New Y460 and Y560 Ideapads

Also is the surface glossy?

 

Picture would be nice.

 

Sorry for the wait, trying to juggle some work (small time pc tech @ home for that extra income lol) and clearing out all the junk from the y460. To answer some of the quick questions:

Windows 7 Scores

Processor 6.8
Memory 5.9
Graphics 4.6 / 5.9 (intel / ati)
3D Graphics 5.3 / 5.9 (intel / ati)
HDD 5.8

I haven't done any temp readings while gaming (installed 3Dmark vantage but the required resolution wasn't available or some crap like that). Here's some temps while installing and uninstalling a bunch of stuff.
min max
core1 58 48 63
core2 55 43 60

HDD hasn't moved any with HWMonitor but I'll be installing Everest Ultimate sometime tonight to get some good readings and maybe a little game time.

The right palm rest area does get warm and the bottom is too hot to have on lap without breakin into a sweat. I have a NC2000 on delivery so that should help quite a bit.

First impressions:
I like it. It's exactly what I wanted in a laptop. It's fast all around, just the right size, and looks great. Build quality seems decent, little to no flex on keyboard inside the norm of typing, of course it does go down a little if you apply pressure. The space bar area though does dip a little when hitting it. The track pad is very "grippy". The finish is glossy on the inside, not sure on the outside since I haven't taken the plastic off yet lol (waiting on sleeve). And for those of us who were wondering: YES, VT CAN BE ENABLED IN THE BIOS! /hooray. The speakers are quite nice for a laptop (which is pretty cool these days since a lot of laptop speakers don't sound as good).

The heat is/will be an issue --IMO-- if not handled properly. In a fanless room with no air circulating I could really feel the heat building up, but now that I'm in my office with a ceiling fan going and the back propped up with my FFXIII case it's doing just fine with the cpu temps staying around 45 - 53 ºC. The laptop fans are running on minimal atm I believe.

It comes with nothing more than the laptop, powercord, user guide booklet, and regulatory notice booklet. There is a program that allows to not only create restore discs from factory but also from the current build and from a previously backed up build. The factory build requires 3 DVD's. There is a small 30GB partition that has only the drivers taking up 2 GBs. Like I said before, it's got bloatware just like every other new computer. I'll probably do a fresh win7 ultimate install sometime this week.

The switchable graphics is pretty straight forward. You have to have ALL windows and programs (including any internet explorers) closed before you are allowed to switch. Flick the nob, and now it's switched. Which is it switched to? A little tooltip will popup on the startup icons on the lower right stating either "powersaving gpu" or the ati icon for the 5650.

I haven't tried any of the other features but feel free to ask any questions and I'll try my best to post the answer ASAP. Thanks and I hope this rugged quick first impression write up helps = ).

 

I also received mine today. Does yours make a noise near the palm rest (kind of sounds like the processor) and when you close the lid and pick it up, does the lid open too easily, it seems like mine kind of "flaps" a little bit.

I have to admit, I got this and I am returning the M11x I had, it is sooo much faster, and having the bigger screen is now such a blessing. The weight compared to one another is very close too, the Y460 kind of feels lighter, because of the size, you pick up the M11x expecting it to be around 3lbs and its not. This you pick up and think closer to 6lbs, and it feels great.

The speakers are extraordinary! I keep finding myself trying to find videos on youtube to listen to that sound good, and music with good bass. Very impressed.

It does get a little warm, but I was playing Portal on it for about an hour and it was just warm, not hot. I was also installing L4D and running HD Youtube video w/ music in the background.

The exterior of the laptop looks great, the lid is kind of like a brushed aluminum I'm guessing, looks soo sharp. When you open it up though, it really feels like an Asus, the touchpad takes a little getting used to but works well, the left and right touchpad buttons feel great. The keyboard doesn't seem to have any flex in it, feels very good. The touch controls work very well, fast and responsive.

The screen is very bright, has great settings, good viewing angles, feels alot better than the M11x in that way. It has a light sensor that gets kind of annoying though, it will automatically adjust the screen brightness to save battery, even when on outlet, but you can turn it off very easily in the Lenovo power settings, which actually work well.

Otherwise I don't have much else to say, I've had many many laptops and this one seems to be the all around best for me so far. Good size, light, battery life while using it was actually very good (about 3 hours doing a little bit of gaming, switching on and off from high performance to energy saving, switching dedicated to integrated, so that probably didn't help one bit, still had about 25% left), I am worried about the lid though, and how loud the processor seems, kind of sounds like a soda fizzing lightly at times.

