Y460p

Just noticed that you can get a y460p 14 inch laptop with a 2.0ghz i7, 8gb of ram, a Radeon HD 6550M video card, and 782GB hard drive (SSD + hard drive) for $950...
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...=091564D4D35CAFB7EF7BBC3565008FE1&action=init

Can anyone who owned an ideapad tell me:
-How's the build quality
-How's the reliability
-How's the battery life
-How is the Rapid Drive technology

It seems like a really amazing deal, just wondering if there's a catch

 

My y460 is turning a year old in a couple of days. The only problem I've had is the plastic makes a popping sound when I close it. That's it. Build quality is like many other consumer based laptop; Strong with a little flex here and there. Battery life is going to depend on whether or not it has switchable graphics. They were supposed to come with switchable graphics, but Lenovo dropped the ball on that. Still, someone with y560p said they got about 5 hours out of it and if they get the Intel HD graphics on it, it will get much more battery life. Rapid Drive is a cheap alternative to a normal SSD. Should make booting the OS and applications a bit faster.

 

Yet another good deal...
Best deal and coupon Lenovo IdeaPad Y460p and Y460 2nd gen Core i7 Quad Laptop - LogicBUY
for $860 should I take the plunge? I'm looking for a laptop that can do some decent gaming while being portable and having at least 4-6 hours battery life so I can take notes in class when needed, this laptop seems to hit all my points. What do you guys think?

 

Great deal! If you are going to do some serious gaming with it, I would recommend a laptop cooler. The bottom has a ton of vents and it really helps to bring down some of the temperatures. Good luck!

 

Word of caution. When I received my system, there were a number of issues. First, the LCD viewing angle is absolutely terrible. I know you can't expect much with inexpensive machines, but this is among the worst I've ever seen. Second, the plastic on one of the hinges was loose, which causes popping when I open or close the machine. This is similar to what AboutThreeFitty described. Last and most annoying, I would hear an annoying buzzing sound through my headphones whenever the system would do something intensive, eg playing a game or watching HD Youtube videos. Tried various drivers to no avail.

I just got off the phone with Lenovo and am sending this thing back for a refund. Sigh. Now to start my search all over again, and it sucks because this system otherwise does absolutely everything I want/need.

 

Screen on Lenovo laptop absolutely sucks, there are exception (s10 for instance), that's why before I buy a Lenovo laptop I like to see a review for the viewing angle and the contrast ratio.

 

saturnotaku- Maybe the buzzing sound is "CPU" whine? Mine does that on occasion but is nowhere near as bad as my u160.

Viewing angles are poor, but coming from the screen on my T61, I was pleased with it. (Assuming the screen is the same on y460p.)

You may want to consider these laptops if you're not completely sold on the y460p.

-Acer 4820tg
-Acer 3820tg
-Alienware m14x (Yes, a new 14 inch is coming out.)
- HP Envy 14

 

Don't much care for the look and feel of Acers, and those aren't Sandy Bridge parts anyway. If the M14x has Optimus, I want no part of it; and the Envy 14 doesn't offer Sandy Bridge.

I might bite the bullet and go for a 15-inch MacBook Pro. Otherwise, I might go up in terms of size and weight and go for a Sager 8130. I'd consider the new Sony Vaio S, but they're only available with a dual-core CPU.

I wish you could get the specs of the Y460p in a ThinkPad chassis.

 

I have a y460p and am really liking it, but have used it mostly connected with an external monitor. I took out the hard drive and gave it an SSD and it really zips with everything I throw out it. I can run prime95 on it and with a laptop cooler it gets to about 75 degrees and stays there, which isnt too bad compared to hearing about other machines hitting their thermal limit. Screen isnt great, but I didnt expect it to be. I've had no issues with the hinges or sound popping when the machine is stressed, hell I really don't know how to stress the CPU without running prim95...

Only report for battery is I disconnected it and streamed netflix to my TV and it would have died at about 3 hours 15 minutes if I didnt give it juice. If I was just browsing or doing notes at school I would expect about 4 hours.

Any questions shoot just ask..

 

Any word on switchable graphics? The last I heard Lenovo was picking up the pieces and trying to get switchable graphics on these.

 

Well, no options in the bios that I can see. On the lenovo forums one of their mods says that yes you can use switchable graphics but I see no evidence of it. Only display adapter listed is the ATI one. I do have 1 device in device manager that it called 'pci simple communications controller' that has no driver, but that doesn't sound like a display adapter. I think I will go to their forums and bump that post.

 

The Y460p does not have switchable graphics. That was a major reason why I wanted this particular system. Well, technically, all Sandy Bridge CPUs have a GPU in them. It's up to the OEM to integrate it.

 

I just ordered one about 5 days ago...i hope all the problems mentioned are being address, but i could not pass up the deal for the specs....got everything including a blu ray player!only $900