Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 Review

Lenovo IdeaPad Y460

Review Summary:

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 is a high-end gaming notebook that weighs under 5lbs.

Pros

• Great gaming performance
• Good battery life
• Huge improvement in the looks department

Cons

• System gets too hot while gaming
• Limited screen resolution options

Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 Full Review

 

Lenovo recently updated the Y-series notebook lineup, adding the 14-inch Y460 and 15.6-inch Y560 to the mix. These new models offer faster graphics options than their predecessors, with an ATI Radeon 5650 crammed into the Y460 and ATI Radeon 5730 inside the Y560. In this review we take a look at the smaller of the two notebooks—the IdeaPad Y460—to see how well it stacks up against the competition.

Our Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 Specifications:

• 14.0" HD Wide LED 1366x768
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel Core i5 520M processor (2.40GHz, 3MB cache)
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 with 1GB VRAM and Intel GMA HD Switchable Graphics
• 4GB DDR3-1066 RAM (2x 2GB)
• 500GB 5400RPM hard drive (Seagate 5400.6)
• Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 1000BGN
• Built-in Bluetooth v2.1+EDR
• 8X DVD burner
• One-year limited warranty
• 6-cell Li-ion battery (11.1V, 57Wh)
• Weight: 4.98lbs
• Dimensions: 13.4 x 0.79–1.3 x 9.25 inches
• MSRP: $1,199 ($999 Street)

Build and Design
The new Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 looks completely redesigned from the previous generation. From the outside the lid has a similar dark-colored pattern trimmed with an orange border, but it now has large chromed hinges instead of being concealed previously. Inside, the previously white keyboard and bezel has been changed to a black keyboard with gunmetal paint covered trim. The all-white interior on the old model was hard to stomach for most people and I think the new look is much nicer. Other cool design elements on the new Y460 include JBL speakers beneath the screen and a unique matte and glossy screen cover that helps hide fingerprints.

Build quality is very good for a consumer notebook with durable plastic panels and strong screen hinges. The paint and plastic finishes seem to resist scratching from standard abuse and the unique lid texture does an excellent job of hiding fingerprints. The palmrest and touchpad sections have good support with little or no flex. The keyboard on the other hand has some give on the part above the optical drive, but you don’t really notice it until you try to grip the notebook right in that section. The bottom of the notebook is loaded with lots uniquely shaped cooling vents, indicating that the system might be designed to flow a lot of air when under load.

Users looking to upgrade components will find it easy on the IdeaPad Y460. Lenovo has three access panels on the bottom of the notebook, containing the Wi-Fi card, WWAN slot, hard drive, system memory, processor and heatsink. One odd feature is the Wi-Fi card can be accessed without the use of a screwdriver. The cover is held in place with a spring tab, which I am guessing is used to access the SIM card slot which would go in that bay. The other covers are held in place with circlip-secured screws that won’t fall out when unscrewed from the notebook.

Screen and Speakers
The Ideapad Y460 includes one screen option; a WXGA resolution 14-inch panel. With its higher-end graphics option and performance inspired components we were kind of hoping to see a WXGA+ (1440x900) or HD+ (1600x900). The lower resolution panel obviously costs less so it might be a price consideration but I would personally pay extra for the option if it was given to me. The panel rates about average with good color and contrast, but falls short of some of the high-end screens like you might find on a HP ENVY or Apple MacBook. At peak backlight levels we measured a max brightness of 218nit, which is high for indoor viewing but not really bright enough for outdoor viewing. Combined with the glossy screen surface you would be hard pressed to view the screen outside unless you were under some very good shade from a building or tree.

The Ideapad Y460 has a leg up on competing 14-inch notebooks when it comes to onboard speakers. JBL and Lenovo teamed up to design the audio system on the Y460 and it easily ranks into the better than average category. It still doesn’t have the deep bass of a large notebook with a dedicated subwoofer, but the JBL drivers do a good job at high and midrange audio. Peak volume levels are good for a small to medium sized room, making it perfect for enjoying a movie in a dorm room or small office. Headphones for travel are still highly recommended and for home use we might suggest using the HDMI-out connection to pass a digital audio stream to a home theater system.

Keyboard and Touchpad
Lenovo kept the same keyboard design on the Y460, with the primary change from the previous model being the shift from all white keys to all black. The keyboard is a full-size design without a numberpad with full function-key access on the top row. Unlike a lot of manufacturers these days who seem to be opting to take the route of secondary functions taking over the function row, Lenovo keeps the old standard. Another nice design element is the location and layout of the home, end, page up, and page down keys on the right side of the keyboard. They are easy to find and useful if you do a do a lot of office productivity work.

The keyboard itself feels very comfortable to type on and requires light to moderate pressure to activate each key. The non-Chiclet keyboard is almost refreshing to see with most manufacturers taking that route on newer notebook designs. Key noise is minimal with each keypress emitting a soft click when the key is fully triggered.

The notebook also offers multiple touch-sensitive media and quick-launch buttons located below the screen. The most interesting button is a slider bar that lets you quickly launch one of eight programs of your chosing. The bar is also used to activate other Lenovo features such as a screen locking mode, desktop wallpaper changing swipe, and a workspace swap.

