Review of Lenovo G530 15.4-Inch Laptop (Black Matte)

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We have noted various other computers while both shopping and helping solve our family's various computer issues, so I knew about what I wanted when it came time to replace our 10 year old IBM T23 Think Pad. Price was also a factor in our selection and frankly I simply wanted a Lenovo having had a long and very good experience with my T23. Lenovo is continuing the tougness of the past generation of IBM laptops.

The Lenovo G530 is really a fantastic laptop. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that the $1200 laptops have, but it is extremely quick in doing everything I need when I go online. There is tons of storage space with a 165 gig Hard Drive, plus tons of memory-and I am even starting to like Windows 7. I may eventually go back to Linux Ubuntu distro which is my OS of choice.

The Lenovao G530 has a very bright wide screen moniter. All functions are responding well. Lenovo has continued the IBM PC and Laptop appearance, and I chuckle at the black matte finish and think: "something only a mother could love." Don't worry about appearances, they still have the toughness that I enjoyed for years with my T23. Imagine going from 30 gig hard drive up to 165 gigs, and the same relative improvements on the processor speeds and memory capacity. This unit literally flies from on web page to another. The visual properties of the 15.4 inch monitor as well as the more than adequate sound card give good performance for enjoying videos as well as extended listening to your favorite audios through Windows Media which is included in the Windows 7 Premium OS.

I plug in my Koss PortaPro Headphones and hear every detail of the music. The sound card gives crisp digital audio performance that you will really enjoy. I'm not an audiophile but enjoy listening to a lot of good music and I appreciate the sound that I get with the Lenovo G530

We are very satisfied with this purchase which arrived from Amazon in just two days. We used the $40 Amazon Vista rebate so the entire purchase was $400.00 which is a very good value for a laptop with the large screen and obvious quality and speed. A tip that works for me, instead of paying extra to buy Windows Office, we installed Open Office which works great for me both on Windows 7 and our Linux OS which I have on our Dell Desktop PC.

I recommend this computer and feel you'll get many performance features that you get on computers that cost much more. I have owned Gateway, Dell, HP and IBM and much prefer the current Lenovo G530 to all of them. Our Dell Desktops are recent purchases. The G530 has quickly taken over as my favorite. Great Value, Very Fast, and Built Tough.

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Love this computer... its having Windows 7 doesn't hurt either. It's fast, and feels good & solid (not like some of the cheaper models that almost feel like toys that'll break at the drop of a hat). We have another laptop we recently purchased at a local store this other one, besides feeling 'cheaper' has a dvd/cd tray that doesn't have the button to open the drive. This Lenovo has that simple feature I never appreciated before.

It runs nice & cool (amazingly cool, actually), great picture quality (gotta catch the recent NCIS episodes!) and the keyboard feels good to use.

The black matte finish keeps it looking nice (without fingerprints, etc) too.

Probably my only very minor complaint is that the place to plug-in the earphones (and microphone/alt audio-in) are at the very front which makes them inaccessible when I use my laptop cradle (which sets the laptop at an angle, resting against something on that bottom/front).

Oh, and I absolutely love the feature that allows me to physically turn off the wireless card!!!

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This system is much easier to deal with than I had anticipated. I bought is based on screen size, price, and knowing that lenovo used to make IBM's laptops. Figured I'd buy it and then cope with all the new system joy.

Well, it did NOT come loaded up with crapware. I'm a real fan of that! I had planned on spending an hour or two removing unwanted bloat, but didn't need to. It works just fine for what I bought it for running some light weight stuff like word processing, spreadsheets, finance and a tiny bit of web surfing. At the price of this thing, I can afford to keep it dedicated to those business type tasks while I use my other machines for gaming, heavy web surfing, etc.

All in all, I'm very impressed with this, my first Lenovo. I'm fairly certain I'll go to them for my next machine as well.

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I bought this laptop for my wife's birthday. So far, she loves it and has no complaints at all. It's not a fully loaded computer, but for the price, it's a great choice. One thing I noticed, though, is when you plug or unplug the power while the laptop is on, it makes rather loud beeping. It may be embarrassing when that happens if you are in a meeting. Does anyone know if the beep can be turned off?

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I probably ought to have researched this purchase just a little bit more than I did, but I do like this laptop. It's bare bones, but otherwise meets the standards of quality of earlier IBM-manufactured ThinkPads. For web browsing, internet video playback, Inkscape, GPS map unpacking / updating, Skype/Google video chat and telephone calls, and photo uploading (the types of tasks I routinely perform on my G530), it's fine. More than enough storage, speedy Windows 7 operations and boot / standby recovery times.

I use it regularly with HP's WiFi Mouse, Siig's USB to HDMI Converter, Sandisk's MicroMate SD/SDHC Reader, Belkin's Mini Bluetooth Laptop Adapter (for tethering to my Blackberry Storm2 9550, and Belkin's USB 2.0 4-Port Mini Hub.

The keyboard is first rate for laptops. Likewise, no problems with the trackpad (which features a scroll function along the right side). Operation is quiet, even when the cooling fan is on. And the unit never gets too hot. No problems with the mic or web cam to report.

But I do have a list of either "dislikes" or "things I should have considered before purchasing" that I think are worth mentioning. Hopefully these will give you some available features to consider before finalizing your laptop decision:

1. The screen is glossy, not "anti-glare" -which means brighter colors, but depending on lighting conditions, it can be difficult to view (or you may find you're looking at a reflection of yourself).

2. As much as I tether to my cell phone for internet connectivity, I could stand to have built-in Bluetooth. The Belkin adapter I use takes up one of two available USB ports.

3. The battery live is limited. I can get about an hour of streaming internet video before it's depleted. Not much more for just general web surfing. I haven't found an extended battery for this unit.

4. The speakers are lacking in volume output when something louder is needed, though the sound quality is fine.

5. To play online video from Hulu or NBC on my television, I have to use the USB to HDMI converter I mentioned. I'd much rather have purchased a laptop with HDMI out.

6. A built-in SD card reader would have been nice. The Sandisk reader I use is fine, except it's so wide that I need to use it through a USB hub because otherwise it interferes with the other USB port.

7. There's no backlighted keyboard, so typing in the dark can be challenging.

8. I'm not a fan of front-facing headphone jacks for those semi-regular occasions I use earbuds.

9. Part of me would like a numeric keypad for very infrequent use, though that usually comes with a marked size increase.

The narrow aspect ratio of the 15.4" screen is almost impossible to find on anything newer than this unit, which is too bad because none of the 15.6" laptops fit in my bag. (Boo hoo!)

Contrary to what I've written, I don't regret this purchase much -the price was right, the operation is solid, and since purchasing this G530 I've learned a lot more about how I'll want to use my next laptop (or, at least, what features I want in it). So I'm satisfied that I didn't overbuy this first time around, yet am able to do want with it.

If you're looking for a bare bones internet machine with enough processor to get through some drawing and photo editing, and will be close to a power source, I have no qualms recommending this on your list of consideration -especially at the prices you can find it for these days.