Shout to Y550 ideapad owners

Hi everyone. Im thinking of getting Y550 in grey. All specs maxed out expect for Hard drive and DDr3 ill be getting only at 4gb. I see some reviews saying they dont like the resolution. What exactly do you mean by this? The pictures or videos are distorted/ or smudgy? Plus isnt 16:9 screen the future that many laptop owners asked for?

Also the dead pixel thing: Do really a lot of theses Y550 ideapads get dead pixels, like 1 out of 10 or even less chance? I dont want to take a chance at getting a Lemon.

Another thing I have a dell xps 1340 which I want to sell and throw in a few more $$ and get Y550 here are the specs, tell me if you think I should switch.( my main concern is better graphics thats why Im looking at 130M gt)

My studio xps 1340:
500gb (7200rpm)
2.4mhz core 2 duo p8600 1066 front bus
4gb dd3 ram
back lit keyboard with 3 settings low high off
slot drive ( i love that )
Nvidia GeForce 9400Mg integrated card (runs best with DDR3 )
1280 X 800 resolution
13 inch screen.
Also not to advertise dell or anything in that matter. I love one thing about dell if you got a problem they fix it, dell is the only company that has on site technicians that come to your home and fix your laptop. Very fast service!!!! And what I read about Lenovo they have the worst tech support? Is this true?

My main problems that I have with my current xps 1340 is that graphic card is low end, the air vent is blocked mostly by screen, so the screen gets hot that also equals bad air circulation and speakers are a joke, very low! But overall its a very very fast laptop and its only $899. I just wish 13in laptops came with atleast mid range graphic cards. My 3dmark05 score is 4000 and the Graphic card that Y550 offers gets 10,000 average, plus if I overclock it with Ntune it will get much more

Ill stop chitter chattin ... Hope someone can answer my Q's

 

Hi there.
Both are good laptops, with strengths and weaknesses.
The Yx50 series seems to have some problems with heat dissipation as well. At least the Review on the Y450 showed that it can get hot on the palmrests. I am not 100% certain, but I think the Y550 has a similar problem, but not as drastic. Dont take my word as a final review, I am not certain.

The GT130M is around teh 9600M GT or a bit higher. It is a mid range GPU, good enough for the casual gamer. Are you one, a gamer?

 

All Y550 models have a 15.6" HD (1366x768) LED-backlit display standard, which is the lowest and most common resolution for 16:9 displays. Unlike a few 15.6" competitors, they don't offer a 1600x900 or 1920x1080 upgrade option. If you're content with 1280x800 on your Dell, the Y550 will be similar.

 

Thanx for your reply guys! But my dell is 13in and it has 1280x800 resolution isnt that a lil better than 1366x768 for 15.6in screen? Btw I am a gamer I just cant enjoy decent frames with my xps1340 and i dont like the xps1640.
But LED Backlit is a good option. My 13inch laptop is TFT wxga or something like that. So is the issue with dead pixels really that bad? There seem to be quite a few review sayin lenovo laptops tend to have dead pixels. Is this true? or its just a few very unlucky people who got a lemon?

Y550 a lot of people say their touchpad just gets warm not hot. My xps1340 hot very hot!!! so i did a copper mod and now it runs 10c cooler a huge plus.
If i'll end up getting a y550 i'll probably overclock it a lil not too crazy and do a copper mod so the graphic chip isnt under pressure.
Again thanx for your help

 

it is not better, it is smaller text and icons in the 13 inches and larger in the 15 inches. it is a matter of personal preference.

 

what about dead pixels since ur an owner did you hear a lot of people getting lcd's with dead pixels?

 

I'm new here, but I have a y550 laptop with a grey palm rest that I have had for about a week. I love it, the style, the specs, everything. I've had no major problems so far (besides putting the laptop in super energy saver mode and realizing that it turns off wifi and sound... lol). My previous laptop was a hand-me down Toshiba A-105 with integrated graphics... Never going back to integrated ever again...

I worked for a month this summer, and was planning on saving that money, but my parents made me spend it. So I wanted the best bang for the buck, and so far this seems like it is. I did a lot of research on different laptops too, and read a lot of the reviews for this. It is true that you don't really see the cover design unless it's in direct light, but that kind of makes the copper trim (which looks better in person than it does in pictures) look even better.