 

Anything specific you want pictures of?

 

That clicking noise on the left palm rest is your hard drive I believe so yes, I do have that same noise as that is the hard drive chugging along (quite quickly if I may add /smile). The speakers are pretty awesome I agree. As for the lid, I don't have a "flap". Sorry. I think there's a surgical procedure for that.

 

Any will do

 

can you post some 3dmark2006 scores and some temp readings after intensive gaming please

 

just saw this video on youtube. It look like the person who made the video is trying to overclock it or just doing a normal benchmark, the system overheated. I hope that was a overclock test, if it wasn't then that mean that y460 still has the same problem as the y450. He hade occt and atitool open, which could mean that he is overclocking the laptop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0apY6ptmUso

 

I have several questions

1) How about the i5-520M processor? Have u tried any more demanding applications?

2) Could you try the analog/digital video output? Mainly if the D-Sub doesn't make any artifacts, stripes or something.

3) How long can it stand without electricity with Intel graphics?
And I'd also appreciate any video of the Y460 appearance, at least in pictures it looks great

 

Thank you for the review and confirming my suspicions.

The Y460 is an egg-fryer. Even with just routine operations, it gets that hot. Imagine how hot it'll be when you do some hardcore gaming for extended periods of time.

 

Still waiting for mine to get here.

I think its interesting all the discussion about heat. Just for reference the max operating temp for the Intel core i5 520m is about 105C. So while I agree that it might be running hot, it doesn't sound like the range is out of line with the CPU's specs.

Take a look here

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i5/Intel-Core%20i5%20Mobile%20I5-520M%20CP80617004119AE%20(BX80617I5520M).html

 

@ college atm, but tonight I'm gonna try to install a fresh win 7 x64 ultimate. I made the 3 dvd factory reformat discs already so I should be set just in case anything goes horribly wrong. There's finally a drivers download page that I found HERE.
I've been having some problems with certain programs, either running them or just trying to install them, that normally install/run just fine on my other machines. I did manage to play a little Borderlands though before I left the house and it ran just fine, took a peek at HWMonitor and it was low 70's for the CPU's.

Any have any reccomendations on how to get GPU temp readings? I have Everest Ultimate but never done anything like this so any tips would be awesome. Was reading up on a huge thread on this subject here in NBR but the program they recommended for ATI (ATI tray tools) gave me a blue screen.

 

I just got mine today! Funny, it arrived within 10 minutes of the case that I ordered for it too (via different carriers).

Man, there is a lot of bloatware on here. Taking a while to get rid of it.

I'm switching back to Windows from a Mac, so.... we'll see how this goes.

I love the design of the laptop. Ports are all sensibly laid out, feels pretty solid. There's a bit of keyboard flex, especially around the arrow keys, but it doesn't feel unhealthy. I'm not sure how I feel about all of Lenovo's different "utilities" on here. Uninstalled Idea Center immediately, along with ReadyComm and all the other crap they dumped on here. How does everyone feel about SplitScreen? Seems useless with Windows 7's Snap, and Snap does a much better job.

Anyway I'm not nearly done getting everything set up the way I want it. But this is exciting! Can't wait to play games again.... (This MacBook couldn't even handle Half Life 2)

 

I am happy to see the first wave of Y460 and hope the heat is not a serious issue.

I see on Lenovo's website that they are blowing out the Y450 and Y550p so I wonder if they are about to push out the Y560!

I can't wait.

Oh btw no one mentioned anything about RapidDrive. So that means there is not any? I am not sure where you would look. Maybe the bios?

 

I don't see anything that indicates it having rapid drive. No stickers, nothing in the intel storage manager, and nothing in disk management.
Also, there's a sticker on the right palm rest advertising Dolby Home Theater v3, looked it up and it's pretty cool. Only thing is, I don't think the system has it. There should be options in the sounds settings in the control panel to activate it and the tab isn't there. What a shame, looked really neat.

 

"Savings end 31st March", but I still hope they'll launch Y560 earlier.

