reasonable considering the budget. The top cover has black matte finish which looks nice. No great risk of smudges. There are other color options, like grey, white. I was not interested in white and on the day of purchase, the black one was cheaper.

The profile is surprisingly thin for the budget. and when you open it was greeted by a glossy screen with a glossy bezel. Screen is 1366x768. The lower half - has a matte / brushed finish which looks very classy. The keyboard well is also having similar finish and it looks quite elegant.

The feel around the lower half is "plasticky" - a bit rough. The DVD drive is smooth.

Keyboard:
The keyboard is a full size keyboard and the chicklet style keys are well laid out. It has a a full number keypad. There is flex in the keyboard when pressed in the middle/center but this is to be expected because we are looking at a budget of around Rs. 25000. Keys are quite tactile and responsive.

Trackpad:
The trackpad is quite responsive. It too has a brushed finish, making it easy to use. The quality of the buttons though is not good. Both the buttons are somewhat hard. They are ~0.5mm lower than the track pad. And one can see the flex easily, cheap build.
However this is not exactly a problem for myself because I anyway intend to use a wireless mouse.

Display:
Coming to the main interface between you and a laptop: the display/screen.
I was most apprehensive about the screen because ultimately that is the main interface between the user and the computer. It was a pleasant surprise even though it is reflective (glossy screen).

The viewing angles are quite good when viewed side-on. But, deteriorate rapidly on the vertical axis.
Because of which there is a sweet spot when it comes to vertical alignment.

Contrast is not great, it is adequate.

Connectivity:
Tried only WiFi & Bluetooth. Both were a breeze to set-up.

Battery life:
Not a deal breaker for me as it is meant only for home use. Noticed that it comes ~3-3.5 hours, before it comes down to 15% battery level. Has a 4-cell battery.

Performance:
I had installed Win7 64 bit and it is working very smoothly. I haven't run any benchmarks, people interested in those can google - there are a number of professional reviews that have included this aspect.

Personally I don't go much by benchmarks, as long as the performance meets my needs - which this laptop does.

Plays HD (1080p) videos flawlessly.

The laptop comes with a drivers CD for Windows 8. In case somebody wishes to use Windows 7 or Linux, one needs to download all the relevant drivers from the Lenovo website.
On Amazon feedback, few people had experienced problems with device drivers. I did not face any, probably because I did the homework before. I downloaded all drivers for Win7-64 bit, once I placed my order, so when the laptop was received, there was no further loss of time searching for drivers.


Conclusion:
For the money I spent, definitely I'm happy. No hesitation in recommending this for home use/basic computing tasks.

I do intend to put in a SSD in the DVD drive bay. Will update this once that project is completed!
 
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