Jul 26, 2016 09:21 AM
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When you come across a 15.6-inch laptop with a sub-$700 price tag, you’re probably going to assume that it must be riddled with compromises in order to sell for several hundred dollars less than most other mainstream laptops. The Lenovo G560—which sells direct from Lenovo for$699—comes with its share of concessions. But it doesn’t drop the ball in the areas where it really counts; it dishes out excellent performance and battery life. Further defying expectations, the G560 even comes with a few surprising features, including HDMI and eSATA ports, as well as an ExpressCard/34 slot and an integrated media-card reader.
The G560 is part of Lenovo’s Essential G-Series line of laptops for basic, everyday computing, which is made up of a variety of 14- and 15.6-inch models that share similar designs and features. The G560 measures 1.4x14.8x9.9-inches(HWD), which is typical for a laptop with a 15.6-inch display; its weight of 5.7 pounds, however, puts it a bit on the heavy side for its class. The all-black chassis has a glossy lid with a faint tread-like pattern; but we found that the lid was one of the worst fingerprint-smudge magnets we’ve ever seen.
Instead of a Chiclet-style keyboard, which is all the rage right now, Lenovo chose to use a traditional-style keyboard and even threw in a dedicated mini-number-pad. We liked the sturdy feel of the keys, but as we moved to the right side of the keyboard, it became increasingly mushy as it flexed underneath the weight of our fingers. The keyboard includes brightness and volume keys; but unlike other laptops where these are dedicated keys, on the G560 you must press the Function key to access them. Above the keyboard are dedicated buttons for the OneKey Recovery utility(which can be accessed during boot up or when Windows is running) for system backups and restores, and the Lenovo Energy Management utility for quick changes to the power management settings.
The G560 uses a single-piece touch pad, which integrates the mouse buttons directly into the touch pad. We had some trouble using this configuration, as our fingers frequently missed pressing the mouse buttons. In addition to not clicking when we thought we were clicking, a secondary problem was that with a finger already mistakenly pressed down in the touch pad area instead of on a mouse button, the touch pad became unresponsive to our trying to move the cursor with our other finger.
The G560 uses an LED-backlit display that has a native resolution of 1,366x768 pixels, which is the norm for 15.6-inch laptops. We watched a few movies on the screen and were impressed with how crisp the colors looked and the display’s wide contrast range—a boon for when watching movies that have dark scenes. Unfortunately, the display wasn’t as bright as we’ve seen on other 15.6-inch laptops; plus it had a very narrow viewing angle, and the glossy screen too easily caught annoying reflections. These issues all go away when you are sitting in front of the laptop in a dark room. The stereo speakers pumped out impressively loud audio and did so with minimal distortion even at the highest setting. That said, as is typically the case with laptop speakers, the speakers emitted virtually no bass response.
For a budget-priced mainstream laptop, the G560 includes a surprising collection of connectivity features. In addition to the requisite VGA-out and three USB 2.0 ports, the G560 also comes with an HDMI-out port, an ExpressCard/34 slot, and a five-format media-card reader. Another added bonus is that one of the USB ports is a combo port that also works with eSATA devices. Networking capabilities are taken care of by the 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi radio and the Gigabit Ethernet port. The G560 doesn’t come with a Bluetooth radio, but we wouldn’t necessarily expect one to be included at this low price point.
With a 2.13GHz Intel Core i3-330M processor, 4GB RAM, integrated Intel GMA HD graphics, and a 320GB hard drive, the G560 has almost identical specs as the$649.99 Gateway NV5933u. Unlike the NV5933u, which comes with a Blu-ray drive, the G560 comes with a standard DVD±RW drive. Including a Blu-ray drive in an under-$700 laptop is almost unheard of—as such, with such similar components under the hood, the NV5933u might seem like a better choice for anyone looking for an inexpensive multimedia machine. But before you dismiss the G560 outright, consider that it has a number of advantages over the NV5933u—which might have greater appeal to you, depending on your needs.
Two of the G560’s advantages are the eSATA port and ExpressCard slot that the NV5933u lacks. But perhaps the biggest differentiator between the two laptops is that the NV5933u’s meager battery life of 1 hour and 36 minutes is more than an hour behind that of the G560’s 2:45 on our demanding DVD-movie drain test. In fact, the G560’s battery life is even a bit longer than the average of roughly 2:30 for mainstream laptops. In our casual usage, the G560 lasted over 3.5 hours.
The G560 is a set configuration that cannot be configured-to-order like some manufacturers let you do with their laptop models, such as Dell or HP. On the Lenovo Web page for the G560 there is a “Customize & buy” link, but the available options are relegated to extending the warranty beyond the basic one-year parts-and-labor and adding additional software.
A number of useful applications come standard with the G560, such as facial-recognition security software and the Lenovo DirectShare file syncing app. Thankfully, the G560 doesn’t have much preinstalled bloatware, but the 60-day trials of McAfee Security Center and Microsoft Office will be of questionable value to many users.
With its$699 price tag, the Lenovo G560 is a very good deal for a 15.6-inch laptop. It is powered by decent components and delivers performance and battery life that are above-and-beyond the average for its class. For$50 less you can grab the similarly configured Gateway NV5933u, which adds a Blu-ray drive to the mix; but in doing so you’ll give up the G560’s impressive battery life and its eSATA port and ExpressCard slot in the process. Unless you can’t live without the NV5933u’s Blu-ray drive or don’t care how long the battery lasts, the G560’s is the superior machine and the better value.
