Simply put, the gaming performance is excellent and beats any comparably priced machine I am aware of currently (March 2013). The dual Nvidia 650M SLI GFX cards will outperform a 670m and usually be snapping on the heels of a 675M (even beating it on occasion, though very rarely). The 675m is usually about 10-12% faster, but in some games like Skyrim, the 650M SLI combo actually wins (by a hair). Let's just say that nearly all games will run in their high/ultra settings with a few tweaks, and even the tough games will run on mid to high settings at full HD resolution. Turn down a few settings or lower the rez and almost anything will run smoothly at high frame rates. As Nvidia improves their drivers (this is still a very new config) performance should only get better.
So, in short, you get exceptional gaming performance at this price point, especially considering the 1920x1080 HD resolution (most comparably priced rigs will have lower rez displays). This is a TN display, not IPS, but it is a good TN display with excellent color, good viewing angles, and good contrast ratios. It is also bright, though the glossy screen does show reflections, the glossy finish does help with color saturation and contrast. Indoors, it will usually not be a problem. And here's a good place to say that this is a *portable* notebook, but one that will usually be tethered to A/C power for gaming. It's more of a desktop replacement than a laptop. Still, only about 6 lbs., so not bad to grab and move around. Update: Also, when on battery power, only one GFX card is available, you must be on A/C power to run in SLI mode.
It has a sleek looking case (aluminum), truly great red backlit keyboard (one of the best I've used), and red accents on the speakers (which sound pretty good for a notebook). All the basic ports, bluetooth, HDMI, USB 2.0 (1) and 3.0 (2) -however, no optical drive, that bay holds the second GFX card instead. A special DVD/Blu-Ray module can be purchased and swapped out with the second GFX card if you wish, or you can use an external optical drive which works fine and is what I do, as I already had one handy.
Gamers will nearly always be using a mouse, so the iffy touchpad (not awful, but not too good for gaming) won't be a problem for most. The keyboard is very nice and even has a numeric keypad scrunched in. Typing feel is above average. When you are not gaming, this unit makes a nice high end work rig as well (think video editing, photoshop, audio, etc.). It doesn't hurt that you've got an exceptionally fast CPU and a bunch of RAM stuffed into this thing, either. Benchmarks are great.
The 5400 rpm hard drive gives many pause, but it is a good quality Samsung drive with an SSD cache and, really, it works pretty well and is faster than I expected. In normal use, I hardly even notice any lag compared to my SSD rig. No, it's not as fast all the time, but it's perfectly fine and not something that bothers me at all. Not yet anyway. For gaming, I doubt it will be an issue. The new windows 8 secure boot BIOS make it harder to swap out for an SSD (though it can be done, it's not trivial), so this may still be a consideration for some. I'm happy to leave the HDD in place, myself.
Great gaming and media performance, great performance overall, really. Nice Full HD screen, Good speakers, Plenty of storage and memory, plus good, solid build quality make this an attractive choice and an excellent value.
Update: Five weeks in and I remain very happy with this rig.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Some notes that I think might be useful to those considering the Y500:
- On CPU performance, the Y500 beats many more expensive gaming rigs thanks to the newer Core i7-3630QM 2.40 Ghz quad-core processor capable of running 8 threads, and equally important, capable of single-thread burst modes up to 3.4 Ghz.
- Not all games support SLI GFX, some will run only with a single card. Even then performance is pretty good as the 650M used runs at a slightly higher clock speed than usual and Lenovo has used the faster DDR5 RAM and plenty of it, so even a single card has strong mid-range performance. Luckily, almost all newer games *do* support SLI mode.
- I have posted an image (gallery "user" images at top left of product page)showing some benchmark results for Skyrim where the 650M SLI tops a 675M in med and high settings and ties it on ultra (full HD) settings. See notes on image for more info.
