Y410p [full review]

Lenovo Site Shipping Date November 2nd, 2013
Dell Site Shipping Date November 5th, 2013

How nice

 

Slim = runs hot = throttles.

I would rather have more fans than thinner profile.

My wishlist for the Yx20(p) series:

- More vents/fans, but keep them quiet as you do with the current models
- Broadwell CPU (i7-5xxxMQ)
- Maxwell GPU (855M SLI)
- FHD on the 14 (use panels from T440s), QHD on the 15 (use panels from W540)
- Add a mute button and a button to switch to Intel GFX when on SLI like the Alienware 18
- 750GB 7200RPM over 1TB 5400RPM
- Bigger M.2 slot, maybe 60 or 80 mm.

 

I think the heatsink should be on both sides and maybe a slot loading disc drive instead of old trays. The body could use some work though..its got too many nooks and crannies that will collect dust, perhaps more streamlined like alienware. It's already light, but maybe thats because I have an old macbook thats heavy and I'm okay with low res screen because I would rather be practical than walk around with a qhd screen where the apps cant scale properly.

I think Lenovo site is replacing the 750 with 755's

 

So I currently have a Lenovo y570 that I bought last year off Amazon. I bought it for around $650 and my thinking was that it would be able to easily play Battlefield 3 and games beyond. Well, the laptop overall disappointed me. The GT 555m card is able to play most games currently, but the laptop design poorly dissipates heat. I've had to do a lot to get it to quit throttling in most games(i.e. download and use Throttlestop, change my powerplan settings, purchase a cooling mat, constantly spray dust out. Not to mention, the resolution of the screen is not very good and is just plain too heavy to lug around with the power brick at school.

I've done some researching lately and I came across this laptop. I'm hesitant to purchase another Lenovo, but after reading your review, I'm really intrigued to purchase it(especially at the price less than $800). I compared it to the Alienware 14 and the Razer Blade and found that those two are far too expensive with pretty much equal hardware.

So here are the reasons why I want a new laptop:

-Smaller, lighter makes it more portable for me traveling back home and at school.

-The upgraded hardware should be able to easily play the newer games at good FPS w/o any throttling that I've been experiencing with my current laptop.

-Better screen/resolution

-Improved battery life

-The graphics card and memory can be upgraded by the user, ensuring that I will be able to keep up with the next generation of games.

The biggest obstacle right now is finding a buyer for my current laptop. I talked to someone at Lenovo online and requested to trade-in my current Lenovo towards the purchase of a new one, but they will not take it. Amazon is willing to give me $464 for it as a trade-in; however, I can only receive it as store credit and the Lenovo y410p is listed at over $1,000 on it and not the $800 on the Lenovo website. I cannot purchase a new laptop for that price without getting money for my current laptop.

My questions are: Do I have good reasons for upgrading to the y410p? Is it going to be hard for me to sell/trade in my current laptop for around $400? Should I skip this laptop entirely and hang on to my current one and shoot for one next year?

Thanks

 

Imho just save money and wait 6 months, the successor to the Y series with Nvidia 8xx GPUs should come outé

 

Have you opened up your lenovo computer already?

 

I've had my Y410p for 5 months now. The only thing missing is that oh-so-rare GT750M4 ultrabay add on

 

You said in your review that since it's a quad core processor, it uses a lot of battery. I was wondering, is there any way to disable 2 cores thus making it a dual core processor? That would be useful when i'm not gaming to save battery.

 

Thats exactly what i was asking myself. However be really careful with the modded bios, if you put in a wrong setting you can brick your device. However based on reviews of the i5-4200M (same CPU with 2 less cores), you can get like 2 extra hours of battery life.

 

Is there a big performance difference between the i7-4700MQ and the i5-4200M? I'm thinking of buying a ideapad y410p, but I won't do a lot of hardcore gaming so maybe i'm better of with a laptop with an i5-4200M.

 

There is no big performance if gaming is your main issue, however take note that there are no i5 models that come with the 900p display, hence why i recommend getting the i7 models with 900p display. Personally, i recommend the 830$ model (found on page 2) that has i7+900p+SSD.

