[REVIEW] Lenovo Legion Y520 Laptop (i5-7300HQ, GTX 1050 2GB)

[genexis_x]

Hi everyone. This is my first review since I joined this forum. I will be reviewing the new Lenovo Legion Y520 laptop. I bought it for RM3199 which is about $815. (cheaper prices can be found online). Specs are as below:

i5-7300HQ

GTX 1050 2GB

4GB 2400MHz RAM, upgraded to 8GB 2133MHz RAM

1TB 5400 RPM HDD, upgraded to Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD

 

The package comes with a few documents (but no user guide), an 135W power adapter, a free laptop bag and the laptop itself. Packaging is high quality.

 

External review for reference:
Notebookcheck, Ultrabookreview, LaptopMedia

(Notebookcheck's review is almost perfect)

A few notes before reading:
1. This is a quick review; thus, I will not cover everything here.
2. For reference, pictures can be found from the external review. I do not attach pictures; however, you can request for it.
3. My English Language is not that great since it's not my native language. I apologize if you find the description too simple and boring.

4. This review will be updated from time to time.

If you any inquiries, kindly leave a comment below. I will answer as much as I can.

Part 1: Build Quality
Chassis - The whole outer chassis is covered by carbon fiber like material which feels a little premium. The chassis is quite solid despite the fact that it is made of plastic. There's hardly any flex at the keyboard area. Some flex can be noticed at the lower palm rest area (below trackpad). The lid has some flex when pressed in and can be twisted with some force. One problem to note here: When raising/closing the lid, the front part of the keyboard deck (close to hinge) will raise up a bit. I'm not sure what's the cause but I think it could be the tight hinge since some reviews said that the lid can be opened with one hand but mine cannot. It's caused by the tight hinge. After servicing, opening/closing lid has become smoother but the problem still exists. I still cannot open the lid with single hand. Note that I didn't request for hinge change. I requested a hinge change, now the lid can be opened with single hand. Opening/closing lid operation is very smooth. However, the lid become more wobbling.

 

The laptop is quite light and has a fairly small footprint which is quite portable, however you have to carry along the charger since the battery life isn't that great (see below). The most noticeable thing is, the whole chassis can be easily dirtied (fingerprint and oil magnet).

Keyboard - The typing experience is nice for this price point. Key travel is deep enough and clicky which is mechanical like, however it's not quite mechanical due to soft keys. Red backlit is nice to have (2 brightness level, dim or bright) The FN keys and arrow keys are full sized. WASD area also keeps cool while under load. The drawbacks? The keys can be hard to see without backlit even in a bright room due to bad contrast of dark red text and black keys. Not only that, the numpad is small (cramped). It takes time to get use of it.

Touchpad - The Elan touchpad (driver vary in different regions) is smooth but quite sensitive. You have to do some tweakings in the touchpad software. The left and right dedicated buttons are solid; however, the clicking mechanism is questionable (centered mount point) and can be loud when clicked.

 

Wi-Fi adapter is Realtek 8821AE, not the faster Intel 8265 (vary in different regions)

Overall score: 85/100

Part 2: Display, Audio, Battery
This laptop comes with a nice IPS display. Viewing angles are good, colours are fine despite its low sRGB coverage. Brightness is a bit low for an IPS display but bright enough for everyday use. Some backlight bleed is noticed but this is normal in IPS panels. Take note that dark areas can be hard to be seen if you don't increase the brightness due to below average contrast. This can be adjusted through Intel Graphics Control Panel, visit my profile for more info. The display utilize high PWM and I can feel a bit eye strain when looking at the display for a long time. The panel is a bit reflective despite matte finish but not too bad.

 

The Harman tuned audio feels good. I've played "Faded" by Alan Walker and "Sail" by Awolnation for testing. However, the sound isn't the loudest. Mids and highs are good but bass is lacking. Battery life is mediocre due to the relatively small 45Wh battery. It takes about 2 hours 45 minutes from 100% to 20% while downloading apps and browsing the internet at about 60% brightness (NOTE: iGPU not utilized, using dGPU, will test iGPU only in future). Battery life is even shorter while gaming. About 30% is used after playing Dota 2 for 30 minutes.

Overall score: 85/100

Part 3: Benchmarks, Temps, Noise

Important: Due to Nvidia BatteryBoost, the games tested are locked at 60 fps (default is 30 fps) while on battery. The GPU also operates at a lower frequency while on battery.
*All tests are tested at ambient temp of around 30℃. CPU and GPU are undervolted (see below). CPU and GPU are utilized at full performance.

Cinebench R15 multi core: 521cb (500cb after vulnerability patch), CPU max temp 57℃

 

Gaming benchmarks:

CSGO: de_mirage, single player, no bots
Multicore rendering ON, Motion blur, FXAA and Vsync OFF
1024X768 low - around 290 fps, temps: CPU 59-61℃, GPU 49-50℃
1920X1080 low - around 195 fps, temps: CPU 60-61℃, GPU 51-52℃
1920X1080 high - around 180 fps, temps: CPU 63-65℃, GPU 55-57℃ (fan noise is audible but not loud)

Dota 2: 5v5 with bots
1080p, fastest preset (low):

around 115-135 fps, max around 155 fps, team fights 90-100 fps

Temps: CPU 59-60℃, GPU 49-50℃

1080p best looking preset (ultra):

around 85-105 fps, max around 120 fps, team fights 70-80 fps

Temps: CPU 61-64℃, GPU 53-56℃ (fan noise is audible but not loud)

 

The performance is not on par with desktop version GTX 1050 GPU which makes me a little disappointed.

 

The fan will spin a bit fast for a while after powering on. While idling, fans are still running but silently. During gaming, the fan noise can be heard but not loud. The fans are a bit loud when playing games at higher settings but still acceptable and not annoying.

Overall score: 90/100

 

Conclusion: Great laptop for casual gamers who have a tight budget.
Pros: OK-good overall build quality, good keyboard, good cooling, fairly portable for a gaming laptop, IPS panel (which is rare for the price), fairly good audio
Cons: Mediocre battery life, fingerprint magnet, flimsy lid

Let me know if you like to know other benchmarks. Thanks for reading!

 

Bonus Section: Undervolting CPU & GPU

I managed to undervolt -250mv core, -148mv cache (instant crash at -165mv), -30mv iGPU with Throttlestop and the temp is dropped about 4-10℃ depending on the load.

 

I also make custom voltage to frequency curves with MSI Afterburner. Stress tested with Unigine Heaven and ended up with no problems. I made 3 different custom curves:

1. 1772MHz@0.944V (high performance)

2. 1696MHz@0.90V (balanced)

3. 1595MHz@0.85V (power saver)

It seems like my 1050 GPU can't undervolt more than -125mv or more than +200MHz frequency (not stable)

 

After undervolting, the boost clock can sustain at a higher clock speed for a long period (before that the frequency cannot sustain at higher clock speed due to higher required voltage, increase in heat generation and higher CPU temp). The default boost clock which is around 1750MHz, can only sustain for a a while. If the FPS is capped, temps are lowered and the fans run more silently. Personally I prefer to cap FPS for silent gaming and hardware longevity.

 

Bonus Section: Clearing things up:
From LaptopMag review:

Quote

The Legion's screen covers just 68 percent of the sRGB color gamut -- a poor showing that barely surpassed the Inspiron's 67 percent, and that screen was horrible.

In fact, the screen is better than the TN one found in Dell 7567 and NOT HORRIBLE at all. It's worth mentioning that IPS panel is usually more colour accurate than TN panel. The colours are perfectly fine for normal users.

Quote

The touchpad, though, is awkward. It's an upside-down trapezoid with pieces of plastic filling in what would be the rest of the usual square shape. This is a classic case of form over function, and it was a real pain to use. The top of the trackpad is 4.1 inches long, and the bottom is 3.5 inches (making it a trapezoid), and it's 2.2 inches tall. While navigating Windows, I often found myself bumping into the plastic and quietly cursing to myself. If you don't hit the sides, it's great at recognizing gestures.

In fact, I NEVER hit the sides while using the trackpad for zooming in/out and scrolling webpages. It's NOT A REAL PAIN at all.

Bonus Section: Problems encountered so far:
1. Shutter lags in games and opening multiple Chrome tabs, solved after upgrading to 8GB RAM
2. Hangs even when idling, solved after clean install Windows and defrag HDD

3. Fans not spinning after recover from sleep, solved after restart

4. CPU voltage locked to about 0.75V for no reason and cause throttling to 2.4GHz, solved after restart

5. Touchpad suddenly not working, solved by turning to sleep and switch on again or, restart

6. Down arrow key a bit sink, solved after getting replacement

7. Charger has a weird, loud noise under heavy load on CPU+GPU, solved after getting replacement

8. 100% disk usage for a while after startup, solved after changing to SSD

9. Intel Graphics Settings doesn't set brightness correctly (brightness set by Windows has no problems)

10. Audio driver problem (bad sound), probably corrupted. Using older 6.0.1.8023 driver helps.

11. Sound crackling. Seems like many users have this problem, I'm trying to fix it currently. DON'T update SD card driver.

 

Bonus Section: Softwares (not bloatwares)

1. Lenovo Nerve Sense - You can enable extreme cooling, disable Windows key while gaming and also not so important features (network priority, sound enhancement)

2. Lenovo Vantage - Go to hardware section, under power settings, you can cap the battery at 55-60% while plugged in with conservation mode. The battery will not be charged; thus provide a longer battery lifespan. Useful when you need gaming while plugged in to get the full performance.

3. Dolby Audio - Only useful when earphones/headphones/external speakers are plugged in. Have many sound profiles to choose and the sound is a lot better than the preinstall speakers. Also, disable surround virtualizer for better built in speaker sound.

 

Bonus Section: Issues after reinstalling Windows and how to solve them

1. Dolby Audio app missing: Update the audio driver via Vantage or directly from Lenovo website, then roll back the audio driver to the original one.

Explanation: Newer audio drivers for an unknown reason, are faulty. Audio will become crap with newer drivers. Original driver should be 6.0.1.8023, however it has no Dolby app. So use the newer driver to reinstall Dolby App. You may need to do a restart and manually search for Dolby Audio app.

 

2. Lenovo Vantage doesn't show battery conservation mode: Follow these steps: 

Uninstall Vantage > Stop lmcontrollerservice from task manager > Uninstall System Interface Foundation V2 Device and Lenovo ACPI-Compliant Virtual Power Controller from Device Manager - System Devices > Reboot > Install System Interface (Google for that) > Reboot > Install vantage

Edited September 21, 2018 by GeneXiS_X

[Ivan Kolev]

Hello can you please give more accurate information about the battery life 100-0% with normal usage.
And a Gaming Benchmark for example in GTA 5 as it is used in many test and will be helpful in comparison. And also do you faced a problem with high temperatures and throttling.

Edited March 26, 2017 by Ivan Kolev

[genexis_x]

On 3/26/2017 at 6:33 PM, Ivan Kolev said:

Hello can you please give more accurate information about the battery life 100-0% with normal usage.
And a Gaming Benchmark for example in GTA 5 as it is used in many test and will be helpful in comparison.

"It takes about 2 hours 45 minutes from 100% to 20% while downloading apps and browsing the internet at about 60% brightness"

Sorry but I don't own GTA V. I will only test free games as stated in my post.

Edited April 8, 2017 by ZM Fong

[genexis_x]

3 hours ago, Ivan Kolev said:

And also do you faced a problem with high temperatures and throttling.

 

On 3/17/2017 at 9:06 PM, ZM Fong said:

Throughout the testing, inner temperatures are very good. Not more than 65 degree celcius for CPU and 60 for GPU.

 

[ali99]

does the laptop exhaust heat from the bottom?

is it safe to sup it on a bed or a soft surface?

[Teddy07]

I am interested to see a cpu benchmark, for example cinebench r15. I recently upgraded my old laptop with a new cpu and would like to compare the score to a totally new one.

 

Interesting and good review so far

[genexis_x]

8 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

I am interested to see a cpu benchmark, for example cinebench r15. I recently upgraded my old laptop with a new cpu and would like to compare the score to a totally new one.

Ok. Will do it when I'm free.
Btw what's the CPU you've just upgraded?
 

8 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

Interesting and good review so far

Thanks. Still have many things to improve in the review though.

[genexis_x]

1 hour ago, ali99 said:

does the laptop exhaust heat from the bottom?

is it safe to sup it on a bed or a soft surface?

Heat is exhausted from back.
However the heat pipes and the intake fans are located at the bottom (from user's view) so I will not recommend to use it on bed or surface

[genexis_x]

@Teddy07 Cinebench benchmarks completed. I only run the benchmarks once so the results may not accurate.

[Teddy07]

1 hour ago, ZM Fong said:

Ok. Will do it when I'm free.
Btw what's the CPU you've just upgraded?

 

 

 

Thanks. I upgraded from an i3-2350 to i7 2670qm (r15 scores: 400 cb multicore, 99 single, openGL failed ). I really like your temps because mine hit nearly 80°C during the multicore test. Really interesting comparison in scores but it proved my decision right to upgrade my old one because I expected only a small performance increase from looking at the specs of new laptops and i only use it for office and streaming videos stuff.

 

What is the weight of your laptop? I assume a bit more since it has a GPU inside.

[genexis_x]

@Teddy07

2.4kg. Fairly portable.

Thanks to its 'gaming design' (good cooling system) it handles the CPU and GPU temperatures very well

 

Glad that you upgrade your laptop's CPU. i7 provides good performance.

Edited February 28, 2018 by ZM Fong

[Teddy07]

5 minutes ago, ZM Fong said:

@Teddy07

2.4kg. Very portable

 

 

impressive. Mine is 2,5 kg without a gpu

 

I think you got a pretty good one there.

[Ivan Kolev]

On 3/26/2017 at 1:47 PM, ZM Fong said:

"It takes about 2 hours 45 minutes from 100% to 20% while downloading apps and browsing the internet at about 60% brightness"

Sorry but I don't own GTA V. I will only test free games as stated in my post.

Would it be much if i ask you to put it on battery save mode and try the battery life then.

[genexis_x]

15 minutes ago, Ivan Kolev said:

Would it be much if i ask you to put it on battery save mode and try the battery life then.

Will test when I'm free.

[genexis_x]

[UPDATE: Dota 2 results]

[genexis_x]

On 4/9/2017 at 5:46 PM, Ivan Kolev said:

Would it be much if i ask you to put it on battery save mode and try the battery life then.

After web browsing for 45 minutes, battery used 20% in Battery Saver mode, 40% screen brightness.

[genexis_x]

On 3/17/2017 at 9:06 PM, ZM Fong said:

UPDATE: System RAM changed to 8GB RAM

 

[Ivan Kolev]

Hello, does it support Nvidia Optimus technology for switching off the Nvidia GPU. Would be great for example while its on battery to be used with the integrated graphics for less power consumption.

[genexis_x]

On 21/05/2017 at 12:27 PM, Ivan Kolev said:

Hello, does it support Nvidia Optimus technology for switching off the Nvidia GPU. Would be great for example while its on battery to be used with the integrated graphics for less power consumption.

No, but you can manually switch to iGPU in Nvidia Control Panel, it does help in extending battery life

 

Edit: It supports Optimus. All Pascal GPUs without G sync panel mostly comes with Optimus. I'd made a mistake.

[kamal98]

Since it is an HDD I was wondering if boot up times are slow or whether you can see performance issues while multitasking or searching in windows. I have had problems with HDDs at 5400rpm so I wanted a laptop with an SSD but the model I am looking at has an HDD.

[genexis_x]

13 minutes ago, kamal98 said:

Since it is an HDD I was wondering if boot up times are slow or whether you can see performance issues while multitasking or searching in windows. I have had problems with HDDs at 5400rpm so I wanted a laptop with an SSD but the model I am looking at has an HDD.

Yeah it's quite slow in booting Windows and multitasking, however I've formatted Windows and made some tweaks. Now it only takes 10-20 secs to boot and multitasking is smooth.

 

Therefore, I recommend doing a clean Windows install.

[kamal98]

36 minutes ago, ZM Fong said:

Yeah it's quite slow in booting Windows and multitasking, however I've formatted Windows and made some tweaks. Now it only takes 10-20 secs to boot and multitasking is smooth.

 

Therefore, I recommend doing a clean Windows install.

Ok nice.

Also do you know what rpm your HDD is because the one I am looking at is 5400rpm. 7200rpm would be better I suppose.

[genexis_x]

56 minutes ago, kamal98 said:

Ok nice.

Also do you know what rpm your HDD is because the one I am looking at is 5400rpm. 7200rpm would be better I suppose.

5400RPM as stated

[genexis_x]

[UPDATE] Bonus section to clear things up in other reviews from reputable websites

[Snapizoid]

Hi,

 

I am in the process of buying myself one of the new Lenovo legion laptops. Everything checks out for my gaming need and as i see the Y520 (i57300 with gtx 1050ti) is slightly better then other laptops in this range. But recently i found out that many Lenovo laptops have faulty keyboard or faulty construction altogether.

 

Could you tell me if you had any problems with the keyboard or any part of the laptop. (I see that after roughly 3-20 days of use the E,F,G,N and 8,9 numpad keys are not working.) I read somewhere that even Lenovo acknowledges that the keyboard back plate is not properly fit (or something like that.)

 

Thank you.