 

After follow this thread for some time I joined the site to say a few things. I am currently waiting for my y460 which hasn't even shipped yet And as for heat, my t61 is ALWAYS hot. Must be a Lenovo thing I've had it for 2 years and used to leave it on 24/7 for about a year and a half. Not one single part has failed yet. However, I am worried about games like MW2 or GTA4 on the y460 making it over heat. But on avg. heat seems to be right on par with most Lenovo's of this size.

Just my experience and 2 cents.

 

Before getting up to the tempeture that could hurt your laptop, before will automatically turn off.

 

Automatic laptop shutdown due to overheating: a great way to upset your squadmates as they wonder where you disappeared to during a BFBC2 battle!

 

First off I'd just like to say that this fresh OS install was one of the smoothest I've ever done, ever, when it comes to drivers (and I've done alot). Just got done with a clean Win7 Ultimate and boy did it make all the difference. It felt like the system was being bogged down for whatever reason and programs were just not "acting" right on the factory install on my setup. Now with this new one I even got better WEI graphics scores:
/5650 turned on ofcourse/
Factory / New OS
Graphics 5.9 / 6.7
Gaming Graphics 5.9 / 6.7

Everything went into place flawlessly and even the switchable graphics is switching alot quicker and smoother. Lenovo put a 30GB partition with the drivers so when I got to the win7 drive selection I just left that one alone and formatted/installed on the other 470GB partition so that when I got in I just went down the list (chipset first obviously /smile) and no kiddin like 5-10 min later I'm ready to install the real stuff. I couldn't find the drivers on my own at Lenovo's website but apparently someone else did so here's the link. You can download the facial recognition login utility and all that other good stuff that I personally opted out of. It's cool and all and was nice to show off but I'm not hiding nuclear bomb schematics or anything like that lol. Well, off to start installing Prime 95, 3DMark Vantage, and Crysis. Thanks for reading = ) .

OH! And as for pics and stuff, prolly this weekend I'll try taking/posting a few and maybe do a youtube video to show the graphics switch and some gaming. Not guaranteeing any Avatar quality production though lol.

 

the graphics result is quite interesting.
my t410 with nvidia 3100m 256mb scores 6, not too far from the more powerful 5650 (with larger memory as well). so what does it imply?

 

If it's on the graphics score and not Gaming Graphics then that implies ( I think ) that your windows graphical experience will be good with all the bells and whistles like all the window effects and stuff (I think the set of graphics that is most demanding is Windows Aero).

 

the score is actually under gaming graphics subcategory

 

/shrug lol. Join me in some Borderlands then! In all honesty I don't know for sure. I do read all the time though that WEI is not all that great. I think this sort of proved that to some extent.

 

Nothing. The WEI is not a linear scale (in pure gaming performance, if the 5700MHD is a 5.9, the Radeon 5650 would be much more than 6.7), and in general, it's a poor indicator of performance.\

@Merilious: While gaming (stressed), what temperatures are you getting for your CPU and GPU? You can use HWMonitor to conveniently record the max temps while you're gaming (download link in my signature).

 

I just ran 3DMark Vantage with an external monitor (dual monitor setup with HWMonitor, GPU-Z (since HWMonitor wasn't giving me GPU temps), and Everest Ultimate) since it wasn't letting me run it with the laptop's available resolutions. Installing 3DMark 06 atm but here's some numbers during the vantage run:

Before the test temps:

Value/Min/Max
CPU1 52/49/56
CPU2 47/45/55
GPU 53
GPU Fan Speed 39%
GPU Load 2%

During the test run
cpu1 63/45/74
cpu2 60/45/72
GPU 61
GPU Fan Speed 50%
GPU Load 99%

I should have restarted HWMonitor before the test to reset the min temps but oh well.

 

3D Mark 06

Before the test temps:

Value/Min/Max
CPU1 48/48/50
CPU2 43/43/36
GPU 52
GPU Fan Speed 38%
GPU Load 0%

During the test run
cpu1 63/48/73
cpu2 59/43/72 (the highs were during the cpu tests)
GPU 64 (stayed around 62-64 during 100% load)
GPU Fan Speed 50-54%
GPU Load 100%

Final Scores
3DMark Score - 6715
SM 2.0 Score - 2443
SM 3.0 Score - 2905
CPU Score - 2756

It's pretty on par with what's on notebookcheck's 5650 score of 6696. Might be able to get slightly better scores if I put the external monitor as a solo monitor without the dual screen setup.

