Upcoming Y480/Y580 series feat. Ivy Bridge and NVIDIA graphics!

Gotcha - Thanks for the quick reply

 

I ordered a Y580 late Monday night after business hours and I already have tracking number and I should have it by Friday! Seems like mine shipped from NC, and they are using UPS 3 Day Select. Seeing how it is already in socal, I wonder if I will receive it in the Bay Area tomorrow! Would be great! (edit i'm not in Irvine anymore)

I'm pretty excited, I needed a new laptop to play Diablo 3 (was playing on my old laptop from 2008 with a 9300m, 800x600, no fun haha).

I will try to remember to give you guys a mini-review. This will be my third laptop, and my first Lenovo. Previous two were ASUS.

 

I recently received a Y480 and had difficulty updating video drivers. 1) Make sure your download is the right size. If you don't get it from the Ideapad spt site, click on the banner where Lenovo advertises as their new site and get download from there. 2) Then, of course, install them. With the nVidia driver it wouldn't finish the process. I completed the full install by navigating through windows explorer, opening drivers, navigating to the right folder and clicking on set-up.

I had a Y470. The features on it I preferred to the Y480 are the one-touch volume buttons at the top of the screen and the fact that it didn't attract finger prints. Plus, I don't recall my palms warming up/sticking to the palm area as the do on the Y480.

My Y480 doesn't have the smart shutdown option as advertised. Lenovo seems confused when I call them about it b/c it is such a new model.

The computer itself runs great and starts up "fairly" fast. I don't place too much of a demand on it as I'd imagine some gamers do.

I like having a multitude of USB ports and my higher quality headphones don't contain the system noise as on the Y470. I like that I can see at night with the lighted keyboard although I wish the light intensity could be adjusted.

These are my first impressions.

 

Matt,
My 209387U has the LE. I know Lenovo doesn't advertise it but that's what it has...

 

I just received my 480 today as well and have similar first impressions.

However, I downloaded 3dmark11 and my scorese are low compared to others I'm seeing. I'm only gettin g995, and I noticed that on the results page, it is identified my card as a GT630M for some reason, while everywhere else (including the Nvidia control panel), it's identified as a 640MLE.

Anybody heard of this problem?

 

And FYI the same thing happens in 3dmark06 - identified as gt630M, score of 9731

 

so hows the battery life for the 480/580 for those that have em?

 

Mine was waiting for me when I got home last night - after I got the warehoused notification it cleared the import scan an hour and a half later. I did meet the delivery date but didn't think I was going to; as of two nights ago at midnight it was still showing in KY and then it had like 3 updates finally saying it was out for delivery when I woke up yesterday. Good luck in getting yours today! It was a busy day yesterday so I didn't get anything done other than a reinstall of Windows; I'll try to post up some thoughts/comments on it once I get to mess with it some tonight.

 

Did you do your install with an iso from digital river and then use ABR for reactivation?

Did you find all the drivers you needed from the lenovo website? I think they have all the drivers, but no mention of any of the preinstalled lenovo software. I know almost all of it is junk, but some might come in handy and I would want to install it back.

I definitely want to do a clean install and wanted to know how yours went.

Great news that you got yours on the scheduled date. Mine left Osaka last night

 

I actually own a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate that I had on my previous laptop, so I reinstalled that from an installation DVD I had from the last time I installed it. I haven't actually activated it yet as I hope to have my mSATA SSD within 30 days so didn't even bother with activating the copy yet.

The drivers and applications (with the exception of Oovoo and a couple others I can't think of) were all on a separate partition on the HDD straight from Lenovo so I just reinstalled from there and performed Windows Updates to catch any stragglers. I honestly haven't played with it/looked at it yet to see if those are the latest drivers available or if I will run into any issues with the ones there, but I didn't have any devices in Device Manager listed as needing a driver installed. I'll look at the driver versions tonight, as well.

 

Cool. I have a ultimate DVD as well but it doesn't have sp1. Should have a smooth installation with the iso from digital river. Just hope ABR works. I've never tried it before.

