New Y460 0633 has landed

I started a new thread to review this thing, cuz the existing Y460/560 thread is so huge, its hard to find stuff.

FYI, I downsized from a Toshiba A300 that was modded heavily (Radeon 3650 OC, 40GB SSD Boot, 320GB WD Black Data, 4GB Adata low CL RAM, Vista64). It served me well for more than 2 years, but its 6.5 lb weight, was starting to bother me, and the 3650, even though I tweaked it heartily, is getting long in tooth.

Just received my Y460 this morning. Here are the first impressions.

Terrific package, simple design and clean look. Nobody makes keyboards like Lenovo, and I was totally surprised to see that the Y460's keyboard is almost as clicky and comfortable as the X200s I use occasionally. The screen quality is very nice, but there is a slight shadow effect, which I will play with.

Exterior styling is somewhat unremarkable, other than the subtle orange/copper stripe that goes around the edge, plus the graphic on the cover. Interior styling is sleek. The little JBL speaker grills are pimpin, as is the weird little slider pad under the screen. The touchpad is pretty trick also.

Performance is cracking. This is a hardcore computer... I cannot believe how much stuff they give you with it. I paid $803 (plus tax) on the July 4th sale, which is an unbelievable bargain.

There are lots of nice little touches, like 2 mikes for the webcam, and a nice little orange stripe on the touchpad to demarcate the slider area. The hinges look sturdy enough, especially for a consumer laptop.

Of note, the stinking fan is on all the time, even when I'm using the Intel graphics adapter. This is annoying. It sounds like a jet engine.

As far as software goes, Lenovo must set a record for bloatware. . I had to uninstall a huge amount of stuff, then run Tune-Up utilities to clean up the pan drippings from the bloatware exorcism.

Amusingly, when I first booted it up, it BSODed and then would not even boot in safe mode. I think it was some bloatware junk, so I finally got it to boot in safe mode, shut off nearly everything in MSCONFIG, then restarted and Voila, back to life.

I will do some tests, and probably replace the slow disk with a WD Black 7200 RPM that I have here, and do a complete reinstall. Whats nice is that Lenovo gives you ALL the drivers you'll need in a separate partition on the disk. This is good, because the Lenovo website is pretty slow and painful to download all the drivers you'll need.

More to come, as I start to mod things out

 

Nice, thank you for this! The Y460 is in my ridiculously short list of laptops that I'm considering -- basically the only other contender for me is the Envy 14.

I actually appreciate the lower resolution on the Y460 vs the Envy, simply because my eyes are shot (and have been for decades) and so the lower pixel density will help me. And of course, it's just that much less pixel pushing the 5650 has to do in gaming too

I'm also very disappointed with the lack of SSD options -- I've got a spare WD Scorpio Black 320GB that I could use, or more likely I'd pop for the Intel X25M-G2 160gb SSD drive.

It's a bit of a bummer that the fan is always running; keep us informed if you figure out a way to get it to slow down. One thing I do like (typically) about Lenovo is their drivers are maintained regularly, and they (typically) have excellent build quality. So far, it seems the Envy 14 hasn't been so lucky.

Oh, and after you've had it a while, let us know how the battery life pans out. It seems to be at least equal to the Envy (4 1/4 hours, give or take) but I'd still like to know if you experience anything better or worse.

 

What are you doing when using the Intel HD graphics? Mine is almost never on and is a small whisper when watching movies or Youtube videos. ATI graphics is another story. Glad you like and you got an amazing deal for it.

 

Thanks 3Fitty! I've read all your posts, and your calm demeanor and lack of FUD is one reason I bought the darn thing. Yep, amazing price, just lucked into it.

Strange actually, even with the Intel GPU switched on, the fan is still running full boat. Not sure why. I may have a setting wrong somewhere. I switched to Intel graphics in CCC, so I assume that is the correct place.

The fan turns on and runs full blast the minute the machine powers up.

 

That almost sounds like some sort of firmware issue, or else a sensor that's whacked out. Might be worth calling Lenovo and asking if nothing else...

 

Thanks for posting and congrats on the machine. It sounds like you've found a winner.

 

Not sure why, but the fan continues to run full blast, no matter what I do. Very loud.

 

Could be a number of things. Bloatware could be one of them. I have my system set to the Energy Star setting. In your Energy settings see if the CPU is set to Auto or even change change to low for a while to see if that is making the CPU work harder.

 

Well, I talked to Lenovo, and I'm going to send it back. The fan is deafening, and it just never changes. I did get to use the OneKey recovery a bunch of times, while talking to the Lenovo support guys. I was pleasantly surprised at how good some of them are.

Bottom line, something's wrong with my particular unit. So back it goes

 

Sorry about the bad unit, at least you got good support service. Are you going to get a refund or another unit?

 

Something is wrong. Mine never jets its engine unless I am gaming.

 

Just placed my order yesterday for the 063346U (i5-520 / 5650 / 500Gb) with the two year LenovoCare pack and an extra AC adapter. I also ordered a 120Gb OCZ Vertex 2 and eight gigs of ram; they should all get here about the same time.

I'll report back when it comes in

 

Well, I tried to get a replacement, but I couldn't, so now I have to get a refund and try and order another one. Ugh... The tech support guys in the Philippines are pretty good, but the sales guys in India are not. They gave me a hard time, and could only read from the script.

So a refund it is for me. Arghh.. I need a new laptop, and now I have to start all over again