Lenovo G550 15.6-Inch Black Laptop – Up to 3.8 Hours of Battery Life

5 Responses to “Lenovo G550 15.6-Inch Black Laptop – Up to 3.8 Hours of Battery Life”

1. Canegrad says:

   April 22, 2010 at 1:51 pm

   I just bought a Lenovo ThinkPad. The computer itself if adequate but the customer service of the company is horrible. From the phone sales person arguing with us about what they can and can’t do to the tech support who told me “I don’t have time to deal with you or your problem, call web sales” I am amazed they are in business.

   As I said the computer is fine, I just hope it holds up and you don’t have to contact the company for any reason. There are a lot of other computers out there that are in the same category as this one, I suggest you look at one of those.
   
   Rating: 1 / 5
2. Suresh Subramaniam says:

   April 22, 2010 at 3:49 pm

   My buy from Lenovo left a bitter taste in my mouth. I bought a Lenovo G550 in

   November 2009. I was looking for a basic laptop for my daughter who only browses, chats and

   does her homework on the computer. I did not really need all the multi-media and high end

   graphics so touted by all computer sellers. My search lessened to Dell and Lenovo. I

   already had a Dell and it was working fine after 3 years. I did some research and talked to

   some friends and some of them recommended Lenovo. My company provides Lenovo laptops for

   its employees to use. I naturally find that at least one of my team members have to go the

   technical support to repair their laptops every week and I dont have a very large team. In

   spite of all this adverse information regarding Lenovo quality, I still took the plunge and

   ordered a G550. The deal was excellent at $449.

   One of the first things that gave me a pause was that Lenovo advertised the laptop as

   “Intel® Dual-Core Processor” leaving out the word “Pentium” (they have corrected this hence,

   maybe due to feedback from customers). I thought in the beginning that it was a Intel Core

   2 Duo processor and was delighted to get one at this price. Later after some more research

   it turned out to a “Pentium’ processor which is inferior to Core 2 Duo. Some blame should

   also go to Intel for this similar naming, but other computer sellers include the word

   “Pentium”.

   I ordered it and they shipped it (Customer Number: 4969111, Order: 2E1LJR). It took about

   15 days to arrive which was normal as per the lead time published on their site. But, while

   tracking the package, I found that the laptop was shipped from China, and passed owing to

   Korea and Japan before reaching Alaska and I was wondering how Lenovo could afford to ship

   an individual package from China to US and still be competitive.

   The laptop arrived and we opened and installed it. An irritating setup feature was the

   numerous preloaded advertisements in the laptop asking you to subscribe to some service or

   the other. It was like doing an online survery.

   I liked the face recognition feature. The laptop was solid enough, a small heavy and bulky

   but I had known that. After 2 days my daughter reported that the laptop was not shutting

   down. When you try to shut it down, it goes to the One Key Rescue Screen. When you try to

   exit the One Key Rescue, it gives you two options – either you can reboot or shutdown. If

   you point out Reboot it would restart again. If you point out Shutdown, it would go off and

   restart again and go back to the One Key Rescue screen. You are stuck in an infinite loop.

   I called Technical Support and the nightmare started. I had to hold for more than 30

   minutes to speak to a Technical Support person. I clarified the problem to her. After a

   pause and some background conversation she again questioned me to repeat the problem. Again she

   went off and there was some background converation. I could hear a male voice and some

   giggling in the background. She came on again and questioned me repeat the problem. By this

   time I was mad and told her that I had continual it twice before and was she not taking

   notes? I continual the problem and she was attentive this time.

   She place me owing to all the steps of getting the order number, serial number and trying to

   troubleshoot the problem like taking out the array and reinstalling it and so on but no

   aim. Then she gave me a case number (Case # wn147498) and told me to call Sales and give

   the case number and they will help me. I told her that if I called again I would have to

   hold for another 30 minutes, but she said that she cannot transfer me and I would have to

   call the 800 number again.

   So the next day I called the number again and after a hold of 40 minutes I got Sales. I

   gave them the case number and the customer support person said that she sought after the Order

   number and not the case number (which was in contradiction to what Tech support said). I

   told that I had called tech support and I had a case number but she was adamant that she

   sought after the order number. I told her to hold on so that I could get the order number from

   the box, and she disconnected the call. By then I was again mad.

