Note, however, that I did not say that this was entirely a bad thing.

The IdeaPad Y550 seems to be a great general laptop, despite having only 1 GB of RAM (which is fixable for a low cost through Lenovo or independently). The laptop has a large array of peripheral ports and a decent amount of memory and a pretty decent graphics processor for a relatively low price. The array of ports also means that you can plug a variety of accessories into your laptop, anticipating both existing and future options. This could help keep you from being unable to use that hot new addition a year or two from now just because you don’t have the right port. You can find the full specs here if you’re interested.

Here are the specs, lifted from About.com:

* Intel Pentium Dual-Core T4200 Dual Core Mobile Processor
* 1GB PC3-8500 DDR3 Memory
* 160GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
* 8x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner
* 15.6″ WXGA (1366×768) LED Backlit Display With 1.3 Megapixel Webcam
* NVIDIA GeForce G210 Graphics With 512MB Memory
* Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g Wireless
* Three USB 2.0, eSATA, HDMI, VGA, ExpressCard/34, 6-in-1 Card Reader
* 15.2″ x 10″ x 1.5″ @ 6.1 lbs.
* Vista Home Premium

Overall, for the flexibility inherent in this laptop and given the possibility of a model under $650, this isn’t a bad laptop to consider if you’re on a budget.