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- First reviewMay 21, 2016
- Last reviewMay 21, 2016
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- First review commentMay 23, 2016
- Last review commentMay 23, 2016
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andy's Reviews
Lenovo Y700 Laptop: Immerse yourself in your favorite games with this laptop, which features a capacitive HD multitouch screen with 4GB dedicated NVIDIA graphics for smooth, detailed images and gameplay. Built-in stereo speakers and a subwoofer and Dolby Home Theater provide rich audio for your games and movies.
Posted by: andy
I searched high and low for a strong CPU laptop that would meet a developer's needs, which these days mean generally looking at gaming laptops. Major requirements for me were a decent high-end processor, back-light keyboard for evening programming, ANTI-GLARE screen for coding outside (a must for me), and a touchscreen to test coded touch enabled apps, FYI gamers: Lenovo makes a comparable version without the touchscreen for about $200 bucks less. The NVIDIA graphics was just an added bonus. Most of my apps don't make use of the discrete graphics, though Chrome and a few other browsers do (I don't use Edge, so don't know about that). The laptop does come loaded with Lenovo bloatware (and others), but can be un-installed via the control panel (and regedit if you know what you are doing). The bloatware was an irritation, especially since some of it is broken and HAS to be removed anyways). Battery life is OK, but I get a full charge from a drained battery in about 30 mins. THE anti-glare screen was a gamble, being a glossy touchscreen panel (i figured I would have to return it on the basis that it wasn't antiglare). I was quite honestly astonished I can use it outside in direct sun, even with the sun at my back, as long as it's about 15 degrees off from directly behind me (superb!!!). Just remember it's a touchscreen so need to clean the screen if you are going to use in the sun outside. Also, I have never used a mil-spec matte anti-glare screen to compare to and I would assume it is not as good as those but those machine lack strong processors and are twice the price. Lenovo Chat Support has been EXCELLENT.. Never had better support in 20 years. I repeat, support is amazing, they actually can address all my issues without research! The One MAJOR issue is the screen does not tilt back back as much as most laptops (i don't mean open to lay flat, it only opens about 115 degrees - a guess), so if you are laying back in a recliner and want to tilt the screen back to see it better you are out of luck. The DVD drive is external, but no issue for me and is included. Sound is best i have on a laptop, the sub-woofer really helps. For people having issue with crashing, etc, try to remove all the bloatware helps a lot, but it does take some knowledge. There could be issues if you can't get rid of the bloatware. PROS: Everything but the screen tilt-back and bloatware. CONS: the limited screen tilt can be a major irritation and the bloatware really needs to be removed. That said, I'm running Visual Studio, Internet Information Services, and a bunch of other developer tools on it all at the same time without a hickup. For a sale price of $999.99 I considered it a steal... Even at current list of $1149, I couldn't find anything comparable. Gamers, your mileage may vary.. Oh, the battery is built in (but accessible to replace). Not an issue for me anymore, but can't just buy an extra battery to pop in when the other runs low.
My Best Buy number: 0580921580
I would recommend this to a friend!
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andy's Review Comments
Lenovo Y700 Laptop: Immerse yourself in your favorite games with this laptop, which features a capacitive HD multitouch screen with 4GB dedicated NVIDIA graphics for smooth, detailed images and gameplay. Built-in stereo speakers and a subwoofer and Dolby Home Theater provide rich audio for your games and movies.
Overall
5 out of 5
5 out of 5Great for Developers, Suberb Anti-Glare Screen
By andy
I searched high and low for a strong CPU laptop that would meet a developer's needs, which these days mean generally looking at gaming laptops. Major requirements for me were a decent high-end processor, back-light keyboard for evening programming, ANTI-GLARE screen for coding outside (a must for me), and a touchscreen to test coded touch enabled apps, FYI gamers: Lenovo makes a comparable version without the touchscreen for about $200 bucks less. The NVIDIA graphics was just an added bonus. Most of my apps don't make use of the discrete graphics, though Chrome and a few other browsers do (I don't use Edge, so don't know about that). The laptop does come loaded with Lenovo bloatware (and others), but can be un-installed via the control panel (and regedit if you know what you are doing). The bloatware was an irritation, especially since some of it is broken and HAS to be removed anyways). Battery life is OK, but I get a full charge from a drained battery in about 30 mins. THE anti-glare screen was a gamble, being a glossy touchscreen panel (i figured I would have to return it on the basis that it wasn't antiglare). I was quite honestly astonished I can use it outside in direct sun, even with the sun at my back, as long as it's about 15 degrees off from directly behind me (superb!!!). Just remember it's a touchscreen so need to clean the screen if you are going to use in the sun outside. Also, I have never used a mil-spec matte anti-glare screen to compare to and I would assume it is not as good as those but those machine lack strong processors and are twice the price. Lenovo Chat Support has been EXCELLENT.. Never had better support in 20 years. I repeat, support is amazing, they actually can address all my issues without research! The One MAJOR issue is the screen does not tilt back back as much as most laptops (i don't mean open to lay flat, it only opens about 115 degrees - a guess), so if you are laying back in a recliner and want to tilt the screen back to see it better you are out of luck. The DVD drive is external, but no issue for me and is included. Sound is best i have on a laptop, the sub-woofer really helps. For people having issue with crashing, etc, try to remove all the bloatware helps a lot, but it does take some knowledge. There could be issues if you can't get rid of the bloatware. PROS: Everything but the screen tilt-back and bloatware. CONS: the limited screen tilt can be a major irritation and the bloatware really needs to be removed. That said, I'm running Visual Studio, Internet Information Services, and a bunch of other developer tools on it all at the same time without a hickup. For a sale price of $999.99 I considered it a steal... Even at current list of $1149, I couldn't find anything comparable. Gamers, your mileage may vary.. Oh, the battery is built in (but accessible to replace). Not an issue for me anymore, but can't just buy an extra battery to pop in when the other runs low.
