On 02/08/2011 10:47 PM, Bob wrote:
I was liking the look of the G555 for my farther.
Anyone tried one?
on the plus side nice big screen, on the down its only 1366x768
I also like the full keyboard etc..
The integrated webcam is only VGA, but is there any real advantage to
higher resolution webcams?
I have a Lenovo G555. I bought it because it was cheap - about $329. For
that money you're not getting a Thinkpad. "Thinkpad" is nowhere in the
name, and that's for a reason.
I sort of thought that I'd get some of the Thinkpad "vibe" with the
G555, but that didn't really happen.
It looks nice, the keyboard is great, the screen is short and wide like
most laptops these days. The webcam is pretty awful. The Alps touchpad
is REALLY awful. Windows users have it way worse than Linux users
because the drivers in Windows 7 don't allow you to turn off "tap to
click" like you can in most Linux distros. As a result, the cursor is
erratic. You can totally turn off the touchpad on the G555 in any OS
with Fn-F8. Yep, they have a key combination to completely turn off the
touchpad but no way in their OS of choice, Windows 7, of turning off
tap-to-click.
So the experience in Debian Squeeze is way better than in Windows 7,
I'll say that.
There are 3 USB ports, which work great, But there's no Cardbus slot - I
guess they're eliminating those in many laptops. It has nice memory-card
slot that works well in Linux.
There are sound-muting issues when you plug in headphones that are
solved either with slight configuration changes, or in my case with
Debian Squeeze by using the 2.6.37 Liquorix kernel.
The wireless is pretty good. Both the wireless and wired Ethernet
interfaces are Atheros, and it took awhile for most Linux and BSD system
to "catch up" with the wired interface, which you should know is 10/100
mb and not gigabit speed.
I really don't believe in spending $700+ for a laptop, but after using
this "bargain" model for about eight months, I'd recommend spending
$500-$600 for a theoretically better combination of hardware.
There is a "newer" Lenovo for $499 that includes an Intel i3 CPU, more
memory and a bigger hard drive. But I don't know if the other
"liabilities" hardware-wise, especially the dodgy touchpad have been
dealth with.
The short version: Unless it says "Thinkpad" in the name, it's not a
Thinkpad.