New Y460 and Y560 Ideapads

That's definitely a bright side for us, but you're not making it sound very bright for Raptor.

 

I'd say that Y460 is a very good budget for 900$ in the highest configuration. The only problem could be overheating, but the owner can eventually underclock it or buy a cooler. Innovative technologies like switchable graphics definitely worth the price, unlike the Envy , which costs several hundreds $ more and has just slightly better hardware

 

The graphics card is more than slightly better, and you get a full 1080p screen; a higher quality screen, at that. However, I do want to see more people test the Y460, because the price difference is large, and the Y460 might have significantly longer battery life than we've gathered.

 

I agree that the Y460 has a great configuration for a great price (if buying one under the St Patricks Day sale). I think its promise falls a bit short, given its cooling system most likely will not be able to handle its CPU and GPU at full load. There's a difference between theoretical performance (i.e. looking great on paper) and real-world performance.

I don't think any company is doing its customers a favor by requiring them to underclock (i.e. retard or gimp) their CPU or GPU just to bring temps under control. It's like Mercedes selling its AMD sports sedan for only $45,000 (regular price $90,000) but then saying you can't drive it over 60 mph for too long or else the car will overheat and shut down unexpectedly.

Yes, it's great that the Y460 has switchable graphics. But considering the Y460's cooling system, how long will its owners be able to use the Y460's discrete graphics before the laptop overheats? For me at least, the premise of switchable graphics should include using either the discrete graphics or integrate graphics as long as I wish without any heat-imposed boundaries.

Yes the Envy 15 costs several hundred more and for some, it's a barrier that can't be breached. But for that several hundred more, one gets more than just slightly better hardware. You get:

1. A larger screen (15.6 inches vs. 14 inches) at a higher resolution (1920x1080 vs. 1366x768) at a great weight (5.17 lbs albeit without an internal drive).

2. A superior GPU (ATI 5830 vs ATI 5650) that you can OC without fear of it frying thanks to....

3. A superior, proven cooling system (3 internal fans and reworked internals to promote airflow). Kudos to HP for listening to overheating complaints about the 1st gen Envy.

4. Not exactly hardware, but a HP generous return policy that allows you to return your Envy 15 2nd gen laptop within 21 days of receiving and using your laptop, no questions asked and no restocking charge. Lenovo charges a 15% restocking fee (about $140) IF you didn't open the box. If you did, the laptop is yours (only replacements allowed).

It's nice to see at least 1 company that knows how to treat its customers right. ASUS is another one.

 

I'm not deliberately trying to rain on Raptor's parade. Thanks to his posts, I learned about the Y460 in the first place. And it truly is a great looking laptop on paper and being sold at a great price. I sincerely hope that the Y460 meets his, as well as any other purchasers, expectations.

It was Rockunited that opened my eyes to some of the Y460's flaws. Like any educated consumer, I did my own research afterwards and determined that the Y450 had significant heat problems and that Lenovo had not done anything demonstratively to address these problems in the Y460 (other than put a more powerful, heat-producing GPU in it).

 

I ordered the y460 for $960 after tax. Now, just waiting for it to be shipped. What made the difference for me was that the y460 is available for purchase now, whereas the other close competitors (n82, acer 4820/pt) are not. I lost my patience waiting without knowing when exactly to expect either of the two.

Reading Google's translation of the Chinese review for the y460 did not distract me from buying it. The reviewers ran the laptop at 100% cpu and gpu utilization for 12hours! What is the need to run it for 12 hours at max utilization to get a temp reading? This is nothing more than a stress test, which showed that the laptop handled well during extreme use. This is actually good to know, because I have dealt with an HP pavilion that even with light usage faced extreme heat and simply shutdown. I will speculate that every laptop(with the same specs) will reach 90 degrees in this scenario. Heck my desktop(w/q6600) has more cooling, and while running Prime95 it too reaches 90deg. Bottom line, the heat test done by the reviewers is really a poor indicator of the heat during normal use. For one poor review, the y460 sure is getting a lot of heat from you guys.

