LENOVO G50 80E3016QUS 15.6 inch Laptop Review

15.6" Lenovo G50 80E3016QUS
via Amazon

Lenovo G50 80E3016QUS is a 15.6 inch entry level multimedia notebook PC with decent features offering smooth performance and speed for daily tasks such as surfing the net, streaming videos, word processing, basic accounting and online gaming- or older titles with the mid-range AMD A6 processor with a Passmark benchmark score of 2354 as of this review day and generous 8GB memory offered at a great price that would be worth it just for the very large storage capacity and RAM size alone (double the standard 4GB RAM and 500GB storage you get at this level) but let’s find out if it would be the right machine for you.

LENOVO G50 comes with the quad core ‘Beema’ AMD A6-6310 low voltage processor with a TDP of 15 watts clocked at 1.8GHz base speed to 2.4GHz with boost but no hyper threading feature so you have four cores and four threads in parallel, 8GB DDR3L SDRAM for greatly enhanced multitasking power for such a budget priced computer so no problems when you have several browsers and apps running simultaneously, 1TB Serial ATA III hard drive at 5400rpm rotating speed as rather spacious storage at regular speed read and write times and Windows 8.1 64-bit operating system as a decent platform for anything you may do- multimedia, games, work etc. and a free upgrade to the newer Windows 10 should be available some time in 2015.

15.6 inch LED-backlit high definition widescreen non-touch display with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution and 16:9 image aspect ratio offers decent quality bright and clear visuals in rich detail but not as good as a 1080p FHD screen and the panel is not IPS so the viewing angles are just OK but you really can’t have FHD or IPS at this low price level with already higher than normal technical operational specs. It comes with the integrated AMD Radeon R4 graphics that can be compared to Radeon HD 7470M or Intel’s HD 4200 graphics card, meaning you’ll be fine with general multimedia and older games- you can play games like Angry Birds fluently but only a small percentage of modern 2014/2015 games and at low settings. 720p high definition built-in webcam with microphone should be all-right for casual video chats on Skype or other apps. The fact that it has Dolby Advanced Audio v2 and stereo speakers you’ll get to enjoy above average sound for songs, movies and games.

Lenovo G50 weighs 4.6 pounds with dimensions of 10.43 x 15.12 x 0.98 inches- slim and lightweight for easy portability and with a 4-cell battery that should offer a battery life of up to 5 hours battery life, also helped with Lenovo Energy Management. Typical of any Lenovo laptop, keyboard is the ergonomic AccuType with island style keys for accurate and comfy typing with a numeric pad on the side and a small multitouch touchpad with left and right click buttons optimised for Windows 8.1 functions. Connectivity options include the DVD±RW/CD-RW optical drive, 802.11bgn WiFi wireless, 10/100 Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector for quick and easy wired access, Bluetooth 4.0 to hook up with Bluetooth enabled devices wirelessly, an HDMI port that enables you to do your thing on a larger screen like your HDTV or a modern external monitor with a single cable, a VGA port, a 2-in-1 Media Card Reader that supports SD and MMC formats, a USB 3.0 port to transfer data and multimedia quicker and two USB 2.0 ports.

Conclusion: LENOVO G50 80E3016QUS is a decent low cost traditional Windows laptop with a modern slim design, plenty of memory and ample storage, relatively sharp display, good quality sound, great feeling keyboard, a good variety of connectivity options and a mid-range AMD A6 processor that would be compared to some of the Haswell Intel i3 processors. Screen is not Full HD (FHD and IPS really add to the cost of laptops), large hard drive runs at 5400rpm rotating speed (we haven’t come across a 7200rpm HDD at this price range) and the operating system is the Windows 8.1 which is different to what many customers are used to but that should change soon with the release of Windows 10. Remember you’re getting memory and hard drive twice the size of what you would expect to get, a DVD drive, Bluetooth, a USB 3.0 port and more at such a low price. It runs smoothly and fast overall as long as you don’t want to play 3D games, work on very demanding software such as editing multimedia. Lenovo is one of the largest computer manufacturers worldwide and this is a great laptop for the cost and will be more than sufficient for your daily workload and home entertainment needs.

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