Guess I'll decide on Monday after seeing what is and isn't included on that partition.

We should start an Y580 owners thread since we have pretty much hijacked this one.

 

I haven't tried ABR before either so I can't help you there, unfortunately. I can make a list of what's included tonight, and if anyone else has any questions about it I can try to answer those as well. I won't be home for another 7 hours or so, so if someone else wants to start an owners thread I'll post it in there tonight, otherwise I'll just start one when I post later.

 

No rush at all. Take your time. I'm not even going to have mine for another 3 or 4 days.

Even if ABR doesn't work, I'll just go back to factory setting. Not too big of an issue.

Will start an owners thread. A little premature on my part, but I guess it's ok.

 

UPS says "Out for delivery" ! I'll post impressions when I get it!

 

I got the Y580 today and just posted a first thoughts

Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 First Thoughts Review

I'll be keeping closer track of the new Y580 owner's thread where I initially posted about the Y580 video so please respond there:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ideapad-essential/672154-y580-owners-thread.html

 

I'm posting my first impressions in the owner's thread.

 

SOooo... I have been looking at the alienware m14x , hp dv6-7000 and the msi ge60
I am almost sure I am going with this laptop..... has anyone been able to confirm that the msata slot is there if you do not get the 32gb msata option.... I want to add a bigger one so don't need the added cost /wait time of the one with the msata driv... just need the mini pcie slot....

Thanks

 

Just played with my Y580 and compared it to my DV6TQE.

So far, the build quality is great and has fewer issues compared to the DV6 in terms of quality control.

My only complaints? The screen. I went for the full 1080P panel and the viewing angles are horrid compared to my DV6. The DV6 LCD can be pushed all the way back and you can see still use it easily. I also do not like the lackluster look the bottom casing has. It is SO early 2000's. The DV6 looks classy with its design.

Pros vs the DV6? The keyboard, sound, and build quality. The chassis does feel a bit more sturdier and the LCD has less flex with moved with both hands.

The keyboard on the Y580 has flex in the upper left region. The HP keyboard has less flex but is a pain to type on. The suretype(I think that's what it's called) is pleasant to type on.

The Y580 gets a little hot in the middle section when in my lap. The DV6 was cool and never a problem even when put on carpet or the bed. I'll see how the Y580 fares when I play Diablo 3. I'll compare it to my DV6.

I'll be comparing both this weekend and decide which one I want to keep. I'll keep ya'll tuned.

 

Nice project3. This is exactly the comparison I need. Regarding the screen, aside from the poorer viewing angles of Y580, how is the contrast, brightness and color compared to the DV6? If DV6 has a better fhd screen, I may get the DV6 even though I like glossy finish more.

 

I just about to post about the screen quality! The colors seem to be a bit more real on the Y580 than the DV6. At times, the colors seemed washed out on the DV6 when comparing the same image on the Y580. I think that difference is somewhat winning me over right now.

One thing I do hate though is, the Y580 has a HUGE footprint. The DV6 looks small next to it. I'll post pics tomorrow

 

Nice! I think that is still the edge of glossy finish compared to matte. I also noticed that when I saw the Samsung series 7 screen before. It was connected to a Samsung LED TV and the difference is huge. The picture on the laptop looks flat while on the LED TV, the picture has better contrast and it "pops" out more or has more depth.

Will wait for you picture comparison tomorrow.

 

Random *possibly stupid* question concerning the sale's on Lenovo's site. I'm not familiar with Lenovo practices, but I am with companies in general. Are the sales on the Y580 page fake? E.g. Are they theoretical markdowns with no real base? A $630 coupon? I mean really? Last weeks the code was "DADSANDGRADS" now it's "7DAYSOFDEALS." More like month of "WEMAKEUPHOLIDAYS4U2BUY." Do they ever jack up the prices?

I tried searching the forums like a good noob but got, " Could not find phrase 'invalid_search_query'." vBulletin fail.

