What's Hot: Nice price for a robust gaming and multimedia system laptop. Fast quad central CPU, NVIDIA GTX 960M design .-The Lenovo Y group of gaming and multi-media notebooks are relatively affordable yet powerful machines that are an alternative solution to the slimmer, more stylish and a lot more expensive Dell XPS 15, Asus ZenBook Expert UX 501 and the 15" Retina MACBOOK-PRO. Sometimes they've been progressive with features such as a bay for another dedicated graphics greeting card in SLI, but this year's Y700 models pay more focus on slimming and price than development or convincing new features. Awarded, there's only much you can ask from a quad main i7 powerhouse with NVIDIA GTX 960M design and easily serviceable internals that offers for $1,100 configured nicely. There are important few similarly spec-d laptops that sell because of this little, with MSI's Apache Pro series being included in this. Lenovo also makes a 14" Y700 that can be found at less price with the selection of AMD or Intel inside (we didn't have the 14" for review).
Build and design
The Y700 15.6 (5.7 pounds.) and 17 in . (7.7 pounds.) models we've set for review are lightweights barely, but that could be a great deal to ask for the purchase price. They're much like the Dell Inspiron and MSI Apache Expert line in conditions of weight and footprint. If you are buying a Y700 to take with you campus, retain in brain these are pretty big machines. Though MSI manages to match a DVD drive in an identical weight and size chassis, the Y700 foregoes the optical drive (it was one a choice that slid into a multipurpose bay on old Y series models). Dock selection is somewhat anemic rather than exactly leading edge: 2 USB 3.0 jacks, 1 USB 2.0 slot (why are we still finding outdated 2.0 here?), HDMI 1.4, an Sdcard slot machine game, Ethernet and a 3.5mm combo mic-headphone jack port (no separate music jacks with a expensive music DAC like the MSI Apache Expert). The slot selection is proficient, but for those who wish to drive a 4k exterior keep an eye on at 60Hz, there is no DisplayPort, nor will there be a USB-C slot.
Styling is understated for a notebook that attracts gamers relatively. A couple of red accents and cutouts at the trunk sides for just a little gamer flair, as the top and bottom are matte black brushed aluminum-- a mainstay of the Y series. The bottom and lid panel are metal, though they could appear to be clear plastic. Both machines share the same port and styling selection and internal slots for RAM, M.2 SSD, 2.5" HDD and cellular credit card. They're nice enough looking and casing rigidity is good; reasonable products for the purchase price again.
The two 2 watt JBL loudspeakers with 3 watt subwoofer that fires from underneath are actually good: noisy, full, clear and rich. Lenovo uses Dolby music software for EQ settings, and the default from the box settings sounded best for movies equally, music and games. We're always very happy to hear quality sound from a multimedia and gaming oriented laptop.
You can hear the loudspeakers even when game playing thanks to a competent dual enthusiast system and good chilling. The Y700s weren't hot to touch when video games except nearby the Enter key and the related spot on the lower. The hotspot struck 99F, which is not actually terribly hot. All of those other computer keyboard area and the undersides assessed 80F (this review was done in winter). We didn't see extreme thermal throttling and CPU and GPU heat were ideal when video games (75C).
Display
Both our 15 and 17 in . models have full HD 1920 x 1080 IPS displays. There is no touch option for the 17" Y700, and there is no 4K option for the 15" (it is designed for the 17"). The image resolution suits gambling well because the laptop gets the hp to game at high configurations at 1080p however, not at 4K (few laptop computers are strong enough for 4K video games). Image quality has sometimes been a sore point with the Y series over the entire years; in the end Lenovo was required to cut corners somewhere to bring these in at only over $1,000. The Y700 15 and 17 inches have some of the greatest displays yet over a Y machine, with a few caveats. Though they look satisfying rather, color gamut is not a high point for the 15.6" full HD touchscreen model. It presents a paltry 66% of sRGB and 50% of Adobe RGB, where other in the same way priced laptops control 95% of sRGB and 75% of Adobe RGB. If you are buying a serious picture enhancing laptop, this screen is not a top pick. It includes reasonable lighting at 249 nits. It isn't on the list of super-bright notebooks but it's more than satisfactory for inside use, and Lenovo's anti-glare coating helps fight reflections. It produces an Acceptable contrast percentage of 560:1 and a dark degree of 0.44 at maximum lighting. The non-touch 17.3" full HD screen is brighter at 349 nits and it thus has an increased contrast percentage of 700:1 despite just a little more serious 0.5 dark-colored levels. It too comes with an anti-glare film to beat reflections. It includes an increased color gamut than our 15.6" 1920 x 1080 model, and it presents 92% of sRGB and 71% of Adobe RGB.
