Lenovo seems like rest a bit when it comes to manufacturing gaming laptops, so we jumped at the chance to check out Lenovo Y50-70 model as soon as they’re out. With the tough competition on the gaming laptop market is at the moment, with Aorus and MSI featuring amazing gaming laptops, we were very interested to see how the Lenovo Y50-70 would perform, especially with its somehow consumer-friendly price tag. Despite its “low” price, the Y50-70 seems to be a premium gaming laptop. Check out our lenovo y50-70 review below.
Design
It’s got a very sleek, minimalist approach to the case, and the brushed metal exterior suggests it’ll handle a beating. A nice soft-touch rubberized surface is used around the keyboard. The keyboard is nicely backlit and generally comfortable to use thanks to its large size, but we found the touchpad lacked accuracy, proving it difficult to use. Lenovo has equipped this laptop with an interesting speaker system. Supplied by JBL, the twin stereo speakers are supplemented by a tiny subwoofer on the underside of the base. It’s not going to cause your neighbors to complain during those midnight gaming sessions, but it definitely makes the built-in speakers above average compared to the tinny rubbish found on most laptops. Serious gamers are still advised to use headphones though. For a 15.6 inch laptop, the Lenovo Y50-70 is an “ordinary” laptop when it comes to the weight or slimness. It’s 24mm deep, which isn’t huge but also isn’t record breaking. The weight of 2.4kg is similarly pretty standard.
Specs
Its specifications are similarly middle-of-the-road. The Intel Core i7 4720HQ processor can be found in countless gaming laptops, where its top Turbo boost speed of 2.6GHz proves more than capable for most games. 8GB of DDR3 is not quite enough for a gaming laptop. It’s has 500GB hard drive and an additional 8GB SSD. NVIDIA’s ubiquitous GTX 860M is tasked with driving the display, and as we’ve seen in the past it offers respectable performance. It’s not going to break any world records, and it’s possible to pick up competing 860M-powered laptops.
Image Quality
The 15.6” display is a standard 1080p, and it’s here that we noticed the first issue with this laptop. It appears quite blurry, lacking the crispness that a 1080p display of this size should have, while the contrast performance just isn’t up to snuff. At default settings it’s a bit dark, but increasing the brightness led to a washed out appearance. Considering just how important the screen is to the gaming experience, it’s very disappointing to see such a lack luster panel used on the Y50.
Verdict
When this fact is combined with its rather ordinary display, sadly the Y50-70 doesn’t quite compete. While the build quality is great, and the SSD size generous, it’s overpriced for a GTX 860M-powered laptop with a questionable screen. Unfortunately the Y50 is priced well above similar specs machines, despite having a rather ordinary screen.