I'm on edge about buying the Y580 and still a little concerned about build quality. (Primarily due to the amount of abuse by rendering its GPU is going to receive at my hands) I'm hoping to have some time before making the decision. I know this isn't the Home Shopping Network, but do I really need to "Act Now"..?

 

The images pop just a little bit more on the 580 than the DV6. Colors are a tad bit richer. So far, I really like the laptop. It's a great machine.

The quality of the sound is good (like all JBL speakers) but less bass compared to the DV6.

 

Ok. Your pictures will be the main highlight for many people to decide. The youtube videos I saw didn't impress me maybe because of the lighting. A more detail screen comparison will be a lot of help.

 

No, you don't. Lenovo does indeed have perpetual "sales", just sometimes the coupons are better than other times. I agree that it is extremely misleading. However, if you are still interested in a Y580, you could always wait and see some reviews and base your purchase decision on that.

 

I really wouldn't be worried about build quality. In my opinion the build quality is damn near thinkpad quality. It really is an EXCELLENTLY designed machine.

 

That's what my plan is as of now. I've already gone over Andrew's and Rules.Spain's reviews. I think I need something less bias though, haha! Perhaps a mainstream site that isn't particularly interested in laptops. (Engadget, Anandtech, Toms HW?) I read the review here and I foamed at the mouth screaming, "WANNTTTTT!!!!!"
I'm torn between building a $2000 desktop or spending $1100 on a Y580. The desktop is obviously a lot beefier (i7-3770k+GTX 680+MB w/Thunderbolt) but I obviously loose portability. So $1100 for something 25%-40% slower that's portable is a good deal. (Slow equates to CPU & GPU, mostly GPU)

Great to hear. I got a few "made in China" jokes yesterday when I was talking about Lenovo with some friends. Which is kind of funny since I've always heard of Lenovo to be in the top 3 when it comes to build quality. (At least when it comes to ThinkPads, haven't heard much about IdeaPads)

 

I've just seen this: Angeschaut: Lenovo IdeaPad Y480 - YouTube - German overview of the Y480 featuring a GT 650m. Looks like it will be in some models.

I've been looking at the Y580 but it looks really large - the Y480 would be my choice if I had it. Unfortunetly at this time I don't - only the Y580 is on sale in the UK.

A Y480 w/ GT 650m would be perfect.

 

you could spend less money on building the desktop and do like a desktop and laptop combo so you get the best of both worlds.

 

For my personal needs, I won't be playing that many modern games on it, but the ones I do play - I want them to look good.

I could spend 1/3 less on a budget gaming desktop but it would sit around unused a lot of the time as I already have an OK laptop for everything other than gaming and HD video.

Having all my stuff on one machine is also a boon.

Personally I think getting a gaming desktop would be a bigger waste of money, despite being cheaper. It would not be used to its potential, whereas a powerful laptop would.

 

Here's a rough video comparing the displays. The beaver scene really shows difference in color.

Lenovo Y580 vs. HP DV6TQE HD display comparison - YouTube

 

I've been tracking the Y480 since it debuted in April, and my sense is the sales just re-start each week (however, I did see some serious price churning on the Y470p). On the other hand, what few people seem to realize is that there is often a discount/coupon code that Lenovo DOES NOT put on their site. So far, it has consistently mapped on to one of the 6 or so models, usually a mid-level offering. So for example, there is one on the Y480 (209388U) which takes it from the Lenovo "discounted" price of $1399 to the super-secret price of $800, and another that drops a Y580 (209943U) from $949 to $800:

Ben's Bargains - Lenovo Y480 209388U 3rd Gen Core i7 14" Notebook ...
http://bensbargains.net/deal/lenovo-y570-08626su-i7-15-6-blu-ray-notebook-799-at-lenovo-260463/ (Y580 is second deal)

Just check your favorite deal site regularly, and you'll see those codes. The downside, of course, is it may not be the configuration you want.

-Matt

 

Uhhhh......... 25% to 40% slower? The GTX660M compared to the GTX680 is like ... 80% slower.

