Are you looking to buy a mid-range gaming laptop? If yes, then you should read this Lenovo Legion Y730 15inch review to discover one.
Itechguides' Take on Lenovo Legion Y730 15inch
Summary
The Lenovo Legion Y730 15inch is a nicely-built gaming powerhouse with reasonable performance. Its minimalistic design makes it fit for many occasions. However, I am not impressed by the awkward placement of its camera.
Overall
Pros
- Sturdy build
- High-end processor
- Upgradeable memory
- Powerful graphics
- Sensitive touchpad
Cons
- Awkward camera position
- Short key travel
The design and specification of the Lenovo Legion Y730 are discussed in-depth in this review. Talking about the specification, I took my time to explain the processor, memory, storage, graphics, and battery performances of this laptop.
Furthermore, I also included benchmark test results where necessary and also compared the Lenovo Legion Y730’s performance with other gaming laptops. Finally, at the conclusion of each section, I offer my rating based on my opinion of the laptop’s performance.
Therefore, after reading this review, you will have the needed information to decide if the Lenovo Legion Y730 is the gaming laptop you need.
My Initial Thoughts
The Lenovo Legion lineup will easily make it to a list of the top gaming laptops in the market today. This is because this lineup is made up of various classes of gaming laptops aimed at users of varying needs and budgets.
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One member of the lineup is the Lenovo Legion Y530, which delivers entry-level performance at a friendly price. However, for this review, we will concentrate on the Lenovo Legion Y730 15inch, which is a bit pricier than the Lenovo Legion Y530.
Speaking of the Lenovo Legion Y730’s price, in April 2022, when I wrote this review, it starts at a price of $1,699.00.
At this point, I would like us to proceed to the subsequent sections of this review to see what the Lenovo Legion Y730 has up its sleeves.
Lenovo Legion Y730 15inch Design, Dimension, and Weight Review
Design-wise, the Lenovo Legion Y730 does not have the flamboyance of most gaming laptops. Instead, it has a minimalistic look that makes it fit for use anywhere, including in office environments.
The Lenovo Legion Y730 has a smooth matte aluminum chassis. In a deliberate attempt to make it suitable for office environments, Lenovo has given this laptop a dark-gray color.
In contrast to older Lenovo Legion laptops with red accents, the Lenovo Legion Y730 chassis is surrounded by RGB lights instead. On the lid of this laptop, you will find Legion branding at the lower left edge.
The “O” in the Legion branding circles a backlit three-star Legion logo. When you open the lid of this laptop, you will see its 15.6-inch display.
The display is surrounded by slim top and side bezels that are less than an inch thick. However, the bottom bezel is quite thick.
As a result of the bottom bezel’s thickness, Lenovo has decided to move the HD resolution webcam there. The webcam is integrated with a dual-array microphone.
Overall, the performance of the webcam is decent for making video calls. However, I don’t find the camera position appealing as it gives people a look into your nostrils.
Another feature on the bottom bezel is the “Legion” branding.
Now, let us talk about the display of this laptop by starting with its resolution. Speaking of which, the display has an FHD (1920 X 1080 pixels) resolution which makes the display content decently sharp.
Another display feature of the Lenovo Legion Y730 is its IPS panel. The IPS panel allows the laptop to display accurate colors from any angle you view it from.
Additionally, the Lenovo Legion Y730 15’s display has a 144 Hz refresh rate. For clarity, the refresh rate of a display means the number of times per second it creates a new image.
The 144 Hz refresh rate of this laptop is faster than the 60 Hz refresh rate found in most laptops. Thankfully, the high refresh rate of the display will make display content transition smoothly and reduce motion blur.
In addition to the display features we have talked about, you should also be aware that this laptop has an anti-glare display. This implies that the display has a matte surface.
Therefore, it is suitable for use in bright environments without having to worry about reflection. Another fascinating thing about this laptop’s display is its 300 nits of peak brightness.
Due to the satisfactory brightness of the display, the laptop is quite suitable for use under direct sunlight.