Lenovo includes a large multi-touch enabled Synaptics touchpad on the Y460. It supports two-finger scrolling, pinch zoom, rotation and three-finger flick. The touchpad surface is a glossy textured surface that matches the color of the palmrest and has little dots imprinted on the finish. The one-finger scroll section is defined with a smooth bar and vertical orange dots. Sensitivity out of the box was excellent, but it needed to be adjusted down slightly because it was almost too sensitive for my tastes. The touchpad buttons are large and offer great feedback. They have good travel and give off a soft click when fully pressed.

Ports and Features
The Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 has a good selection of ports and features, making use of every inch of space around the perimeter. The system offers three USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA/USB combo port, VGA and HDMI-out, Ethernet, and audio jacks. The system also includes a SDHC-card reader, ExpressCard/34 slot, and a DVD-burner. Outside of including DisplayPort or FireWire I don’t see what else Lenovo could have added to make it any better.

Performance and Benchmarks
The performance of the IdeaPad Y460 is nothing short of amazing. The IntelCore i5 processor combined with the ATI Radeon 5650 was able to handle whatever we threw at it and still maintain great framerates in games. Considering its size and weight puts it up against notebooks like the 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Pro, it blows most of the competition out of the water.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures video and gaming performance (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance results:

While running in integrated graphics mode the system relies on the Intel GMA HD chipset which can handle everything except games. For the day to day grind we recommend the system stays in this mode since it keeps case temperatures down and still handles HD video decoding and other multimedia tasks with ease. HD movie decoding was not a problem, decoding 720P and 1080P trailers without breaking a sweat. HD Flash playback was another area which was no trouble at all for the IdeaPad Y460.

Switching on dedicated graphics turned this IdeaPad into a mobile gaming platform backed by the ATI Radeon 5650. To test its gaming performance we used Left 4 Dead 2 running at the notebooks native 1366x768 resolution with AA disabled and vertical sync off. The results speak for themselves:

Average framerates were well into what we consider to be smooth gameplay and into the territory where you can start ramping Anti-Aliasing many problems. With AA maxed out (and film grain turned off) the system still maintained framerates in the 60FPS range. The only thing missing from this notebook is a 7200RPM hard drive or SSD, which would make it perfect and complete. Lenovo includes a 5400RPM drive which is fine for normal duty but the system would get a huge boost in speed with a faster drive. Given the current $999 street price Lenovo still leaves a lot of room for end-user upgrades.

Heat and Noise
The Lenovo Ideapad Y460 has two main thermal profiles: well mannered and scorching hot. With the switchable graphics set to the Intel integrated graphics setting the system stays relatively cool and gets about as warm as most smaller notebooks with standard-voltage Intel Core processors. Once switched into dedicated graphics mode things start to heat up, especially if you are gaming. While playing Left 4 Dead 2 we noticed a significant increase in temperature output on the left side of the keyboard and on the bottom of the chassis near the heatsink. The shots below were taken immediately after 15 to 20 minutes of gameplay:

A large section of the bottom was above 110F and not localized to small pin-point patches. With it on your lap you definitely feel the heat through your legs and hands. Given the thermal demands of the Core i5 processor and ATI Radeon 5650 graphics in such a small machine I am not sure the outcome could have been any different on another 14-inch system. With the amount of power on tap I think most people interested in a 14-inch gaming notebook would put up with a small amount of heat for awesome framerates.

Battery Life
The Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 has the advantage of switchable graphics when it comes to battery life. For all those occasions where system performance isn’t a concern, the user can switch the notebook into its integrated graphics setting and save power. We tested the Y460 in both modes to see just how much the user gains by keeping it locked in integrated graphics mode. With the screen brightness reduced to 70%, wireless active and refreshing a webpage every 60 seconds, and Windows 7 set to the balanced profile the Y460 stayed on for 4 hours and 52 minutes. That same test with the notebook locked in dedicated graphics mode only stayed on for 2 hours and 59 minutes.

Conclusion
For mobile gaming enthusiasts the market is starting to become loaded with different options. Right now one of the most popular systems is the Alienware M11x which holds its own for most games, but is still underpowered in the CPU department even with its latest assortment of low-voltage Intel Core processors. The Lenovo IdeaPad U460 gives you the power of a 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 processor and an ATI Radeon 5650 dedicated graphics card in a system weighing less than 5lbs (about a half a pound heavier than the M11x).

Gaming performance was outstanding with the Radeon 5650 graphics, handling Left 4 Dead 2 with the settings maxed, and still getting framerates above 60FPS. Synthetic performance was also quite high, well above other similarly sized systems. When not gaming the system gets about five hours of battery life when switched into integrated graphics mode, which is pretty good for a 14-inch notebook with a six-cell battery. Overall for the current $999 street price we couldn’t be happier with the Lenovo IdeaPad Y460.

Pros:

• Great gaming performance
• Good battery life
• Huge improvement in the looks department

Cons:

• System gets too hot while gaming
• Limited screen resolution options

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support 
Upgrade Capabilities 
Usability 
Design 
Performance 
Features 
Price/Value Rating 


* Ratings averaged to produce final score