Lenovo L3000 Y410 review with Windows XP drivers info

Picked up the Lenovo L3000 Y410. Being an expert in laptops here are my thoughts.

Built quality : Build quality is good. Yes the laptop is made from plastic just like most laptops but it does not flex when you twist it in your hands. Poking hard at the laptop there is a "soft spot" at the left palm rest but this is to be expected since the empty PC Card slot is right underneath. You will notice this when you grab the laptop (screen opened) with one hand by the left front corner. Screen hinge is EXCELLENT! Nice and smooth and NO screen wobble when you shake the unit. Keyboard felt solid with no noticeable keyboard flex. Overall the laptop looks stylish and modern at least IMO.

Performance : Im not going to comment on performance. Look at the specs and you will see. Its just as fast as any other laptop with similar specs. The unit comes with the new "Santa Rosa" chipset with the X3100 graphics and once intel releases proper drivers that unlock the hardware T&L in the X3100 you WILL be able to game on this unit as the graphics are far superior to the previous GMA950. As we all know if you dont play 3D games it does not matter if you have integrated graphics or a $500 card.

Screen : The screen image quality looked fine for a laptop in this price range but my only grip is the vertical viewing angle. Image quality gets washed out fast unless you view the screen straight on. Horizontal viewing on the other hand was very good.

Heat and Noise : My favorite attributes of this laptop is how cool and quiet it runs and this is to be expected since it uses a much larger fan than many of the other laptops out there. Larger fan means quieter laptop since it does not need to spin as fast.

Speakers : Who is Lenovo trying to fool? They advertise "Outstanding surround sound with subwoofer"? Folks let me tell you, the music out of this laptop is just as pale as any other laptop speakers. Im not saying it sounds bad, its just not any better than any other laptops out there.

Camera and VeriFace : The camera provides equal quality to any other CMOS based integrated webcams. At least the resolution is 1.3mp. VeriFace actually works WELL and is pretty cool IMO. Basically you have to stick your face in front of the camera about 1ft away for a second or two to login. Works well for me.

Battery Life : Surfing the net I almost got the 4 hours as advertised with medium screen brightness.

Windows XP Drivers : Im not sure why people are so confused about XP drivers....Just download the drivers from the hardware Mfr. as so.....I will provide links later...

Chipset : Intel website
GMA X3100 video : Intel website
Wifi card Intel 3945ABG : Intel website
Broadcom 590x 10/100 network : Xp drivers are on the Lenovo driver CD
Realtek audio : Realtek audio website "Realtek High Definition Audio drivers"
EZ Button : Use the Lenovo CD, XP drivers are there.
EnergyCut : Use the Lenovo CD
Touch Pad :
Camera :

Thats it people. Not that hard to find drivers. I will post where to get the touchpad & camera drivers or if the drivers off the CD work with XP for those last two later.

 

Thanks for the feedback and quick review on the Y410, there's not much information out there about it.

 

I have never touched the Y series for obvious reasons, but after my experience with the whole Lenovo 3000 series, honestly, I don't believe this company can design/make notebooks... and I really don't know what Legend sold before... No offence, just my opinion.

ThinkPads are different story they don't count here.

Anyway, I would be interested to try this thing...

 

I have to comment on the vertical viewing angle again. Its narrow. Tilting the screen foward or back starts to ruin the picture quality.

 

I didn't even know there was a Y series until last night when I checked out the Lenovo US website while looking up the Lenvo 3000 V200 specs.

Anyway, I hope Canada gets the Y series soon. I like that it has a 14" screen and I'm glad to hear this notebook lasts long on battery and quiet. This is great alternative to a Dell.

 

is the vertical viewing that bad? i know that the vertical viewing on my v100 isnt the greatest either.

 

I hope the VeriFace software becomes available for ThinkPads.

 

Its not THAT bad actually. I tested the Y410 today side by side with other laptops. A few other brand laptops did the same thing. The Lenovo Y410s are sold at Office Depot. Check them out on display. I guess Im just picky...

 

Yup. I love the VeriFace feature.

 

quite impressive!
I'm going to buy a laptop but don't know if I should wait for a Thankgiving deal or sweep this deal

 

plz post the link for windows xp drivers(lenovo 3000 y410)

 

[email protected]

 

plz post the link for windows xp drivers(lenovo 3000 y410)

 

I saw one of these at Office Depot this weekend and played with it a little while. It was nice other than the non-standard keyboard layout for Insert/Delete/Home/End/PgUp/PgDn.

 

what's with the triple posting sarakkuilla? there is an edit button

Thanks for the review Onion, is there any way you can isolate the VeriFace install file and post it up as long as you're violating any license agreements. Thanks!

