Lenovo y560p - Sandy Bridge - Review + Benchies

Thanks for the quick answer. But do you know if you have the option to swap Fn and CTRL in the BIOS? I had the same layout in my last Gateway laptop and could not get used ot it in 2 years...

And are lennovo laptops reliable? They are not popular in Canada, which is dominated by Dell, HP, Acer and Sony.

 

When you mention the battery life of the Sandy Bridge CPU are much better than previous generation, are you comparing between i7 quad SB vs i7 quad of previous generation?

What about comparison between the battery life between i7 quad SB vs i5 arrandale (the previous generation)? Are they similar?

 

I would say it's similar if not better. The battery life is pretty damn good consider core i7 and 6570.

But they still lied about switchable graphics. Oh and they have bad driver support.

 

oh crap, this computer has been recalled due to a problem with the sandy bridge cpu... wow, i was going to buy it yesterday and then fell on one thread where they said this. apparently they have to wait for intel to ship the new chips, but not before a few weeks.

 

"Intel® HM55 or HM65 Express" in y560p, not 67 series

 

I'm a little bit bummed out that 1366x768 is becoming the standard on 15 inch mainstream laptops. I can't get all the Photoshop and Dreamweaver CS5 tools to show on one screen on a 1280x800 screen, 768 vertical pixels will be worse.

 

Here is a lot of great technical info on sb. The sb architecture allows for extremely efficient rendering and transcoding. Since you're frequently using software that would greatly benefit from this, and quad core proc. I would recommend the i7qm.

 

Games at non-native screen resolutions look just fine. Do you like Black Ops on consoles like PS3/360? Because that's around 600p resolution and upscaled to 720p and 1080p resolutions and it looks fine. No need to play games on native screen resolution.

Nothing less than 1080p on 15" is a good resolution in a laptop.

1280x800 on a 12" is an acceptable resolution.

Move your head closer to your laptop screen and you won't need to adjust your font size. I never had to resort to having larger fonts in any of the laptops I owned, including an envy 15 with 1080p screen, it was perfect. Except the laptop had issues with heat, but that has nothing to do with the screen.

 

I cannot stand running any games outside of native resolution. It's completely obvious on any screen I play on.

 

he likes high res screen just leave him be, he already posted the same kind of response in 2 threads.

 

Hey all, thanks for your contributions to this thread and to the community at large. New here to the forums but have been looking over the threads for few weeks now and looking at getting one a these lappy's have found all the info quite helpful across the whole forum.

I noticed today that finally the 6xxx drivers were up at the manufacture site for the graphics, says was released mid Feb but only was seen on my net today. Figured would be worth passing along the info. In reading here that had been a concern of mine but looks like all is starting to move forward in that regard. I have not seen where it claims to have the switchable graphics but figured was an optimus given the sandy bridge. Not sure if that is correct but the other models of this chipset hold that feature. Edit:Have been looking over too much info the optimus is on the nvidia gpu machines.

Am curious if some who have gotten these Y560p if any1 has one with the rapid drive feature? Be interested to hear a bit about that.

I do hold concern about the switchable graphics element still and will likely be looking to upgrade the wifi to dual band if I get one. Edit: Am wondering if the switchable graphics is just for nVidia card laptops though now.


Oh yea and I know very little of screen resolutions and understand that the resolution of the laptop screen is 1366x768 but would full hd display be possible with an external diplay?

That is all that comes to mind now again thanks to everyone who has shared their experience/knowledge and special thanks to Greebo3 for the review.

 

I ordered mine a week ago and should have it in a week or two. I got BR drive and RD. Depending on the RD msata model, I might toss it for a better performing one. Doubtful, but we'll see.

Unless you need more than 4 hours of battery frequently, I don't think that switchable graphics is a big deal to not have with the super efficient SB procs. Actually, I decided to get this laptop, because all the announced SB i7 laptops w/ switching that are coming out this year only have 2 cores instead of the y560p's 4 cores (even the y570). Basically just a souped-up i5. Not really worth it to me.

