Hands-on review of Lenovo G580 laptop


Lenovo has come up with its Essential series with G580. The laptop series promises some of the best features and looks at an affordable price. Let us have a look at the latest launch from Lenovo and know the pros and cons of the laptop as per my first hand usage till now.

Lenovo G580 series is the latest in the essential lines from Lenovo. Recently Lenovo has managed to grab the number one position in Indian laptop market all thanks to an aggressive marketing and features and looks which entice the youngsters. If you already like the Lenovo series, still the G580 will manage to surprise you. Following are some cool features of this great laptop from Lenovo-

(Please note that I have reviewed the Lenovo G580 dual core second generation laptop. The higher range laptops in this series also have the same look and basic features with the exception of higher processor speeds, memory capacity and graphics card)

lenovo g580 laptop picture

Specifications of Lenovo G580 laptop-


Second generation dual core processor
2 GB RAM
500 GB hard disk memory

Advantages of Lenovo G580 laptop-


1. Great looks: The Lenovo G580 comes with great looks. It has a glossy finished body and looks quite slim and high quality. The Lenovo logo is situated in the top left part of the lid. The Screen is quite shiny and the overall laptop looks real neat and tidy.

2. Great Keypad: The Lenovo G580 comes series comes with the island keypad which makes typing an enjoyable task. The keys are widely spaced making sure that there is no mistyping and at the same time provides room enough for fingers to lay on. The keypad would be a boon for people with large fingers who often complain of typing mistakes due to pressing the wrong button. The keyboard is a full sized keyboard and contains the numerical pad too like most of the other Lenovo laptops.



There is however no indicator lights for caps lock on or off as well as numerical on or off which can be a big turn off of this laptop. It is however notification on the screen about the same. Also there is no backlit illumination from the keyboard and hence typing in lowlight condition for amateur typists will be a problem.

3. Heat: the biggest problem with laptops is heating as it not only decreases the life of the component but is also related to several health hazards due to using the laptop on the lap. This laptop however is really cool and you will never feel the heat on the keypad unlike some laptops. Even the bottom portion of the laptop doesn't heat up so much and I am saying this after continuously using internet and Microsoft office while listening to mp3 songs for twelve straight hours!

4. Great Speakers: The Lenovo G580 has one of the best and loudest laptops I have ever come across. The laptop speakers are situated at the bottom of the laptop and produces crystal clear sound with good treble and even some amount of bass and the best part of it- the loudness of sound is comparable to a small sub- woofer. The laptop sounds great even when connected to a standard subwoofer. There are however some glitches. First when the laptop is in charging and connected to a subwoofer then there is a humming sound from the subwoofer indicating interference from the power source. This may be because both the jacks are quite near. Also there is no port for inserting mic. Jack and one has to completely rely on the inbuilt mic located near the keypad. The inbuilt mic however is a big disappointment and produces a slightly distorted sound. So get ready for people asking if you have a cold when you chat them in Skype.

5. Silence is golden: The laptop produces absolutely no sound. No sound of the fan, no sound of the hard disk. It is the best laptop if you are going for a secret mission and want to stay clear of enemy commandos. Jokes aside, the fan is noise control and all the sound that comes from this laptop is when you load a disk.

6. USB 3.0 and HDMI port: USB 3.0 is the latest and promises faster uploading and downloading speeds from your USB drive. Also with the HDMI port one can connect to HD TV and watch videos and presentations on the large screen instead of the small screen of the laptop.

7. Speed: The laptop is quite speedy and rarely hanged during the past two weeks even though I use it for around 8-9 hours every day. Although I haven't tested the same with 3D games, it works perfect for net surfing, Microsoft office and watching videos.

8. Clarity of screen: The Lenovo G580 has a clear screen and watching HD videos is a great experience. Despite the dual core second generation lacking an external graphics card, the images rendered are of superb quality and produces great contrast. The screen is viewable from 170 degrees and hence won't be a problem if you want to watch a movie with friends. The laptop however has a shiny screen which means it is hard to watch directly under the sun.

