Lenovo IdeaPad Y560 Review – Buy Online on Lowest Price!

Date: 2012.01.13 | Category: Plasma TV | Tags:

Configuration

Lenovo offers a wide variety of model configurations Y560, part of which is represented in the Russian part – on the official website of the English-speaking part – is available at retailers. Navigate the long list of models, based on various combinations of components, it is very difficult. Especially because the information is small, but full of confusion and even error.

In general we can say that the system is built on Intel penultimate generation and uses the ATI card 5730, the remaining components may vary. Evaluate the various configurations can be, for example, Hardware Maintenance Manual.

Look at the specifications tested model Ideapad Y560A1-i383G500Bwi (59-054380).
Lenovo Ideapad Y560
Processor DualCore Intel Core i3 380M, 2533 MHz (19 × 133)
Chipset Intel Ibex Peak-M HM55
RAM 1 GB DDR3-1066 DDR3 SDRAM (7-7-7-20 @ 533 MHz) Samsung M471B2873FHS-CF8
2 GB DDR3-1066 DDR3 SDRAM (7-7-7-20 @ 533 MHz) Samsung M471B5673FH0-CF8
Video ATI Mobility Radeon HD5730 1GB
integrated video from Intel
Screen

15.6 “LED-backlit glossy, 16:9, 1366 × 768

Type of matrix: LG Philips LP156WH3-TLQ1 [15,6 "LCD], 60% color Gamut, 8ms, 220 nits, 400:1
Audio Subsystem

2 Speakers JBL, 1,5 Tues certificate Dolby Headphone

Two audio controller: ATI Redwood / Madison, Realtek ALC272 @ Intel Ibex Peak PCH
Hard disk

Models up to 500 GB (5400/7200)

In the tested configuration WDC WD5000BEVT-24A0RT0 (500 GB/5400)
Optical Drive Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700H (DVD + R9: 4x, DVD-R9: 4x, DVD + RW: 8x/8x, DVD-RW: 8x/6x, DVD-RAM: 5x, DVD-ROM: 8x, CD : 24x/24x/24x DVD + RW / DVD-RW / DVD-RAM)
Network Interfaces Wired Network 10/100/1000
Wireless LAN Intel WiFi / WiMAX Link 5150 (802.11b / g)
Bluetooth is
In addition there
Card reader Card Reader 5 in 1 (SD / MMC / MS / MS pro / xD), type JMicron JMB386/387
Interfaces and USB ports 4 (one shared with eSATA)
VGA Out there
HDMI is
Displayport no
eSATA is a (shared with USB)
RJ45 is
Expresscard is 34 mm
Headphone output is
Microphone input is

Line out

no
Advanced optical output (shared with audio)
Input Devices Keyboard Standard
The touchpad is
Optional additional softkeys
Battery Sanyo L09S6D16 (60 653 MW · h) Battery life 3.5 hours
Power Supply Power Supply 90 W
IP-telephony Webcam HD Webcam
The microphone is, with the noise reduction system
The additional presence of an optical S / PDIF, miniPCI-e slot
Operating system

From DOS to Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Dimensions

(L × W × H) 385 × 255 × 20-33 mm

Weight

2.7 kg (weight vary by configuration)

Guarantee period

2 years

The configuration may vary within very wide limits, respectively, and the performance can vary greatly depending on the configuration. About the information screen is small, but judging from the small settlement in laptops cheap set of the matrix, they are not worth waiting for anything good.

A nice feature of this line is a two-year warranty on the laptop (with the exception of the battery, it is 1 year warranty), it is more than most competitors. However, the official website for models Y560 means “one year”, this confusion stems and on the websites of retailers.

To clarify the situation, we tried to use the telephone, “Information support for Lenovo Ideapad», found on the official site. It turned out that this number has already been a year off, now using a different phone. To not spend time talking with a soulless robot, you can, if you have a serial number, use the system checks the balance of the warranty period. The audit found out that our laptop was released in September 2010, and it is warranted for 24 months from the date of sale. By the way, if there is no receipt or other documentation of purchase, warranty period is calculated from the date of manufacture.
Testing
Performance, test scores

Test results will be interesting, as a powerful dual-core processor is adjacent to the moderate graphics card.

