Lenovo Y700 Review: The Best 15-inch Gaming Laptop Out There?

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Lenovo Y700: At First Glance

Lenovo is attempting to claim the title of the best value for gamers with the 15-inch Y700. This laptop, which starts at a price of $700 in August 2021, features a stylish body, a bright display, and some banging speakers.

Furthermore, the Lenovo Y700 follows in the footsteps of its predecessor (the Lenovo Y50) with a strong GPU and powerful processor. However, despite its many positive attributes, the laptop features some drawbacks such as short battery life.

Having discussed a little bit of what to expect from the Y700, let’s get into more details without further ado.

Lenovo Y700: Design, Dimension & Weight

The Lenovo Y700 has a sleek look and feel thanks to its edgy design and black, brushed metal lid. Moreover, the laptop’s hinge is also made of metal.

The laptop’s lid and hinge are solid, holding the display intact without distortion.

An imprinted Lenovo logo is the laptop’s lid’s upper right corner. Also, outward-facing exhaust vents are located just beneath the laptop’s hinge.

Moving on, the laptop’s keyboard deck is made of a smooth black rubberized plastic. The upper half of the keyboard deck features two large aluminum speaker grilles.

Unfortunately, all of the metal used in the construction of this laptop attracts fingerprints easily. So, keeping it clean might be difficult.

The Y700 features a 15.6-inch IPS display that has an anti-glare coating. The anti-glare coating aids in the reduction of reflections but does not completely eliminate them.

It is, nonetheless, preferable to a glossy display.

Furthermore, the screen resolution on this 15.6-inch display is FHD (1920 x 1080). Although the display is bright enough, you might still notice slight bleeding in the top right and bottom left corners.

Moving on, the Y700, like its predecessors, has a full-size island-style keyboard with a full numeric pad. The keys feature the same smile-like form just like Lenovo’s IdeaPad laptops.

Furthermore, the keyboard has a red backlight with two brightness levels. Moreover, the W, A, S, and D keys are bordered by a brighter red than the rest of the keyboard.

This is because those keys are frequently used by gamers. Therefore, lining them with a brighter red color makes them easier to locate.

The keyboard has nice tactile feedback and a reasonable amount of key travel in terms of performance. As a result, users will enjoy typing on the laptop as well as gaming.

Just underneath the laptop’s keyboard is a Synaptics touchpad that has a dimension of 104.14 x 68.58 mm. This touchpad is quite wide, and it supports multi-touch gestures like pinch-to-zoom or three-finger tap for launching Cortana.

Unfortunately, the laptop’s touchpad lacks dedicated (right and left click) click buttons. Rather, the touchpad’s bottom corners function as right and left click buttons.

Additionally, the touchpad’s bottom corners provide adequate feedback with a pleasing click sound.

In terms of ports, the Lenovo Y700 has enough ports to meet every gamer’s expectations. On the right side of the laptop are an HDMI port, 2 x USB 3.0 ports, a secure lock slot, and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

On the left side, there is a USB 2.0 port, a 4-in-1 card reader, headphone/microphone jack, and charging port. Unfortunately, there is no Thunderbolt or optical drive on the laptop.

Lenovo avoided bloatware on the Y700 – it only comes with a few essential apps. The laptop comes pre-installed with the latest Lenovo Companion, which allows quick access to the diagnostics on your laptop.

Also, you will get OneKey Recovery, a Lenovo-branded application that instantly backs up vital files in the event of a system crash.

In order to provide additional value to gamers, Lenovo included OnePlay Gaming, a subscription service where users can purchase or rent games. This service has over 1,000 games for PC, Mac, and Android that can be played on multiple platforms.

Third-party apps on the Lenovo Y700 include Nvidia GeForce Experience, Flipboard, and Adobe Photoshop Express. To top that up, a one-year warranty is also included on the Lenovo Y700.

Windows 10 Home 64-bit is preinstalled on the Lenovo Y700. There is also McAfee Livesafe, MSWord, MSExcel, Powerpoint, Photoshop Express, and Twitter pre-installed on the laptop.

For audio, the Y700 has two JBL speakers at the top of the keyboard and a subwoofer at the bottom. These speakers are very loud, even at the maximum level it produces clear, and distortion-free sound.

Dolby software, which is included in Lenovo’s new Settings menu, is also available on the laptop. The Dolby software lets you modify the sound on your laptop in five different settings: dynamic, music, movie, gaming, and voice.

Moving on to the Lenovo Y700’s dimensions and weight, it measures 387 x 277 x 25.95 mm and weighs 2600 g. Comparatively, the Lenovo Y700 is slightly lighter than the Dell G5 15 5590. 