9. Lenovo One key rescue system: The one key rescue system can be the savior if your laptop happens to crash or get infected by virus. Just a click on the button is all you need and the last backup version of the software would be there as if nothing happened to the laptop.

10. Energy management features and cleaning features- the laptop comes with various energy management features and allows you to select maximum battery life option so that you don't have to go hunting for batteries any soon. What happens here is that the battery is charged upto only 60 percent and after which the laptop consumes most of its power demands from the direct ac supply and hence increasing the life span of the battery. Also the battery lasts for about 4 hours when fully charged.

11. It comes with all the connectivity features viz. Bluetooth and WiFi.

12. The best of all, the Lenovo G580 dual core costs only Rs 24990 at Emall stores, which makes it one of the cheapest laptops in India. The prices might have fallen down slightly by now.



Disadvantages of Lenovo G580 laptop:


1. The lack of microphone jack is a major turn off! The microphone jack is missing even for higher range of models of the same series.

2. Although the body looks quite great with the glossy finish, the same causes problems as it also doubles up as a finger print magnet and every ten minutes you would find yourself cleaning the finger prints from the crime scene.

3. The glossy screen also makes sure that operating the laptop outdoors is not a pleasing experience. A matt version of the laptop would be a welcome relief here.

4. The USB ports are a bit tight and it takes some care while inserting and removing pen drives.

5. A Lenovo backpack is included with this model which looks more like a school bag. Definitely a turn off for professionals who would like to carry a side bag instead.

6. Absence of a preloaded operating system means you have to load the operating system yourself, wait for all the procedure and hence waste some time in doing the same. It may however not be a problem for people who have been doing it for some time.

Do I recommend this laptop? Yes! I would say this is the laptop everyone must buy and it is the best laptop available at the cheapest price. (Click on the link to see how I came to this conclusion)

<SCRIPT charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_mfw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822/US/studvill-20/8001/0535ce74-9a59-4778-9ea4-eb3ca348fbca"> </SCRIPT>


Comments

Guest Author: sebin03 Aug 2012

Thank you very much for this great post. I m planning to buy this laptop.

Is there is any way to overcome mic problem? And is that really horrible to use inbuilt mic?

Author: Renin03 Aug 2012 Member Level: Gold   Points : 1

The sound quality is distorted and sounds more like a robotic sound. Since there is no input port for the mic, there is no way the same can be rectified. However when you buy the laptop, do enquire the salesperson if there is any way around.
Other than that, the laptop is great and I would highly recommend it. Good choice!

Guest Author: Sebin04 Aug 2012

I think we can solve this problem using a headphone adapter or a headset in mobile phones. What is ur opinion?

Author: Renin04 Aug 2012 Member Level: Gold   Points : 0

Sebin, I think you are right.
Mobile phone headphones work perfectly with it. I guess buying a mobile phone headphone is a better bet if you are going to buy Lenovo G580.

Will update it shortly.

Guest Author: Sandeep07 Aug 2012

i friends don't worry about the microphone it's inbuilt Enjoy......

Author: vinay biradar08 Aug 2012 Member Level: Bronze   Points : 1

Dear,
Really useful information about Lenova laptops.. this information has changed my views about Lenova laptops... Technology is updating every day...

Thank you for the useful deep information about laptop

Vinayk

Author: Renin08 Aug 2012 Member Level: Gold   Points : 1

Sandeep

you are right that there is an inbuilt microphone. the problem was that the sound quality was not so good. But one can easily use a phone handsfree with this laptop which I was initially not aware of.

Author: Renin08 Aug 2012 Member Level: Gold   Points : 1

Vinay

Thanks for reading the post. Among the low range and even in the mid range, I feel that Lenovo provides one of the best laptops. It can beat any other brand in terms of looks as well as features and still doesn't cost much. Also with the lenovo service centers sprawled across the country, it is definitely the brand to go with.

