Lenovo Legion Y740 15 Review: Simply Built for Gaming

Lenovo Legion Y740 15: At First Glance

So much effort has been made into ensuring that Lenovo Legion Y740 15 is delivered as a simple, aesthetic, and powerful gaming laptop. Moreover, Lenovo has successfully achieved these feats by ensuring that all the individual components of the laptop are of the highest quality.

However, a laptop with such level of excellence does not come cheap.

At the time of publishing this review (May 2021), the laptop starts at a price of $1,329. It is safe to say that the price is justifiable considering the components and features of the laptop.

Having hinted on what to expect of the laptop, let’s delve into more details.

Lenovo Legion Y740 15: Design, Dimension & Weight

The matured appearance of the Lenovo Legion Y740 15 hides its gaming nature. The laptop is simple and basic just like a regular laptop.

However, the laptop is actually a gaming beast!

Lenovo designed the laptop with a high-quality aluminum chassis having silver and black metallic finish thereby, ensuring its elegance and durability.

The laptop features a legion logo running vertically along the left edge of the lid – the letter “O“ in the logo – “LEGION” has an RGB-lit “Y” in its center. Additionally, the keyboard is also RGB-lit as well as the air vents and ports.

Lenovo has tastefully designed the RGB lighting without been very loud. Hence, if you don’t support the idea of a plain gaming laptop, you’ll still get a sufficient touch of illumination to the laptop’s simple design.

On opening the lid, you’ll find the screen surrounded by slim bezels. I am not impressed by the placement of the webcam on the bottom bezel.

Obviously, Lenovo placed the webcam on the bottom bezel to ensure a slim top bezel. 

Unfortunately, the placement of the webcam results in an awkward capture of the lower part of your face when on video conference. In my opinion, the placement of the webcam at the bottom is simply ridiculous.

On a brighter note, the laptop’s keyboard has a lot going for it. For example, it is comfortable to type with.

Also, the keys have a decent key-travel of 1.3 mm and 70g force of actuation.

Although the keyboard does not have a dedicated Numpad, it has a column of macro keys to the left side of the keyboard. You can customize the macro keys to take up a number of functions.

Furthermore, the keyboard features a beautiful per-key backlight that can be customized with the Corsair iCue software.

Speaking of the Corsair iCue software, it is used for customizing the computer’s backlight – including the keyboard and other backlit features on the laptop. It allows you to select the color for individual keys or a group of keys which are highlighted by using the cursor to draw a line around them.

Furthermore, the Corsair iCue has preset backlight patterns you can choose from. Alternatively, you can set up your own patterns and save them to be used whenever you need them.

All in all, I enjoyed customizing the backlights on the Corsair iCue.

Like I said earlier, the keyboard has a lot going for it. However, the placement of the macro keys shifts the entire keyboard slightly to the right, this makes it a bit frustrating to get used to the position of the keys when typing.

Moving on to the touchpad, it is smooth and accurate. Moreover, the touchpad is powered by Windows precision drivers therefore, it supports Windows 10 gestures.

Additionally, the touchpad is easy to use – thanks to its dedicated left and right buttons, in contrast to depressible touchpads. I have no trouble using the touchpad for general computing however, I would prefer an external mouse while gaming.

Let’s talk about the ports; Lenovo has done a great job with the port selection and the port placement. Lenovo placed most of the ports on the back of the laptop – therefore, accessories connected to the ports do not interfere with the hand when gaming.

Moreover, the ports are also backlit, making it easier to see even in low lights. Additionally, the glowing ports also complement the laptop’s elegance.

Speaking of the port selection, on the back of the laptop you will find two USB 3.1 ports. Additionally, you’ll find an HDMI port, a mini DisplayPort, an Ethernet jack, and the power connection.

Meanwhile, the right side of the laptop holds another USB 3.1 port. Whereas, the left has a headset jack and a USB Type-C which supports Thunderbolt 3 transfers.

Finally, let us discuss the laptop’s size; it comes in a fairly compact form factor with a dimension of 361.42 x 267 x 22.45 mm and a weight of 2200g. This results in a portable and mobile-friendly gaming laptop.

However, the laptop is still larger and heavier than the Razer Blade 15 Base Model which has a dimension of 344 x 235 x 19.9 mm and a weight of 2100g.

In conclusion, the Lenovo Legion Y740 is an aesthetic and durable laptop. Therefore, I will rate it a nine for its overall design.

Lenovo Legion Y740 15: Processor (CPU) Performance

The Lenovo Legion Y740 has a 6-core Intel Core i7-9750H processor. The Core i7 processor has a base frequency of 2.60 GHz and a maximum frequency of 4.50 GHz as well as 12 MB cache memory.

Furthermore, the Lenovo Legion Y740 is an excellent multitasking device, this is evident with the 40 Chrome tabs I opened. Five of the Chrome tabs were streaming YouTube videos moreover; I also had Shadow Of The Tomb Raider playing in the background.

Consequently, despite all these CPU-intensive tasks running at the same time, the laptop did not lag at all.

Additionally, to determine the processor performance, I also performed a Cinebench R15 benchmark test. Based on the benchmark result, the laptop scored points 1188 points which is slightly above the category average of 1182 points.

Comparatively, the performance of Lenovo Legion Y740 in this test was a tie with the Acer Predator Triton 500. This is not surprising as they both have the same Core i7-9750H processor.

Based on these test results, the Lenovo Legion Y740 has proven to be an efficient laptop. Therefore, I will rate it a nine in this aspect.