All the specifications for this laptop look great to me. Although, the wireless card could be better. If the heat really turns out to be a problem, I will get a cooling pad. Lets see.

 

Yeah, it's all about money and I just wanted to emphasize that. Since many people were have spoken only about its hardware pros, but no mention of much higher price. For example, in Czech republic Envy 15 should cost more than 2000$ and you pay it for this:

1) Radeon 5830 (only 1000 points more than 5650 - 3DMark 06 and higer TDP)
2) Full HD display
3) Design, build quality?

AND no optical drive, no Expresscard, no switchable graphics?

I just think that 1000$ is inadequate for these distinctions.

 

The Envy 15 is throttled significantly when on battery, though; I expect the Lenovo would have much better performance when on battery as a result.
I wouldn't pay $1000 extra for the Envy 15, but $300 difference is quite reasonable.

 

Well, obviously any Envy isn't worth a $1000 premium over the Y460. I was referring to the $300 premium here in the USA (discounts applied to both).

Personally, I see the fair value spread between both laptops at $350 to $400 (e.g. if the Y460 was $401 cheaper than the Envy, I'd consider getting the Y460). Without the $300 coupon, I would not have considered the Envy at $1550. I would've considered the N82 at $1100 (estimate), or the Sony CW at $1035 (possibly the Y460, but only after reviews confirmed there were absolutely no heat issues, but by then the price would be $1030).

 

That's the i7 Envy spec that has throttling issues on battery. My comments and posts have been geared towards an i5 spec in both the Envy and Y460 (apples-to-apples comparison).

 

Anyone know if the Y550p/Y560 with an i7 be throttled as well when running off battery?

 

From here:

That's the i5 Envy being throttled there.

 

I see. Well, I stand corrected then about the i5. What a shame that it gets throttled too. Fortunately, I wasn't going to do much gaming while on batteries, but still, it's a shame.

 

Yeah, none of these laptops are particularly for gaming on batteries; sure, you'll be able to do a little, but mostly they're for gaming on a power cord while still acting as a productive laptop for a reasonable period of time on battery.

The Alienware m11x is probably the one to pick if you wanted to play games on battery.

 

Hopefully this is not posted yet.
Here's Y460 review with some temp reading...
http://forums.overclockzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=755229

 

Thank you much, now that you've brought the UL30VT to my attention I have a different top contender... now I'm just waiting on the UL30JT.

Either that or an Envy 14.

 

The temperatures don't look as bad here, but I didn't notice any details on what the machine was doing when the readings were taken.

 

At worst, take it as idle...
Though it says with wireless on, hmm light browsing perhaps...
for the temp reading, left is with Intel gma, right with ATi

 

not sure if people know or not

but lenovo has bing cashback of 10% which would knock off another ~$100 on the Y460 bringing it down to around $800 depending on tax

 

Not sure if you know or not.

But using Bing cashback will negate any coupons or discounts that you also want to use. read the small print.

 

Have you considered
Acer 3820T/TG a 13" laptop with an ATI 5650
Acer 4820T/TG a 14" laptop with an ATI 5650

Info Link here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=464512

 

I think the point of this thread is do discuss the new Y460 and Y560 ideapads. The title and forum location really says it all.

Anyone that ordered the Y460 received it as yet? I am curious to know if it is coming with the rapid share technology.

 

I believe an earlier post stated that someone called Lenovo Sales, who confrimed that RapidShare won't be coming until 4Q 2010.

 

I don't need Lenovo's rapidshare I have this

 

LOL!!! xD


meh since i cant get the Y460 with the stpatricks day deal...im gonna see what priceing is better Aspire TimelineX 4820T or the y460 im really liking the specs and battery life of the timeline... and depends on whos cooling is superior... guess ill be without a laptop till april or may... i just had to find a netbook buyer in my area... *sigh*

*picks up iphone* well old friend... you will be my main source to the internet now...

 

My notebook's screen died this week, it's time to buy another one, till may I'm with my iPod too.

