My Lenovo Y580 laptop review

Yay! *celebrates* Yes I got a new toy! Hello people.
So first off, thank you dad for the new lappy!

Okay moving on. So after much research of laptops available below $1000 and fully loaded (end 2012), I finally ended up with an Asus and the Lenovo, well you know which I went with.

The specs in my laptop-

• Intel i7 3630QQM 2.40GHz
• 8GB DDR3 ram
• Windows 7 Basic 64bit
• 15.6" 1920x1080 FHD 
• 128GB SSD + 500GB HDD
• NVIDIA GTX660M
• USB 3 & Backlit Keyboard

So the Y580 is marketed as a multimedia laptop which to me is a dying breed. If you look at laptops these days, its all trying to be thinner and more portable, which ain't something bad but you will have to just live with not having as much anymore. You would have a smaller screen, less ports, less GPU power with built in-graphics.

How is it as a multimedia laptop then? I'm going to be honest, I love this laptop even though it was not originally the one I wanted. Sure with everything loaded into it, I would say it is thicker and bulkier than laptops these days. It weighs more too, at 3.2 kgs with the charger, it is kinda hefty but that's the compromise for a loaded laptop these days. The screen is amazingly clear and sharp. It is bright for movies and games, it goes really dark for all those sensitive eyes. The speakers on the laptop is JBL speakers which kicks out some pretty clear and loud sounds. Sounds also have a little bit of bass to them, which to me is above average. The built in sound card is good, it works well with all the headphones and earphones I have plugged in so far.

One of the best from this laptop which I have found would be the Levono software loaded into it. Okay more specifically the Onekey Theater and I think the sound driver. Onekey Theater is this little button and software which allows you to choose between Normal, Movie, Intelligent. So at normal, your screen is the usual. In Movie, the screen has a little more saturation to it, giving colors a deeper tone to them. The volume for the video you are watching gets louder too. Which I found totally amazing as some videos are just in really low volume and it doesn't matter how maxed out your speakers are. Intelligent allows the computer choose, so whenever you are viewing pictures, listening to music or watching something, it will change to the appropriate modes. The sound driver, does this, at whatever volume the speakers are at, whenever earphones are plugged in, it would reduce the volume for it. Great for all the times I forget the volume on my laptop. The software definitely helps with making this laptop a multimedia laptop. An added bonus? Surround sound speakers. I know its not much but watching movies on the laptop is much more fun.

Having the SSD in the laptop makes everything much easier. Laptop boots in a breeze and everything opens in a flash. Sure it is not much space but I replaced the dvd drive with the HDD. Sadly the dvd drive is slowly moving out of phase. Besides using it to reformat my laptop, everything else can be saved on to a thumb drive. Now even Windows can be saved to a thumb drive, that's why I feel its being phased out. I admit that at one point of time, I said the SSD was pretty useless due to the fact of the small size but having a SSD + HDD combo pretty much solves the problem.


The laptop comes with enough ports from VGA, HDMI, 4 usb ports (3 usb 3.0 and 1 normal usb) and Ethernet port. A backlit keyboard for all those who use it in low light conditions and a number pad for all those number crunchers. The keys are even island styled keys, which allows plenty of room for typing. One thing which I dislike is the fact that the Backspace key is right next to the Num Lock button. Hitting it constantly is something that I have gotten used to.

Gaming. Frankly with the budget and technology at the time, it is pretty impressive. I can play MW3 with  HIGH settings in FHD and it will run just fine. For those occasional gamers like me, it is perfect. Plus whenever not in use, the GPU would be switched to the Integrated GPU to help increase battery life. Watching movies again is great as it would not lag and stutter. Actually I have not experienced a stutter yet from watching movies on it.

One of the biggest issues I have read about this laptop is that the HDD area gets hot. Cooling on this laptop is pretty good I would say. When on something demanding, it would heat up a little but not till you would actually be concerned of (when used on a hard flat surface). The HDD area under does get a little warm, but that is about it. Another issue would be the touchpad, this is all I can say of it, its pretty similar to a Mac touchpad and that is about it.

Detailed specs can be found here.>> Lenovo Y580 


I Rate Thee 9/10

Overall, I actually really like my laptop. It performs great when I am just browsing or when I am on Photoshop. Battery would last about 4 hours ++ when in Power Saver and the screen turned down. Weight doesn't really bothers me and definitely a good multimedia machine.



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Thank you!

Signing off,
YJ