Lenovo Legion Y740 Gaming Laptop - A Surprise For The End Of The Year
Launched at CES 2017, the Legion gaming laptops confirm that we are probably the youngest gaming notebook brand. But their learning, adaptation and understanding curve of the gaming market, one with a different dynamic, with very little predictable buying habits, was a very fast one, and after two years they fought side by side with models of some brands. Traditions such as ROG, Predator, MSI, Alienware, Omen, Razer, Aorus and so on.
Today we will take a look at the youngest member of the Legion family and also probably the most powerful 15" model of the range, the Lenovo Legion Y740-15IRHg.
From the start, we are witnessing a totally different approach to everything we tested this year. Basically, you could go to a business event with this laptop and no one would notice that you have a gaming laptop in front of you.
No, it is not the thinnest laptop, nor the the lightest or most portable: the case is 24mm thick and weighs about 2.2Kg, but it’s sure looks awesome. It is clear that the design team had other aspects in mind when designing this laptop, and they managed to outclass the competition in certain key points.
We really liked the dark gray casing, and not only because it is made of high quality aluminum, but it also does not collect fingerprints at all.
I really liked the screen that can be folded up to 180 degrees and it does not obstruct the vents behind the laptop when folded.
But the hinges seem a bit fragile though, but the fact that we could open the lid extremely easily, with one hand (be careful, always hold the middle of the lid, not a corner!), we consider it a major advantage.
The touchpad is a little small, without the ability to click - for this you have to use the two buttons, which are a bit loud. We don't quite understand why Lenovo chose to use such a small touchpad when there is so much unused space on the restpad. Maybe they thought gamers would use the mouse, and the problem is solved. Well, yes and no, it depends on the scenario.
The Keyboard - iCUE lighting
The keyboard comes again with a different approach and we are going to start with the negative, to end on a positive note.
First of all, the left-hand column ... who had this idea, we don't know what was he thinking, but even after almost a week we were not able to get used to it, to fully settle in with the keyboard, we often involuntarily pressed CapsLock and started typing.
After the keyboard is compacted enough on the center of the chassis (the space on the left-hand side could occupy more space, as other manufacturers do), placing an additional key column, on the left, on the first column (the keys that control the lighting degree of keys, the two Macro keys, the Lenovo Vantage activation key) "pushes" the rest of the keyboard, the keys we have become accustomed to, towards the center of the laptop, and the brain processes this translation to the right with approximately 2.5 cm very hard.
The key lighting is instead high - the keys are beautifully backlit, without blinking the unnecessary light around the keys, as we have seen in most laptops with illuminated keys. And another thing: the lighting software is iCUE, which is the brilliant software developed by Corsair.
Also, the directional keys are well defined, and quite generous in size, you can find them immediately, here is another white ball for designers.
500cd/m2 Screen, G-SYNC, HDR, 144Hz!
The screen is one of the biggest strengths of this laptop. We have never seen such a bright screen on a gaming laptop before! The screen is produced by BOE (model: NV156FHM-N4J) and simply leaves you with your mouth shut when you see how bright it is, and what a contrast it has: over 1000:1!
And what if we tell you that the screen on the Legio Y740-15 also has HDR400 certification? Not to be confused with the HDR10s that we experienced on the ROG PG35VQ, and which is really in another league, but even so, the Legion offers a different experience than other gaming laptops pannels - most do not even reach 300cd/m2.
The set is complemented by the integration of G-SYNC technology and the 144Hz Full-HD panel - as we said above, gaming is fluid and the high contrast helps a lot to see the details in each frame.
Lenovo Legion Y740 Performance
The laptop has a top configuration: Intel Core i7-9750H running at 2.60GHz base frequency and up to 4.2 GHz turbo boost, six cores and 12 threads in total, with Hyper Threading and 16GB 2666Mhz DDR4. The configuration is completed with the 90W NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q video card, which, unlike many other variations we have encountered, is not factory overclocked. But this did not affect the performance, or not much, as you will see from the results below.
The storage consists of a "classic" HDD for notebooks (7mm profile), 1TB, 7200rpm from Seagate Barracuda and for the operating system and games that need quick access (especially online massive multiplayer) a very fast SSD was added from Western Digital (specifically Sandisk, part of the WD group) SN720 NVMe, 512GB.
CPU Performnce in CineBench R15
SuperPosition and 3DMark
Gaming Benchmarks
Lenovo Legion Y740 Connectivity
The connectivity of the Lenovo Legion Y740 is top noch: A Type-C port with ThunderBolt 3 on the left side, next to the Audio jack, on the right side a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type A port and the beautiful side is hidden in the back: another USB 3.1 Gen 1 port Type A and faster, USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type A, Mini Display Port, HDMI 2.0 port, LAN interface and power.
The rear ports have LED lighting above, so we can easily find them in the dark - an elegant and welcoming appearance.
Conclusion
The Lenovo Legion Y740 enters the big league with force. It does not impress through the breezes on the case almost we could confuse it with a business laptop, such as a Thinkpad , especially if we set a white light on the keyboard.
It is not intended to be neither the lightest nor the thinnest. Not even the most beautiful - though the Legion logo on the cover might give it a well deserved place in the design chapter. And if we add the common sense lighting of the keyboard, we can even say that the look is special.
The Legion Y740 wants to be a very powerful laptop, and silent at the same time. And surprises, surprises: it succeed, with style!
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