A couple of days ago I bought two Lenovo G550 laptops – one for me, one for my wife. After spending a day browsing all the online shops and driving around all computer outlets in the city, I decided that this is the best option available.
Specifications: Dual-core 2Ghz Intel CPU, 15.6 inch glossy screen (WXGA, maximum resolution 1366×768), 4 GB of RAM, 250 GB hard disk, a bunch of USB ports, HDMI out, DVD writer, WiFi, and all the standard stuff, weighting at around 2.7 kilograms. Battery life is around 4 hours. Price: 500 EUR + 15% VAT = 575 EUR.
Both machines are running Linux (Fedora 12) already, even though they were coming with some Windows pre-installed. I wouldn’t know which one since I haven’t even booted into that once. Fedora Linux installation was straight-forward and everything worked, except for the wireless networking, which needs an extra step to enable those Broadcom drivers. Gladly, the required step is widely covered in the blogosphere. – basically, enable RPM Fusion yum repository, install kmod-wl package, and reboot your machine.
Everything is working find and I really enjoy the laptop, except for a few things that annoy me with its keyboard. The layout is somewhat weird. First of all, I am not used to having a number pad on a laptop keyboard. But that’s OK – if there is space, then why not, right? Well, there is space, but I think it would have been utilized better for Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn keys. As they are now, PgUp and PgDn are located next to navigation arrow keys and Home/End keys are only accessible through a Fn key, which is really strange. On top of that, Insert and Delete keys are in a different part of the keyboard – on top of the Backspace key. And while I don’t use Caps Lock all that often, some people will notice that Caps Lock indicator is missing, as well as NumLock and ScrollLock. What can I say? That’s one weird keyboard layout.
Other than that though there is nothing that I can complain about. The machine is nice and cool and pleasant to use. My wife seems to enjoy it as well.
My name is Leonid Mamchenkov and this is my personal blog. Feel free to browse around and leave comments. You can learn more about me
Hey, congratulations.
Now tell us if your HDMI has audio out?
Thanks Chris. I’ll have to try it out first ;)
i bought i new lenovo g550 notebook but the CD icon is missing in my computer. when i put a CD in it doesn’t even show. can u help me restore it back.
ben,
I have no idea what you are talking about. My CD is working fine.
Hi Leonid – I bought the G550 8 days ago. Mine has a 320GB hdd. But I also have the caps light working fine. I wonder y urs doesn't. It's next to the power on and restore button and on it's left is the num lock indicator. I do agree the keyboard layout is weird – but I'm only used to desktop keyboards. This is my first laptop. The only complaints I have is the tacky look & feel of the material used for the palm rest and the touch pad mouse. I bought a USB mouse and I prefer it.