New Y460 and Y560 Ideapads

Thanks - going to order it soon.

Can you comment on the display quality? I'm particularly interested in what the backlighting is like (even, bleeding, etc.), the contrast level, and the color depth (washed out, accurate, saturated).

Oh, and the horizontal/vertical viewing angles - does it invert colors quickly when moving the display lid?

 

The screen looks amazing and it can get very bright. I know some people think 1366x768 is absolute crap, but it still looks very crisp. It does wash out a bit when viewed from a lower angle. For example, blacks look a bit brownish, but if you adjust the screen angle its fine. Theres even a button you can push that makes the colors even richer so if your watching a video or playing a game the colors look even better.

 

Rep'd..
Thanks - you've done a great job on this thread of answering people's questions.

I'm curious, what is the button called that makes the colors change?
Also, regarding the black levels, how are they? So many panels these days are more of a light gray than black and really ruin the image.

 

No problem. It's call One Key Theater. As far as the black levels, they are slightly light gray like you are talking about. But once you hit that button, it's a nice deep black.

 

I just found out about the Lenovo Y460 and now I want it. It is perfect for me! But I cannot find the ATI 5740 as an option never the less, the ATI 5650 is all I need. How is the build quality of this new laptop is like the Thinkpads? How long is the battery life?

 

Compared to the Thinkpads, the Ideapads do lack a little. The keyboard is the only part that I feel is sub par, but the rest seems very decent. I can get 3 hours easily at 80% and at 100% I got almost 4 hours.

 

Nice I am set I needed a nice portable laptop with some umph, and the new Macbook Pro's where a real disappointment. This thing has the power, it has the looks, and it has quality!

Also what is the thickness?

 

So, has there been a definitive answer on the heating concerns? Catching up on this thread after a while, and there doesn't seem to be any new reviews, and the initial concerns around overheating don't seem to have been put to rest.

Still considering the Y460 while I wait for more info on the new Timelines and N82JV.

 

New TimelineX series are already in the market and in stock, unlike the Ideapads which aren't (globally) . I've seen them here in Europe from about 1000$ for all versions (13", 14", 15"). They've got switchable HD 5650 x Intel HD and i5 430M and the battery life is 8h with 6cell and 12h (!!) with 12cell battery - much more than Ideapads have. And as far as i know, 2 fans (?) - one for CPU and one for GPU, which seems to be better solution than in Yx60 ideapads. In addition, the weight of 13" is 1,8 kg, 14" 2,2 kg and 15" 2,4 kg - which means that they're very slim (less than 1 inch), but nevertheless, thanks to good cooling solution they stay cool (65°C both GPU and CPU) in medium stress - an owner told me today.

But there are several serious problems which Ideapads don't have...

1) no optical drive in 13" version (that's why it's cheaper than bigger ones)
2) no ExpressCard in any of them
3) no E-SATA
4) It's Acer

So, I suppose I'll wait and wait and wait more, until Lenovo will launch Y560 in Europe and until it's possible overheating will be disproved. But I absolutely don't know when this will happen.

 

It's kind of the reverse in NA: the Y460 is available, but the Timelines/etc aren't.

I would prefer a 13 incher, which is why I am leaning towards the 3820. The lack of ODD means nothing to me, but the lack of other ports does. From everything that I have seen thus far on the Timelines they look like they should be powerful enough, but waiting for more reviews to happen and to hear on formal release date in NA.

The Y460 seems to have never gotten past the initial reports of overheating problems, which made me put it at the bottom of my list (the Asus N82JV is VERY nice but for the lack of ATI options). Right now, the Y460 is very attractive from a power and performance perspective: battery life isn't a major concern with me to a degree. But the overheating is a major concern.

 

As far as overheating is concerned, try as I might I have not been able to get the computer to shutdown do to overheating. I've gotten the cpu and gpu up to 92C but it never gets hotter than that. If you are planning on playing high end games on this, I would pick an actual gaming laptop.

 

Thanks for the info AboutThreeFitty, going to pull the trigger real soon.

how long did it take to get your laptop from lenovo?

 

How many audio channels can be output via HDMI on the Y460? I'm assuming up to 7.1 because of the ATI 5650?

 

That should be correct. All 5000 series ATI cards have 7.1 channel pass-through on the HDMI port.

 

Ordered it on March 16th and got it on April 8th. Seems long, but some of the Thinkpads takes months to even ship.


I'm not sure if we're allowed to post this, but now through the 21st you can get 15% off the y460 and y560 by entering this at check out. USPIDEAYPWWP

 

I'd have thought it'd be faster since the Ideapads are not really customizable, unlike the Thinkpads. Lenovo is kind of erratic with how fast it fills orders though.

