from Lenovo's website. Having heard good things about the company and
read some good reviews of their laptops, I decided to check them out
when I needed a new laptop. I've had my Y550 for 4 days and will post
updates if things change for the worse but so far so good.
The specs:
Intel Duo P8700 (2.53 GHz)
4GB of DDR3 memory
500 GB HDD
Standard integrated graphics card
Blu-ray optical drive
The price was very good. I couldn't find a better deal (about 900
bucks after the ecoupon) for such a powerful machine with a blu-ray
option.
The first thing I noticed after setting up everything was the
beautiful, bright, and crisp screen. It is a full HD screen and
it is wide/squat (1366 x 768), great for watching movies. The screen
is bright, crisp and glossy but has very little glare. It really does
live up to the hype I've heard about it though I do wish that Lenovo
offered a higher resolution screen option (like a 1920 x 1080). After
seeing a blu-ray movie on it, I came away not disappointed that I paid
the extra 150 bucks for the blu-ray option.
The setup was easy and the software gives you the option of deleting
all the bloatware that it comes standard with. (It took me about 15
minutes to deselect all the bloatware) I only selected two of them to
run on my computer as the rest was useless junk that will slow
everything down and I suspect useless to most people too.
Performance: The computer is quite fast so for my needs (email, net
surfing, word processing, etc), it is more than sufficient. The
computer has the newer DDR3 memory making it even a little more
impressive performance wise.
Looks: It has a beautiful design with black carbon-fiber shell and
white palm-rest. The idea is to make the laptop light (it is just over
6 lbs, and only 1 inch thick(!) which for a laptop this size, it
really is among the lightest and thinnest.
Sound: The speakers are pretty good. It has a subwoofer and two JBL
speakers that, for a laptop, gets decent sounds.
Cool factor: The Veriface security software works very well in
allowing one to use one's own face to log in (the computer's camera
scans your face and logs you in when there's a match to saved images
of you) and only takes a few seconds to set up. No problems yet with
it and it works like a charm. The carbon-fiber shell, though not
fingerprint proof, will make cleaning them off easier; just wipe once
with non abrasive cloth and they're gone. The Touch Inductive Panel
above the keyboard is pretty cool but only a little better than being
useless as far as I can see. The touchpad allows for expanding/shrinking
text size by sliding two fingers apart or together.
Batteries: There are several energy settings. Since this is a powerful
laptop and has a relatively large screen, it doesn't do well at all on
the highest setting unplugged as to be expected. But on the lowest
energy-saver setting (Super Energy Saver), you could probably get a
little over 3 hrs of internet surfing, email, etc. and about 22.5
hrs of watching movies. But who wants to watch a movie on such a low
setting? The bright LED screen makes viewing a pleasure but on the
lowest settings, you will not get nearly as much image quality. So
this laptop is more like a desktop replacement in that area but get's
OK battery mileage for simpler functions.
Negatives:
-The thing only has two USB ports (Plus one eSATA port). For
a laptop with almost a 16 inch display, it should have more.
-Like I mentioned, Lenovo doesn't offer a 1920 x 1080 display
option. Watching blu-ray on a system like that with this type of
screen would have been incredible I'd wager.
-Like some other customers have mentioned Lenovo's customer support blows. I emailed them with some simple questions about my order and could not get a satisfactory answer. The answer they did give me was wrong as I later found out doing my own research. But since this has nothing to do with the product, I didn't deduct my rating on this account but the customer should be warned. Also, if you are buying from Lenovo's site, make sure you look into all the offers they have on sale such as the ecoupons they have scattered (hidden from view?) about on their site. You need to enter the code on the order page for the coupon when you order to get the discount. I got a 12% "employee discount" that cut the price of my laptop by 120 bucks but I had to dig through the site to find it. They sometimes also offer free shipping but search/hunt down and read the disclaimers (they don't offer this for several states). The Lenovo website was pretty disorganized and confusing.
-There's a lot of bloatware that comes installed on this laptop. Like I
said, remove as soon as possible because they are mostly crap and will
slow your computer down.
-The laptop doesn't come with backup software. Instead, it has a "One
Key Restore" function. I've had to use this function when I
accidentally uninstalled some good software that I wanted. I'd like to
have backup software, still.
-The touchpad takes little to get use to but that's not too much of a problem.
Overall, the computer has lived up to my high expectations and surpassed
them a little too!
[EDIT] It's been about 7 months since I got the computer and its harddrive has died. Lenovo's basic warranty took care of the problem in about a week's time. I hope it's just a problem with the manufacturer of the harddrive or that I was unlucky enough to get a crappy harddrive and not with Lenovo's fault. That's what I suspect but I have to update my rating from a 5 Star to a 2 Star since I don't really know what resulted in it.