 

Forgot to post the vantage scores:
3DMark Score - 3382
CPU Score - 7583
Graphics Score - 2855
notebookcheck score - 3208

And for those that want to know, it's with a cieling fan on, AC off, and the temp reads at 78F inside with the outside @ 61F for the night = ).

 

A couple of questions:

1) Is there a chance you can test the battery life w/ the dedicated graphics off? I saw one post mention going for 3hrs and still having 25% battery left, but that was w/ switching back & forth between the dedicated and integrated gpu.

2) If I want a laptop primarily for writing, w/ the capability to game occasionally, at which times I will have it on a cooling pad (I did this w/ my current laptop for its entire life, so it doesn't bother me) is there any reason I should not be satisfied w/ this laptop?

The other laptop I've been looking at is the Asus UL line, preferring likely the 30 or 80. I expect that will have better battery life, but at the cost of some gaming performance. Additionally, I've read the ULs have subpar screens (can anyone confirm that the Y460's is any better).

I understand some ppl are freaking out about the Y460's heat problems, but I suspect if it's kept on a cooling pad while gaming it'll be fine - and that's no sacrifice for me. I guess some ppl scoff and turn their noses up at the idea of doing such a thing, but my logic is if I wanna be doing more intensive stuff w/ all the power packed tightly into that little machine, it's worth taking the minor extra step to protect it.

So if it can maintain a safe and comfortable temperature, while on a desk, using the integrated gpu; and it will have no overheating problems while gaming if kept on a cooling pad, can anyone give me any reason to go w/ any other laptop right now?

 

Here at college while doing some programming, a little bit of AC but in a computer lab, my system has been at the high 30's and low 40's (some programming/compiling and internet). Seems very reasonable to me. This is with the high performance setting with the intel gpu active.

 

Anyone tried installing any linux distro on Y460?

 

Have you tried undervolting the CPU?

 

Will you bring some pictures of Y460? I've seen only promotion pictures yet, so I'm curious about reality. Thanks.

BTW: Where is the Y560?

 

@SnoCappedRomance

I just drained my battery completely (then let it sit in the bios to finish it off) and once it's charged back up to 100% I'll do a drain time test on just the intel gpu doing stuff like installing apps/ internet.
-------------------------
Also, for those that have one, make sure your monitor is @ 60Hz instead of the 40 if you find your eyes straining a little. Plus --IMO-- it makes the monitor a bit more "lively" (= .

 

Here are some pictures I took real quick:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36206467@N05/sets/72157623585658497/

I don't have much time at the moment, so they're not particularly pretty but they should give you a good first impression.

 

Nice job, thanks very much. It looks really good to me. Especially the lid pattern isn't very annoying, but rather well designed. Inside surface looks to be almost the same as at G550, which I've tried out recently. It's pretty glossy, so I'm a bit afraid of scratches and fingerprints. But which notebook isn't like this today.

Looking forward to any other visual reviews and thanks in advance.

 

Ugh. I hate UPS. Does it really have to go through all of these hubs? I still haven't gotten it yet, and I ordered it on the 22nd.

 

Reviews of the Y450 seem to consistently express exterior heat causing discomfort for the user, particularly around the touchpad and palmrest. Can anyone who's currently using the Y460 give any indication of how warm those areas are on it, and if it's comfortable to type on for long periods of time?

 

I'm doing the battery longevity test atm installing a crap load of apps and games and the right area of the touchpad and a little of the palm rest next to it is slightly warm. I have it on a desk but feeling the bottom side to see if there are any hot spots there's only 1 I felt which is in line to where it was hot upside. The heat exiting the left exhaust port is slightly above warm I would say. It seems to be doing just fine on the heat with normal use. Haven't tried any heavy stuff yet though like prime95.

 

First, I would like to thank Merilious and others so much for their efforts of providing us with the temps and other informations.

Last two things I want to know about this laptop is:
1.) While doing extensive stuff, will the palm rest or any part of the laptop get really warm?
2.) How long is the battery life with integrated graphics after breaking in the battery? (I'm not sure, but I think the battery has to break in first before it shows its full potential?)

After finding those two answers I will be really ready to purchase this laptop if they fit my requirement.

I have been looking for a portable powerhouse and the ASUS and other laptops that have been postponed for so long has really made me tired of the wait.

The temps of the GPU + CPU looks really awesome. My current laptop reaches 50C for CPU underload and 87C for the GPU. But the laptop does not get warm to cause any annoyance.

Once again... Thank you guys very much!

