Ideapad Y510P Review (By Owner)

Hi,


There seems to be alot of questions about the Ideapad Y510P. So i thought i'd start a thread that is for owners to share their thoughts and for others to ask questions


UPDATED 7/7/2013 - Laptop being returned to Lenovo for repairs on the keyboard

Reasons for repair:

My keyboard broke. The h key and k keys gave become sticky. I never dropped anything on the laptop and it is close to new. Lenovo said they will replace the whole keyboard free of charge. 7 business day turn around though. I will update this review after


Review Below

I have the Ideapad Y510P 59370008 (1920 resolution screen with a single Geforce 750M). I have had it for 3 days now and have been using the laptop almost constantly

I also have the MSI GE70 (Ivy Bridge and Geforce 660M) and a Macbook Pro Early 2011 with upgraded graphics card

This will be a non benchmark review and are my general usage thoughts and comparisons


Performance

I play League of Legends with High settings on 1920 resolution and have never dropped below 60 fps.

The 24g SSD Cache drive is great and hides the slower 5400. I am always the fastest on the League of Legends map (<5 seconds) and restarting the computer is very quick (under 10 seconds). Whilst in game i am able to easily Alt-Tab out and install other software or do a variety of other tasks whilst the game is running such as installing Microsoft Office in the background

Compared with..

• MSI GE70 Ivy bridge: Feels far faster both loading and app switching whilst in game. MSI I was only able to run League of Legends 1920 resolution on Medium settings, Lenovo I can now run all high
• Macbook Pro Early 2011: Destroys it

Heat & Noise

Some people have mentioned that the heat is an issue. I have the single Geforce 750M version. Heat is absolutely not an issue. The laptop runs significantly cooler than my old Macbook Pro (early 2011 with graphics upgrade), even when gaming. The exhaust vent on the side is warm but not hot. In fact the machine is so cool that I can sit it on my lap while gaming with no problems at all.

Compared with..

• MSI GE70 Ivy bridge: Y510P has less heat, similar noise
• Macbook Pro Early 2011: Y510 has way less heat, much quieter

Trackpad

The trackpad is terrible. It is borderline unusable. the cursor jumps around the screen erratically making it is impossible to be accurate. It is a big step back from my smooth Macbook Pro's trackpad. You really must use a mouse with this laptop.


Compared with..

• MSI GE70 Ivy bridge: Y510P is worse
• Macbook Pro Early 2011: Y510P is way worse

Look & Feel

The laptop looks phenomenal, especially the red keyboard. It has a high quality. It feels solid and sturdy with a slight flex to the screen. The size of the laptop is perfect for a 1920 resolutions screen, which makes it significantly more portable, about the same weight with power brick as a Macbook Pro non retina with powerbrick

Overall it looks and feels better than a Macbook Pro non retina when placed side by side


Compared with..

• MSI GE70 Ivy bridge: Y510P looks more stylish, feels firmer, is smaller, brighter screen
• Macbook Pro Early 2011: Y510P is slighter thicker, about the same weight, brighter screen

Sound & Camera

The sound reproduction on this machine is far above others in its class. It is the best laptop that I have ever heard. On Skype and Google hangout people say i look very clear.

Compared with..

• MSI GE70 Ivy bridge: Y510P has slightly better sound. No camera comparisons done
• Macbook Pro Early 2011: Y510P has much better sound. Camera seems worse when i take photos on it, but other people say i look clearer at the other end of a video conference

Battery Life

After a month of occasional battery use, lasts about 3.5 hours to complete run down on a full charge. This is with the machine hard set to use the Intel 4600 card and no dimming of the screen

Compared with..

• MSI GE70 Ivy bridge: Didn't test the GE70
• Macbook Pro Early 2011: Y510P lasts 1.5 hours longer

Conclusion

Overall this is a phenomenal laptop regardless of the price. Once you taken into account the price, this is easily the best gaming laptop for the money. The only downfall is the trackpad. Other than that its great. Get one

 

nice review. do you know which trackpad you got?

 

good review
but i didn t understand the comparison part in the performance
can u clarify

 

"Lasts just shy of 4 hours and YES it does switch to use the Intel 4600 card when on battery life"

Wow, really? Can it switch to the 4600 in non-gaming situations?

Great review.

One more question? How glossy is the screen (I know it's anti-glare, but some people are saying it's still pretty glossy)?

 

Trackpad i'll check tonight

Added some more info about Performance to that section - Let me know if you have specific questions. I'm not keen on running benchmarks though, others can do that. I'd rather tell you how it works real world.

Re 4600 switching, when i open the NVidia control panel it says its using the 4600

Screen is not glossy imo. Still hard to read in daylight but easier than my Glossy Macbook Pro

 

now i get it :thumbsup:

so the only downfall is the track pad but what is the type ??

 

what was the spec of the mac book pro

 

Sweet. im getting a 1600x900 y410p with SSD, hope its a good buy

 

The trackpad on my Y510p seems perfectly fine. The cursor moves smoothly with my finger and it doesn't jump at all. Though I'm still going to use a mouse instead, just a personal preference. The one problem with the trackpad in general though is that I think it's oriented too much to the left, so a part of my hand hovers over a portion of the trackpad as I'm gaming, or even simply typing.