-There are tweaks you can apply to make Windows 8 look and act more like Windows 7, if that is your preference. I see no need to install Win 7, though I do prefer it, being more used to it. Gonna have to accept Windows 8 sooner or later. ;)
-Most often noted "cons" by others, battery life of only 3-4 hours, not an issue if you're plugged in most of the time (as I am). Hard drive at 5400 rpm not as bad as many make out. It's a good performing drive even at 5400 and you get less noise and heat. The SSD cache works well. Having 1 TB of storage is good for gamers, too, given the size of newer games and media (music, videos, photos, etc.). No DisplayPort if that matters to you. Not an IPS display, but a pretty decent TN panel. Some have complained about the exhaust ports, not an issue for me, but could be for some depending on how you use and position your notebook.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
I wanted so so much to love this computer. Its specs are unbelievable for the price, and the ultrabay and backlit keyboard are major bonuses. It has a great array of ports (side note: the product description says it's got 2xUSB2.0 and 2xUSB3.0 this is incorrect. It has only one USB2.0 port on the right side), and the screen is simply beautiful.I knew ahead of time that the trackpad and the keyboard might leave something to be desired, but I was not prepared for the degree to which this affected my ability to use the computer. The trackpad is just...straight up aggravating. There is a clear lack of spit and polish with the user friendliness of the keyboard/trackpad.
Let's take the trackpad -
Good:
*Nice texture
*Synaptics, so at least theoretically a good piece of hardware
*Two finger scroll
Bad:
*This is a circular problem. There is no physical button you have to push down the trackpad; if you want to *click* the trackpad, you have to put just a few more pounds of pressure down on it than seems reasonable, and the computer seems to agree, as doing this appears to actually depress the entire pad into the body of the laptop by a few mm and sometimes make a disconcerting creaky noise; since you don't want to have to try to click the pad, you want to tap it, and here is where software fights you right and left for control of the computer. Granted I have my mouse sensitivity set very high, but it has been really frustrating to tap or double tap on things and find that for whatever reason the mouse has moved in some direction during that action. Unavoidably, there will be times where you HAVE to click and hold something while you drag it around or resize a window or something, and this is next impossible without turning on the click lock feature buried in the mouse settings, which you will then have to flip on and off every time you plug in a mouse, which you will DEFINITELY be doing because it's the only way to make mouse interface with this computer in any way a pleasant experience. It's enough to make me say that it's a shame this computer didn't come with a touchscreen so I could just avoid the trackpad for clicking things, which should say something.
*Even the fastest tracking speed seems a little sluggish to me. This may be a Windows problem and not a Synaptics problem, but I thought I'd mention it.
*Major smudgefest. Doesn't bother me all that much, but it sure doesn't do much to preserve the sleek look of the machine.
Now the keyboard-
Good:
*Backlighting is GREAT. I LOVE having a backlit keyboard, and having a couple brightness options is pretty handy too.
*Good solid keyboard. It feels great to type on. Not mushy or wiggly. For a laptop, I think this is a totally acceptable keyboard.
*Number pad! Hooray!
Bad:
*I don't know who the hell patented what that causes Windows PC's to hide all their most helpful function buttons BEHIND the function keys, but it's stupidly frustrating. Basic things like brightness, volume, keyboard backlight, and all the fun little additions lenovo gives you for quick access to search functions or program switching or whatever they're all spread out in, I guess, contextual places on the keyboard. That's great except /why aren't they on TOP of the function keeeeeeyyys/?! Who uses those flim flammin keys so frequently that they take precedent over these basic, extremely important things? Why do I need two hands to turn down the volume. Also,
*WHY IS THERE NO MUTE KEY?
*The right shift is fun sized. Since my last keyboard lost it's left shift to someone spilling water on it, this is very hard for me to work with. Not a deal breaker, but again, a needless minor annoyance.
Maybe all these things are significant to me because while I am a gamer, I am also a person who likes to browse the internet and get other stuff done, and these sorts of basic UI problems significantly impede my enjoyment of this computer. Basically, I *need* a computer for all sorts of communication reasons, and these sorts of things can be done very easily and very well by a huge variety of computers. I have a 2006 Macbook Pro that fills my computer *needs* really well. It sends emails and skypes and clicks the stuff I intend it to click and even scrolls down in the direction that feels natural to me, which is all I ask of any computer. I also have computer *wants* i.e. I *want* a computer that I can play Skyrim, and Tribes:Ascend, and Starcraft 2 on, and I presently have a Y500 that yawns in the face of these challenges. I was really hoping that it would cover my *needs* as well, but it falls flat on its face in that department, so I can't really justify the combined 15 or so lbs of computer it now takes to cover all my bases here can I? And which do you think is still under a return policy? *Sigh*
EDIT: I forgot to mention, that I had a few technical problems with the SLI cards. I installed and played enough games from my Steam and Humble Bundle accounts to fill up about 65% of the hdd, which, since it's a terabyte, I believe is impressive. Several of the games had some very strange, very quirky problems that are hard to describe. Weird stuff like not scaling text properly at some resolutions, or not behaving normally unless run in a windowed mode. Some games refused to work at all, and one even refused to explain itself it simply closed without comment every time I tried to run it. I also had some graphical issues outside of games, specifically while using Chrome. At least two dozen times during the month I owned this computer, the screen would randomly black out, then pop back on at full brightness (not awesome in a dark bedroom watching TV) reporting that the graphics card had crashed and had been recovered, followed by Chrome locking up and needing to be force closed and reopened. These are all likely driver related issues that Nvidia will likely (hopefully) hammer out in the future, but it's worth knowing if you're thinking of buying this computer.