 

Unfortunately it seems the codes so far have been for the lower resolution y580's =(

 

Thanks! The color on Y580 looks darker but more natural. This seals the deal for me for Y580. Will start ordering already.

 

Although, I find the readability on the HP better..my eyes hurt with the Lenovo. And yes, I've adjusted the clear type to be identical. I AM SO TORN BETWEEN THE TWO.

My Y580 has a weird creaking palm rest. I dunno. Oh and the Y580 feels cheap..when I walk with it in my hand, I can hear the blu-ray drive moving. And it is noticeable.

 

Just did a quick comparison too with Diablo 3 at the character selection screen. Looks like the 660M provides better detail on the character than the 650M.

THe 650M blurred the face somewhat and the 660M provided better texture and details.


Can any one give me tips on fixing the readability of fonts? It seems as if it's harder to read on the Lenovo than the HP

 

I know you answered my question both promptly and respectfully before, which I thank you for, but there's a tone in this particular post I find... off.

Let me quote myself:

That means both the CPU and GPU both share a percentile base, out of a hundred, that they are rated on.
So 50% of the spectrum is CPU and 50% is GPU.

If the GTX 660m is 80% times slower than the 680, but only consists of 50% of the equation, than it's 40% slower out of the overall base.

The 3610QM is about 20% (18.4%) slower than the 3770k, so at a 50% ratio its 10% slower as a whole.

40+10=50.

So 50% slower, we were both wrong.

I understand where this got mixed up, but my point is not to correct people like that.

 

lol "tone"

 

Thx for this movie. But there's one question here: if any of those two displays were calibrated?
Right now HP has more natural colours. Lenovo has, like most TN displays, too much blue (that's why I hate TN technology, omitting viewing angles of course). But maybe this can be calibrated somehow, if only a little.
Colour reproduction is main reason I didn't by notebook for myself.

 

Normally, i reduce the brightness of my screen to 50% and below at home. I never use 100% brightness when using computers. The advantage of matte is it's more comfortable to read or doing documents. Glossy is for watching movies but you can try reducing the brightness of Y580 and observe again. As long as the laptop is built durable, I don't mind it feeling cheap.=) My galaxy S2 feels cheap as well but it performs very well.

 

Ahh yes..I too have an S2 and it feels cheap lol. I see your point!

I'm still torn between the two..D3 looks great on this laptop. We'll see what I decide at the end of this weekend!

 

I guess whichever is cheaper hehe. At least we were able to know that people won't regret buying either of these.

 

Exactly! They're both very good machines and cater to different types of people. I'm glad to be on this forum!

 

If I should be posting this somewhere else, pls let me know...

The Y480 is advertised to have Smart Shutdown but does not. Can anyone help me out?

"Smart Shutdown
Lenovo Smart Shutdown allows your computer to start in short time. This function is similar to
the Windows hibernate and restore principle, making your computer boot much faster.
To launch Smart Shutdown, do the following:
Click , select Smart Shutdown under Shut down expand menu"

 

Did another LCD comparison. I have two more vids I'll be posting. I'm trying to experiment between a wide range of colors. I also have a little but rough comparison between the two on D3.

Lenovo Y580 vs. HP DV6TQE HD display comparison 2 - YouTube

 

Thanks, very nice! (Is that some sort of brain-washing video???) Seems the HP looks a bit "orangey" compared to the Lenovo.

 

Yeah the reds are not "red" with the HP panel.

Here's another video comparing the sound also:

Lenovo Y580 vs. HP DV6TQE HD display comparison 3 - YouTube

 

Interesting. The Lenovo definitely looks more washed out, the HP richer and more saturated. But the HP also looks like the contrast is a bit too low, especially in dark areas.

-Matt

 

I've seen people saying it's harder to read text on the Lenovo screen than on the HP DV6-7000. I'm going to be writing a lot of code and reading a lot of text, so would it really start to bother me after a few hours of reading on the Lenovo?