The Dell G5 15 5590 measures 364.3 x 273.4 x 23.7 mm and weighs 2680 g.

However, the Lenovo Y700 is slightly heavier than its predecessor, Lenovo Y50. The Lenovo Y50 weighs 2400 g and measures 387 mm x 263.4 mm x 23.9 mm.

Overall, I rate the Lenovo Y700 a nine out of ten for its beautiful design and impressive build quality.

Lenovo Y700: Processor (CPU) Performance

An Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor powers the Lenovo Y700. This is a quad-core CPU built on the Skylake architecture which was released in September 2015.

The cache memory on this processor is 6 MB. The processor also features a 2.60 GHz base frequency and a 3.50 GHz maximum frequency.

Furthermore, with this processor, the Lenovo Y700 can run even the most intensive applications and multitask with ease. This is because the Intel Core i7-6700HQ is a very fast processor that is often found in high-performance laptops.

To prove the multitasking and processing capability of the Lenovo Y700, I opened 25 tabs on the Chrome browser. Also, I was editing some pictures on Photoshop while streaming a song on Soundcloud.

Launching these applications was very fast. Besides that, the laptop operated smoothly without lagging when running the applications simultaneously.

Moreover, on a Geekbench 3 test that I conducted, the laptop continued to dominate.

Geekbench 3 is a cross-platform CPU benchmark that assesses a computer’s ability to handle real-world computing operations. The Geekbench 3 test also features stress tests, which help measure a computer’s stability.

Based on the results on the Geekbench 3 test, the Lenovo Y700 scored a whopping 13,067 points. This test score is well above the category average of 8,563 points.

Also, the Lenovo Y700’s score is above the scores achieved by other gaming laptops like the Inspiron 15 7000 and Alienware 15. According to the Geekbench 3 test results, the Inspiron 15 7000 equipped with an Intel Core i5-6300HQ processor scored 8,800 points.

On the other hand, the Alienware 15 equipped with an Intel Core i5-4210 processor scored 6,321 points.

Moreover, the Lenovo Y700 also achieved a better score than its predecessor on the Geekbench 3 test. On the Geekbench 3 test, its predecessor, the Lenovo Y50 equipped with an Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor scored 7,334 points.

In conclusion, the Lenovo Y700 proves to be a processing beast with its Core i7 processor. On top of that, on a benchmark test, it also outperforms its competitors and predecessor.

Therefore, I strongly believe the Lenovo Y700 deserves a nine out of ten ratings for its exceptional processing capabilities.

Lenovo Y700: Memory (RAM) Performance

Lenovo equipped the Y700 with two 2133 MHz DDR4 RAM slots. These RAM slots support a maximum capacity of 16 GB combined – 8 GB on each slot.

Lenovo equipped the Y700 model I reviewed with 8 GB RAM on a single slot. Even with 8 GB of RAM, the Lenovo Y700 proved to be an exceptional performer.

To check the RAM performance of the Lenovo Y700, I performed a multitasking test. On the test, I opened 20 tabs on the Microsoft Edge browser with one of the tabs streaming a video on YouTube.

While the browser’s tabs were still opened, I started working on documents on MSword and MS Excel. Even with all the applications and browser tab running concurrently on the laptop, I didn’t notice any sign of slowness.

For the benchmark test, I ran a PCMark 8 test to further determine the Lenovo Y700’s performance. PCMark 8 is a benchmark test used to evaluate the overall performance of a computer.

According to the result on the PCMark 8 test, the Lenovo Y700 scored 3,466 points. Comparatively, on the test, the Lenovo Y700 performed better than the HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop and Dell’s Inspiron 15 7000.

Based on the test results, the HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop scored 3,177 points. On the other hand, the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 scored 3,041 points.

In conclusion, the Lenovo Y700 once again proved to be an excellent multitasker. Also, its performance on a benchmark test was well above most of its competitors.

As a result, in this memory review, I’ll rate the Lenovo Y700 a nine out of ten.

Lenovo Y700: Storage Options & Performance

The Lenovo Y700 offers a wide range of storage options. It supports both 5400 RPM HDD and PCIe SSD.

As a result, users can choose to use any of these storage options individually or a combination of both. Moreover, the 5400 RPM HDD has a 1 TB maximum storage capacity.

The PCIe SSD, on the other hand, supports a maximum storage capacity of 512 GB. Interestingly, even with the Lenovo Y700 featuring multiple storage options, it still comes with a 4-in-1 card reader for extra storage.

The Lenovo Y700 laptop I reviewed shipped with 1 TB 5400 RPM HDD, as well as 128 GB PCIe SSD. I conducted a CrystalDiskMark 3.0 test to determine the read and write speed of both storage on the laptop I reviewed.

