Lenovo IdeaPad Y500-95412SU Pro Reviews

Even though the Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 clearly has a gaming focus, the device feels more like an all-around notebook. The dual NVidia GT 650M GPUs can offer solid performance if the game is compatible, but games like Far Cry 3 which aren't currently compatible with SLI won't offer the performance you might expect from dual graphics cards. For $1,250 the Lenovo is still able to tackle an impressive amount of games, but users looking for raw performance will likely be better served by the MSI GX60. While the Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 may not be the best budget-gaming notebook, it's still a great notebook. The utlrabay allows users to customize the device to meet their needs, while the comfortable keyboard and sleek metallic design ensure that the device is a pleasure to use. With 1 TB of memory and a beautiful glossy 15.6" display the notebook is great for watching media. The Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 is best suited for users who want all around productivity with the ability to play games on the side.

The Lenovo Y500 won’t win any portability awards—it’s both imposing in its weight and subpar in terms of battery life (thanks to the lack of Optimus functionality). But in exchange, you get a seriously competitive gaming PC that leverages the power of SLI to provide a combination of value and performance that is literally unparalleled to date in the notebook gaming market. This sucker tears apart nearly every graphics performance test we threw at it, besting models equipped with GTX 670MX cards and decisively conquering anything with a single GT 650M (of which the Y500 we reviewed has two). It can easily handle most any modern game on High settings, and many even on Ultra. And best of all, it’s got one heck of a nice screen, sporting 1080p with good color reproduction, decent brightness, and a respectable level of contrast. The only drawback is the glossy finish. There are some other problems, such as the awful touchpad, the penchant for fingerprint retention, and that uncomfortable plastic ridge at the bottom of the palm rest. But taken alongside the fantastic keyboard, sturdy build quality, and fast CPU (and considering the fact that many people won’t even be using the touchpad if they intend to play games primarily), many of these items are merely questions of priority and preference rather than deal-breaking oversights.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 is a great choice as a gaming laptop that's lighter and cheaper than your typical desktop-replacement monstrosity. Despite a few minor drawbacks, overall it's a great machine that offers excellent performance and specs for the price.

The more we play games on the Y500, the more impressed we are with Lenovo's minimalist design aesthetic. It's a worthy sacrifice to get the kind of performance the system builder has generated at such a low price point. From the slightly nerdier perspective of a PC system-builder, the Y500's component selection reflects an intelligent, well thought-out design process. Lenovo's decision to pair a powerful, modern Ivy Bridge mobile proc with a pair of older, high-mid-range GeForce parts is the kind of decision-making that savvy, performance-oriented DIYers make all the time when constrained by dollars. You can get faster laptops today, but at nowhere near the price tag of this one. That makes this an easy call. If you're on the market for a gaming laptop, you should buy the Y500 (in the same trim as we reviewed it) as soon as you possibly can. It's an ultra-rare combination of fast, versatile, and affordable. And while it is a bit bulky, it's not so big that you can't carry it with you. We can only hope that other system manufacturers learn from Lenovo here, thereby ending the string of over-priced, kitchen-sink gaming laptops we still occasionally see in favor of more chaste and powerful configurations.

Lenovo’s Y500 has its flaws. There’s no beauty to it and no standout feature worth getting excited over. Portability, today’s mandatory measure of cool and hip, is a serious shortcoming. And then there’s the backlight bleed. Yet there’s no denying the value this laptop provides. For $1,250, you can have a system with a great keyboard, powerful processor, and amazing graphics. You even get a 1080p display. That’s not a bad deal. And it gets better. If you drop the 16GB of RAM and settle for just 12GB (which is still far more than necessary) you can grab this configuration for $1,149 on Newegg or Amazon. There’s no comparable system sold within $200 of the Y500 – it’s an absolute steal. Our issues with cooling and backlight quality aside, we have a hard time arguing with the value Lenovo provides. This is an incredibly fast system sold at bottom dollar. We recommend the Y500 to users who want maximum the bang for their buck and don’t mind sacrificing portability to get it.

Following the successful IdeaPad Y580, Lenovo presents the next gaming-suitable laptop based on NVidia's Kepler architecture. The IdeaPad Y500 particularly impresses with its well-conceived UltraBay. The option of inserting an optical drive, a second graphics card or an additional hard disk is a fresh idea in the gaming sector. Owing to NVidia's great driver support, the GeForce GT 650M really revs up in SLI mode. Even high-end graphics cards like the GeForce GTX 670MX have to bundle up in most games. There is hardly a faster laptop currently available for EUR 1100. The lush memory configuration and the swift quad-core processor contribute to the high overall performance. The lack of a "full-blown" solid state drive is somewhat regrettable, but the small 16 GB ExpressCache compensates this drawback quite well. The fairly high-quality TN screen also reaps in praise although its glare-type surface disturbed us. The relatively good JBL speakers are another plus point. Owing to the bright red keyboard light, the 15 incher looks good 24 hours a day (with exception of the sensitive surfaces).