[EDIT] Ok, another problem. The DVD/blu ray player will not play certain blu ray discs. So now I'm stuck with a 25 dollar blu ray disc that I can't play on it and can't return to the store.
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I have had this laptop for over 3+ years, and it doesn't disappoint. I mainly use it for gaming, and its is pretty good! I have played many games on this laptop. It can run Team Fortress 2, Bioshock 2, Minecraft, Mirrors Edge, Portal 2, and many other games without lag.The only downside to this laptop is that it can't play some of the newer games such as Batman Arkham City, Battlefield 3, and Borderlands 2.
Other than that, there aren't that much downsides!
Best Deals for Lenovo Ideapad Y550 15.6-Inch Laptop
I bought this laptop from Lenovo website in September 2009 for $650. Intel C2D T6500, 4GB DDR3, 320GB HDD... and have been using it since. After a year, i had to get a replacement battery as it would die in 20 minutes. Didn't have any other issues other than that.Pros: WLED screen is beautiful. Easy to change components (i replaced my 320 gb hdd with a ssd and it was very easy to do). Not noisy at all. No heating issues.
Cons: Only 2 USB connectors. Speakers are not that powerful. Intel graphics card is not good enough to play HD movies or any games.
There's this weird slot which comes with it which, frankly is a waste of space. Build quality is not that good, feels like plastic, but is not that flimsy either. I believe i dropped it down once from 3-4 feet in the school library and it survived.
Honest reviews on Lenovo Ideapad Y550 15.6-Inch Laptop
Hi everyone. First let me say that I did NOT purchase this laptop from Amazon. I got mine at a discounted price from NewEgg.I'm going to break this review down into several categories.
My specs are as follows:
Intel Core2 Duo P7450 2.13GHz
4GB DDR3 RAM
Nvidia GeForce GT 240M
15.6" Screen
320GB 5400RPM HDD
Design:
Lenovo's laptops are designed very well (especially their ThinkPad Edge, T, and X Series), but there are a few design flaws that I personally don't like in this model. I do NOT like the hinges on this laptop. I have to hold the bottom half of the laptop when I open the lid and if your not careful the screen will shake back in forward until you stop it. The trackpad (which has small bumps on it) may be a bit small for some people, but I didn't have a problem with it. However, even though I don't like the hinges and the trackpad can be annoying sometimes this machine has an excellent keyboard (A HUGE plus for me), good speakers, dedicated volume up/down and mute buttons, responsive clicking buttons, and a decent 1366x768 screen(glossy).
Performance:
The performance on this laptop is awesome! I haven't experienced any slowing down from this computer since I bought it 2 years ago. HDD hasn't failed, RAM hasn't degraded, and the processor is still as fast as it was 2 years ago. I still feel like I have a new computer. The Nvidia graphics are good, but I don't know if you can still find this model (maybe on ebay). The graphics card is great for the games I have played (City of Heroes, LOTRO, Dragon Nest, Portal 2, Left4Dead 2, etc.)
Software:
This computer does come with some bloatware, but it also comes with some cool and useful software. You will just need to choose what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of. I do suggest that you uninstall the antivirus (either mcafee or norton) and install either Advast (Free) or ESET Smart Security ($40+ depending on when you buy and what version you get)
Heat & Battery Life:
My laptop will only get hot on the back left side of the laptop where the vent is, and it only happens when I have used it for 1+ hours or when I am playing a game. As for battery life I have experienced 4hrs when I first purchased (3hrs now 2yrs later). If you play games then expect the battery life to be cut in a third. In short, have it plugged up when you play games.
Verdict:
If you want a good computer for the cheap price of $500 then this laptop would be great for you, but you will have to deal with the bad hinges, bumpy touchpad, and looking through the pre-installed software to see what you want to keep.
Suggestions:
If the laptop isn't as fast as you would like then I would install a free version of Linux such as Mint Linux or Bodhi Linux. You will have to learn how to use a new system, but it is MUCH faster. If you keep Windows 7 (like I did) then I would uninstall the antivirus that came preinstalled and buy ESET Smart Security like I mentioned above.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Lenovo Ideapad Y550 15.6-Inch Laptop
I purchased the IdeaPad Y550 straight from Lenovo and also purchased a 3-year warranty. The laptop overall is very fast and worked well at first. After 4 months, the computer would not boot up, and when it did the screen was black...I had to get the motherboard replaced! Thank goodness I purchased the warranty, as I was able to ship the laptop to Lenovo for the motherboard replacement.After upgrading to Windows 7, I had issues with the sound and video (only heard static, Media Player did not work, videos did not play online) which were fixed after Lenovo support spent a couple hours working on it. It seems that everything is in order now, although I do not think the sound quality is as high as when I first purchased the laptop.
Overall, a decent laptop, but I encourage anyone who purchases it to also get a full warranty.
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