Sunday, February 10, 2013

New Laptop: Lenovo IdeaPad P580 Overview and Review



So here I type on my new laptop.  I recently purchased the Lenovo P580.  Now I have heard a lot of online talk about the Y series of Lenovo laptops, so I was quite surprised to see the P series in a flyer at Future Shop.  Nevertheless, it is a part of the IdeaPad line which is intended for multimedia and gaming.  And from viewing the specs, I decided to pull the trigger on it. (They can be viewed here) Though the specs on that page do not mention the dedicated graphics card. The dedicated card is the nVidia GT 630M with 2GB memory. I believe the laptop was on sale for around 700 with 150 off, which I perceived as a pretty good deal so I went ahead and purchased the laptop.


 Here I am two weeks later and I am very happy with it. It has exceeded my expectations performance wise and it is quite snappy. I enjoy the looks as well with the brushed metal outer face. I wanted to purchase a laptop with a heavy emphasis on gaming performance, as I take it to work where I tend to have a fair amount of time to spend. (I work EMS in a quiet rural service, and the shifts are four consecutive 24 hour on-call days. Crossing my fingers to get in with the bigger city's urban service soon. Not enough action out here). I have been able to run games such as Skyrim on high settings with AA off at an average of 45 FPS. Another game I have played is Battlefield 3, ran on medium settings at what is an average of 30 fps. These numbers exceeded my expectations greatly and I was pleasantly surprised. How the dedicated graphics card functions is if you execute a high memory demanding program, the laptops display will switch from integrated graphics to nVidia's dedicated card designed to handle a higher memory demanding program. And the setup seems to work quite well.


 Aside from game performance I am also very happy with the day to day functionality of the laptop. Initial startup is a breeze, and after some tweaking and tinkering Windowsm8 can actually become quite functional and enjoyable. Granted, in the grand scheme the new start menu is quite unnecessary but if you can learn to work with it then it is no issue at all. I did however have to google several "personal fixes" to certain things such as annoying User Account Control issues and personalization options. I also had to find a workaround to get the QuickLaunch bar back up and running (I enjoy having the "Show Desktop" button). But all in all the computer handles the OS very well. Startup takes roughly 10 seconds until login screen which is nice, and all programs load in a flash. I personally have uninstalled many of the "apps" included because for me personally they seem unnecessary, but for some they may enjoy having a standalone eBay app. Myself, I prefer using an internet browser.


 Internet browsing and video streaming is a breeze. Granted that also depends on what sort of ISP package you have, but I've found that even with the small-town internet connection I have at work I can browse quite fast and load videos very quickly. The wireless networking card seems to handle connections very fast. My only gripe with the laptop would be the high-gloss screen. But I suppose that is a bit of a standard these days. I'm not sure why manufacturers are ditching the matte screen, but I think I would prefer that. It makes games and videos difficult to watch at times when the on-screen image is dark but the screen itself is reflective. It makes it hard to view dark colors with the backlight. But overall I am quite pleased with the Lenovo P580. I have no hiccups to report.


 I have received some accessories I ordered off of NewEgg in the mail, which I can post a general overview about. I ordered a bag, a cooling pad (which I think is a necessity, heat kills electronics and gaming produces a lot of heat!), and I also purchased the Logitech M310 wireless mouse. I will post overviews of all of these and share my recommendations of them.

 Until next time..... if anyone actually is reading this.

11 comments:

  1. I have the P580, bought it last June,loved it until about a month ago when the hinges started getting loose, missed the warranty by 6 days. I called the Future Shop where I purchased it and was told it's a common problem and it will cost 250.00 to repair. I have been searching for parts and they are no where to be found...my opinion stay away from Lenovo

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    1. Hi there, I did some searching for P580 hinges and you are correct, they are difficult to find. But judging from this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gdtVCISu42o#at=246

      You will notice as I did that the Z570 looks to be the exact same model as the P580, with the same components and design. I tracked down replacements for the Z570 hinges and found some here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320915132305&viewitem=

      I'm not too sure if you are DIY but you may find some instructions on disassembling the P580 or look further into the Z570 to see if they are as similar as I think they are.

      I found that video on a parts page regarding replacing the screen, and the Z570 screen replacement procedure is the same as the P580 so I would bet that these hinges will be compatible with our laptop.

      Food for thought!

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  2. Be careful with the P580. I believe there is something in the Lenovo system programming that will lock the BIOS with a password if it thinks that someone is trying to hack into it. Once the BIOS is locked you will no longer have Bluetooth capability and there is no way to unlock the BIOS without the password.

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  3. Yah, I h8 dis shet. Makes lenovo look like a nigguh. Dis faking shet is nut good I tell u chump, its pretty shet. Fak dis comp. Fak lenovo. Fak dis blogga' Jew 2. Flak em' all hard.
    Shet fur thought!

    Dat black shet, Bob.

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  4. Even my laptop's hinges broke yesterday. They were looking weak for a long time...seriously, it is best to stay away from the P580 model. I googled and found a lot of online posts complaining about the hinges!!

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  5. Yeah good performance from this laptop but ABSOLUTE SHIT HINGES, mine broke and trust me when I say replacements are impossible to find, scoured eBay, amazon and google and couldn't find anything. Lenovo Replacement Parts Hotline placed me on hold for a full hour before notifying me the parts we're permanently out of stock.

    Also if you look at Lenovo's track record for customer support you'll find some pretty horrifying reviews.

    IBM should have never sold their thinkpad line to these amateurs, their products that resulted from this deal(ideapad, thinkpad, etc.) have horribly shoddy craftsmanship and don't live up to original thinkpad's lineage and Lenovo fails miserably at keeping the product line alive.

    SHAME ON LENOVO

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  6. Found one on craigslist barely used for 350 I'm gonna negotiate him a little down in price but I'm gonna go for it. Thanks for the review!

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  7. 1.5 year old P580 - have two and both hinges on right side breaking.. cannot find replacement parts...

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  8. I had the same problem, did find some hinges on ebay but they were too much. I hound a guy locally who had a shell with hinges for a b570 i believe, it was a bit of work but it worked. I am seeing some cheaper hinges on ebay now, but my advice would be to go to the Lenovo site and download the service manual, it will show you how to dissassemble and also give you a parts list to make sure you are getting the correct part. Lenovo uses the same hinges on different laptops.

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