 

No I mean did you open up the case and fiddle with the hardware components inside.

 

I opened it up like 3 months ago. Did a routine quality check but that's it.

 

Would that void the warranty?

 

I'm pretty sure you can open it up to replace the hard drive or the RAM without voiding the warranty, however anything further might void the warranty.

 

Okay I'll take your word.

 

Outstanding review, thank you, much appreciated!

I been having that model on my list of potential exceptional deals, and it appears that it doesn't have any really bad weak spots, let alone anything I'd call a problem.

While some companies make it look like you'd have to pay $2k for including a GT750M, Lenovo offers a rather nice and tastefully designed option for a lot less.

And tasteful design is not to be underestimated - once your retina got burned by some of the 'decorative' atrocities from MSI, your eyes start to appreciate visual peace!

 

The weak points are the single band Wifi, the heat, and the lack of FHD but for the price it is okay considering what you get.

Apparently this is also Lenovo's 3rd best seller. Go figure.

 

Hey guys,

My good ol' acer timeline 3820T is gonna break down soon, and I'm looking to buy a new laptop. I'm pretty sold on the Y410P at the moment; the specs for $800 is pretty solid. But I know that it's already out for about 5-6 months, and they're probably going to come out with the 420P in another half year. The thing is, I need a new laptop way sooner than that (latest maybe late december), so I was wondering if you guys know any laptop similar to the specs and price to the Y410P that may have been released a lot more recently? My budget is under $1200, and I prefer a thin laptop.
edit: just some more info: planning on using the laptop as my primary device. Some games maybe, but mostly will be using it to do photo and some video editing (casual; nothing professional - photoshop; lightroom, aftereffects, etc.). Also will be doing some coding.

Otherwise, I might just get the Y410P with the 24gb ssd cache . Just one question:
1) Since it's got a 24gb ssd cache, would it make a huge difference if I replaced the 1TB HD with a primary SSD HD? If I do replace the 1TB HD, is there anywhere where I can sell it for a decent price? (don't want it to be utterly useless just sitting around)

Thanks for any suggestions! And great review Jobine

 

Clevo W230ST, MSI GE40, Acer V7-482PG are all alternatives in your price range, Happy shopping.

 

There's also the Gigabyte P34G which really nice imo.

 

Expensive (1600$) and build quality issues.

Though if you have 1600$, i don't see why you're looking at this laptop.

 

So after a little over a month of owning this machine, I'm still incredibly happy with it. Keyboard is still really nice to type on (it's no DAS, but whatev). Pretty pleased with the gaming performance too, especially after making a few tweaks to prevent coreparking and a few other little issues I've had running BF3/4. Overall it's a great little machine, and was pretty killer at a LAN I went to a few weeks ago. Hooked up my 24" FHD monitor for the mainscreen, used the laptop display for BF4's command view (or whatever it's called). Finally updated to 8.1 and no major issues after updating to the 16.x Wifi driver either. Might still get the Killer Bigfoot, but that's been knocked down on my priorities list. My next big thing is to upgrade the drives. I bought the model with the 24GB cache drive, but I'm planning to ditch that in favor of a larger drive that I'd just be using to store big games like BF4, Hawken, etc. To accompany that I'm thinking of going for a larger 7200RPM drive to replace the slow 5400RPM. So, having said that, I'll mention that Amazon does have an M.2 offering. So far it's all from the same brand, and a few different sizes topping out at 128GB. Not sure if I should wait for more options to be released, but at $100 for the 120GB, it's hard to wait!

MyDigitalSSD Supercache

 

Yeah, i love this laptop, the only thing i don't like the whole SLI thing, but hopefully i will get that fixed.

 

How will you fix that?

 

By acquiring a working M5 card and a bezel clip.

 

I want to make this clear:

If you ever even intend to SLI this laptop, turn back and get a Y510p. Only buy a Y410p if you are 100% sure that a single 750 or 755 is right for you.