This is a very sturdy feeling laptop, but there's one area under where you would put your right hand if you were typing that is still study, but creeks slightly. It's no cause for concern. The whole laptop has a nice feel to it when you carry it around closed.

My specs are the Intel Centrino 2 p8700 processor 2.53 Ghz, 130m gt graphics, and 4gb of ram for aboout $940 with tax, $870 ish without tax.

I downloaded crysis and it plays it pretty well on high, but with no AA. AA slows it down considerably. It's playable on very high, but you can get very laggy with a lot of enemies or heavy scenery. Cod 4 plays max settings with 4x AA for me which is good (This is not overclocked, I don't know how to overclock anything lol)

Doesn't really get hot, only warm on the vents. The battery life is decent relative to me. 3.5-4 hours of life is a big upgrade from a dead battery.

My one regret is getting Windows Vista Home Basic instead of Premium, which means I'm not eligible for the free windows 7 upgrade.

I do have one minor problem though.

I like putting the computer to sleep, but after about an hour of it sleeping, it hibernates, and I don't want it to. Does anyone know how to solve this?

Wow looking at this makes me feel like I wrote an essay. I'm going to save this lol

 

Plus no dead pixels for me

 

no dead pixle +1

But I hate glossy screen.

Don't forget to make a clean install. Lenovo's Ideapad carry tons of bloatware

 

Good to hear that the GT130M performs well.
It is not burning hot, and gets a decent life.

Thanks Ryan 02. +rep

 

Thanx a lot Ryan!!!
Vey good review! especially crysis part, thats how i test the video cards limits.
btw even people who have best desktop video cards never run crysis with AA on because that game has flaulty aa standards as soon as you turn that on your frames drop to the ground.
So for now im gona use my current laptop wait until Y550 comes with windows 7 standard and prices most likely will drop in next 1.5 month and then buy it with 2 coupon codes, lmao im such a cheap @$$.
btw my overclocked integrated gerforce 9400mg runs crysis on medium with no lag, only a lil lag with a lot of enemies, but thats an integrated S**T.

AGAIN Thanx a lot!!!!

ohh Bronx???

Brooklyn is in the house lol

 

I just got my y550 a couple weeks ago (white palmrest = sexy) and I have had no problems with it. Crysis runs on High at playable framerates with a 700/900/1600 overclock on the Gt 130m and with tweaking, can get very high quality without a severe performance drop. Do have to lower the resolution a little bit though to get stable FPS in more intense scenes. Mass Effect on Ultra High is perfectly smooth at slightly less than native res.

Even with the overclock, and undervolted CPU, this computer never runs hotter than 70 C even during heavy gaming/prolonged use.

Build quality is great, no complaints here. Keyboard is nice although the switched Fn and Ctrl keys take some getting used to (even harder to switch back on a regular laptop). Touchpad is also hit or miss. I've gotten used to the basketball like texture, but it requires a soft touch and can be a turnoff for some. Side scrolling is borked, but the synaptics touchpad supports two finger scrolling (like Macbooks) if you know how to enable it. Very useful feature that should have come preinstalled.

Great speaker quality, the laptop's subwoofer helps with strong bass reproduction. OneKey theatre is great, DD surround sound is up to personal preference, Desktop Nav bar is pretty useless. Comes with loads of bloatware, so make sure to get rid of that.

Good battery life, screen is wicked bright. Overall, very satisfied with my purchase and I think/hope you will be too. Would definitely recommend it as getting a decent discrete graphics card at this price range (I got mine for $700) is practically unheard of.

 

$700 with a coupon code? That a good price no matter the specs, as long as you got a good video card everything else you can upgrade!

Very Good to know this card is overclockable!!!

Does anyone have images of Y550 taken apart? I want to see how their heatsinks are made or where they are located ( directly under back panel or hidden under keyboard ) I have money saved up Im just planning on buying this when it comes out with windows 7 preinstalled and Im gona do a copper mod out the back so i can overclock this without making the card get hot and die. Great thread good to see owners of y550 responding to questions.

