New Y460 and Y560 Ideapads

Anybody know about battery life on the Core i3 Y560 and whether or not the 5730 is switchable with integrated like in the Y460?

 

i3 and i5 have switchable graphics, while the i7's do not. I would assume the battery life would be 4+ hours, but actual y560 owners would know better.....

 

It depends on the i7. Duel core i7s(like the i7-620m which would be a great upgrade after i get this lappy) have switchable graphics, quad do not.

 

I have a 560-i7 and when I first got it I was playing around with the power settings. I have mine set to best performance (maximum speed/power) for both when it is plugged in and on battery. I noticed I average about a good hour and half if I run on best performance but I don't do anything power intensive like playing mw2 or any sort of games. Basically almost at idle just with firefox open.

At power saving or what ever the specific name is, I am unaware. I think last time I was ever on power efficient... power saving.. mode it was around 2hours? I'm sort of pulling that one out of my arse though

So I can just guess with an i3.. Maybe 3 hours? Maybe a little bit more, iunno.

 

Anyone know what the temps of the Y560 are during idle and load?

Also, besides the screen flickering issue, are there any other issues with this laptop?

I'm really interested in getting one.

 

well I feel like a _____ after reading through all the poor people with display issues / got ripped on rapiddrive

but I bought the 06242-QU kit (i5 450M), the display is fine, graphics do switch AND it comes with rapiddrive (or that samsung 32gb controller in device mgr is just a phantasm!!!)

so I recommend you all target that kit

edit: stupid lenovo the driver that ships (and is in recovery image) for wireless is slooooooow to the point of broken. The correct driver is not on lenovo's site but on manufacturer's site (Atheros 9285)!!! Now getting 1-2Mbytes, with the shipping driver it was closer to 100kbytes/sec!

 

can anyone provide a y560 clean install guide? got i7 + 5730 model.

 

has anyone figured out how to use esata on the y560? mine doesn't seem to detect the esata at all.

 

quest just make some recovery disks using provided lenovo backup software, also for good measure copy all the drivers in your recovery partition to a USB stick. Out of the box, my D drive had a folder in it called 'drivers' with all the drivers (and crapware as well lol). To be honest though its quicker just to un-install the crapware, then it runs perfectly.

Then it should just be a routine Win7 install, manually add the drivers you need afterwards you should be able to at least get into minimal desktop with a stock install. Don't touch the recovery partition when partitioning. Not sure about rapiddrive - I would ideally like to be able to see it as a separate drive, then manually install win7 on it and programs/data on the mechanical, but theres no info from lenovo, and I'm loathe to tamper with mine when its working well. I do suspect that it would be possible since in device manager the samsung SSD controller is a separate device than the hard disk.

dero56, a lot of people seem to have the screen issue, but its all anecdotal, and of course people with issues are going to be more active in posting about it, so its hard to guesstimate what percentage of people got hit. There's also the issue of not shipping with rapiddrive when it was advertised, though thats been fixed v recently. Haven't seen any complaints re: the newer kit 06242QU which is what I bought. Most complaints seem to be from the i7 owners.

Spec wise and general build/weight/keyboard etc. its a very good laptop for the dollar, assuming you get lucky with your screen - I certainly wasn't aware of the screen issue until after I'd bought it!! your mileage may vary

 

Hi Guys!

I just want to know what do you think is the best way to preserve battery life? While plugged in AC put in the battery in the laptop or not? I bought my y460 and I want my battery to last at least more than the average for a 6 cell battery.

There is the lenovo y460 energy management software that allegedly has the option to preserve battery life by not charging it over @ 80%. But based on most of my readings it is recommended to take off the battery when you are using the AC adapter since the heat from the laptop may affect the battery and one of the major sources of battery displacement is heat.

Although the latter trick would be inconvenient at times since you have to take the battery off when on ac then put it on again when not in use to prevent dust from getting in the internal components. What's your take on this?


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Current: Lenovo y460 430M
Old: P4 3.0 Ghz desktop PC

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I use the lenovo battery management to let it stop at 80%, when i use it at that state, the battery is cool to the touch. And it is more convinient in case you lose power from the ac, you have a backup power so you won't lose you unsaved work.

if you are going to store your battery for a long time it is recommended to have it at 40% and put it in a cool place. Or put it in the freezer inside a ziplock bag (so it doesn't get wet).

Battery will lose it's life no matter what, you just try to slow it down.

here's a battery guide

 

Thanks supremekai for the insight.

In the battery guide you've sighted they recommend taking the battery out when on AC power...