Horsepower and performance
Just like the Dell XPS 15, MSI Apache Expert, MSI Ghost Expert and the up to date Asus ZenBook Expert UX501, the 15 and 17 in . Lenovo Y700 models can be found with the two 2.6 GHz Intel Key i7-6700HQ. That is clearly a quad center, 45 watt, 6th technology Intel Skylake CPU with Intel 530 images. It includes NVIDIA GTX 960M dedicated design (again like the Dell, several MSI budget models and the ZenBook Expert), with most configurations having 4 GB DDR5 VRAM. That's more nice than the more prevalent 2 GB DDR5 VRAM available in expert applications oriented notebooks like the XPS 15, although added Memory is more great for resolutions above 1920 x 1080 for today's tier 1 3D video games. As you may speculate, the Lenovo doesn't minimize corners as it pertains to performance and it gets the computational ability for fast software compiles, amount crunching and flip computation in RTS game titles. The GTX 960M is a good GPU that's at the low end of NVIDIA's top graphics card tier, and it's really powerful enough to try out any game at 1080p resolution at high or a combination or medium and high settings.
For individuals who are budget mindful, there's a Central i5-6300HQ option, and that is still a quad key CPU jogging at 45 w, and it's really almost doubly fast as the common Core-i55 Ultrabook working on Intel 15 watt CPUs. The device has two Memory slot machines that are accessible once you take away the lower part cover (be careful underneath cover wraps around the trunk and has tenacious cheap videos). There'a an M.2 SSD slot machine game fixed with a SATA software SSD and a 2.5" HDD bay and a socketed wireless greeting card (equipped with an Intel dual music group Wireless 802.11AC + Bluetooth greeting card). Once you take away the bottom cover, the electric battery is easily accessible should it require replacing in a couple of years. The laptop has two fans, one for the CPU and another for the NVIDIA GPU, and these work successfully and quietly for both the 15 and 17 inch Y700 models fairly.
Benchmarks:
PCMark 8 Home : 3303
Geekbench 3: 3768 / 13,475
wPrime: 11.6 seconds
Unigine Heaven 4 (1920 x 1080, high, no tessellation) : fps: 44.8, credit score 1128. Potential GPU temperature: 69C
3DTag 11: P5561, X1823
3DDraw Cloud Gate: 17,492
3DDraw Ice Surprise Unlimited: 118,768
3DMake Fire Reach Extreme: 2006
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Trackpad and keyboard
Lenovo makes among the better keyboards on the marketplace, but those are in the carrying on business ThinkPad series. The Lenovo Y700 is an associate of the IdeaPad family, and like the non-ThinkPad Yogas, gets a significant however, not fantastic keyboard. Key travel is proficient at 1.tactile and 5mm feel is Okay, but the even secrets aren't as reactive, tactile and well-damped as the ThinkPad series. The key pad has red backlighting--there's no configurable multi-color area backlighting much like MSI and Asus video games notebooks and the Horsepower Omen 15. Individually, I don't believe that's a offer breaker, though I really do game often on laptop computers even.
The Synaptics trackpad is old university House windows 8 quality products. Quite simply, it isn't great. The Dell XPS 15 has an excellent trackpad compared, as the Asus ZenBook Expert UX501's is approximately as mind-numbingly annoying as the IdeaPad Y700's. It isn't as predictable as we want for simple responsibilities like scrolling by having a set of folders, and I needed to use extra health care never to unintentionally pull folders and data files. Could this be improved with new trackpad firmware? Maybe. Might it be radically increased? Probably not.
Battery Life
Both 15 and 17 inches IdeaPad Y700 laptops have 4 cell, 60 Whr batteries that Lenovo claims are best for 4.5 to 5 hours usage (when working with integrated graphics, without doubt). For email, web, MS Office and loading training video they indeed do run that long with lighting arranged to 40% and Wi-fi active. That isn't impressive power life, though quad primary large gaming notebooks don't generally have great battery pack life. The ZenBook Expert fares no better, but MSI's recent game playing notebook computers are regularly striking the 6 hour draw, and the Dell XPS 15 and 15" Retina MACBOOK-PRO go beyond that. The laptop computers dispatch with a 120 watt electricity brick that delivers enough capacity to drive the laptop when games but still top in the charge.
Conclusion
"Budget" and "gaming laptop" are seldom said in the same phrase. Lenovo is mostly of the companies to give a relatively affordable true powerhouse gambling laptop in this cost range. Some call them basic level gamers, but they're really stronger than that given that they can run latest game titles at 1920 x 1080 in a variety of medium and high configurations with good structure rates. They're also suitable to CPU-intensive tasks and are designed for 1080p video editing and enhancing in Adobe Premiere easily, although limited color gamut of the 15" full HD model is a problem for video recording and picture editing and enhancing. The notebooks are heavy but slender reasonably, decently constructed plus they come with an understated games style that's staid enough to try work. If you are students compiling software, doing offers and streaming video tutorial, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y700
will probably be worth a peek if your finances says "no" to expensive alternatives.
Website: shop.lenovo.com
Price as evaluated: $1,100 for the 15" and $1,150 for the 17"
Related Reviews:
MSI Apache Pro GE62 & GE72 Review
Dell XPS 15 Review
Asus ZenBook Expert UX501 Review
15" Retina MACBOOK-PRO Review
MSI Ghost Expert Review
Alienware 15 Review
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