Verify the assessment of synthetic benchmark system packages PCMark Vantage, 3Dmark06 (in parentheses the results of subtests SM2.0, HDR/SM3, CPU), 3Dmark Vantage and Cinebench R10 (benchmark 1 core / 2 core / work in OpenGL), R11.5 (CPU / GPU).

These CPU’s program CPU-Z:

Similar information in the program AIDA64:

Automatic reduction factor in the absence of load can save battery power:

The results of measurement of memory bandwidth and cache:

For comparison, the test programs will take Hewlett-Packard Envy 15, which, though belongs to a different segment and is more expensive, but the configuration is similar to our present visitor. The notebook HP a more powerful quad-core i7-720 and the video card ATI Radeon HD 4830 1GB.

First look at the rating of the operating system Windows 7.
Lenovo Ideapad Y560 Lenovo Ideapad Y550P HP Envy 15
Processor 6.8 6.9 7.0
Memory 5.5 7.3 7.3
Graphics 6.7 6.5 6.8
Graphics for games 6.7 6.5 6.8
Hard disk 5.8 5.7 5.9

In general, rates are high, but not outstanding, especially noticeable dip in the test of memory, it may be due to the fact that the bus of 133 MHz, and the fact that the configuration memory is 2 GB one. Although the end-user is unlikely to notice the difference “by eye”.

Look at the results of the test PCMark Vantage (for Y560 results are given for the test run in modes X64/X86).
PCMark Vantage Lenovo Y560 HP Envy 15 ASUS N81Vg
PCMark Score 5678/5326 5743 4093
Memories Score 4031/3891 four thousand and eighty-nine 2681
TV and Movies Score – / – * 4184 2711
Gaming Score 4912/4628 6 305 3496
Music Score 5463/5396 four thousand four hundred and ninety-six 4118
Communications Score 4459/4318 3 836 3720
Productivity Score 4733/4297 4,773 in 2892
HDD Score 3311/3266 3,914 in 2990

* Test does not pass, because Home Basic does not have the MPEG-2 decoders from Windows Media Center. The result of the VC-1 HD DVD – 26,3 fps

Grades fairly predictable, although the total score shows a slight, but the advantage of 64-bit platforms on 32-bit. Visibly noticeable lag from the video card 4830 and 5730 benefit the hard drive at a speed of 7200 rev / min.

There is a significant advantage over dual-core quad in «Music Score» (work with hard disk and re-encoding). This may be due to a higher base frequency (2,5 vs 1,6 GHz) and the complexity of parallel tasks. A similar situation is with Communications Score, where the addition is performed rendering web pages.

Data presented software, VGA GPU-Z.

Results for ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730:

The results for the integrated Intel HD Graphics:

Let’s see what will show graphics tests:
3DMark Vantage 1280×1024 Lenovo Y 560 / Battery + PowerPlay! Hewlett-Packard Envy 15
Score PZ758 / P1396 4164
CPU P7226 / P7230 9374
GPU P3240 / P1100 3513 *

* A similar result can be obtained by slightly raising the frequency of GPU CORE / MEM through AMD GPU Clock Tool, but no more, since overclocking the mobile platform is very small.

The results are natural and no longer correspond to reality. The advantage of four cores and avtorazgona there, and 4830 by more than 10% faster than 5730, which in turn is slightly overclocked 5650 and ahead of its roughly the same 10-15%.

In order not to get poor results GPU when running on battery – needed in laying the ATI drivers to disable PowerPlay! or set up for maximum performance, depending on the assigned tasks.

In addition, a set of more classical tests:
3DMark Vantage 1280×1024 Lenovo Ideapad Y 560 Lenovo Ideapad Y550P HP Envy 15
3Dmark06 ATI 5870 1280 × 1024: 7130 / 2632 / 3137 / 2683
ATI 5870 1280 × 768: 7892 / 2908 / 3608 / 2685
Intel HD 1280 × 768: 1333 / 416 / 518 / 2695 7095/2874 / 2813/2806 does not start
Cinebench R10 x64 3307 / 7874 / 4940 / (x2, 38) 3667/9486/3723 (x2, 59), 1960/9502/3839
Cinebench 11.5 x64 GPU – 32,92
CPU – 2,10

Differences in results in more repeat and match the level of video card GeForce GT 240M. If you render Cinebench R10 test using all the cores improves performance more than doubled, and in this case, the separation of the Quad-Core i7 Dual-Core i3 from even more pronounced – approximately 20%.
Games:

We now turn to the most demanded part of the testing on the example of the modern games.

