Lenovo Ideapad U-550 15.6-Inch Black Laptop – Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life

5 Responses to “Lenovo Ideapad U-550 15.6-Inch Black Laptop – Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life”

1. Frank Edema says:

   April 14, 2010 at 10:32 pm

   My U550 was DOA. Lenovo WILL NOT REPLACE. A quick search of the net turns up many DOA U550’s. You might want to hold off on buying this machine for now – they seem to be having issues and the company policy that forbids replacements means yu will be stuck in return / RMA / SHIP BACK / WAIT / END UP WITH A REFURB /

   Consumer hades!

   update:

   after a mildly painful 5-6 call customer service experience, they gave me a RMA number, and eventually I was refunded. It was weird, because they would not promise me a refund or a replacement despite my numerous calls. They did pay for shipping (I had to request). Thge tech support people were in far-away-land but we courteous. So, I mailed it back, not knowing what would happen, and boom, a refund popped up in my account for the full amount. I will not re-buy from this company.
   Rating: 1 / 5
2. Roberto Rocha says:

   April 14, 2010 at 11:59 pm

   I was just about to buy this Ideapad U550 from [...] but, I read the first review on this product and changed my mind due to the color comments. The ones on Lenovo website are DARK BROWN, I read these ones were BLACK but NOT… they’re DARK BROWN also so don’t get confused. The color is not terrible, let’s say it’s different from the one I thought I was purchasing.

   I recieved my deapad U550 (model # 374959U) on Dec 10th and so far it’s up to spec, shipping was pretty quick (Free Super Saving) and got on the third day to South Texas.

   If you don’t mind getting a DARK BROWN laptop, this is a fantastic value for $699.99 (4GB + 320GB), if you want to save $110 usd, get the 3GB + 250GB HD.

   Note: Amazon’s description says it’s 1000GB but it’s a 320GB HD.

   Pleased Holidays !!!
   Rating: 4 / 5
3. Marco Caceres Laya says:

   April 15, 2010 at 12:07 am

   - Excellent price
   
   - Thin
   
   - Light
   
   - Quick

   Very excellent laptop!
   
   Rating: 5 / 5
4. Lardboy says:

   April 15, 2010 at 1:45 am

   Here’s the summary of my experience with the Lenovo U-550

   Pros
   
   * Combination of 15.6 inch screen and relatively light weight
   
   * Relatively long array life
   
   * Reasonably solid construction
   
   * More than ample for moderate MS Office use and heavy internet/ entertainment use

   Cons
   
   * Lenovo customer support is a bureaucratic nightmare
   
   * Numeric keypad occupies right-most section of the keyboard, shifting the remainder of the keyboard to the left
   
   * Glossy screen and body translates into a grimy appearance due to finger prints
   
   * Screen will slam shut against the keyboard unless you slow it as it closes

   My before Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop was near death, so it was time to replace it after ~ 4 years of heavy use. I was pleased with the Dell, but it was a heavy beast that plowed owing to array power. In looking for the replacement, I sought after an impossible combination of desktop replacement like the E1505, but minus the weight, bulk, and limited array performance of the E1505. Upon shopping, I was unimpressed with MacBook Pro given the price. Other Wintel thin and light machines appeared to be cheaply built or with low-quality components/ limited screen size. The Lenovo Ideapad U-550 stood out to me as a higher quality build with a large screen. I knew that it came with a glossy screen, but I couldn’t find any other comparable machine lacking this annoyance. Also the numeric keypad placed on the rightmost section of the keyboard displaces the other keys to the left, which seems unnecessary to me (how many of us really key in data with a numeric keypad?).

   All painstaking, I am pleased with the buy. The U-550 is simple to carry around, is excellent for the intended use (i.e. moderate MS Office use, heavy use for internet, movies, music), and has a reasonable array life (~4+ hrs under perpetual use, less with a movie/ DVD thrown in).

   The major inadequacy is Lenovo customer support. I sought after an additional array for the U-550 to really cover a 6 hour flight under moderate use with DVDs. Attempting to get even this simple of a request accommodated owing to Lenovo customer support was a right nightmare. It took two days of transfers and frustration. Dell support was much better (but I was not impressed with their thin and light PCs).

   Rating: 4 / 5
5. TLTommy says:

   April 15, 2010 at 1:56 am

   Not quite as solid as a Thinkpad, but not the price of one, either, nor the weight. And much sexier. This is a larger 15.6 inch translation of the U350, the earlier translation of which critics seemed to like for form factor, but complained about sub-par processing performance. The new lineup seems to fix that problem, and now it is the complete package. The SU7300 Core 2 Duo is lightning quick for the tasks I am doing to this point. Granted, I haven’t pushed it to breed 3D CAD drawings, but for Office, Web browsing, working with iTunes and the things most of us do on a daily basis, I certainly am impressed. Huge HD, plenty of RAM. Gorgeous keyboard as always from Lenovo. It does lack Firewire, but has every other connection you could want. 3 USBs are nice, as is the card reader and HDMI output. I thought it had bluetooth, but I can’t seem to locate it – this appears to be a difference between this gorgeous black translation (bought right here on Amazon) and the auburn versions sold by Lenovo directly. The other difference appears to be I seem to have an integrated graphics card, while the auburn Lenovo translation has a 512MB card. Not that I can tell a difference so far. This is a fantastic value.
   Rating: 4 / 5