The design of the G550 has altered somewhat from the G530, changing from a smooth matte external texture, to a black weave pattern. The newly added cover is definitely as strong as the last one, preventing all screen distortion even if you smack or bend the back of the screen. The interior of the notebook shares the same color as the outside, but has a textured matte finish comparable to what you would discover on unpainted sections of a ThinkPad. Lenovo used colors that can be found on its original laptops on this notebook, making it entirely black.

The frame is made entirely of plastic, but everywhere a good number of budget notebooks might feel weak, the G550 feels very solid. When discussing the palm rest on most notebooks, counting ThinkPads, notebooks with first-rate support still bare some bend under a very strong grip. In a way squeezing the palm rests on the G550 feels like you are trying to squeeze a rock. Other areas of the notebook share the same sturdiness, like the keyboard and the surrounding edge.

When upgrading the G550 the panels are easy too get into to change the memory and CPU, wireless card, and hard drive on the bottom of the notebook. None of the hardware, including the processor, had "warranty void if removed" stickers, which allows this laptop too be easily modified.

Screen and Speakers

The 15.6" LCD is ordinary compared to the majority of 15-16" notebooks, with bright and vibrant colors and decent viewing angles. The G550's sizeable change is the transition away from the 16:10 screen size to the wider (but shorter) 16:9 panels. The screen offers a glossy surface, which helps increase colors and contrast at the cost of added reflections and glare. Compared to "frameless" displays the reflections were endurable as long as you were not outside under direct sunlight. Screen brightness was satisfactory for viewing in a well lit office building, but might not be good enough unless its cloudy outside. Vertical viewing angles were acceptable with a broad viewing sweet spot measuring 30 degrees forwards or backwards prior to the colors starting to wash out or invert. Horizontal viewing angles were much better, presenting the smallest amount of color distortion at steep angles.

The speakers are located on the front edge of the palmrest and sound more than satisfactory for listening music or watching streaming video. Sound quality isn't the greatest compared to other notebooks of this size with a tinny sound that lacks bass. Headphones would be a fine addition for this notebook.

The keyboard is simple to type on, sharing the same comfortable and durable feel as the ThinkPad T60 keyboard and simply differing in arrangement. Single key action is smooth with no audible click when pushed. The keys are textured with a smooth matte texture, offering decent traction meant for typing ... Unlike the glossy keyboards we are seeing on a lot of notebooks these days. Keyboard support is superb, barely a hint of bend on the most important section of the keyboard. The newer 16:9 frame on the G550 permitted Lenovo to add a numberpad to the keyboard, but they didn't modify the support under that section of the keyboard frame. It doesn't appear to suffer much bend, but it has exactly enough to produce a squeaking sound against the optical drive once pressed down. Media-related keys are restricted to touch-sensitive mute and volume up/down buttons placed on top of the keyboard.

Lenovo transitioned to a another touchpad on the G550, switching from the Synaptics model on the G530 to an ALPS pad. The ALPS pad doesn't have as quick of a refresh rate, so at times it feels like the pointer is lagging behind your finger. An additional conundrum is the surface isn't as sensitive for users who like to make use of the tap to click and tap to drag fuction regularly. On the Synaptics pad it is easy to drag and raise off, while the ALPS models seem to need a strong tap at the finish, otherwise it won't let go of the selected item and you keep dragging it around the screen. The touchpad buttons are alike to the old ones, with shallow reaction and giving off a affirmative "click" when pushed.

Ports and Features

Although the G550 is now bigger than the G530, Lenovo still managed to decrease the amount of ports presented. The ExpressCard slot is missing, USB ports are down from four to three, and the modem jack is no more. I can see no other purpose besides cutting expenses for such a loss of features.

Performance and Benchmarks

The Lenovo G550 works very well as a desktop replacement notebook, managing a good number of tasks with little effort. The target market for this notebook includes small businesses, students, or home users looking for a basic system. The G550 has no problems surfing the internet, playing SD or HD movies, or playing the occasional 2D game. Compared to the elder G530, Lenovo switched from using DDR2 memory in favor of DDR3 which is quicker and at the moment becoming cheaper. In theory this alteration could have meant greater performance, but we didn't notice any noteworthy transformation. Both PCMark05 and 3DMark06 dropped, while wPrime saw a small boost in quickness.