Having talked in-depth about the Lenovo Legion Y730’s display, let us now talk about its hinges. The dual hinges are quite stiff, but there is still a slight wobble when adjusting the angles of the lid.
Moving on, the Lenovo Legion Y730 15 has an island-style keyboard with spacious keys. However, Lenovo has removed the NumPad that was present on the predecessor’s keyboard and replaced them with Macro keys along the left edge.
While gamers may appreciate this change, users who use NumPad frequently might find this change frustrating. The keys on the keyboard have a shallow key travel of 1.4mm and spongy feedback, which makes typing a bit unsatisfactory.
Perhaps, the interesting thing about the keyboard is its very soft clatter which makes it fit for working in classrooms and noise-sensitive environments. Another interesting thing about the keyboard is its appealing RGB backlight which can be customized using the Corsair iCue software.
The backlight can be customized per key or a group of keys by drawing a box around them. For fun lovers, you can play around with the 16 million customizable backlight color combinations.
For the touchpad, it has a dimension of 99.1 x 50.8 mm, which means that it is quite spacious. Thankfully, the touchpad is responsive and supports gestures like pinch-to-zoom and three-finger swipe.
Now, let us talk about the sound reproduction of the Lenovo Legion Y730 15. Impressively, the Legion Y730 15 has stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos and audio-enhancement software.
The sound quality produced by the speakers is relatively acceptable, and thankfully, it produces no echoes even at high volumes. Performance-wise, the down-firing speakers are loud enough to fill a large conference room.
Proceeding to the port selection of the Lenovo Legion Y730 15. On the right edge of the laptop’s base, there is one USB 3.1 Gen.1 port.
On the rear, there are two USB 3.1 Gen.2 ports, an RJ-45 port, an HDMI 2.0 port, a Mini DisplayPort 1.4, a Kensington lock slot, and an AC adapter. Finally, on the left side, there is one USB Type-C, Thunderbolt 3, and a 3.5 mm combo audio jack.
Lastly, in this design section, let us talk about the weight and dimensions of the Lenovo Legion Y730 15inch. Speaking of which, it weighs 2200 g and measures 361.4 x 267 x 19.9 – 22.4 mm (W x D x H).
Comparatively, it is more portable and lightweight than the Dell Inspiron 17 7000, which weighs 2770 g and measures 412.5 X 277.5 X 22.1 – 22.6mm (W x D x H).
After carefully considering the design, weight, and dimensions of the Lenovo Legion Y730 15, I have decided to rate it eight out of ten.
Lenovo Legion Y730 15inch Processor (CPU) Performance Review
The Lenovo Legion Y730 15 has a high-end processor. Precisely, the processor is a hexacore Intel Core i7-8750H processor.
For processing speed, this processor’s base and maximum frequencies are 2.20 GHz and 4.10 GHz, respectively. In addition to that, the processor has a 9 MB cache memory.
As said earlier, the Intel Core i7-8750H is a high-end processor. Therefore, it will smoothly perform even the most intensive tasks assigned to it.
However, to be very sure of its processing power, let’s look at its Cinebench R15 benchmark test result.
First of all, Cinebench R15 is a benchmark test tool that determines the processor performance of a computer. Furthermore, the Cinebench R15 test does this by testing the single-core and multi-core processing abilities.
The single-core test determines the processing power of one processor core. Meanwhile, the multi-core test determines the processing power of all the processor cores (6 cores in the case of this laptop).
Please note that the higher the score in these tests, the more impressive the processor’s performance. According to the tests, the Lenovo Legion Y730 15 had a single-core score of 169 points and a multi-core of 1118 points.
In comparison to one of its rivals – the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 – the Lenovo Legion Y730 slightly underperformed. Specifically, the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 scored 170 points in the single-core test and 1168 points in the multi-core test.
Meanwhile, it is important to note that both laptops use the same Intel Core i7-8750H processor.