 

hey Jobine,
I been trying to pm you regarding this laptop but haven't been able to reach(can't find the pm key) But i was wondering if you could give me your insight on the difference between these two. I do realize that the y410p model does have a GT755M graphics card instead of a 750M. But aside from that, are there any other significant differences?

I also contacted a representative regarding the ultrabay and supposedly these current models DO NOT have any capability in regards to adding another GT750M or GT755M onto it. I do realize that your current model is more expensive now but i'm not even sure if it's available as the model with 24 Gb SSD did not show up with an ultrabay.

I have already purchased the y510 but i am still debating if i switch over to the y410p since the resolution isn't much different, and the y410 has a GT755 graphics card and is also 50$ cheaper

attached are the y410/y510s that i am talking about.
Thanks and sorry if i did spam your thread. I tried to pm you.

NVM, i actually found your exact model for 799$ and am purchasing and am cancelling my previous order thanks

 

also Jobine,
I just spoke with one of their reps, and they do have the 750M SLI available for the ultrabay.

Here is the link
Y 15'' Removable Graphics GT750M5 | Lenovo | (US)

cheers!

 

Yeah, except everyone who has purchased that card recieved it dead in the box

Good luck with your purchase. Be sure to get the 900p display!

 

Jobine, I got the modded BIOS, And I would like to turn my 4700qm into a 4702qm any stable configuration that you could share?

 

Set disable MSR lock, flex ratio 22, then set your multipliers in XTU to 32/31/30/29, then set turbo boost power max to 37W and turbo boot short power max to 48.75W

 

Hmmm, I am not an expert but most of the options you said I cannot follow, the max W part I do no not see it .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The wattage can be adjusted in Intel XTU, provided MSR lock (in the bios power options) is disabled.

 

Without the max power thing my CPU went from normally 80C temperature to 72C :O great xD!!!


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Jobine, guess this is all?


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I think so but you can also do it in XTU.

 

jobine,i try those setting but when i want to revert back to 24 flex ratio it can only set to 22 maximum...any idea?

edit: i disable the flex override and boot to windows it shows back the 2.4ghz at task manager

 

Just reboot PC and try again in the BIOS, it sometimes does that.

 

I'm not sure if anyone has noticed lately, but there is only a $30 price difference between the cheapest model and one with the HD+ screen, 755M graphics and better battery. I'm extremely tempted to buy this laptop! It looks very respectable for the price and should perform very well for any gaming I intend to do. I would like the 510p but I hate number pads on a laptop.

IdeaPad Y410p High-Performance 14" Multimedia Laptop from Lenovo | Lenovo (US)


EDIT: But now I see for another $30 you can get the one with 24 GB SSD boot drive. That sounds like a winner to me.

 

Well then buy it, and then you have 30 days to try it and you can return it if you don't like it. Note that the successor will only be out in March when Nvidia releases Maxwell GPU's.

 

The one thing I'll say is jump on it soon, they take FOREVER to ship. I placed my order on 29th and still haven't gotten mine. I even picked up another laptop to help me pass the time XD

 

yea the model I mentioned with the ssd boot drive has a ship date set to January! Why so late for an older machine? weird...

 

Wierd. Call them and ask if you can get it on time by the holidays, if they can't deliver they will most likely give you a rebate or express shipping

 

Jobine, please can some give their contact information. I'm going to take this laptop and would like to find out a little about him. I do not want to scare people from the forum my bad English.

 

I don't know what you just said but if you do intend on stalking people i will report you to the moderators.

 

You have problems understanding what I said? I just said that I was going to take this laptop and wanted to better know about it from you. Why do you insult me​​?

 

Sorry, your english wasn't very readable to say the least. If you have any questions ask away, i'll do my best to answer them.

 

I read somewhere that this line of laptops is the restriction of the Turbo Boost on processor. Therefore, the performance is less than a similar laptops with this processor. Is that true?

 

Some (not all) models of the laptop have improper cooling (due to an improper application of thermal paste from the manufacturer) and thus suffer from throttling, where the CPU underclocks itself due to heat. My own laptop does not throttle. Note that throttling can also be mitigated by undervolting. Throttling is very common for all if not most Haswell quad core laptops, sadly.