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Current: Lenovo y460 430M
Old: P4 3.0 Ghz desktop PC

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mate if battery life matters to you, and your budget does not extend to shelling out a hundred bucks in ~12-18 months time for a replacement battery, its time to worry about other things

I'm finding battery life to be pretty ordinary even with switchable graphics, getting 2-3 hours out of a full charge (wifi on, medium brightness, intel graphics of course) doing surfing, playing a bit of music, copying a few files (not gigs and gigs) etc. oh well.

And for the record, yes taking the battery out will extend its life, no the dust won't kill it unless you live in the middle of a sandstorm or whatever (just common sense, if it gets super dusty clean it!), most people don't bother, lenovo's software (restricting charging to 80%) is a pretty good compromise, you can always turn if off when you're on a trip and turn it off when you get back home.

 

Gents,
I have a problem with esata port of my lenovo y560 under Windows HP 64bit or Ubuntu. Problem is the same on both systems...

Problem description is following:
I have 3 devices: 2 different external esata hard drives and one esata 32Gb ssd flash drive. All of them worked good on my previous computer and none of them work on my new Lenovo y560. Sometimes they can be recognized in Device Management, sometimes not. If they are recognized then sometimes drive letter is not assign to them and sometimes they can be recognized as not formatted drives which is not true. So, anyway I cannot get access to the data I have on these drives. If I plug my 3 devices within USB cord they work ok, but I would like to use esata speed.
Anyone knows how to fix it??

 

*Fire and brimstone* FINALLY made a purchase after ##%@ 4 months of waiting for damned Acer and Asus to get their act together in Canada.

Damn, knew I'd crack at the first sight of a half-decent notebook with discrete graphics being available. I've gotten the Y460 with a coupon, for $945 before taxes.

i5 520m/5650
~4.85 Ib

I'll post a review once I get it

 

i got my y460 for $951.xx tax in

what happen with acer and asus?

 

Lol both of you just got a bad deal. If you guys would like a 15.6" laptop then i got my Y560 on newegg for $949.99, specs in the sig.

 

i could have got the y560 for $86x.xx tax in. I wanted 14", didnt want too large of a laptop. And that resolution for 15" is a bit low...

 

They didn't deliver the models they were promising. I was looking for the 3820TG with the 5650, and the N82JV. Both are still MIA in Canada.

What are the specs of your Y460? I'll be surprised if it's the same as mine (and remember mine is in CAD )

 

My is in CAD too ;P

i5 m520 2.4GHz
4gb ram
win 7
ati 5650 (1gb)

 

NO ONE answered my ESATA question. thanks guys

I'll call lenovo and see what they say

 

where can i get more up to date drivers? video? audio? etc for this notebook. the lenovo support site in the US seems really out of date, everything is 06-2010 or 03-2010

 

Could anyone with the y460 please chime in on how they like their notebook? Any issues that might be popping up and just overall quality? Also are the drivers still able to support switchable graphics or is that being phased out?
Any input would be appreciated.

 

for audio you can go to realtek website, i installed it and it works fine...

 

I like the laptop, tho it is the first laptop i own. Overall it is good.

The keyboard has a bit of a flex. It gets pretty warm when you are using intensive programs/games. Palm rest area on the left is not as warm as on the right (wi-fi card). Battery is average on integrated graphics. No problems with the display, cant use it outside with the sun shining down. Speakers are pretty good for laptops, although it doesnt have much bass.

There is still support for switchable graphics, i don't know where you got that.

If you have any specific question please ask.

 

Been great to me for the last ~ 4 months. Not as well built as the Thinkpads, but the power makes up for it.

 

My biggest concerns are heating issues and build quality, my last laptop met its end when the hinges literally destroyed themselves with normal wear and tear. This is something Id like to avoid this time around.

Also, if I bought some decent thermal paste, would that help improve cooling?

 

Hi, can some linux guy post a listing from lspci tool?
I think "lspci -nvv" would be sufficient.
Thanks a lot.

 

I've owned this laptop for almost 3 months now and I did not encounter any problems yet.

Build Quality: Seems solid enough. The keyboard feels a little hollow on the left side, the part just above the dvd-rom drive. A little flex is also observed in that area.
Bottom side is sturdy. The lid is also built well especially the hinges holding it. I observed the hinges are a lot thicker than most of the laptops.

My only complaing here regarding the quality of this laptop is the hollow-feeling keyboard on the left-side.