 

Onion, good review. I am considering this model as well. I might wait a few weeks depending on the price. BTW, did you get the Office Depot extended 2-3 year warranty?

 

I found many things that's true in Onion's review. Big thanks.

I loved the design of this laptop, much better than Dell Inspirion and Vostro in my opinion

Heat and Noise: very true, it's very cool and quiet. At least, as far as I know, it's much better than Toshiba laptop.



Onion, could you post the link for windows xp drivers? I might need it, too

 

Great review Onion, and probably the only one I've seen on this model. I'm looking to get another laptop and right now, this one is at the top of the list as I'm going into overkill on research.

A few questions for those that have puchased this though:

1. Is the battery stable? I've read about many laptops have loose/wigglling batteries.

2. What do you expect the life of the notebook to be? I like to get 3-4+ years out of a computer.

3. After owning the laptop for a longer period, any updates for the review based on usage?

Thanks,
ZJ13

 

I have recently bought this laptop at office depot. I like everything about this laptop. It was preinstalled with Vista home premium.

just wondering if anyone else has faced these problems/observation.

1. Compared to any HP laptop this one is making little bit more noise wrt to hard disk.

2. Also when i try to install Microsoft Visual studio 2005 on it, in the middle of installation came with error saying one of the file could not be located. The same CD works with a similar configuration HP laptop.
Does anyone has observed any problem with CD/DVD ??

Can anyone please let me know.

 

I totally agree with dpr001.
The problems i experienced till now :

1.The system freezes when it wakes up from sleep mode.
2.The hdd makes a sound while running.
3.The OS gives error messages half way during the installation of some applications.

I need feedbacks coz I still have one more week to return the piece with cashback.

 

the freeze after returning to sleep is a vista problem as far as I know, so any notebook can do that

 

yes the freeze is a vista problem it happens on my thinkpad and Toshiba u305....................

 

I think it's better than Toshiba. I bought a Toshiba U305 and definitely the batter is not as good as this Lenovo.
If you just use it for typing and surf web, I think it stays around 3 hours.

1. Yes, I admit that's true. It happened the same to me.
2. I thought every hdd makes a sound while running
3. It never happened to me.

I love this laptop, but I returned it today. Mine is a defective one, plus I want to see what's coming on Thanksgiving, maybe I will save myself couple more dollars . Otherwise, I'll buy it later (I believe that OD will resale with the same price, which is $679 AR)

I don't know there is any difference but just want you to know that I did install Microsoft Office 2003 and there's no problem. Hope it'll help


ps: sorry for my language

 

I had the option of either the Y410 or a thinkpad z61m. The z61m was old stock on sale, but the same price. I ended up ordering and playing with the y410 for a few days.

I returned it mainly because of the windows xp hastles, I need/want xp. Lenovo makes that hard. I hadnt seen this post about the driver yet before I returned it.

I did find the z61m was much better built, and was able to handle more advanced configurations, and was just a better designed/thought out product. The y410 was nice, but the z61m just felt like it was something that was the real deal and a lot of thought was put in.

Id wait for a good deal on a thinkpad if you can. They are out there.

 

does anyone else have an issue with the hard drive access noise being loud and on ALOT? its on even when im not doing anything. also, i am really not liking vista. everything else is good though but that noise is really annoying.

 

The hard drive runs alot due to Vista. You can disable the usless indexing feature it will help a bit. Search on google and you'll find alot more useless services to disable which will stop the hard drive from running almost nonstop.

 

I have decided to keep this laptop inspite of the HDD making lil bit noise (compared to HP ones) and the noise of the DVD during initial read.

I like the build quality, 14.1" screen and rest all.

I have returned back the HP DV series one (HDD was really calm).

I also need Windows XP. I have installed MS Virtual PC and started using XP on it. I am satisfied with the performance of XP on virtual PC.

 

@Onion

have you found a XP driver yet?

 

I just bought this laptop (Lenovo L3000 Y410) from office depot. I loved everything about it except the sound? Its pathetic Its very low when compared to the other laptop I have. Did any of you guys have had similar experience with this laptop?

 

Hi, just bought it from OD, they're black friday item. so, nice price I think.
I like the build and the look. But, I have to agree the sound is not as good.

Anybody having problem vpn with Aventail on Vista?

Driver page: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-68104.html

 

Hi,

I'm about to downgrade to XP from vista in my Y410 and found this source that helps much. I have some questions though:

1. Just to be completely sure, is the Vista CD that comes with the purchase an install cd or a recovery cd? I read somewhere else that if it's a recovery cd then i may not be able to re-install vista again if I format C partition completely. And if it is a recovery cd, is there any way I can backup the Vista install files?

2. There are two partitions that come as default. Do I need to format the entire hard disk or just C will do?

Anyone has some tips or checklist to do to make this transition safe?