 

WOW! For 700 this is a great deal, even more with that GPU inside! To get a decent GPU you need to shed out 750 as a minimum normally...

 

The pricing was with EPP and some glitches in their system (Build your own system where certain upgrades would actually subtract from total cost). It came with a T6400 and a 160 gb hard drive. The CPU can be upgraded later, but it suits my purposes fine now. I keep my movies/music/pictures on an external anyways, so all I need the internal one for is games.

Can't wait for the free windows 7 upgrade to get here. That will make this whole experience so much sweeter.

The Slot loading DVD tray is nice too, and only like 7 bucks extra. Wish the screen was higher res though.

 

hahahaha typical from lenovo those typos on the website!! lol
good to hear you got a good deal!

 

quick question if i buy it for a lowest price, can i put in my p8600 processor( 2.4ghz intel core 2 duo fbs 1066 3mb l2 cache) from my dell studio xps 1340 laptop? and also can i put in my seagate 500gb 7200rpm in it as well?
If so i'll just order it with minimum specs other than ram and video card and bluetooth and then swapp processors and hard drives

 

it can be done

 

I just ordered a Y550 yesterday. I was on the fence 'cause of the type on Lenovo website saying G 130M instead of GT....my order sheet says GT 130M as I figured.

I too would like to see some disassembly photos. But if not I will provide some when I get the laptop.

AlexSochi: What do you mean by copper mod? I mean I'm sure it's in reference to some sort of modifcation to the heatsink/pipes but I'm curious what exactly you would plan to do cause I love voiding warranties ;-)

_Ethan

 

its basicly taking off heat sink. wiping cpu and gpu dies with alcohol ( the square metal part of the cpu and gpu) doing the same to heatsink to make sure the old thermal pads or paste has been removed, and then reapplying a piece of copper ideal size to the die of gpu and an ideal size to the cpu, you have to apply themal paste to both sized of the copper shim so it gets good contact with heatsink and the dies. on my xps1340 laptop there was a height difference between cpu and gpu, the cpu was a lil higher so on cpu i just applied as5 thermal paste, and on gpu i applied the paste with copper shim. ( since my cpu didnt really overheat much its not a problem). Google dell 1330 copper mod, it has pictures, im just in a rush right now cant look for the page.

 

Np lol,
the y550 is still awesome, I'll try and update you guys from time to time.

I'm at boarding school right now so I'm not in the Bronx right now lol, but BRONX IN DA HOUSE.

 

For how long have you had it?
After the excitement of the new laptops goes away, you can give a less biased opinion. How do you feel about it?

 

Still great, although I haven't been using it as much besides surfing the web now that I'm settled in.
Classes start tomorrow so I have a chance to use it for homework.


On a side note, if your going to wipe your laptop with a slightly damp paper tissue, make sure it isn't hard water you're using lol.

 

and ive had it for about a week and a half now

 

"shout out to future y550 owners" too?

i'm about to finally take the plunge and this will be the rig of choice..

background: i was looking for something portable which led me to the Y450, i made some posts here about it.. t6500, 500gb hd, 4gb ram, and the nvidia g130m... all for about (at that time 7800hkd)..

then i was thinking to wait until windows 7 came stock until this popped up..

y550a - p8700, bluray, 500gb, 4gb ram, nvidia g130m.. AT THE SAME PRICE..

so now i can't help myself... and going to order asap. For the same price i'll get better options and have less of a heat issue while gaming..

but i wanted to ask current owners - what do you think of this setup/price? i can't find a price for this setup.. but i'm thinking it's a steal with the cpu and bluray.. correct?

secondly, how would you find the portability of it? to work and back everyday and flights every month or so... is it bulky?

 

what is the price? if its $1000 or even less thats an amazing price, the cpu, gpu, and blueray are the best features. 500gb hard disk mostly likely isnt really good in terms of specs because lenovo only offers 5400rpm hard disks, those are old and slow, it would be better to have a choice of 7200rpm or even better ssd!!! as it loads and reads everything a lot faster and no noise less heat and great stability!!
So what price is that order coming to LABJUNKIE???