It will drive an external 1080p display without a problem, depending on content. You could feasibly upgrade to a 1080p screen from fleabay for about $150usd. I might upgrade to a 900p screen. Then I can have a little more screen, but still play games at higher settings while in native res.

 

I got my y560p in the mail yesterday. I would like the smaller y460p, but it was an extra $100 for the same features, so I stuck with the 15" screen. I installed windows fresh on the rapidrive ssd (Lenovo doesn't write a partition table to the SSD, so you have to do it yourself to install directly to the drive). Here are my windows scores:


Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz 7.4
Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB 7.6
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6570M/5700 Series 6.7
Gaming graphics 4854 MB Total available graphics memory 6.7
Primary hard disk 24GB Free (55GB Total) 7.5

I have a 5gb partition for linux on the ssd too, so the 55gb total would be 60gb for anyone installing only windows.

 

I'm seeing this model on sale at Fry's this weekend for $649--seems kind of a steal and I'm wondering if it's too good to be true, or whether this is one of those Sandy Bridge chipsets that they recalled:

FRYS.com | Lenovo

 

Intel replaced the Sandy Bridge chipsets on their dime, so there would be no reason for manufacturers or retailers to be selling them, since it cost them nothing to have them fixed.

During Black Friday last year, Fry's had a similar laptop (same model as the one in my sig, though I didn't buy it from them) for ~$600 as well. A hell of a deal if you manage to snag one.

 

Happy to say that I was one of the lucky, hopefully not the last, people to get this deal. This deal is a complete STEAL! Couldn't be happier with the price : performance ratio.

I did have a problem with the GPU since it would stutter or stagger the gameplay. Fixed this by updating the driver of the 6570 to the new 11.5 ver. released on 5/9/11

First Fry's store I went to, I found the laptop but they sold out right when I asked for one, the guy in front of me bought 2! Then I went to Fry's in Anaheim because they had 23 units left. Went there and they only had 1 left, the store sold 22 in less than 2 hours!

Believe me when I say, if you are still able to get this deal, get one and you will not regret it.

 

I should have jumped on it, but now the price is back up to $849, alas.

 

No way they would do this. I work there, when there was a sandy bridge recall, it was a number one priority to take everything sandy bridge related off the shelf, and everything was shipped back. Lenovo, Intel, Frys can be sued for deliberately selling a recalled product. The regular price on this is 849.99 and the one with 6gb of ram and 750gb hard drive is 999, kind of a bad buy for anyone. I bought one myself, I am picky on resolution but for this price and if you want a decent laptop you cant go wrong with this. I had 8gb of so-dimm laying around and I threw in a momentus xt and this thing flies.

Motherboards took a little over month to get replaced while the laptops took a little over 2 weeks. The fix was already in place and the new inventory was already being worked on.

 

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=93790&CatId=4938

I'm about to buy...any words of advice? Any horror stories? Speak now or forever hold your peace! *gulp*

(I'm a broke student so this purchase is kind of a big deal, haha)

 

x2 bump...

 

Good comp but beware the service.....Horror story below, still don't have it back

TERRIBLE service, y560p.Options
Edit MessageMark as NewBookmarkSubscribeSubscribe to RSS FeedHighlightPrintEmail to a FriendReport Inappropriate Content....06-03-2011 04:17 PM