STALKER COP benchmark of 1366 × 768. DX10 – middle:

DX11 – middle:

At medium settings fps rate is often above the minimum threshold of playability in 30 frames, but dips to 17-20 guarantee freezes at the most inappropriate places.

DIRT2 benchmark of 1366 × 768 4xMSAA:
Preset / FPS Average Minimum
HIGH 27,2 14,3
MEDIUM 40,6 33,6

At medium quality graphics settings are not severely affected, and the gameplay is significantly increased.

1366 × 768 FarCry2 DX10 Ranch Medium:

In the following table:
Preset / FPS Average Minimum
HIGH AAx0 47,42 26,80
HIGH AAx2 37,64 17,99
HIGH AAx4 31,16 11,09
VERY HIGH AAx0 45,59 22,81
ULTRA HIGH AAx0 35,78 18,39

According to test results can be said about the minimum sufficient level of performance modes HIGH and ULTRA HIGH, but the inclusion of anisotropic filtering significantly reduces performance.

Unreal Tournament 3 HOC benchmark tool – 1366 × 768:
Preset / FPS Average
Containment map, aniso8, motion blur 69
Serenity map, aniso4, motion blur 66

Specifically, the mobile version of the GPU ATI 5730 shows a good level of performance, and in most modern games can be played with the settings the average.

Finally, look at the performance of the hard disk according to the AIDA:
Reading (start) 76.6 MB / s
Reading (middle) 58.9 MB / s
Reading (end) 36.5 MB / s
Random read 50.5 MB / s
Access time of 17.48 ms

And in a separate utility, HDTune. The overall chart reading from the disk surface:

And the diagram to work with files:

Given the small measurement errors under multi-tasking operating system data from the two programs are identical. The performance of this drive is at a normal level for the current models.

The laptop is not equipped with a hard drive from shock impact, which would help prevent data loss in case of an accidental fall. Manufacturers should pay more attention to the preservation of data on any line of notebooks, not just corporate.
Battery life

The battery is before the tests over several days was subjected to procedures for discharge and charge to come to a natural level of work.

Lenovo Energy Manager offers two modes of charging: longer battery life on a single charge or a longer life battery itself. Incidentally, the new battery costs more than $ 70.

Lithium batteries have a high level of self-discharge, recharge is activated when remaining battery falls below 98%. Even if the laptop is always plugged in, the battery is discharged below the threshold for two or three days. Constant charging lead to more rapid degradation of cells and loss of capacity. However, if you often work with a laptop battery life (even better if the level of the discharge depth), then you should choose this option, because degradation is not (or rather, it is not above the normal level).

If the laptop is constantly running on the network, you should choose the optimal battery life. In this case, charging will not turn on until the charge drops below 80%. Rarer charge helps extend battery life.

Testing the battery life is conducted in two modes: with video Intel HD mode, the minimum load (read the text on the screen), with an ATI when watching the movie and at high load on all of the notebook (stress test). Charging was carried out to reach 100%.

Tests are conducted in a power scheme “balanced.” Time off the monitor and hard drive is on “never.” Other interventions in the power management (switching schedules, removing, etc.) is not made, they remain the default. The brightness of the screen is exposed to maximum light sensor is off, turn off the wireless interfaces. When testing the laptop reboots, run all the utilities installed by the manufacturer (except for anti-virus program, it is uninstalled before the tests).

When battery is below 10% hand-blocked passage in economy mode, to speed up the screen brightness at maximum.

