Final Thoughts
We all know Lenovo for their ThinkPad line, but you are really going to start to know Lenovo for their IdeaPad line. First the U260, which was one of the most elegant and thin Windows-based notebooks we have seen and now the Y570, which is a laptop that can pretty much do anything – play games, playback HD video and much more. This is one of the most complete laptops I have seen in a while.
Let’s talk about performance first. The 2nd generation Core i5-2410M runs at 2.30GHz so you are defintely not going to run out of processing power! With that type of processor multi-tasking is done with ease, HD movie playback is done effortlessly, and you really fell like you are working on a desktop. Not only do you have this awesome processor but you have dedicated graphics in the form of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M which has 1GB of memory. This means you are going to be able to play most games on your Y570. In our testing all the newest games did play on the Y570, although with some games you might have to turn the settings down to get them to play at acceptable frame rates. Did I mention there is a hardware switch that can turn the dedicated graphics off so you actually save power. On top of that you have 4GB of DDR3, which can obviously be upgraded as well.
One of the things that really took me by surprise on the Y570 were the speakers. When we get laptops in to review the last thing we are expected to be impressed with are the speakers, but the 2 JBL speakers on this laptop are some of the best that I have heard on a laptop. They really make watching movies, listening to music, and playing games so much more enjoyable.
The 6-cell battery gives you just over 4 hours of battery life while doing basic tasks and watching movies. That is enough for flights to anywhere in the US. While gaming we got about 2 hours and 30 minutes of battery life, which still is not that bad at all.
For those wanting this to be a desktop replacement Lenovo does have you covered as well. The large keyboard is very easy to type on and having an actual number pad is nice. The touchpad is comfortable, but I would suggest getting a mouse if you are going to be using this as a desktop replacement. There is HDMI out so you can connect the Y570 to an external monitor without any problems. Also good to note there are 2 USB 3.0 ports so you can connect newer USB 3.0 drives like the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex we reviewed not that long ago if the included 500GB hard drive is not big enough for you.
Did I mention this system comes in at under $1000. The system we received is $849 direct from Lenovo and prices on the system start at $799. The highest-priced system comes in at $1149 and has a Core i7-2630QM processor, 8GB of memory, a 750GB hard drive and a Blu-ray player. The only real thing I did not like about this system was the screen resolution. Having a 15.6-inch screen I would have liked to see a larger resolution than 1366 x 768. I have a 12.5-inch Lenovo U260 and it has the same screen resolution. Overall ThinkComputers gives the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 15.6-inch Laptop a 9 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Price
– Great Performance
– Dedicated graphics
– USB 3.0
– Awesome speakers
Cons:
– Screen resolution could be bigger
