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Our verdict
A fast boot time and one of the best keyboards in its class make the Lenovo G570 worth a look.
To the
Cool metal palm rest
Solid performance
Comfortable keyboard
Fast boot time
Against
Glossy lid absorbs stains
Weak graphics
No USB 3.0 ports
Tinny audio
While Lenovo is known for its business notebooks, the company has been making consumer devices for some time. The Lenovo G570 ($749) is a 15-inch laptop that packs a little more with a glossy lid and metal palm rest Flair has more than its ThinkPad cousins. But you also get ThinkPad-like amenities, including an AccuType keyboard. Add a fast Intel Core i5 processor and a roomy 500GB hard drive and you've got a solid system.
draft
Aside from a small tumble to the rear, the Lenovo G570 looks rather dull when closed. A glowing chrome Lenovo logo adds a bit of personality, but the dark brown glossy plastic lid is a fingerprint magnet. The inside of the notebook looks great thanks to its black brushed aluminum decks. The matte black keyboard sits in a recessed space surrounded by a thin strip of darker chrome. The touchpad is also slightly recessed and surrounded by a thin strip of light chrome.
On the top left of the keyboard are the power button and a button to launch the OneKey Recovery software. In terms of aesthetics, we prefer the
HP Pavilion dv6t
's sleek exterior and brushed aluminum interior; its dark umber finish with silver accents helped emphasize the notebook's rounded edges and sleeker, cleaner lines.
Measuring 14.8 x 9.8 x 0.6 - 1.3 inches and weighing 5.2 pounds, the G570 is easy to move around the home or office and was light enough for an hour and a half subway ride Ride with standing room only.
keyboard and touchpad
Lenovo packs an island-type keyboard with a full number pad for the G570. Similar to the ThinkPad Edge series, the large AccuType keys are generously spaced in a "smile-shape" and offer nice, firm feedback. Although this is one of the better keyboards , which we tested on a consumer notebook, we had issues with the undersized right Shift and Enter keys, particularly during the ten-thumbs typing test. We consistently hit 40 words per minute with a four percent error rate, which slightly worse than our usual 50 wpm and an error rate of one percent.
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The 3.5 x 1.7-inch touchpad has slightly raised dots that create a comfortable texture for our fingers to glide on. Selecting text and panning text within a document was fast and responsive. Pinch-to-zoom worked pretty good, although we did notice some lag and photo rotation didn't always work on the first try. Two-finger scrolling was too fast and overly sensitive, but three-finger swiping was smooth. We liked the two large touchpad Buttons that clicked hard.
display and audio
The G570 sports a glossy and bright 15.6-inch widescreen display with a native resolution of 1366 x 768. We saw during the
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Trailer;Rosie Huntington-Whitely's blue eyes emerged amidst all the wanton destruction, as did Optimus Prime's red and blue chassis as he hacked Decepticons to pieces.
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Music got loud on the G570, but it sounded a bit flat. While the speakers were powerful enough to fill a small room, the bassline in Katy Perry's "ET" was lacking and the synthesized instrumental sounded distorted. As we listened to Drake's monotonous warble on " Marvin's Room" we heard non-existent bass. Stay away from the maximum volume setting to avoid a harsher sound.
heat
That's one cool customer. After streaming video on a full-screen video on Hulu for 15 minutes, the G570's touchpad registered 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The space between the G and H keys was slightly warmer at 93 degrees, while the bottom of the notebook was a lap-friendly 88 degree reached.
Connections and webcam
On the right side of the G570 there is a USB 2.0 port, a DVD burner, a headphone jack and a microphone jack. On the front there is a 5-in-1 card reader and a wireless on/off switch. On the left There are three USB 2.0 ports, one of which doubles as an eSATA port. There is also an HDMI port, VGA, Ethernet and a secure Ken Sington lock. However, we would have liked a USB 3.0 port .
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Using the included Cyberlink YouCam software, the G570's 2-megapixel webcam recorded bright, clear video under the fluorescent lighting in our office. However, when we used Skype, a caller reported that we appeared quite dark and that it was blurry, when we started to move. However, the sound came out loud and clear with no background noise.
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For an added level of security, the G570 comes with Lenovo's VeriFace facial recognition software. After a five-minute setup process (which scanned our face five times), the app quickly unlocked the notebook with a quick face scan.
perfomance
Powered by a 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-2410M CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB 5,400rpm hard drive, the G570 has the guts to tackle almost any task. In PCMark Vantage, the G570 scored 6,291 points, beating the mainstream category average of 5,550 and the
ASUS K53E
(5,729), which also features a Core i5-2410M CPU with 6GB of RAM. However, the Pavilion dv6t's 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-2410M CPU and 6GB of RAM scored an even higher score of 6,673. During our hands-on testing, the G570 was able to stream a full-screen Hulu video while running a full system scan with 13 tabs open in Google Chrome and nine open in Internet Explorer.
With Lenovo's RapidBoot technology (which delays booting from preinstalled system files and hardware settings), the G570 achieved a fast boot time of 35 seconds - 30 seconds faster than average and twice as fast as the K53E and dv6t at 70 and 70 seconds, respectively. Booted in 72 seconds.