The laptop’s 5400 RPM HDD storage achieved a sequential read speed of 121 MB/s in the CrystalDiskMark 3.0 test. Also, it achieved a sequential write speed of 119.2 MB/s.

The PCIe SSD, on the other hand, recorded a sequential read and write speed of 515.3 and 156 MB/s, respectively.

As we all know, SSDs are quite faster than HDDs. Therefore, it is not surprising to see the PCIe SSD achieving a faster read and write speed than the 5400 RPM HDD.

In comparison, both the Lenovo Y700’s storage are faster than the Alienware 15’s 5400 RPM HDD storage. According to the CrystalDiskMark 3.0 test, the Alienware 15’s HDD storage achieved a sequential read speed of 93.78 MB/s.

Additionally, it achieved a sequential write speed of 93.06 MB/s. 

In conclusion, considering the impressive storage performance of the Lenovo Y700, I will rate it a nine.

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Lenovo Y700: Graphics Card (GPU) Performance

In terms of graphics, the Lenovo Y700 comes equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M graphics card. This graphics card has 4 GB of dedicated GDDR5 VRAM.

The graphics card also features a 1097 MHz base GPU frequency and an 1176 MHz boost GPU frequency. Furthermore, I ran a 3DMark 11 test to determine the graphics card performance of the Lenovo Y700.

3DMark 11 is a DirectX 11 video card benchmark test that evaluates the gaming and graphics capabilities of a computer. This benchmark test is trusted by gamers all over the world to provide accurate and unbiased results.

According to the 3DMark 11 test results, the Lenovo Y700 scored 5678 points. Unfortunately, this score isn’t enough to beat the scores achieved by Acer Predator 15 G9-591-74ZV or Alienware 15.

Based on the 3DMark 11 test results, the Acer Predator 15 G9-591-74ZV scored an impressive 10977 points. Note, the Acer Predator 15 G9-591-74ZV comes with a GeForce GTX 980M graphics card.

On the same test results, the Alienware 15, equipped with a Radeon R9 M295X graphics card scored 7943 Points.

Furthermore, I conducted some real-life gaming tests to further determine how well the Lenovo Y700’s graphics card can perform. On the gaming test, I played Tomb Raider at 1080p resolution, and on different graphics settings.

On medium graphics settings, the Lenovo Y700 delivered a frame rate of 182.8 fps while playing Tomb Raider. However, on a high graphics setting, it delivered a frame rate of 116.2 fps.

Comparatively, the Lenovo Y700 performed better than its predecessor (Lenovo Y50). On the gaming test, while playing Tomb Raider on a medium graphics setting, the Lenovo Y50 delivered 124 fps.

However, on high graphics setting, the Lenovo Y50 delivered 97 fps. It’s worth noting that the Lenovo Y50’s graphics card is a GeForce GTX 860M.

In conclusion, while the Lenovo Y700 performed poorly in the benchmark test, it thrived in the gaming test. As a result, the laptop receives an eight out of 10 ratings from me.

Lenovo Y700: Battery Life & Performance

The Y700 comes with a 4-cell 60 Whr battery which Lenovo claims can last up to five hours. Therefore, I decided to put the Y700 through a battery test in order to verify Lenovo’s battery claim.

The battery test involves continuously surfing the internet via a WIFI connection and setting the screen brightness to 150 nits. Based on the test results, the Lenovo Y700 lasted 4 hours and 16 minutes.

Unfortunately, the laptop’s battery runtime wasn’t enough to beat the category average of 5 hours 40 minutes. Also, it wasn’t enough to beat the runtime achieved by the Inspiron 15 7000 and Alienware 15.

On the battery test, the Inspiron 15 7000 lasted an impressive 6 hours 45 hours. The Alienware 15, on the other hand, lasted 6 hours 18 minutes.

However, when compared to its predecessor (Lenovo Y50), the Lenovo Y700 performed slightly better. On the same battery test, the Lenovo Y50 lasted 4 hours and 10 minutes.

In conclusion, the Lenovo Y700’s battery performed below Lenovo’s claim, it also performed below most of its competitors. Hence, I will rate the Lenovo Y700 a seven in this battery performance review.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Lenovo is offering the Y700 as a multipurpose laptop rather than just a gaming laptop, and I believe it succeeds in this regard. The Lenovo Y700 has a good IPS display, excellent multitasking capability, great gaming performance, and robust build quality.

In addition to all that, if you’re on a tight budget, the Lenovo Y700 won’t let you down. At the time this review was written (August 2021), this laptop has a $700 starting price.

However, you must be prepared to put up with its average battery life. In general, I believe the Lenovo Y700 is a good bargain.

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