 

If you are getting it for 700ish, that is an awesome deal!
Base config is around 500, bluray alone adds 200ish, and the P8700 and GT130M are great performers!!
If you can order that, get it IMO!

To AlexSochi, in fact, the 500GB 5400RPM is around the same speed as the 320GB 7200RPM, why? IIRC, the denser the HDD, the better it performs, or something like that, but dont quote me on this, as I cannot be completely certain.

But yeah, a SSD or a 500GB 7200RPM are faster, being the SSD the fastest and the one that consumes the less.

 

the price is about 7600hkd... so depending on your conversion rate just over 1100usd..

@serg i'm not a harddrive expert.. but i'll look up what you said..

but yea in general it's a must do.. although i'm sure stock is non-existant and i'll be waiting a long time to recieve it..

i guess its a geographical thing.. where i am, it's hard to find a complete system in general.. they're always messing with something like including the bluray but without the g130m.. huh?

 

So I just recieved my new ideapad Y550!!

I must say I've fallen in love with it. This thing is so beautiful. I got the grey palmrest and I'm so happy that I didn't order the white one. This is classy. The ideapad logo that lights up when you turn on the computer is just awesome. And the logo on the charger. Little things like this really make it all worth it. My specs are:

t6400 2.0 Ghz
3gb ddr3 ram
geforce gt130m
windows vista home premium 64 bit
bluetooth
intel wifi & wimax

So I noticed a lot of bloatware installed when I started it. It's slowing it down and I think I can get more speed out of this baby if I uninstalled some unnesseccary stuff. Any idea what I can uninstall and which ones I must keep? Also, what should I update and which new softwares to install? Will Avast be a good anti virus instead of the stupid Norton that came preinstalled? Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance people.

Also, my C drive is 420 gb and D drive is just 30 gb. When I do onekey recovery I will lose everything on C drive, right? So what is the point of having so much space on it? Can I resize it without affecting the onekey recovery feature?

 

@ Serg
i've heard theres a lil problem with facotry resotre, y550 forwards you to make like 6 or 7 recovery cds.... Im not really into that is there a error proof test to go around this. like actually use a retail vista or windows 7( when it comes out) cd to do a clean reinstall... like that I can combine partitions and format the recory drive d, and 100% get rid of bloatware. Why Im asking this is I've read a forum somewhere where a someone had a problem reinstalling vista from retail cd? and re aware of this?
Because i would love to format it the first day I get it but i dont want to have any driver failures and etc.
- also what how many megapixels the webcam got?
Thanx

BTW to wicked sinner, grey looks really good!!!

 

Alex:
I don't know if this is what you are talking about or not but maybe that person you mention who had trouble with install of vista had a retail cd and an oem license code? They make retail and oem disc so if you use the wrong type (well at least I know they did this with XP, 2000, etc..) the key would not work. Maybe that is the problem the person had??

I bought an SSD to put in the Y550 I have on order so it would be nice to know how easy a fresh install is going to be and what I need to get beforehand.....

 

they added the options for blu ray and 6gb of ram after i brought my laptop, but those are very pricey and over my budget anyway.
If your budget is around 1500, then you should get them!

 

I think the webcam is 1.3 megapixels, is that good?

 

The webcam is okay for basic things such as Skype. For other things like videos, I recommend the Quickcam Pro.

 

The megapixels in fact have little to do on the video, more the refresh rate of the image.
I have seen a VGA perform better than a 2.0MP!! Obviously the refresh on the VGA was faster, so a smoother video.

 

To Ethanh. The person was using the disk with oem code. So if I go to a store and buy a retail version im guessing it wont have the oem key? Basicly the guy had a problem with oem key windows version is there another one?

To Serg I completely agree with you on the camera part and that some vga are better quality.. But ive seen a few like i had one on my white macbook, abd the one i have on studio xps 1340 is 2 megapix and it shows amazing quality videos when i need to skype. people on the other end say theres completely no lag and resolution is pretty good. so its better than the one i had on mac.

So as far as i understand if i buy an ssd all i have to do is just swap it with original one from lenovo and thats it? no bios need to be configured right? same goes for my p8600 processor? also no bios needs to be configured?

It sucks that the only videos i see on youtube of y550 are the low end ones with intel media accelerator and not 130m gt

Good to see this thread getting filled up!

