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The following is a review of my new Ideapad Y470 by Lenovo. The specs are as follows:
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i7 2630qm
Nvidia 550M
8 GB RAM
DVD RW
500GB 7200RPM HDD
80 GB Intel 310 mSATA SSD (Installed after market)
Windows 7 Home Premium
Total Price:
$924 pretax (includes $50 for 2 year warranty upgrade, doesn't include mSATA)
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I have had my Y470 for about 2 weeks now and so have had ample time to play with it. However, before I start the review, I will point out a couple of things:
Firstly, as far as the price goes, that is not the normal price - I used a 20% off coupon in conjunction with a sale on the Lenovo Canada website. The laptop normally retails for $1399 (although the 20% coupons appear to pop up fairly frequently).
Secondly, there were issues getting the laptop shipped to me - it ended up taking about 1 month as it was lost in transit on the first attempt. I was not happy with the way that was handled, and from what I understand shipping delays are commonplace with Lenovo. Be aware of this when placing an order.
On to the review...
This 14.1 inch laptop is the equivalent of a mini-Austrian body builder. The hardware in it is top-notch for it's size. At the time I purchased it, the only other laptop that had similar specs was the Alienware m14x (although it fields an Nvidia 555M, but is consequently bulkier). The Y470 has a lot of pros, and a few cons. I will break the review into logically sorted pros and associated cons.
For comparison, here are 2 pictures. The first is my Y470 and the second is the laptop it is replacing - my 4 year old LG R500 (15.6 inch).
As you can see from the above picture, the Y470 just looks classy. The grey/brown/taupe colour is subdued and pleasing. The chassis is solid and sturdy. The palmrest feels like it is plastic covered metal and has no flex. The build quality is quite high. However, there are a few notable exceptions here. The major complaint I have is with the the bezel surrounding the screen. It is at least an inch on all sides and glossy (aka cheap looking). The bezel around the R500 screen, by comparison, is about 2/3's the thickness and is pleasingly matte. As well, the bezel on the right side is flimsy and not attached well to the screen. I assume this is due to the antenna for the wireless card running underneath it(?).
The keyboard is chiclet style, and is a pleasure to type on. The keys are firm and well spaced, and allow for accurate, relatively high speed typing. That being said, there are a few gripes here. My R500's keyboard provided a more comfortable typing experience for a number of reasons. Firstly, the 'Enter' key on the R500 is horizontal, whereas it is long vertically on the Y470, which makes no sense when you are moving your pinky finger laterally to hit the key. Secondly, the built-in numberpad is incredibly useful on the R500. I understand that with a 15.6 inch laptop, there is more room, however, the bezel around the Y470's keyboard is about 2 inches wide on either side. Compare that with the R500's miniscule sub-half inch bezel. That extra 3 inches may have been enough for a number pad, or at the very least a horizontal 'Enter' key.
The touchpad is textured, which I happen to like. It is responsive and highly usable. Although, the R500's buttons prove to be far more enjoyable. The Y470 employs a single piece for both buttons, which is inferior to the two individual buttons on the R500. In all, the look and the build of Y470 are nice, however the oversized bezel is the most disappointing feature.
The screen has a resolution of 1366x768, which is to be expected for a laptop of this size. I would have liked to see a 1600x900 option, but this will suffice. The vertical viewing angles are not optimal, but they are passable. The colours are nice and vibrant, and this is helped by Lenovo's included OneKey Theatre software. If you are watching a movie or viewing pictures, the screen will automatically adjust to become more vivid. The program is reasonably good at auto-detecting, although certain movie formats require you to touch the button manually (conveniently placed above the keyboard next to the volume controls).
The speakers are, simply put, incredible. The ones in my R500 are certainly above average to begin with, but the ones in the Y470 are even more crisp, clear, and powerful. The laptop comes with JBL speakers and SRS Premium Sound software to back them up (again the OneKey Theatre can detect when you are watching a movie and enable the simulated surround). I have had no need to increase the volume past 50% and tend to keep it around 30% for just about everything. These small speakers also produce reasonably rich bass, which is surprising.
On to one of the best things about this laptop: the cooling system. When researching new laptops before my purchase, I found that a lot of systems using the new Intel chips combined with a discrete GPU ran very hot under load. Even to the point of throttling. I have put this system under heavy load for hours and it manages to stay relatively very cool. The pads under the laptop keep it about 1.5 cm off the table, which is plenty of room for the underside fan to draw in air, and the exhaust grill is massive. It is almost half the length of the left side of the laptop and contains a huge copper heatsink. The fan itself is silent under normal load, and not overly loud when at full power. Fantastic cooling.
Moving to the drives, the DVD drive is a standard tray (a slot loader would have been sexy though), which will see next to no use. I would love to see these optical drives removed entirely and the extra space be devoted to either cooling or a decrease in overall laptop size. The original 500GB hard drive is, I believe, a Western Digital that performs as you would expect. The real gem here is the aftermarket mSATA that I installed. At this point there are not many laptops that can utilize mSATA drives, and this was actually a big factor in my decision to buy Lenovo. The drive is TINY (about the size of a small potato chip) and faster than Mila Kunis is hot (SATA 2 speeds). Having 3 drives in a 14 inch laptop is a real treat. The mSATA runs the operating system and all programs, while the HDD stores all my media and other files.
Beyond everything mentioned above, the Y470 has 2 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 2.0/eSATA combo, a 5 in 1 card reader, HDMI out, and VGA out. One thing I should mention as well, the AC in is on the right side of the laptop, which is probably not the best spot seeing as most people use a mouse on that side. There are 2 switches on the front, one of which turns the WiFi on and off, while the other turns the discrete GPU on or off - some people have complained about Optimus not detecting properly, I have yet to see a problem. As for battery life, the machine can last 6+ hours under light/moderate load with the screen dimmed.
In closing, aside from a few build issues, this laptop is nearly perfect. It packs some serious hardware, has the cooling system to handle it, looks great, and has the sound and video capabilities to make you feel like that vaguely Eastern European-looking man in the wind tunnel wearing the goggles in those old black and white video clips. If you are willing to sink more money into it, the mSATA really helps the machine fly (if boot times get you hot, I've had this laptop boot in 12 seconds). I highly recommend picking up this system when the sale and/or coupon is available, despite the sub-par customer service that Lenovo offers.
Another Y470 review
Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Rob2Kx, Aug 5, 2011.