Lenovo Legion Y740 15: Memory (RAM) Performance

The Lenovo Legion Y740 boasts of 16 GB RAM. The laptop features two RAM slots on the laptop hence, the 16 GB is split into 8 GB on each slot.

Unfortunately, the laptop can only take a maximum RAM capacity of 16 GB – which means that the RAM cannot be upgraded further. On a brighter note, the 16 GB RAM on my test unit was an excellent performer.

To prove its performance, the laptop transcoded a 4K resolution video to 1080p resolution in just 9 minutes and 23 seconds. This result surpasses the category average of 10 minutes 21 seconds.

Additionally, the performance of the Lenovo Legion Y740 also surpasses that of the Razer Blade 15 which copied the same video in 12 minutes 53 seconds.

Furthermore, I also performed a PCMark 10 benchmark test. Based on the benchmark test result, the laptop scored 5938 points.

Comparatively, this performance surpasses the 5727 points category average. Moreover, the Lenovo Legion Y740 performed better than the Acer Predator Triton 500 which scored 5746 points.

Overall, the RAM performance of the Lenovo Legion Y740 is impressive. Thus, I will rate it an eight in this respect.

Lenovo Legion Y740 15: Storage Options & Performance

The Lenovo Legion Y740 supports dual drives. It has an M.2 PCIe slot for SSDs and a 2.5-inch drive for HDDs.

Each of the slots can take a maximum capacity of 1 TB.

The model I reviewed shipped with a 256 GB SSD as well as a 1 TB HDD. To determine the transfer speed of the SSD, I performed a transfer test.

Based on the test result, Lenovo Legion Y740 copied 4.97 GB of data in 9 seconds, at a rate of 566 MBps. Again, proving its excellence, the laptop beats the category average transfer rate of 393 MBps.

Additionally, its transfer rate also surpasses the 424 MBps of the Asus ROG Zephyrus S.

Furthermore, I also performed a CrystalDiskMark test. Based on the test result, the Lenovo Legion Y740 recorded a sequential read speed of 991.1 MBps as well as a sequential write speed of 716.9 MBps.

All these considered, I will rate the storage performance of the Lenovo Legion Y740 an eight.

Lenovo Legion Y740 15: Graphics Card Performance

The Lenovo Legion Y740 15 has a number of graphics configuration options. Therefore, you can choose any of the configurations available.

Thankfully, even the least GPU configuration delivers an impressive gaming performance.

Speaking of the GPU configurations, firstly, you can get the laptop with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. This GPU has a 6 GB GDDR6 VRAM, a base frequency of 1500 MHz and a boost frequency of 1770 MHz.

Secondly, you can get a model with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060. This GPU also has a 6 GB GDDR6 VRAM, a base frequency of 1365 MHz and a boost frequency of 1680 MHz.

Lastly, you can also get a model with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q. This GPU has an 8GB GDDR6 VRAM, a base frequency of 885 MHz and a boost frequency of 1185 MHz.

The model I tested shipped with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q. To determine the graphics performance, I performed a 3DMark benchmark test.

Based on the benchmark result, the Lenovo Legion Y740 15 scored 21959 points. Comparatively, this result surpasses that of the HP Omen X 2S which scored 18434 points.

Additionally, I also performed real-life gaming tests. In the test, I played Shadow of The Tomb Raider at different settings and 1080p resolution.

Consequently, at ultra settings the game played at a frame rate of 81fps. Also, at high settings the game played at 92fps.

Additionally, at medium settings the game played at 99fps. Lastly, at low settings, the game played at 126fps.

In conclusion, the gaming experience with the laptop was an enjoyable one, the game loaded quickly and ran smoothly even on ultra settings. Therefore, I will rate the graphics performance of the laptop a nine.

Lenovo Legion Y740 15: Battery life & Performance

Lenovo designed the laptop with a 57 Whr 3-cell battery. The manufacturer (Lenovo) advertised that the battery delivers up to 5 hours of battery life under standard operations.

However, the laptop’s battery life is just nothing to boast about.

It is of a general opinion that gaming laptops usually have a poor battery, the Lenovo Legion Y740 15 proves this to be right. This is evident in the battery rundown test that I performed.

The test involved continuous surfing of the web over Wi-Fi and at 150 nits of screen brightness. From the test, Lenovo Legion Y740 15 only lasted 2 hours and 16 minutes which is drastically below the mainstream gaming average of 4 hours.

Comparatively, the laptop trailed behind the 65Whr battery of the Razer Blade 15 which lasted 5 hours 2 minutes.

Finally, due to the relatively poor battery of the Lenovo Legion Y740 15, I will rate it a five.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The Lenovo Legion Y740 is a gaming powerhouse; it delivers good performance even with graphics-hungry games at the highest settings. In addition, the laptop delivers this impressive performance with a matured, elegant, and solidly built chassis.

However, there are some things below par concerning the Lenovo Legion Y740 15. For instance, its battery performance is below average.

Furthermore, its awkwardly placed webcam at the bottom bezel is also a concern.

In conclusion, I would say that the advantages the laptop offers are more than its disadvantages. Therefore, I would recommend the Lenovo Legion Y740 15.

I hope you found this Lenovo Legion Y740 15 laptop review helpful? If you found the review helpful, kindly click Yes to “Was this page Helpful?” below.

You could also share your thoughts with the “Leave a Comment” form found at the end of this page.

Finally, for more laptop reviews, visit our Laptop Reviews page. You may also find our Laptop Specs page very helpful.”