Thanks!

 

Before thanksgiving there were hardly any reviews on this PC other than the one on this site (thankyou buddy for putting it) so I had decided to write a review once I get my hands on this PC....so here goes...hope it helps

For $620 it looked like the best deal one cud get for a 2GB RAM and Intel Core Duo chip set and it is.Till now the speed is good but not as much as I hoped for but I dont blame the chip set for this, instead I think its Vista which is highly flawed and in its attempt to look super cool is just making the whole computer experience too overloaded to work with...analogy can be drawn with how yahoo feels right now compared to google.

Some cool things I liked in this PC are:the looks are better than what a thinkpad looks, I am in absolute love with the keyboard. The keyboard feels smooth and is very user friendly. I like the fact that all the ports look strongly built and the wires fit correctly. My personal opinion is that in HP laptops the ethernet port sometimes tends to become loose. The DJ play buttons when your computer is off is a great feature, since now u dont need to boot your PC. Speed is decent. Weight is good. Widescreen quality is really good and the camera is great too. I like the fact this PC is loaded with features and has all the necessary ports. For example, while I was looking for pc's I realized that some of the Sony computers on sale did not have the s-cable port.The easy access button for the camera and nova feature is appreciated.The DVD drive is really slient at times and sometimes is really loud. Probably depends on the quality of DVDs one plays, so no comment on that feature.

Bad points: The claim on the speakers are bogus and frankly I feel cheated. I was really expecting some cool sound quality but the speakers suck. HP has the best speakers with its ALTEC Lansing alliance. If the company didnt claim so much about the speakers I would have been ok with the speakers quality but by putting emphasis on the dolby home theater experience and all, I feel the claim is too over exagerated or maybe the users who tested this pc in the labs stay in a really really small house. The mic needs a bit of adjustment but works ok when you use Skype or google talk.The noise of the fan is a bit loud at times but can be lived with.

Overall the build of the computer is strong and the pc is more than enough for day to day activity. The PC looks good and one can show off the Lenovo brand.Veriface recognition feature is nice but I dont use it. Anyone who is into more sound effects, may not like this PC. I have a HP laptop and this one. I plan to use the HP laptop for playing games and watching movies and the lenovo for more business related work.

I would rate this buy 6.5/10.

One suggestion: If you are just going to buy a computer for daily basic home use then I say buy this computer if it costs around $600. The other $200-$300 you would spend on a thinkpad, HP or Sony can be used for a GPS. That is what I did This PC has all the minimum requirements in a decent package.


Update on 12/14: Did anyone try using headphones and then check the speaker system. It will blow your mind away! I was so impressed with the reception that I had to update my comment on the speakers. Yes, the output of the speakers still sucks but I guess the aim is to use the laptop as a laptop and not as a TV. One odd thing though is I have to insert the headphone half way in for the cool Dolby effect, if I insert it all the way then the sound is weird. Still half in or full once u use ur headphones all complains are gone and u really just want to say 'this is my PC'.

 

can you comment on that further please?

 

Yes the speakers suck and not as advertised.

 

Hi Onion,

Do you know what the "EZ Button" is used for? Thanks in advance!

 

There are windows media playing buttons on the far top left hand corner of the pc which allows u to play a cd even when ur comp is off. What it basically does is that it takes the power needed for powering on the music system instead of booting ur pc. Its a great feature

 

Has anyone found the actual drivers Y410 for the XP Pro, I tried some, I still have problems with:

energycut (gives me the error that drawthemetextex could not be located in the dynamic library UxTheme.dll)
touchpad (the scroll doesnt work)
and the on-screen function keys (like sound volume adjustment, brightness adjustment, and other stuff that shows up on your screen) are not working.

could anyone give me an insight on how to with them please.

 

Hi
I have Lenovo 3000 Y410-Vista Home Premium and want to downgrade Win XP Pro.
I searched a lot on the web but finally find this discussion.
Someone has downgraded could post the guide & things to be kept in mind while downgrading(... Fresh Install WIN XP).
1. Has http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-68104.html complete drivers ?,
2. Do I need the BIOS driver; which is not there in the website.
3. Where can i find other drivers any reco..

It will be really helpful if someone share some suggestions/steps to follow.

Thanks a lot in Advance................

 

The BIOS update is not necessary.

That link should have all the drivers necessary. You can follow my guide to install Windows XP on your computer but keep in mind that my guide is based on a ThinkPad, so what ever you see that is not relevant to the L3000 Y410, just ignore it (like monitor, hotkey, ultranav, etc.).

One thing I do highly recommend is to have a set of recovery discs in case something ends up wrong so you can revert back to your original factory state (Vista).

At the end of the XP installation and drivers from that link, you should not have any unknown devices in your Device Manager.

Good luck.