   I called again next day and point out the option for Returns thinking that it could be simpler.

   A recorded voice said that since they had ‘unexpected high call volumes’ the hold would be

   more than 30 minutes and the call was disconnected. I persisted and called again this time

   choosing the ‘Sales’option. This time there was no recorded message. It was apparent that

   they sought after to discourage returns and only sought after to talk to people who were trying to buy.

   After a hold of over 40 minutes I got a customer support person. I clarified the problem to

   him. He went owing to all the normal routine of how sorry he was that I had this problem and

   questioned me to hold on. He conferenced in a technical support person who seemed to be Chinese,

   from the accent. I again clarified my problem to this person and he questioned me if I had done

   the steps of taking out the array, etc and I said yes. Then he announced that I would

   have to return the laptop and Lenovo will replace it. I questioned him if I had the option of

   persistent it for a refund and he said no. The only option was replacement.

   I was fuming again by this time and questioned him why refund was not an option. He just

   continual that I could not get a refund. This made up my mind. Till now, although I had a

   approximate time with their customer service, I was willing to give Lenovo the benefit of doubt

   and had only sought after a replacement. When the technical support guy said that refund was not

   an option, then I chose that I dont want a replacement and sought after no association with this

   company.

   When the customer support person detected that I was getting mad he broke in and told the

   technical support guy to can it and told him that he will handle it. Then the customer

   support guy told me that I could return it and get a refund if I sought after it. I said yes and

   he gave me a RMA number. He also sent me an email providing the details. I reckon this

   person repaired some of the hurt his company’s reputation had suffered in my eyes.

   After that it was smooth. I sent the laptop back, they gave me the refund. I was half

   worried that they would find some excuse not to refund the amount completely but it did not

   happen.

   I bought a Dell the next day.

   Rating: 1 / 5
3. Larry F. Rogers says:

   April 22, 2010 at 6:20 pm

   I find it weird that a couple of people (maybe the same person) complain about service for this notebook. I called and had a response within 2 minutes. I had a minor issue regarding the facial appearance on the notebook and was helped and off the phone in ten minutes.

   Perhaps if something serious goes incorrect you may find it annoying. For example, we have an HP notebook and it took 3 technicians and a supervisor and over 3 hours of our time to get them to ship us a replacement array for a strain new computer.

   The margins are very thin on these machines, so don’t expect them to come to your door. If you buy a $400-$500 computer you cannot expect them to provide you $400 worth of support time if you are inept in computing and not hardware savvy.

   This notebook is an absolute steal for the cash and very well made. My only complaint and it appears in HP as well is the notebooks run a tad hot. I have not had any problems as a upshot, but it may be a excellent thought to get a cooling pad for while you use it at home. If you are a road warrier, traveling coolers are available as well.

   The notebook has exceptional array life, an astoundingly nice show and a well designed keyboard. All touchpad’s stink, from the HP to Dell. So, get a notebook mouse.

   Fantastic notebook for the cash!!
   Rating: 5 / 5
4. Abhishek Kumar Roy says:

   April 22, 2010 at 9:05 pm

   I thinks its a excellent laptop to buy at affordable price. Till now i have not faced any problem.
   Rating: 5 / 5
5. A. Forward says:

   April 23, 2010 at 12:03 am

   The LED backlit show that I thought would produce better colors thinking that LED backlit was all the hype in LED LCD HDTVs like Samsung, Sony, etc. produces a slightly purplish color cast to the image. I thought getting the LED backlit show at such a low cost was a fantastic deal, but I guess you really get what you pay for. In this price range, I’m nearly thinking a traditional CCFL backlit LCD would have looked more accurate in terms of colors. If you’re using this for shooting, I would stay away. If you’re using it for web surfing or word processing, it won’t topic. For my desktop I have a color calibrating Samsung show, so straight away I can notice the purplish color cast on the Lenovo. I did attempt to right for the hue by running my color calibrator on it, which helped, but didn’t completely fix it.
   Rating: 4 / 5