 

That would be a bummer but truthfully I do not trust Lenovo's sales dept, or the specs you see online. So much misinformation comes out of there (wrong video card, some specs not there like bluetooth/wifi).

I was looking forward to that. A poor man's SSD I really only need an 80GB SSD but those are still really expensive.

 

Mine is not supposed to ship until April 1, but I'll be sure to write up a review, including whether or not it has the RapidDrive technology. I have my doubts, however.

 

With all the talk about the Envy 15 gone, it's gotten pretty quiet on the Y460 messageboard....

 

The ideapad and value line do not seem to be well discussed on the forum. I was a lurker on the forum back in 2008 and joined in mid 08. I liked the Asus laptop offering and was considering an Asus G1. Then I ended up looking at the Y450/550. Then back to Asus with the U80 and UL80. Finally saw the Y550P and it was almost perfect (wanted a backlit keyboard and some sexy chiclet keys but truth is I use a wireless keyboard/mouse anyway). My experience with the Asus forum is very different to the Lenovo one. Asus has a separate owner's lounge and is full of activity.

I must say though that the Envy threads are huge (250+ pages!). I wish in here had as much activity. The ideapads are really nice. I only wish they went more conservative on the styling of the lid (orange trim and polygons are odd).

 

Has anyone called Lenovo to ask about Y560's availability?

Can't wait.....

 

The 13" acer have only 5470 with video

http://translate.google.com/transla...ev=/search?q=acer+Aspire+3820TG&num=100&hl=en

 

That review quite specifically says that the graphics cards aren't limited to the 5470, and Acer's site mentions the 5650.

 

Went ahead and pulled the trigger on a y460 today. Just couldn't wait any longer on the other Acer/Asus laptops. Plus, the Patty's day discount was a nice encouragement = ). I also went ahead and bought a fanless cooling pad for when I'm on the go @ college and a really nice regular cooling pad for when I'm home. Here's to hoping it has VT!

 

Oh well. I was, however, getting sick of the Envy talk.

 

This is apparently a video comparing the start times of the Y450 and the Y460 (I don't know if the Y460 has the RapidDrive technology).

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTU3MzA2NDUy.html

 

Rapid Drive seem to me like there are two device bay in all Lenovo y460 and y560. Can't you just buy one and add a ssd afterword?

 

According to this article, it won't be that easy...

"The SSD will be using a PCI-E internal expansion connector, and the HDD will be connected using the normal SATA connection. When you view the physical storage on Windows 7, you will only see 1 seamless partition for both drives instead of 2 separate partitions for each drive. This means that you don’t have to worry about where to put your files, be it SSD or HDD, this RapidDrive technology will decide for you."

http://www.tech65.org/2010/02/03/lenovo-rapiddrive-technology/

 

The question is, does Rapid Drive operate based on custom SSD hardware or is it software/firmware based?

 

Probably both. You would need a software layer to handle the interaction between the SSD and HDD I imagine. Most likely at a bios level so maybe that is why it is not ready in time for initial shipments.

 

Hello? Echo... echo.... echo......

 

This thread will be dead until Lenovo unveils something new about Yx60. And I suppose they won't hurry.

 

Well, when some people get the Y460's they ordered, it should have a breath of life.

 

Just chilling till the Y560 comes out.

 

Roll call update: who ordered the Y460 and when are you expecting to get it in hand?

Me? No.

 

I ordered it. It's supposed to ship on the 1st of April.

 

Me too! Did you also order it on March 14? I'm hoping it will ship sooner. Anyone get theirs yet or have an estimated ship date before April 1?

 

I also ordered the Y460... estimated shipping date is 3/30/10.

 

Yes, I ordered it on March 14. I guess it's a competition to see who can review it first!

 

Well seeing as how I picked the Y460 because I thought the cover was pretty... I don't think I'll be in the race to review it for you guys. Sorry.

Just playin about the pretty thing by the way. But honestly, I don't know much about computers still, but I look forward to others reviews.