To conclude this section, this laptop’s processor performance is top-notch and it only scored slightly below the competitor I checked it against. For this reason, I will be rating Lenovo Legion Y730 15 a nine in this section of the review.
Lenovo Legion Y730 15inch Memory (RAM) Performance Review
The Lenovo Legion Y730 has two slots for DDR4 2666 MHz RAM. The standard memory capacity on this laptop is 8 GB, although it can be upgraded up to 32 GB.
What this implies is that the laptop’s second memory slot can accept an additional RAM of 24 GB.
When it comes to performance, this standard 8 GB RAM laptop can perform a decent amount of multitasking. To be specific, an 8 GB RAM model of this laptop is capable of surfing the web with 20 tabs opened while also editing photos using Adobe Photoshop.
To add to that, it could also be downloading 5 high-resolution images all at once. Despite the multiple tasks running simultaneously, the laptop will not slow down.
However, for a more efficient multitasking ability on the Lenovo Legion Y730, you can upgrade the memory to 32 GB.
For a further performance evaluation of this laptop’s memory, let us discuss its result in a PC Mark 10 test. In case you don’t know, PC Mark 10 is a benchmark test that evaluates the memory performance of a computer.
In the PCMark 10 test, a higher score means better memory performance. From the test, the Lenovo Legion Y730 15 scored 3,786 points.
Comparatively, the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 had a higher score of 5194 points in the same test. However, it is important to note that the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 comes with 16 GB DDR4-2666 RAM.
All things considered, I will be rating Lenovo Legion Y730 15 a nine in this section of the review.
Lenovo Legion Y730 15inch Storage Option and Performance Review
The Lenovo Legion Y730 15 offers two storage options. You can decide to get this Lenovo laptop with either a PCIe NVMe SSD or a SATA HDD.
The PCIe NVMe SSD has a maximum of 512 GB storage capacity, while the SATA HDD has a maximum of 2 TB storage capacity. Unfortunately, Lenovo Legion Y730 15 did not make provision for an SD card slot for external storage extension.
Personally, I don’t find the storage space of the SSD storage option impressive, considering that this is a gaming laptop. I expected the least memory capacity of 1 TB.
Although the SSD option has an unimpressive storage capacity, it has a faster storage speed than the HDD storage option. Meanwhile, the SATA HDD storage option allows a 2 TB of storage capacity which is quite impressive.
At this point, let us talk about the storage performance of this laptop in a Crystaldiskmark benchmark. Before that, you should know that CrystalDiskMark is a benchmark test that calculates the performance of a computer’s storage by testing its read and write speed.
For better comprehension, “read speed” means how fast your computer can open files. On the other hand, “write speed” means how fast your computer can save files.
Therefore, higher write and read speeds in the CrystalDiskMark test mean better performance. Also, you should be aware that the test result below is that of a Lenovo Legion Y730 with a 2 TB SATA HDD.
Speaking of the test result, the Lenovo Legion Y730 15 had a sequential read speed of 886.3MB/s and a sequential write speed of 157.7MB/s. Comparatively, the ASUS FX504GD had a lower sequential read speed of 113.2MB/s and a sequential write speed of 86.3MB/s.
Meanwhile, the ASUS FX504GD uses 1 TB HDD storage.
In conclusion, the Lenovo Legion Y730 15’s storage performance is good, but I am disappointed about the maximum storage capacity of its SSD option. Regardless, it deserves a rating of eight in this section of the review.
Lenovo Legion Y730 15inch Graphics Card Performance Review
The Lenovo Legion Y730 15 comes with integrated graphics and as all gaming laptops should, it comes with a dedicated graphics card too.
Specifically, the integrated graphics card is an Intel UHD Graphics 630. It has a base frequency of 350 MHz and a maximum frequency of 1100 MHz.
Meanwhile, the dedicated graphics card it comes with is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. This graphics card has a base frequency of 1290 MHz and a maximum frequency of 1392 MHz.