Guest Author: yohan30 Sep 2012

my lenovo g580 laptop power button light is not working from when i buy this ...

Author: Renin27 Oct 2012 Member Level: Gold   Points : 0

The power light button is located on the front side of the laptop. If it is not glowing then I would suggest you to get it repaced as it is very crucial.

Guest Author: Ankur Verma06 Nov 2012

is lenovo G580 can connect with Bluetooth headset, if yes how I have Philips SHB6110 and it can be connected to my mobile phone but it is not showing in Bluetooth devices of my pc, its really painful. Please guide me.

Guest Author: Smita25 Nov 2012

I got new laptop yest n dvd drive has a cross mark on it.If i click it shows regular symbol else it is shown with others not with devices with removable storage.Is it normal??but it works properly.plz help.

Author: Renin26 Nov 2012 Member Level: Gold   Points : 2

@Ankur Verma
Make sure that you have installed the bluetooth driver. If not it is available in the CD which came along with the computer. After installing, just search for the bluetooth adapter and you can easily connect it.

@Smita
Do not worry, there is no problem about it. Even I felt the same, but eventually the problem subsided.

Author: Godson17 Dec 2012 Member Level: Gold   Points : 0

Thank you very much for this detailed information. I think regarding the price of the laptop, it is one of the best although there are some disadvantages.

Guest Author: raju24 Dec 2012

can you help every time i tried to play game it says game played in software rendering mode hardware acceleration is disabled or not supported how to fix it

Author: Renin24 Dec 2012 Member Level: Gold   Points : 2

@Godson
You are right, it is one of the best laptops in the price range. We need to bear with some disadvantages if we are shelling out less money, anyways the number is less as compared to other laptop brands in the same price range. :)

Author: Renin24 Dec 2012 Member Level: Gold   Points : 0

@raju
Apologies but I cannot be much help to you as the error might require in depth technical help.

Guest Author: hound09 Jan 2013

when i start up the system everything is fine but iam getting the desktop background and no icons are displayed and the cursor is busy........ and thats it i can't access anything ....i am using W7(ultimate) 32-bit..........please help me to get through this..........

Guest Author: mdawg09 Jan 2013

thanks bro for the great in depth review. usually i dont post random comments but dang thats the most helpful in-depth review ive seen all year. ive been looking for a laptop, and ive been eyeing this one, but i was a little skeptical since i didnt know anything about its physical functionality. thanks again for the high-quality review. I'm definitely going to go with this one. it sure is a beauty for such a great deal.

Guest Author: phani16 Jan 2013

Hi,

Those who are you using this lappy can u pls provide us the information on battery backup ur getting .

Guest Author: Someone17 Jan 2013

"1. The lack of microphone jack is a major turn off! The microphone jack is missing even for higher range of models of the same series."

Not correct, this Lenovo has combo audio jack - but you will need headphones with audio and mic connector in one jack (combo audio jack headphones).

Guest Author: jdiid02 Feb 2013

Thank you for this detailed review. I am ordering the i3 version of this lenovo.

As for the mic, I think the specs say that the lenovo g580 has a Combo head/mic jack. You should get COMBO headphones if you need to do some video conversation.

Guest Author: mishka05 Sep 2013

My Bluetooth does not work and does not pick up any devices and this is a new laptop. After a few uses, my laptop is ONLY charging to 60% and I want it to charge to 100% or 99%. I have tried everything but can't change this. I have no idea why it suddenly is only charging to 60%

Guest Author: Karl27 Nov 2014

Also for the mic, if you don't have combo headphone, you can use a headset adapter with separate mic/headphone plugs



  • Do not include your name, "with regards" etc in the comment. Write detailed comment, relevant to the topic.
  • No HTML formatting and links to other web sites are allowed.
  • This is a strictly moderated site. Absolutely no spam allowed.
  • Name:
    Email: