I've been using a y510p (non-sli) for 3 months now and I think it's a great value. Is it going to compete with a gaming desktop...not even close, but if portability is a must and you can't afford both then it's great.
Pros:
- There is no laptop out there at it's price with graphics this good. I got mine for <$900 shipped and it runs everything I've tried including Metro 2033 on relatively high settings.
- Brushed aluminum looks great (but, see cons...)
- The Ultrabay slot provides expandibility that's rare in this form factor. It's marketed as a space for a second gpu in SLI (but, see cons...). On the plus side I've got an aftermarket bracket which houses my 1 TB hard drive (shipped with the laptop) and I bought an 840 Evo to go in the main drive bay for operating system, games, etc.
- It's lighter and more portable than the gaming "laptops" (cough* bookcases* cough) of old, but not as light or slim as super premium options like the Razer Blade
- The base cover is reasonably easy to take off making it easy to replace ram and the hd, and also if you didn't get the laptop with an M.2 drive you can add one (somebody online said theirs shipped without the adapter, but mine did)
- The speakers are surprisingly good. They won't impress your audiophile bud, but they're good for light music listening and watching videos and they get pretty loud.
- Did I mention the price?
Cons:
- Main complaint is the battery. Unplugged it drains fast. Maybe 2 1/2 hours of gaming, or 3-4 of normal use (but as with all laptops, unplugging throttles the gpu and cpu performance)
- Some parts feel cheap. The trackpad especially. The clicks feel muddy and imprecise, but if you're gaming you should use a mouse anyways. There's plenty of plastic on this thing, but then again it's so much cheaper than other comparable laptops.
- Customer support with Lenovo is pretty bad. Don't buy this because of the brand for sure.
- Lots of people online who bought the laptop non-sli and then tried to upgrade have had issues. First of all the additional PROPRIETARY card is expensive (around $300 for the GT 750m). Due to the sub-par customer service you've got to look hard for descriptions of solutions for various issues that arise with installing the card.
- I don't know, but I've heard it's hot in SLI
- Minor complaint, but the brushed aluminum picks up fingerprints like nothing I'vwe ever seen. I clean off the laptop with a microfiber cloth or electronics wipe every few days. It looks great though!
Bottom Line:
This laptop is not perfect, but if portability is a must, you want to game, and you don't want to spend more than $1500, then this is the best there is.