Lenovo G770 – Review

The G770 sports a 17.3-inch 1600 x 900 pixel display, with 4GB RAM and a 750GB hard drive, and costs 799 euros.

The G770 follows quite a striking, spoiler-type theme, all in brushed metal. Actually the chassis is very similar to that of its 15-inch sibling, the G570, which we recently reviewed. Unfortunately, overall build quality feels less than robust – everything seems a bit prone to flex. The G770 weighs 3kg including battery, and measures 416 x 272 x 45mm.

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Connectivity options are as follows: of the four USB ports, only one is USB-3, then there’s a VGA port, an HDMI socket, audio jacks, and a 5-in-1 card reader, protected from dust and grime by a dummy card. No eSATA interface, no Express Card. Tut tut. We suspect the three closely-spaced USB ports on the front might need some plan-n-plug before you plug-n-play. For connecting to the internet, a 10/100 Ethernet port (in this day and age???) sits apologetically on one side of the notebook, but thankfully there’s WiFi-b/g/n connectivity and Bluetooth too.

VeriFace facial recognition enhances the G770 security credentials, but if Lenovo had wanted to win us over with security features they would have included a fingerprint reader.

Proprietary software from Lenovo includes Lenovo Energy Management software, simpler to configure than the native Windows app. The Lenovo EE Boot Optimizer enables users to optimize the boot sequence for their particular needs, and we got cold boot times of 35 seconds, which is very respectable for a mid-ranger.

The non-backlit island-style AccuType keyboard and separate numberpad allow for rapid and accurate text input.

The multitouch-enabled touchpad however is generously proportioned and lightly textured for precise control. The 2MP webcam gives good image capture at least for video-conferencing.

The 17.3-inch, 1600 x 900 glossy display was slightly over-reflective. Brightness is about average but the depth of blackness was substandard, giving a below-average contrast ratio of 151:1. But don’t forget the glossy display enhances user perception of color, which screen benchmarks don’t reflect.

In terms of horsepower, the Sandy Bridge 2.7GHz i7-2620M processor is a very capable piece of kit when paired with 4GB DDR3 RAM, which is expandable to 8GB for a little extra oomph. Benchmarks place the G770 in the upper mid-range performance-wise. The dedicated AMD Radeon HD6650M GPU gives excellent benchmark scores, though some demanding titles require lowered resolution or detail settings to play smoothly.

Audio playback lacks bass, with distortion at max volume.

John Wayne mode (all guns blazing, maximum brightness, 100% CPU use) gave a category-average 57 minutes, while Uncle Scrooge settings delivered a respectable 4 hrs 13 mins.

The Lenovo G770 M355AGE might not excel in socket options, and it borrows heavily from its competitiors designwise, but for sheer performance, and as an all-rounder, it’s hard to beat.

Here is a Lenovo G770 preview video courtesy of Notebookcheck:

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