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I also have huge problems with esata support for lenovo y560.... It seems BIOS is raw for this model because I have same esata problems both with Windows and Ubuntu installed... Please let me know what lenovo support will tell you, because my country support just told me "Yes yes yes we will write you problem to our technical team..." and that's all... nothing happened)

 

You mean on the right side.

try posting your problem on the lenovo problem.

link

 

lenovo told me they don't have an esata problem. that its my notebook and they I have to send it in.

 

Just received Y460 i5/520 + 4Gb + 5650 + 500Gb machine today. I didn't even power it on before installing my 8Gb of ram and my 120Gb OCZ Vertex 2 drive. I'm transferring only the OS partition of the original 500Gb drive to the SSD now via a USB external drive dongle, and then I'll save the original drive as my backup copy

I'm travelling tomorrow to Atlanta, so I'll have a chance to look at battery life, performance, and general 'feel' over the next few days of work. I'll be back on Friday to provide impressions

 

First impressions:

Windows 7 Experience Index in "Energy Star" mode
Processor: 6.7
Ram: 6.7
Graphics: 6.7
Gaming Graphics: 6.7
Primary Hard Disk: 7.7

Battery life seems like I'll be able to get four or more hours pretty easily, even while using my Microsoft mobile wireless mouse 6000. The automatic screen brightness thing is sometimes irritating, I ended up turning it off. I also see why several folks complained about the relocated FN key, but I think I can get used to it.

I removed quite a few apps, disabled some other ones, disabled indexing and defragging, installed Chrome, installed Steam and a few of my games (Just Cause 2, Fallout 3 GOTY, Portal) and I'll give those a play later. Speakers are very decent, especially considering their size.

I know a few folks have asked about heat... It was lightly warm in energy star mode while surfing the net and perusing through office apps while listening to MP3's. I kicked it into High Perf mode and fired up Fallout 3 and Just Cause 2 just for a few minutes, and it definitely got warmer. Still, I had it on my lap the whole time, and while it certainly got hotter while gaming, it still didn't get as hot as my old Inspiron E1505 under load (and it never had the testicular fortitude that this thing does )

Keyboard flex only appears under severe duress, but the bezel is indeed a fingerprint magnet. It doesn't bother me, but I know some other folks are neurotic about that sort of thing Screen at full brightness is pretty good, but nothing that you'll use in daylight (which I don't plan to anyway.) The quickswipe thing is gimmicky at best, the switchable graphics work well so far, and the touchpad seems to work well too.

I'll be back again later sometime.

 

Does switching into high performance give an significance boost in power compared to Energy Star?(On AC power) I just realized I've never ran a game on the High Performance setting , but everything runs great. Also, can you let me know how well Just Cause 2 runs?(Heat and Performance) Looks very fun, but I heard it's rather demanding on components. Thanks.

 

Dunno if it helps or not, guess I'll check it out for you

Edit:
After a bit of playing tonight, with the screen at lowest brightness, wireless off and the energy star setting, I have a stable reported power draw of 8.65W. At that rate, you could go for almost seven hours on the stock battery

Probably no bearing on real life, but at about 50% brightness and the wireless on (with Intel's driver, not Lenovo's) it idles around 9.7W. Not complaining about that, either...

 

VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR THOSE WITH Y460 AND AN SSD DRIVE
My laptop came with the Intel RapidStorage Technology driver version 9.5, which does not pass TRIM commands if the interface is in AHCI mode. But for best performance with your high-dollar SSD, you want AHCI mode. Intel released an updated RapidStorage driver back in March, but Lenovo didn't include it. Go download Intel RapidStorage Technology Driver 9.6.0.1014 and avoid trashing your drive's performance.

Further, my OCZ Vertex 2 (that arrived in the mail on Friday) still had 1.02 firmware, which is VERY far out of date. I updated to the 1.10 firmware, and shaved off another two seconds of boot time. Using Lenovo's Win7 install (with a few things removed, and with steam and MS Security Essentials installed) I can go from touching the power button to at the desktop in 27 seconds. You should see how fast games and Office 2010 apps load

For those wondering, "High Perf" mode does change my benchmark scores in JC2, but by less than one percent versus "Energy Star". This of course assumes you're in AC mode; battery mode will be a drastic change between the two.

I adjusted my Energy Star profile so that my maximum CPU speed while on AC is "99", which effectively disables turbo-boost. Figure if I need it, I'll turn it on High Perf mode Also after installing Intel's own wireless driver, I turned the transmit power down (in Device Manager) to the lowest setting and still have good connectivity to my network.