Yes, you're allowed to post coupons, just not exclusive purchase program deals. That's a pretty good deal.

 

I'm in Canada, so i wonder if it will take the same amount of time.
They have a 20% off coupon for Canada

 

Mine didn't seem to take that much time. I order a Y560 un April 7th and it was shipped on the 13th. It should arrive tomorrow at my home.

 

temps after about 40 mins of assassin's creed 2 on the y460

 

Question:
I'm interested in Y560, but it seems to offer only 6-cell battery with no other options ???

 

You sound surprised it's coming from China.

No one makes things in the US anymore. Golf clubs, tennis shoes. Not even cars (at least not as many as they used to)....

 

That's what led me from the Y460 to the Envy 15 2nd Gen and now the MSI GX640.

One would be adventurous to do heavy high-end gaming on this machine for a prolonged period of time (even with a laptop cooler).

 

I was just surprised it wasn't being shipped from somewhere in the US. I know Lenovo is a Chinese company, just surprised they spent the money to ship it to me directly from China is all.

 

Those are some high temps there. 105*C on one of the CPU cores and 96*C on the GPU. That after only 40 mins playing.

In contrast, I played for 3 hrs straight on the Envy 15 2nd gen. I hit 71*C on the CPU and 65*C on the GPU. Of course, the Envy has 3 internal fans to deal with the heat.

 

It's not as much as one might think. It's actually gotten cheaper over time to ship goods from China to the US, as the US is one of China's biggest importers of goods (shoes, toys, electronics, etc.). We Americans just love cheap stuff, and China makes and exports most of it to us.

It should come as no surprise that the US-China trade balance (deficit) has increased steadily (prior to the global economic meltdown) in favor of China (they export/make $$, we import/spend $$).

 

Has *anyone* received their Y560 yet? Any reviews to post?

My son just ordered his Y560 (i7-720QM) model. I won't see it until he gets here in 2 weeks.

 

Hi Merilious : I'v two questions
1) your y460 have an i3 or i5?

2) what is the WEI(windows experience index)

Thanxs

 

This is after hyping up the Gen 2 as being better than the Gen 1 and then to see the slew of problems, including heat, of that notebook?

I also do not understand why you insist on comparing a 14 inch notebook to a bigger one.

Let us compare apples to apples.

MSI GX640: - http://www.msimobile.com/level3_productpage.aspx?cid=9&id=216
- 15.4" screen but better res of 1680x1050 +
- i5-430 cpu (plus)
- ATi Radeon 5850 1GB DDR5 (plus)
- 4GB DDR3 (same)
- 500GB HDD (same)
$1199.00 (+$150)

Lenovo Y560
- 15.6" screen with 1366x768 res
- i5-430 cpu
- ATi Radeon 5730
- 4GB DDR3
- 500GB HDD
$1049.00

And that is not including the current 15% off which takes the Lenovo to sub $900.00. I'll take the Y560 + i7 over the MSI which I see no i7 option.

 

I should have gotten mine about a week ago, however some unseen mishaps occured. But now its resolved.

I should be getting mine by the end of the week.

 

I just got my Y560 with the i7 today with 4GB of RAM, and, it makes a very good first impression. As noted by someone else, the i7 models don't have switchable graphics like the i3 or the i5, but, I don't feel like that's going to be much of an issue if I keep getting results like these.

First off, it's larger than I expected it to be, and some laptop bags/backpacks may have some trouble fitting this in. Though, I'm coming from a Sony SZ-640 14.1 inch laptop, so, I suppose most mainstream computers would be larger than expected for me

I've gotten over 3 hours on this on battery while working on word documents, copying files from an external drive, and browsing the internet, and, while that's not stellar, considering the hardware in this thing, it's completely understandable.

The fan is barely noticeable most of the time, and the only real hot spot so far is near the exhaust vent, though, I haven't tested it with any gaming yet (and likely won't do much of it until the school year is over).

The speakers are amazing, the sound is rich and clear, far better than I had expected.

Something else I wasn't really expecting was the size of the touchpad. The thing seems gigantic to me, not sure if that's good or bad, I'm sure that depends on personal preference. Also, the bumps on it add some nice traction, but it does take some getting used to.

The Windows Experience Scores I got are as follows:
Processor: 7.0
Memory (RAM): 5.9
Graphics: 6.7
Gaming graphics: 6.7
Primary hard disk: 5.9

Granted, I was multitasking as I tested, so the scores may be a little lower, so, I may retest at some point.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the Y560

 

I'm glad we have feedback from someone with a Y560.
One question my brother brought up was whether or not RapidDrive is available on the Y560. Yes, it was advertised to have it, but we could no find the option to get a 32/64 Express Card.