 

How is the battery life when you're on the Intel Chipset the whole time from a full charge down to &lt;25%?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

tbh i've never used it for more than 1.5 hours off battery. Dropped from 4 hours remaining to 2.5

 

I've ran mine under normal usage and it lasts 3 hours, give or take a few minutes. When the laptop is idle though and everything is off such as WiFi and backlit keyboard, it can hit the advertised 5 hours.

 

That's disappointing. Can't use it at school without a power adapter...anyone have any thoughts about this laptop compared to the new hp envy lineup? Pros and cons?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

OP, did you purchase the SLI?

 

He has the single.

 

The only place I saw the option to purchase the SLI model is at Frys but it has a 8gb SSD Cache with 12gb of ram. With two 750Ms

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

Newegg listed the same 8GB cache but in reality it was a 24GB SSD in a new form factor slot (not mSATA)

Cheers,

 

u can just buy an external battery

 

Why lenovo didn't make an ultrabay battery is beyond me, it would've been SO USEFUL. Largely because you could use the 4600 to save battery, and then use the bay to get even more battery life. 6-7 hours would be sweet on intel graphics.

 

Batteries can't power thru pci express slots unfortunately. Engineering that probably would've made the laptop taller and heavier.

Anyone have any positives about the new HPs? I think I'm considering the Envy 15 with the 750M

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

Where did you download the drivers for your ideapad, OP?

 

Hi Joshva, can you tell me what's the boot time on this laptop? I'm planning on get one next week!

 

Mine cold boots in 10 seconds, though restarting takes around two minutes for some reason...

 

Windows hidden updates.

 

8-10 seconds if you have a caching SSD+UEFI enabled.

 

Are you keeping the default SSD? Did install the OS on the 1TB HDD?

 

Wow so I guess that 24GB SSD it's being well used then! 10 seconds is quite a nice boot time! Thanks for the feedback guys!

 

Some updates:

1) Battery life is about 2 hours even using the Intel Chipset. It is not great at all.

2) Boot time is < 10 seconds. Very quick. Yes keeping the 1g 5400 hard drive with the OS installed on it. I was going to put a Seagate Momentus XT drive in there but you don't need it with the 24g cache drive.

3) The keyboard broke. The laptop is being returned to Lenovo for the keyboard to be replaced. 7 business days . Both the h key and k key have become sticky. I never dropped anything on the laptop. The h key is now out of the keyboard and it looks very clean underneath. This is not ideal - i'll report back as soon as i have a new keyboard.

4) Wifi does not work with my Netgear N600 3400 router. I have to use a cable. I'm going to get a new router today and will report back the results. Again not ideal

 

You should be able to get over 4 hours with your laptop. I get that even without the internal gpu in the y400.

 

How? I've set Nvidia Control Panel to use just the Intel graphics card. Still only 2 to 2.5 hours. What other settings do you have set?

 

Power saving mode.

 

Hey guys does anyone here knows how much is the waiting time to get one from Amazon? I have a family trip by the end of the month (so I will not be in the country to receive the laptop)... They say is on Pre-Order but I wonder if anyone here knows how much time do they make you suffer lol

 

So i started to look around for laptops recently since i'll move out to another city to study there.
I'm planing to buy one til the end of august, and from all laptops I've looked at, i like this one the best.
I got some additional questions. When can you buy it in Europe, and how much it would cost (Lets say in Ireland)?

 

Lenovo Ireland:

IdeaPad Y Series | Premium Multimedia Laptops | Lenovo (IE)

Note that the 14 inchers are not availible in Ireland, but both the Y500 and the Y510p are.

 

This + set your power management to "maximum battery life" and give it one full (100%) charge. Otherwise the laptop stops charging after 60% to preserve the battery.

 

I got confused, because in the US, there's a price tag right there. So, how much does it cost then?

 

Is there a setting i should put to allow it to charge to 100%?

 

Open Lenovo Energy Management (by default it has its own icon in the taskbar [it may be hidden]) and then select "maximum battery life".

 

Hmm that was already set. Are you using Balanced or Power Saver mode?

I'm on full charge and it reports abit over 3 hours remaining on battery life with all of this set and running Intel graphics

 

thanks for the review, looking to purchase one this week, just debating on which model to get

 

Power Saver @ Mid brightness + 100% charge.

 

Hey guys, how long does your machine take to enter sleep mode (blinking power light) after you told it to sleep, be it by closing the display, pressing power button, telling it to sleep in windows, etc

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

Not sure, usually i dont bother with this, but it resumes from sleep almost instantly

 

Does it throttle? What happens if you do a video conversion and play a game? Can it keep up the CPU and GPU? Most laptops these days have great specs on paper, but they can't deliver.

 

I suppose it would depend on several factors, like the game and its settings, SLI or no, whether the game supports SLI, etc.

Mine plays Company of Heroes 1&2, Torchlight 2, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2 and I do not perceive any lag. For a fairly thin, light laptop it performs well with high to ultra settings on most games I play. However, I do NOT play any high-end FPS type games.

Cheers,