The dedicated graphics card is the powerhouse of gaming laptops. The reason for this is that only dedicated graphics cards have video RAMs.
For clarity, video RAM is a memory that stores frequently used graphics data, thereby improving the speed of the graphics card. Although dedicated GPUs are suitable for performing intensive graphics tasks, they drain a lot of energy and generate more heat.
In light of that, the dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU on the Lenovo Legion Y730 15 has 4 GB GDDR5 video RAM (VRAM).
For performance evaluation, let us look at the result of this laptop in a 3DMark Firestrike test. 3DMark Fire strike is a benchmark test used to assess the general graphics performance of a computer.
Again, a high score in this benchmark test represents better graphics performance. In this test, the Lenovo Legion Y730 15 scored 9,805 points.
Comparatively, the Dell XPS 15 scored 9,032 points in the same benchmark test.
As a gaming laptop, it is important to talk about the gaming performance of the Lenovo Legion Y730. Therefore, this laptop will play Rise of the Tomb Raider on Ultra settings at a frame rate of 45 fps.
It will also play Bioshock Infinite on ultra settings at a frame rate of 74.8 fps.
Note that the games referenced above are examples. This laptop can play a host of other games.
To sum up this section, the Lenovo Legion Y730 has an impressive graphics performance which is not surprising anyway. Hence, I rate it a nine in this section of the review.
Lenovo Legion Y730 15inch Battery Life and Performance Review
For battery, Lenovo Legion Y730 15inch features a non-removable 3-cells 57 WHr Li-Ion battery which Lenovo says will last for six hours. However, to confirm if the battery will deliver as much battery life as claimed, we will confirm from some battery tests.
In a test where the laptop was kept idle and screen brightness set to a minimum, it lasted 9 hours and 37 minutes. In another test that involved surfing the web via WiFi, the laptop lasted 5 hours and 15 minutes.
From the results of the test, we can truly confirm that Lenovo’s claim is not out of line, considering that different modes of usage will deliver different battery life. However, the Dell G7 15, which uses a 56 WHr battery, performed better in the test.
Specifically, the Dell G7 15 lasted 10 hours 55 minutes on idle and 7 hours 30 minutes in the web surfing test.
In conclusion, the battery performance of the Lenovo Legion Y730 is decent. However, you should expect a lower battery life than what was achieved in the tests if you perform demanding tasks like gaming.
Nonetheless, I will be rating the Lenovo Legion Y730 15 a seven out of ten in this section of the review.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Lenovo Legion Y730 15 has a screen size of 15.6-inch. It also has an overall dimension of 361.4 x 267 x 19.9 – 22.4 mm (W x D x H).
In April 2022, when I wrote this review, the Lenovo Legion Y730 15 had a starting price of $1,699.00
The dedicated graphics card that the Lenovo Legion Y730 15 comes with is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card. This graphics card has a base frequency of 1290 MHz, a maximum frequency of 1392 MHz, and 4 GB of video RAM.
Yes, the Lenovo Legion Y730 15inch is a gaming laptop and can definitely play games. For instance, it played Rise of the Tomb Raider on Ultra settings at a frame rate of 45 fps.
As advertised by Lenovo, the Lenovo Legion Y730’s battery can last for up to 6 hours. From the test result that we used in this review, it is obvious that Lenovo’s claim is not out of line.
Specifically, in a WiFi web surfing test, the battery lasted 5 hours and 15 minutes.
My Final Thoughts
With the Legion Y730 15, I can say that Lenovo got a lot of things right. First off is its premium aluminum design that matches many occasions, whether for a business meeting, study group, or gaming.
Also, the Lenovo Legion Y730 15 has an awesome display that will make multimedia content interesting to watch. Finally, it features high-end hardware specs which work together to make this laptop a powerhouse.
One thing I don’t like about the Lenovo Legion Y730 15 is the awkward position of its webcam. Nonetheless, if you’re searching for a sleek gaming laptop that can serve official duties, too, the Lenovo Legion Y730 15inch will serve you well.
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