Can you clarify for me?

 

It does not come with RapidDrive, unfortunately. I believe I read somewhere that they're adding that somewhere along the line, but not at the launch, though I'm a little disappointed about that.

However, I will point out that even without it, this computer boots up fairly quickly; of the three times I've turned this computer on and off, it has taken around 35-40 seconds to boot to a usable screen (all icons shown and windows is ready to go), and takes less than 10 seconds to shut down.

Hope that helps!

 

Ohhh very nice!

Imagine if we did have RapidDrive. Off and on with the touch of a button!

If possible on your free time, try playing a modern game...Assasin's creed, or something along those lines. I see reports of the y460 going to 90-100C...thats a bit toasty.

I was wondering if the y560's size might accomdate for that.

 

Yihuan, How is the build quality of the Y560? Any flex on the case or the back of the screen?

 

I just did a quick unboxing of the Y560! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-YFZs628hg

I was extremely tired from traveling and I plan on doing more this weekend. I plan on doing another video this weekend.

 

Perfect! I look forward to your next full review!

I would definately like to know about heat performance under heavy gaming.
If possible show an HD video?

But yes, I am most interested in the speakers capabilties alongside with the gaming performance of the y560. I should be getting mine in a week.

 

Seems everybody here is ordering an Y560 with the i7 option? Damn, I admit that you puzzled me and made to consider i7 over the cheaper i5 with switchable graphics. To tell the truth, I wanted a new computer i.a. for cutting my HD videos. So i consider the quad-core to be better, but actually not so much (according to the tests). Well, it can sound like I didn't know that desktop can provide more CPU performance for lower price, but I decided for a laptop because i need a portable machine for school.

In fact, the switchable graphics (and good speakers as well) were the main things for me why to not buy the Acer 5740G not even Sony EB1S1E. However, if there is a possibility of a quad-core processor, so I could get over the loss of switchable GPU. What do you guys think? Is better to have 5 hours battery life with switchable graphics and i5 430M, or to get an i7?

 

The most accurate answer would be that it depends on your useage.

Do you need X hrs of battery life? What will you be doing with your notebook? It is a tradeoff so you will have to decide what you need more: power or battery.

 

nicksti: Definitely it's a tradeoff every sale is a tradeoff and we just can search the smallest one I've already checked that i5 430M is able to cut 1080p (8 Mbps) video with the peak of 50% CPU usage (rarely up to 70%) and 5 hours of battery life is quite nice. And in addition, if I'd want to use the laptop in my bed, so i7 with hd 5730 would be quite warm compared to i5 430 and Intel HD (or how does the underclocking work at i7 models?)

However, I'm still not decided for any of them. Let's see the price in Europe.

 

There is a little flex on the back of the screen and by the optical drive, but it doesn't seem to be a major problem for me. Overall, the construction seems fairly solid.

It's also not too heavy to hold on one's lap for a few hours, nor does it get too warm under normal activities. Again, haven't tried gaming yet, but maybe this weekend or something.

 

WOW! I am so embarrassed! I did a small unboxing for nothing! They sent me a computer with a broken motherboard! I tried to turn it on, and it shuts off right away. Tech support says I need to call sales, but they are closed! Sorry, no updated review this weekend. I am so upset. I am curious to see what the sales department is going to do. I WILL keep everyone updated! Has anyone else experienced this?

 

OH THAT'S JUST SHADY!

I am so praying mine will be fine..

 

Can someone with a Y460 run wPrime and Furmark at the same time for a few minutes?

Just kidding.

 

I actually did do that (wPrime + furmark) last week for about 30min. Temps were in the 90's for cpu and gpu.

 

Does anyone know how they were going to implement the Rapid Drive feature on the Y560? Are there two HDD bays, or was the SSD going to be added onto the PCI-Express slot?

 

"We've developed a patented PCI-E adaptor which means we can install the SSD via the PCI-E internal expansion connector, leaving the SATA connector for the hard drive, just like in any notebook." From Lenovo's website

They said the hard part is making software so they can work together.

 

I thought the software is done, they are waiting for the patent or something.

 

^^^It very well could be, that article was written before the y460 was even released. I'm just hoping that people who bought them without the Rapid Drive can upgrade, at a reasonable cost of course.

 

I bought my Y560 (should be here this wednesday) thinking it comes with Rapid Drive...however...no. I just wish we could somehow buy it and install it ourselves.

 

Waiting for a patent? Who knows when that could come thru. People usually just slap patent pending and deliver anyway.