 

I had that same problem when I was looking up youtube videos lol

 

hello guys i am planning to buy Y550 but i have some doubts. Please help.Am confused between 2 models please help me. I want maximum gaming performance.

1) HP Pavilion dv6-1110ax

Processor type - AMD Turion™ X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor RM-74
• 2.20 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache, Up to 3600 MT/s system bus running at AC/DC mode 35 watt
RAM - 4Gb DDR2
HARD DISC - 320GB
Graphic card - ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4650
Price - 48500 (with tax)


2) Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 - 418629Q

Processor - Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T6500 ( 2.10GHz 800MHz 2MB )
RAM - 4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz
HARD DISC - 320GB
Graphic card - NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M 512MB
Price - 56000 (with tax)


one more question
Which of the graphics card is better ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4650 OR NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M 512MB?

 

Hi livetech.
I strongly suggest you go and post any questions of this matter on the What Notebook should I buy forum, where you can get far better information and help.

You could, however, ask users about their performance and such. But if you want to get good info on this matter, I suggest you the other forum, and fill out the FAQ (autolink to it, or follow the link in my signature) and post it, and we will gladly help you out!

And if not welcomed, welcome to the NBR Forums!

 

To LiveTech.
Take the Y550
that hp has a weak amd processor, graphics card isnt bad but still has lower test scores than 130m gt.


Can anyone possible post a video on YOUTUBE with their Y550 130m gt?
That would be really great to see a review of a real y550 not a lower end one.
Plus you would probably get a lot of hits on that video since theres only like 3 out there that have the basic weak model and intel graphics chip.

 

Is there any way to disable that ideapad logo that is lit with white leds on the palmrest? It seems like a pointless annoying light.

 

Alex: Yah, if you go to a store and buy a retail package it will come with a retail key and if for whatever reason you tried to use your OEM key it would not work. I guess it's another Microsoft protection method...probably to prevent people from taking advantage of some sort of OEM discount for volume purchase of licenses.

And yah...glad to see this thread being active...once I receive my laptop I will post a review with some detailed photos.

Chaud:
I hear you on illuminated logos...I find them distracting while watching movies, etc..plus the extra light...LEDs seem to have gotten brighter and brighter too! I've got a razor lachesis gaming mouse and they conveniently put an option in to disable the illuminated logo, it would be nice if you could do the same with this logo (i haven't seen it so don't even know what you are talking about - I assume you have looked throughout the BIOS?). You could always find a sticker to put over it...then again I dunno about you but I hate stickers too...I always pull those little logo stickers off. Reminds me of like the people who put a bunch of aftermarket parts stickers on their cars.

 

Just a quick post on something I noticed...you can get a customized Y550 off Lenovo right now with a GT 240M. Why they gotta do that to me right after I place my order...guess it's not a huge difference but still.

 

Wow really? omg...
lol thats messed up. But still

btw I think the logo looks sick but I guess thats personal preference

 

wow, whoever waited to buy their computer is so lucky

The GT 240m model is like the same as the 130m gt I got (you need a e code for both though like 15% off)

Actually I did the math and its cheaper... lol i feel cheated

 

hi. i'm owner of y550 (t6400, gt130m) and i wanted to overclock my CPU (as its only 60C in stress), but PLL of y550 is not supported by SetFSB yet. man who made SetFSB said that he can include support for this PLL (SLG8SP556V) as soon as he gets datasheets.

yesterday i asked silego about datasheets for SLG8SP556V and today they replied:

i'm not buying (dont have money now, and won't have money in nearest future) but if anyone is interested in making ours notebook overclockable, mail [email protected]

i also posted that in toshiba qosmio x305 thread.

 

Sorry to hear that Ryan, but that is what happens with technology...all the time lol

Still, you have there a great laptop!

 

ill kick in a few bucks to see this done.

 

I'd be willing to chip in too for some SetFSB support. I bought a Zalman notebook cooler with the intention of overclocking cpu/gpu too. Lets get this going 'cause I just assumed the support was already there in SetFSB!

 

well i would do hardware mod but would need more detailed instruction...it's okay...at least the gpu can still be pushed.