Oh, and anyone wanting to play Fallout 3 GOTY on this platform without it crashing every 90 seconds needs to update their Fallout3.INI settings to set the iNumHWThreads=2. Go googlin' to find out the details.

Just Cause 2 had pretty much everything on 'High' except no AA and no SAOO and no "Very High Quality Shadows", and scored ~25FPS in the Concrete Jungle flythrough and ~34FPS in the Dark Towers flythrough at native rez.

 

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@ Supermekai

Yeah. I mean the right side. I just don't know if this is usally common among laptops.

Just a general question thought. Is Y460 one of the best-looking laptops in the 14" category with decent gaming graphics?
Just want to know what you guys think.

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Current: lenovo y460 430M
Old: P4 3.0 GHZ PC

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Hey FX , nice little review.
Can you comment on fan noise under full load/gaming?
And can you post some temps too?
I've heard mixed reviews on how hot this laptop runs and a hands on owner experiance would be welcome.
The NBR review almost scared me away when I seen the surface temps, one thing the did not post is the hardware temps after doing there benchmarks.

 

Typical gaming CPU temp: 80C and GPU: 70C


Encoding: CPU: 90C+

 

That's pretty good.
How is fan noise under full load/gaming?
I hate loud fans!

 

Like a jet? Using the Intel HD graphics it's nice and quiet, but as soon as you switch to ATI 5650 the fan revs right up.

 

Med-week update...

I flew from Santa Ana to Atlanta nonstop on Delta, which is about 4h 20m in-flight. I used the laptop in the airport beforehand for about 30 minutes, used it again on the plane for the entire duration that we were above 10,000 feet. That's a combined total of about four and a half hours of PowerPoint and Word use at 40% brightness and no wireless in Energy Star mode.

When I shut it off to land, I had 35% of my battery left -- yes, after 400 minutes of operation. Granted, I was using my phone for listening to music, and neither Word nor PowerPoint are anything hardcore. Still, that's basically averaging ~8500mW for that entire time, which is phenomenal.

Fan noise at full whack, to me, is still quite reasonable. It's not "quiet", but I wouldn't compare it to a hair dryer or a jet either. It's more like the sound of one of those small 4" desk fans that some of my coworkers have, when they're at medium high speed. You hear the air moving, you can hear the motor spinning, but it's not something ridiculous.

And switching to the 5650 doesn't immediately kick up my fan speed either -- it still seems quite dynamic. Fallout 3 is a good example -- it's not really hard on the video card unless you really beat up the AA and shadows, and even then there are places that aren't that video-intensive. The fan will meander between "above idle" speed and "we're moving now!" speed.

But maybe I don't have some ridiculous expectation of silence from a 14" laptop with this kind of oomph

This trip has been all business during the day, and then some video gaming at night. With my battery use limited to OneNote and PowerPoint decks, Battery Bar is suggesting that I'll get 6h17m out of a full charge. Not bad

Specs for future reference: i5-520, 8Gb GSkill 7-7-7-20 ram, 120Gb OCZ Vertex 2, using Lenovo's image with some of the stuff cleaned off, under the Energy Star profile with wireless off and 40% brightness. Oh, and my little Microsoft Mobile Wireless Mouse 6000 too.

 

I'm interested in a y460 too. I know that the y560 has color/dithering/pixel moving problems. Have these at all cropped up on the y460?

Thanks.

 

No, the Y460 is not affected.

Last update: I played Fallout 3 on the flight back using the battery charged to about 95%, and was able to get in about two and a half hours of gaming with the Energy Star profile, 40% brightness, my wireless mouse, and of course with the 5650 turned on. Performance was slightly degraded due to the forced low-speed of the CPU and ATI's PowerPlay (both are part of the Energy Star profile.) I turned off the 2xAA and turned down the shadows to the "high" setting, and it was still entirely playable.

So far, this laptop has exceeded my expectations on pretty much every front. I have no complaints about heat, noise, the screen, the keyboard, the optical drive, the graphics and CPU power, and the overall aesthetics.

I guess my only complaint is that I didn't buy it sooner. Ordered an HDMI-to-DVI converter today from Monoprice so I can jack this thing into my 50" TV at home, and I'll be set.

 

How long did it take from clicking order to showing up on your doorstep?

 

Ordered on the 19th around 5:00pm PST, arrived on the doorstep the morning of the 26th. There was approximately one day of delay because of a billing address error on my credit card, and of course there was a weekend there in the middle too.

 

Have any of you guys heard of the new model Y560d? Do you know of any review? It seems to be almost similar with the y560 except for the screen.

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y560D gets u a 3D screen and rapid drive.