The Lenovo G560 looks no different than its identical elder sibling - the G565, which we have reviewed earlier. Although, subtle changes add a touch of class to the G560, giving it an identity of its own. The G560 laptop has a sleek design with the cover lid, screen bezel and the keypad layout all in a glossy black finish.

The rear-panel and the palm-rest are in a black matte finish where as the keypad keys are in a glossy black. The glossy surface adds contrast to the textured battery compartment above the keypad. This LG Laptop screen bezel has unique tread-like textures & is decorated with four buttons both at the top and bottom. The cover lid and the palm-rest are prone to fingerprint smudges.

The Lenovo IdeaPad G560 is quite heavy weighing at about 2.63 Kilo-grams. Though it has Inherited several features from the G565, the G560 has some subtle changes with buttons at the top of the keypad like caps lock & numlock status indicators, mute, volume up/down and video recording.

The addition of e-SATA, HDMI ports and the special status LED indicators, the Wi-Fi on/off switch and multi-format memory card reader is welcome. It also has a wide touchpad with scroll bar function which enables quick and efficient navigation. The split mouse buttons are quite sluggish and unresponsive. The keypad keys are hard and inhibit quick typing.

The key-spacing is very cramped up and keypad space is underutilized, hindering keypad navigation. It supports the special function keys for quick dual-hand and multimedia operation. The keypads build quality & ergonomics is poor like its predecessors.

Performance
The Lenovo IdeaPad G560 compared with G565 on the PC Mark Vantage synthetic benchmark test falls short in the overall score. It also failed to pass the TV & Movies test.

It scores the same on synthetic benchmark tests like SiSoft Sandra 2010 Pro and the 3D Mark 2006 tests like G565. However it has low battery compared with G565 in the battery-life test.

The Lenovo G560 has better speaker quality and HD movie viewing. The G560 has lower frame rates in Doom 3 & FarCry 2 game benchmarking and the graphics solution was found lacking. The Lenovo IdeaPad G560 is not meant for gaming, compared to the G565 does a decent job.

Our Take
The Lenovo IdeaPad G560 is targeted towards businessmen and executives. The e-SATA and HDMI ports add value for money and the multimedia buttons add to the aesthetics and look good. Priced at Rs.31,990 it supports basic multimedia and executive features. The performance across all the tests is weak and a disappointment for gamers. 
 

Specifications: Processor: Intel Pentium P6100 (2.2GHz); Memory: 2GB DDR3 533MHz; Chipset: Intel HM55 Express; Integrated Graphics card: Intel HD graphics; Hard drive: 500GB; Display: 15.6-inch LED backlit, Screen resolution: 1366 x 768; Weight: 2.63 Kilo-grams;

Pros
Affordable
One touch recovery
Addition of e-SATA & HDMI ports
Biometric login

Cons
Weak performer
No dedicated video card
Cramped key-spacing

The Lenovo G560 looks no different than its identical elder sibling - the G565, which we have reviewed earlier. Although, subtle changes add a touch of class to the...