I am absolutely furious with the service Lenovo provides. I recently was in the market for a new laptop, and considered many laptops. I was looking at spending 1000+ and considered a vaio but had previously owned Hp's and Lenovo's. When I saw that the lenovo y560p was coming out with the 2nd gen sandy bridge i7's with a special offer of $900 and a radeon 6570, I decided against sony and went with Lenovo. It ran games great, a little hot, but I was very happy. The battery/charger would always go on and off, as in it would randomly stop charging when it was connected for about a second and my screen would increase and decrease in darkness as it should. Within weeks the charger began corroding inside my laptop and producing a burning smell. When I took the charger out, it was burning out and the metal was corroded/rusty and my laptop no longer charged with any charger. I called lenovo about it and they charged me $66 for the new cable (a hold on my account that would be lifted once they received my broken cord), I told them my email and never got a confirmation or receipt, they got my email wrong. I called again because I tried using a different charger with the same voltage and head piece and that wouldn't charge my laptop either so it was obviously something with my laptop as well. I called back, corrected my email address for them and then they wanted me to reject the piece that was coming, send my laptop in with my charger, and only once I rejected the cord and they got it back would they lift the $66 hold. I sent in my laptop with 2-day express shipping. It took 4 days to get there and then I get this

May 23, 2011 10:05 AM Your PC has been received by the depot service center
May 23, 2011 03:05 PM Your PC has been received by the depot service center and it is currently being repaired
May 23, 2011 04:05 PM Your PC is currently on hold due to a service parts shortage. Please check back periodically for further updates


They told me it would take 5-7 business days to get my laptop BACK. I told them I need this for college and am in the middle of semester and desperately need this fixed and returned. My laptop was on hold for 7 DAYS due to some shortage, already surpassing the time it was supposed to take for me to have it back, instead it's just SITTING somewhere. So I call them on the 31st saying why is my computer on some hold I should have it back by now, (I have called them 4 times and never gotten an email confirmation even though I've corrected the email every time), and they say oh yea sorry it's um fixed and we were actually going to send it out today (even though nothing was updated online) so the guy sincerely apologizes and says they'll expedite it back and I should have it back the next day or June 2nd at the LATEST, that for SURE I will have it by then.



Big surprise, it's the 3rd and nothing, and now it'll be the weekend so I dont know when the hell I'll get it back. And of course no email.



I didn't pay 1000 and for a 2 year warranty for THIS. I can't use my laptop in class, I don't have my previous notes, I can't study if I'm not at home, I have 2 online classes, and I have no idea when I'll get my laptop back that is SUPPOSEDLY fixed even though they wouldn't tell me what was wrong. For this I would have gone with a different company. I can't even bring myself to call them and ask why it didn't arrive here like it was supposed to because every time its a put on hold explain again 30minute ordeal.



!!

-Very disappointed customer!
....

 

Supergirl09- I've also had poor service when my x100e would not stop breaking. My advice is to get the in-home warranty, regardless of the brand.(Assuming they offer it.) A technician will come to your residents and fix your laptop on the spot in 1 day. I know most people don't get the extra warranty and you may never have to use it, but it will help you avoid problems like this. I know this isn't much help, but at least you can learn from this and hopefully it doesn't happen again. Good luck!

 

I asked to get the best warranty but they said that in Florida the service warranty is the only one available. I just called again and now they dont know why the last guy told me I would have it back by yesterday at the latest as the laptop was never on it's way and is still on hold for a KEYBOARD part apparently, even though absolutely nothing about my problem has to do with the keyboard. The tech guy said that he can't do anything but email the service dept asking why a keyboard part is needed, and the part they "need" won't even be in the place until june 8....so my computer isn't fixed, theyre waiting on a part that doesn't matter, I was lied to, and still have no laptop. I have to call back tomorrow to see what the service dept said but I swear if they say nothing we can do you'll have it back in 2 weeks, I'm asking for a refund and getting a different laptop. I'd rather pitch in $300 more for the same specs and a diff brand then put up with this. It's hurting my grades =( and they don't care.

 

I got it, and I love it! If you can find the y570 for a good price, I would lean toward it in contrast because of the USB 3.0. but this Y560 is solid. The FN / CTRL keys are backward and that is causing me a tiny bit of greif but I love this machine.

 

I agree about the fn/ctrl key, at least the mouse pad is where it should be, my dads Vaio is annoyingly to the far left AND the terrible ctrl fn switch