Lenovo G580 review

The laptop’s glossy 15.6in 1,366×768 display gave us some grief with reflections from overhead light sources, but the screen has wide vertical viewing angles and plenty of screen tilt to help you find the perfect working position. Its horizontal viewing angles, however, weren’t so impressive, and the screen quickly darkened when viewing it diagonally from the side. The screen is fine if you view it head-on, though, displaying pleasingly accurate colours in our image tests.

The laptop’s 750GB hard disk should leave plenty of room for your media collection, and there’s a DVD writer for backup and movies. The laptop also has plenty of connectivity options, with one USB2 port and two faster USB3 ports, as well as VGA and HDMI to connect to external displays.

CONCLUSION

The Lenovo G580 is no longer widely available in the exact specification reviewed above, but a version with only minor differences can still be bought for the same price from major retailers such as Argos. The version most widely available at the same price, has a 2.2GHz Intel Core i3-2438M processor instead of the 2.2GHz i3-2328M in our review and 4GB instead of the 2GB of RAM. Our previous tests of this processor produced a score of 37 in our desktop application benchmarks: exactly the same as the configuration we originally reviewed. The loss of 2GB of memory could have an impact if you do a lot of image editing work, but won’t affect the responsiveness of your desktop experience.

Another version, the MAAQ7UK, has a newer and very slightly more powerful Core i3-3110M processor, which typically scores 40 in our benchmark tests. However, this version of the laptop is often significantly overpriced; we advise against paying much more than £400 for one.

All versions of the Lenovo G580 will be going off the market soon, as the product line has been discontinued, so if you see one at a fair price, you’ll have to buy it sooner rather than later. Alternatively, check out the lightweight Asus Transformer Book T100 hybrid laptop, widely available for around £330.