Best Deals for Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 15.6-Inch Laptop (Metal - Dusk Black)
I purchased this laptop for work purposes (Video Editing, etc.) and so far it has exceeded my expectations in many ways!The graphics capability is phenomenal, the speakers sound great and the laptop itself feels well-made and solid, but just light enough to make it easy to carry around for in-the-field editing. The screen is bright and looks great! The keyboard is comfortable and feels nice when doing a fair amount of typing.
The only problem I've had is the mouse pad. It's a little hyper-sensitive at first and it's hard to find a good setting that makes it easy to use. However, this is easily fixed with a wireless mouse and the multi-touch functions are very useful!
I don't know what everybody's issue with Windows 8 is, it just takes a little bit to get used to it. If you don't like it, just install Win 7, it's not that hard to come by.
And well, it just looks cool. Some people may life the flashy stuff, but this laptop just looks classy.
If you're doing anything that requires intensive video processing, buy this laptop! You won't regret it!
Honest reviews on Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 15.6-Inch Laptop (Metal - Dusk Black)
First off, for the price, this laptop is great. SLI, backlit keyboard, 16gb of ram, and 1tb of hd space are all the great features in this laptop. The screen is beautiful at 1920x1080 and pc gaming is amazing with the screen and gpu. Other complaints on here state the lack of optical drive or a crappy touchpad, the touchpad does sound rather cheap but works fine. I use a mouse so I don't use the touchpad very often. The lack of optical drive is understandable because its replaced with an extra gpu. The ultrabay allows you to switch between an extra gpu, a fan, another hdd, or an optical drive. Windows 8 gets some getting used to. After a week it feels natural and with the installment of software like pokki or startisback, this gives you a start button and the option to boot straight into desktop mode, bypassing the metro UI completely. I thought the 32gb ssd was for the operating system for fast boot times, but its just for cache. Not that this laptop needs an ssd for a faster boot, I still get 8 second start ups everytime. If you are looking for a computer similar to this but with a bluray drive and 3d, check out the toshiba qosmio, similar price but bulkier. Gaming on this is a breeze, and with a 3d monitor, games and movies look amazing. Every game so far has had optimal settings for ultra high, crysis 3, metro:last light, and tomb raider are some examples of games that play without stutter. The JBL speakers are some of the best laptop speakers I have ever heard, sound is clear and crisp. I feel as if this computer is lacking some ports, I thought I would have had more than 3 usb ports. I ordered the toshiba dynadock to compensate that though, it gives me 6 usb 3.0 ports 2 video cards for extra displays, 5.1 surround sound, and extra usb 2.0 ports for the hell of it. This computer has some nice features like a 1-button back up system, energy management tools and dust removal program that puts fans on high and pushes out dust from inside. Don't have many complaints about the laptop, except maybe the battery life, but with the amount hardware the bad boy is powering, its expected.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 15.6-Inch Laptop (Metal - Dusk Black)
This computer is amazing dont get me wrong but it broke 6 months in due to a hard drive malfunction and when i called the "Lenovo #" on google they said the warranty would cover anything, blah blah blah. Aparently i was calling "MyTech Help Repair". When we finally got things sorted out and called Lenovo they were amazingly helpful. Best costumer service ive ever had. NEVER GO THROUGH MY TECH HELP REPAIR for repairs.But overall this is a great computer that i would buy again.
No comments:
Post a Comment