Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 – Review

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 is a mid-range notebook offering 1080p video and decent multi-tasking ability. The solid brushed-alu shell is enhanced buy the lid’s ‘dot matrix’ textured finish, which’ll mean less grimy smears. A glossy screen bezel adds style to the overall appearance, and the plum/metallic gray exterior is quite striking. The Y570 tips the scales at just under six pounds and measures 15.1 x 10 x 1.4 inches. Build quality is good.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 boasts a 15.6-inch ‘HD Glare’ 720p screen, and by ‘HD Glare’ is meant ‘super-glossy’. Contrast ratio comes in at a slightly weak 148:1, sub-par for multimedia laptops, and viewing angles are typical of mid-range notebooks – fine horizontally but prone to invert vertically at wide angles.

Audio though is well above average thanks to Realtek HD Audio and two speakers in the top corners of the keyboard. Volume is good and with clear highs and lows and distortion only when cranked to the max. Tweaks to the audio experience are possible via the audio driver’s voice cancellation, pitch shift, equalizer, and other functionality. All of which means external speakers are generally unnecessary for movies, music and such like. Well maybe for extra bass.

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The full-sized chiclet keyboard for IdeaPad Y570 features a separate number-pad for easy data entry, and the keys are very well-spaced and slightly concave for comfort. Typing is very good on the Y570, though a steep learning curve for anyone accustomed to a small keyboard. Enter key small, however. The textured Synaptic touchpad aids glide and repsonds accurately to multi-touch gestures. It features a single mouse button with a clickable region at each end, which can be a bit awkward, requiring a bit of getting used to.

The Y570 features a 2.3GHz Core i5-2410M processor, with Turbo Boost to 2.9GHz, paired with a 1GB NVidia GeForce 555M card and 4GB RAM. Maximum supported RAM is 8GB.

Lenovo have equipped the Y570 notebook with an NVidia GeForce GT555M mid-range dedicated GPU, which with the hyper-threaded dual-core Intel i5 CPU means multi-tasking and 1080p playback pose no problems, and with settings lowered to medium the Y570 can handle most modern games.

Port selection is also respectable, with a pair of USB-3 sockets, another couple of USB-2 ports, plus a six-in-one memory card slot, VGA and HDMI interfaces, and eSATA port. Take a look at these detailed Y570 pictures:

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Instead of Optimus switching between the dedicated NVidia and integrated graphics the Y570 features a manual switch for conserving battery power. Moderate use gives 4 and a half hours of battery life, which is about average for the category of multimedia notebook, but in itself should suffice for most people. Overall the Lenovo IdeaPad combines good workmanship, capable performance, excellent audio, and a very good port selection.

All for less than $1000 although the lack-luster display might put some multimedia buffs off. The display is usually the weakest link in very well-priced notebooks, and the IdeaPad Y570 is no exception – if breath-taking visuals are your thing, you might want to shell out a little more, or compromise on other features to get a premium display. Otherwise, a very good deal.

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