 

I ordered mine on the 16th and it won't ship until April 2nd.

 

I ordered on the 14th and it shipped on the 22nd, faster than the 14 business day estimate. UPS ground expects to deliver it on the 29th. I should have ordered by UPS 2nd day, and it would have arrived by now. Waiting sucks Is the hard drive 5400 rpm? Does it feel sluggish? I'm trying to decide if I should upgrade to a SSD.

 

Got my hands on it today. First impression, very good.

Pros : Looks cool and smart, really good display, good speakers, nice keyboard, seamless GPU switching

Cons : When I turned On the laptop for the first time with ATI GPU within few minutes bottom left area became slightly warm. But very soon after I switched to Intel GPU with normal browsing and youtube its running cool and good for couple of hours.. so I guess thats a bit of indication that ATI GPU could be power hungry and when playing games I might have to use a external fan whichs always suggested..
Also as pointed the trackpad is a 'grippy' because there are these dots.. I would have liked plain trackpad.. this needs some getting used to.

I havent checked the battery life and heat issues if any after extensive use

 

Just finished the longivety test:

Lenovo power settings: Balanced w/ "battery health" set to Optimize for Battery Lifespan.*

Starting battery %: 92%
Ending battery % before it forced hibernate: 6%
Time start: ~8:30
Time end : ~11:30
Total time: ~3 hours
Tasks performed: Installed about 100GB's of apps/games, made virtual partitions with Virtual Box, internet use/downloading, file transfering between networked computers, zipped a few GB's worth of crap for storage, performed a few harddrive speed tests with Everest Ultimate, all while jamming out to music from an external. I used the wireless instead of the lan for this test to get time data closer to if I were out and about. Oh, I also played like 10min of Plants v Zombies = )

*Lenovo put this Battery Health option in their Energy Management suite. It gives two options for that category: Optimize for Battery Runtime or Optimize for Battery Lifespan.
Optimize for Battery Runtime: "In this mode, battery runtime will last the longest. However, please note that long-term usage of this mode will reduce the battery life significantly."
Optimize for Battery Lifespan: "In this mode, the battery will be fully charged to 80% of it's design capacity. We strongly recommend you select this mode since it can extend the battery lifespan."
I changed to Optimize for Battery Lifespan when it was recharging at 92% and it stayed at 92% hence the starting percent of....well 92% hehe.

 

Merilious, what screen brightness?

 

Remind you this was on Balanced mode. There's Power Saver, Super Energy Saver, and Energy Star(//Edit// There's also a performance mode that keeps the cpu turbo boosted @ ~2.66GHz //end edit). There's also an option to limit the maximum CPU speed to High / Auto / Low. While on low I checked through Everest that it doesn't allow it to go over about 1196.9MHz which is pretty neat. So doing some tweaking should surely add some nice time to your battery life.

@ Lee_what2004
Screen brightness was at about 30% to 50% throughout the time span since it auto changes every so often.

 

You mean it got detector to change the brightness automatically?
Never knew about that...

 

I just ran Cinebench 11.5 twenty times.
10x CPU runs with Intel graphics
10x OpenGL runs with 5650 activated

Results:
---------------------
W/ Intel graphics / Cpu test / Score: 2.15pts / Temperature: C1:~71C C2:~70C
-------------------
W/ 5650 / OpenGL test / Score: 19.71 fps / Temperatures:
C1: 71C , C2: 70C, 5650: 67C

During the CPU tests all 4 threads were maxed out 100%.
During the GPU tests the GPU stayed around 60-80% load with gpu fan speed never reaching higher than 57%.
My room temp atm is around low 80's F (~27C), NO AC turned on, and ceiling fan on.

Hot spots: The right area of the track pad and some of the wrist rest area next to that did get warmer during the CPU tests and even more warmer during the gpu tests but never to the point I couldn't comfortably type. The left exhaust port got bearably hot during the CPU tests but then UNbearably hot during the GPU tests. The only place under the laptop that got uncomfotably hot was the area directly under where the top was getting hot.

I really hope I'm doing this testing stuff atleast somewhat right lol. Never really done any of this. If anyone wishes to ask for me to do something another way or with another app just let me know. I'll be glad to do so. And hey, I just passed 100 posts! Yippy!

 

Yeah, it has a sensor I think so when you turn on the lights it will brighten your screen and when you turn them back off it'll dim a little.