The G570's 500GB, 5400rpm hard drive took 3 minutes and 27 seconds to duplicate 4.97GB of mixed media files at a speed of 23.4Mbps, beating the 26, The K35E's 640GB, 5400rpm hard drive was faster (29.4MB/s), as was the dv6t's 640GB hard drive (30.1MB/s).
During our Oxelon transcoding test (converting a 114MB MP4 file to AVI with Oxelon Media Encoder), the G570 took 58 seconds. This performance beat the category average (1:10), but not the dv6t (0:50) or the ASUS ( 46 seconds).
graphics and games
While the G570's integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 card has plenty of build-up and tear-down, gamers should look elsewhere. In 3DMark 06, the G570 scored 4552 to -594 points better than the mainstream average (3958). However, dv6t (Intel HD Graphics 3000, AMD Radeon HD 6490M Graphics) was the clear winner with 5826 points.
When we played World of Warcraft on the recommended settings at 1366x768, the G570 was able to muster 36 fps, playable but well below the average of 68 fps. The K35E does slightly better at 40 fps, while the dv6t does 54 fps continued to dominate. Switching to maximum settings, the G570 fell short of the mainstream average of 26 fps at 14 and 20 fps, respectively, but the Pavilion was on par.
When we switched to Far Cry 2, the G570 was delivering an unsatisfying 22 fps on auto-detect, 16 below average (38 fps). Meanwhile, we were able to squeeze out an impressive 68 fps with the dv6t Pavilion dropped to 23 fps.
Battery life and wireless
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In the LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous web browsing over WiFi), the G570 lasted 4 hours and 52 minutes, beating the category average (4:29). The dv6t lasted a bit longer at 5:05. However, the K53E held up at 5:43 Clock through almost an hour longer.
The G570's Atheros AR9285 802.11b/g/n card performed well in the first part of the LAPTOP wireless test, delivering a data rate of 48 Mbps at a distance of 15 feet from our router, beating the average in the 36.7Mbps category. When we increased the distance to 15m, the G570 fell below the average of 21.8Mbps with a score of 13.8Mbps. The notebook also features Bluetooth 2.1+EDR.
configurations
Our $749 review configuration of the G570 features a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5-2410M CPU, 4 GB of RAM, a 500 GB 5400 RPM hard drive, and an integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU The entry-level model costs $499 and comes with a 2GHz Intel Pentium dual-core B940M CPU, 2GB RAM, a 500GB 5400rpm hard drive and Intel Integrated HD Graphics 3000. The $899 premium configuration has the same processor as our review unit, but comes with 8GB of RAM and a 750GB 5400rpm hard drive.
software and warranty
The G570 comes with Lenovo OneKey Recovery to back up your system files or create a recovery disk, and Lenovo DirectShare to share your files and photos with another notebook via a USB cable. The Lenovo Games Console is a web portal that offers a range of games from different genres (Action, Arcade, Cards, Fantasy Sports and Strategy). Third-party software includes video conferencing service Oovoo, Microsoft Office Starter and a free 60-day trial of McAfee VirusScan Plus.
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The G570 comes with a one-year party and labor warranty, as well as one-year system battery protection. See how Lenovo fared in our Best & Worst Brands feature and this year
Technical support showdown
.
Verdict
The Lenovo G570 offers a solid computing experience, but it's not our favorite 15-inch laptop. For $749, you get a comfortable typing experience, strong overall performance, and one of the fastest boot times we've seen on a Windows computer. However, the smudge-prone lid is a turnoff, and you don't get USB 3.0. For around the same price, the HP Pavilion dv6t offers a sleeker metal design, discrete graphics, and Beats audio. The Lenovo G570 is worth a look, but it could do better .
Lenovo G570 specifications
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
brand
Lenovo
CPU
2.3GHz Intel Core i5-2410M
card slots
5-1 card reader
corporate website
www.lenovo.com
screen size
15.6
graphic card
IntelHD3000
disk size
500GB
hard drive speed
5,400 rpm
disk type
SATA hard drive
native resolution
1366x768
operating system
Windows 7 Home Premium
optical drive
DVD /-R /-RW
Optical drive speed
8X
Connections (except USB)
Kensington Lock, Headphones, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, USB/eSATA, Smart Card Reader, Microphone
R.A.M.
4GB
RAM upgradeable to
8GB
size
14.8x9.8x0.68-1.3
touchpad size
3.5 x 1.7 inches
USB ports
4
Warranty/Support
One year parts and labor (system battery: one year)
Weight
5.2 pounds
Wireless Internet access
802.11b/g/n
WiFi model
Atheros AR9285 Wireless
Fewer
Sherry L Smith
Sherri L. Smith has been creating product reviews for Laptopmag.com since 2011. In that time, she's reviewed more than her share of laptops, tablets, smartphones, and everything in between. Resident gamer and audio junkie Sherri was previously senior editor for Black Web 2.0 and a contributor to BET.Com and Popgadget.
