y450 quick review

Well,here is my experience for the=y450-4189-38u..placed order on the 14,May received it on the 20th,was nervous about all those long waiting stories..no need.this thing was just built april 20th,wow...
The things I like about it are the full sized keyboard(matte finish), the rest is high gloss white, which hides fingerprints very well. I'm glad I got the white.It's very light weight (4.3 lbs). Build quality seems very good. Has DDR3 Samsung PC8500. Ultra quiet. Very long battery life, which is what I was looking for (4.5 hours at least). Exterior finish is also matte which hides marks also. LED screen is very thin.Intel wifi works great. Removed non essentials and now it's running faster. Later on, will load Windows 7 and SSD drive.that,will really speed things up.(easy 2-3x speed).have it on my other system already.. But for now, very satisfied with it the way it is..sound volume is not very loud,but,not that important for me anyway.it has cool little lights lol..hdmi,esata,sata2,centrino,led,I am a computer builder (power user)just so you know where this is coming from..if i encounter any issues I will keep you posted...best of all,got $200 off....also ,wife thinks it's great...take care

 

Very cool.. can you post some pics when you get a chance? I'm thinking about ordering the Y450 - 418939U which has the same "estimated" delivery date as your model. Nice to know it arrived quickly!

 

pictures are already posted on this site..search Y450, & you will see it.

 

Thanks for the review. Can you detail what non essentials you removed to speed up your system?

 

To speed things up (for me ) disable drive Indexing,stops your HD from always working in the background.also Ready Comm,used Intel wifi setup instead,norton,(i hate that resource hog),Veriface(not bad,just do not have the need for it),desktop navigator(it was always running,not needed)disable vista auto defrag...some of the others i just disabled thru my startup manager,not deleted(if i need them i can enable them but,why have all these programs running 24x7..also you can always reinstall or enable..the D drive has all the software backup if you need them.also disabled BIOS sound splash(a lenovo jingle that was too loud).if I think of any more, I will let you know..cheers

 

Thanks for the reply. You're running without norton? Are you using any security software or just crossing your fingers?

 

I use Comodo .have never had a problem..avg is good also.& avast...i do not visit weird sites either....for me it is very easy to fix those types of problems...anyways, Norton has always been a headache for me..too much control,...& resources,,also difficult to fully get rid of.... where as i like to have full control..Comodo is free & comes with a built in firewall..I disable Windows firewall...IMO

 

be careful upgrading your hd. Lenovo's warranty sticker will break, at least on my y430

 

That's true about the warranty,that is why i will wait a bit then,but i really like my SSD vertex(on my other unit) the vertex would make this thing really fly..faster then my old raptors..240mb read 160 mb write..this lenovo lappy is only about 60 mb read....very easy to switch out back & forth....cheers..

 

How loud is the beep when you plug/unplug the A/C adapter? A couple people were complaining it was obnoxiously loud.

 

I have not heard any beeps,of course i disabled the lenovo audio sounds..you have to go to your bios.f2 then choose 0 to 4.i chose 0..no more startup sounds or the one you mentioned......

 

Couple questions,

1. Are the speakers low quality or just quiet?
2. I read a review that said the palm rests ran hot, have you noticed this?
3. I'm pretty sure you have the integrated graphics, have you tried hooking this up to an external monitor? I really want to know if it can handle 1920x1080 resolution on like a TV without having the video card
4. The review also said the track pad wasn't the best, is this your experience as well?
5. Last question, how do the touch sensitive controls work? Are they annoying or do they work just as well as physical buttons?

 

1=just not very loud,but i did not expect it to be like a jukebox(after all,they are tiny)headphones are great ..2=I read that review but it was a different chip,for me or my wife,this one (t6400) is not hot....3=yes it has integrated graphics(less power draw)not for heavy gaming,focus is on longer battery time.video is only 720p(1366) not 1920=1080p....4= i really like the track pad,easier then most of the ones i have tried.the scrolling is great.i found using this pad,that i can do things faster then my other laptops..(especially on the net) it also has built in zoom,on the pad which is kind of cool for expanding pages or pictures..5=the buttons seem well placed & sensitivity is good,you don't have to pound on them or worry about accidentally bumping them.light tapping is all they need....hope this helps you..overall,for the price,& for what it does,i do not think you can find better...just make sure the features of this particular model has what you are looking for,,light 4+lbs..battery better then most,4+ hours....this model is not for heavy gaming.....full size keys make it great for easy typing..etc....

 

I understand that the computer itself can only handle 1366x768 but if you were to hook it up to a full HDTV with an HDMI cable would it be able to handle displaying at 1920x1080 on the TV. On Intel's website it says it'd be fine to do that but I want to be sure.

My current computer (Dell Studio 15) can do it but it has a Radeon graphics card in it.

 

Can not say for sure,Have not tried it yet.(hdmi to 1080p) but i just can not imagine the integrated Intel 4500 chip doing that,the led screen can,but not the card....full 1080p is blue ray,as you know...take care

 

The integrated graphics shipped with the Y450's is the GMA 4500 HD. It supports FULL 1080p playback on external monitors.

The difference between the 4500 and 4500 HD is that the HD version can actually decode HD content on its own where the 4500 must rely on the cpu. Both can display in 1080p resolution.

 

Yeah thing is I don't really trust what company's say about their own products sometimes. Just because it says it can doesn't mean it can do it well you know.

 

My 5 year old t42p with fire GL T2 has no problems displaying at 1080p resolutions. It can't, however, decode HD fluidly since the graphics chip has no built in decoder and the pentium M processor is no where near fast enough.

That being said. Even integrated graphics without a build in decoder shouldn't have any problems playing HD content at 1080p with a dual core processor. Its a moot point anyway since the HD version has its own decoder.

 

Thanks for your nice review

 

Thanks for all your info. My only question is about the screen. Lenovo describes it as being "HD". Do you find that the screen is very crisp & clear with no grainy appearances anywhere? I noticed that the Apple laptops have great screens, but I want a PC-based laptop. I want to find a PC with Apple-like screen.

 

They tag the screen as "HD" because it displays a resolution of 1366x768 which is 720p. The term "HD" has no bearing on actual screen quality.

 

is that a slot loading dvd rom?

 

It is not, slot loading,,

 

So does the Y450 indeed come with a 110 not a 105 GPU?

 

Someone came out with a review on the Y450.

Source:
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-y450.aspx

 

The y450 comes in 6 flavors..the top of the line w/p7450 has a slot loading dvd & nvidia 110..for more power & gaming but @ the cost of shorter battery life..for me for all around,(I game on my desktop) i went with the 418938u ..t6400,4gb ram & vista 64(second one from top)..so far so good....