andy
Followup on my own post, couldn't edit original
May 23, 2016
Forgot about the hard drive. Once everything is loaded into memory the machine runs fast and fine. But I do full shutdowns, sometimes a few times a day due to programming, and it takes upwards of 60 to 90 secs to boot all my programs fully on startup (like i said in the above review, i run IIS and Virtual Machines). The CPU is lazily operating at 4% to 7% utilization waiting on the hard drive, which is pegged solid at 100% utilization the entire time. If you have the fast start enabled, it would probably be somewhere around 30 seconds - guessing. The good news is that this machine has a M.2 PCIe slot for a SSD card that sits NEXT to the 1 TB Hard Disk, or so it says in the Lenovo Hardware Maintenance Manual for this model (in PDF you can download to check it out). For around $250 to $325 bucks you can add an SSD and boot up in seconds. Note you can REPLACE the Hardrive in the machine with a SSD DRIVE, like the Samsung Ultra II (~235 on sale, half price) -OR- instead ADD a SSD M.2 PCIe CARD like the Samsung 950 Pro 512 GB (~$325) and keep the existing 1 TB drive for storage (both at Best Buy if your interested). You will however have to migrate the Operating System to the OS.
You can look at actual user benchmark tests (users run the tests on their machines) of the items at userbenchmark.com and see that those options speed up your disk access by upwards of 50 times. I plan on getting a SSD M.2 card down the road. Also, just FYI, I am NOT affiliated with Best Buy nor userbenchmark,com at all. I just love this machine after owning it for about 5 weeks now (I probably haven't written a review for 5 years). If the moderator will allow this last sentence, you can check out my actual benchmark results of my y700 yoga machine at http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/1147348 (no personal info, just hardware benchmark results).
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andy's Answers
Lenovo Y700 Laptop: Immerse yourself in your favorite games with this laptop, which features a capacitive HD multitouch screen with 4GB dedicated NVIDIA graphics for smooth, detailed images and gameplay. Built-in stereo speakers and a subwoofer and Dolby Home Theater provide rich audio for your games and movies.
Windows 10
Is operating system 64 bit?
Several games I want to play (fallout 4, far cry primal) state win 10 must be 64 bit
Several games I want to play (fallout 4, far cry primal) state win 10 must be 64 bit
Yes, it is Windows 10, 64-bit Home version. Also, I upgraded to Windows 10 Pro (can defer updates ! :-) ) without any trouble.
7 years, 10 months ago
by
andy
Lenovo Y700 Laptop: Immerse yourself in your favorite games with this laptop, which features a capacitive HD multitouch screen with 4GB dedicated NVIDIA graphics for smooth, detailed images and gameplay. Built-in stereo speakers and a subwoofer and Dolby Home Theater provide rich audio for your games and movies.
How well is this laptop for a college student?
All around great machine for the price. See my review under "andy", 5 stars, around May 21st....
7 years, 10 months ago
by
andy
Lenovo Y700 Laptop: Immerse yourself in your favorite games with this laptop, which features a capacitive HD multitouch screen with 4GB dedicated NVIDIA graphics for smooth, detailed images and gameplay. Built-in stereo speakers and a subwoofer and Dolby Home Theater provide rich audio for your games and movies.
Is it possible to get this from Best Buy without a touchscreen? Or would I have to custom order that from Lenovo?
I didn't see a non-touch screen version at best-buy, but the touchscreen version i bought from best-buy (when not on sale) was same price as from Lenovo.
7 years, 10 months ago
by
andy