Lenovo Y470 Review

The awesome 14inch gaming laptop from lenovo gets an update. The lenovo Y470 packs quite a punch for a laptop, and gaming on it was a great experience.

Video Review

Specifications

GPU: GT550m / Intel integrated (switchable)
CPU: Intel Core i5-2450M 2.3GHz to 2.9GHz
RAM: 4GB DDR3 1333MHz
HDD: 500GBs 7200RPM
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
Battery: 6 cell
Display: 14.0″ HD Wide LED 1366×768
Bluetooth and Wireless-N supported

Good

Hardware: It comes with an GT550m. We were able to play Crysis 2 at very high settings at 1366 x 768. It also sports a powerful dual core intel core i5 Sandy Bridge based processor that scales from 2.3GHZ to 2.9GHZ depending on what task you are performing.

Gaming: You can play any game on the market at decent settings including Battlefield 3. In the video we also tested Crysis 2, StarCraft 2, MW3, Skyrim, and the Mass Effect 3 demo. In terms of temperatures during Crysis 2 the GPU reached a tad over 70C and leveled out from there.

Portability: The Lenovo Y470 is a small 14inch laptop that is easy to carry with you and game on the go. In addition, you can switch between a GT550m and an Intel integrated GPU. This is great for when you are on the go as switching to the Intel card can provide around 3 hours of battery life.

Touchpad: The touchpad is very solid and the buttons feel great. Your fingers can easily glide across the surface moving the mouse. Overall, a very sturdy and sound touchpad.

Design: The laptop has an awesome black finish with a cool design etched on the back.

Function key no longer switched with the control key: In the previous model, the Y460, the function key was the left most key and it can be annoying when playing in a WASD configuration. Fortunately, on the Y470 the control key and the function key are now where they are usually placed.

Bad

Driver Issues: Unfortunately, we did BSOD a few times with earlier drivers. At the time of this review it is stable using the 296.10 drivers. Furthermore, some games need to be manually added using profiles in the Nvidia control panel so it will use the dedicated GPU and not the integrated Intel GPU.

Display: The display is pretty reflective and it does not have a great viewing angle. However, the Y470 is not alone as this is apparent in most laptop displays. Personally, we would have liked to see a 1600 x 900 display with better viewing angles.

Battery Life: While you can extend the battery life to a few hours with the switchable graphics, compared to the Y460 it seems to be a step backwards. The Y460 can get up to 4 hours, where the maximum amount we could get with similar settings was around 3 hours. So, there is a bit of a trade off for the more powerful hardware in the Y470. Furthermore, the next laptop from Lenovo, the Y480 is expected to use Ivy Bridge processors at 22nm along with Nvidia Kepler GPUs at 28nm. We hope the next version benefits from more power efficient hardware and has better battery life.

Conclusion

You get your money’s worth out of this laptop. The Y470 goes for around 750 USD and it can play any game you throw at it. We highly recommend if you are in the market for a portable gaming machine. However, it is also important to note that the Y480 is around the corner. Additionally, Lenovo released a refresh called the Y470p and it comes with a more powerful AMD Radeon HD 7690m 1GB GPU.

Lenovo Y470 Review by FacTor-X and XMACHINE9000