For the measurement of battery life when playing a movie film used in the format of an audio track x264 720p AC3. File is played from a hard disk, graphics card ATI c included active mode PowerPlay! “Energy savings”, the player is Media Player Classic 1.4 x64, built-in AVC-decoder with hardware acceleration DXVA (CPU frequency 2.5 GHz was 3-6%; without DXVA priblizitelno14-20% in the “Balanced” mode, the CPU multiplier changes of x7-x14), render EVR.
Reading Layout View Film Stress Test
3 hours 36 minutes. (216 min.) * 1 hour 59 minutes. (119 min.) 53 min .**

* The 5% charge left the laptop in sleep mode, were connected to external power and run the system, but did not start charging more than 50 minutes! With an ATI runtime in this mode is 196 minutes.

** A 4% charge left the laptop in sleep mode, but because of the high load hibernation has not been completed and there was a “blue screen» STOP 0xA0. After rebooting, the data was lost. Charging began immediately. To fix, need to increase the size of the hibernation file with the default 75% to 100% using the «PowerCfg.exe / H / SIZE 100.”

In the maximum power saving laptop is about three and a half hours. For a home multimedia laptop battery life is acceptable. If you watch the movie, the notebook will stretch two o’clock exactly. In this mode, the battery life, so to speak, on the edge, this is may not be enough to see the whole movie long. However, the test was used rather “heavy” version of the video, if we take a simple AVI, battery life can be more. Under load, the Y560 and do work less hours. If you use the Internet, it is expected that battery life will be around 1 hour 35-40 minutes.

Compared with their classmates the results are not impressive, but not failing. Let’s just say for the class average level of autonomy.

The abundance of overlapping and complementary power management settings on Win7, Lenovo, ATI switchable graphics and, of course, makes the life of the average user is much more difficult, but successful configuration can significantly increase battery life.
Heat and Noise

Proper temperature control is very important for mobile devices, often working under adverse conditions. To determine the temperature limits for the built-in sensors used utility AIDA (mode stress test), with parallel-running LinX, Video Card ATI – FurMark. However, in real life, the laptop is unlikely to face such a heavy load. For example, measurements AMD / ATI:

The results at an ambient temperature of 25 ° C were as follows:
At rest, under load
Processor 47-50 80-86
Hard Drive 37-39 41-43
Graphics Card 48-52 80-82

If you run FurMark and LinX, is less than five minutes the CPU temperature will be 88-90 ° C and turn on throttling, the GPU temperature reaches over 82 ° C. At such high temperatures, the internal components have a real chance that the laptop overheats up to freezing. The problem is too low legs on the bottom, if we raise the laptop above the surface, the temperature has dropped by more than 15 degrees.

In normal operation the left half of the bottom is heated more than the right, but it does not reach the temperature at which to work with a laptop it would be unpleasant. Even from the vent breaks warm and not scalding air, as might be expected on indicators of core temperature and the video card. It is quite possible to play modern games, holding the Ideapad Y560 on her lap. [I personally think that the correctness of the data it can be concluded that inefficient or poor quality, defective cooling system laptop. If the processor is heated to 90 degrees and the air is just warm, then most likely system for whatever reason, can not take the heat from the processor. In the normal organization of the cooling system should not be - approx. Ed.]

At rest, the fan is virtually silent. Under load, the harder he works and, therefore, makes a noise louder. But even in this case, the noise pleasant, without high-frequency component, in terms of – quieter than the built-in DVD-ROM.

In a quiet room to hear that no-load laptop is very quiet beeping at high frequency, with the appearance of the load extraneous sound disappears. The sound source is located somewhere near the hard drive. Users with very sensitive hearing, this time can be annoying.
Impressions from the use of
Unpacking

The laptop comes in a black cardboard box with an orange handle. Pack size – 450 × 132 × 330 mm. On one of the faces of all the printed data on the supply, including the serial number and date of manufacture. Packaging weight 4.36 kg. Inside is packed in plastic foam forms a laptop and a white box with its contents:

There is a separate laptop battery (Li-Ion 57 Wh), thin and lightweight power supply 20V / 4,5 A logo Lenovo, the cord c ground.

The bundled drives go with the software required for system recovery. This is a CD with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Basic edition in; full set of drivers for Y560 V1.0 Win7 32/64bit (in addition, a copy of the disk D); disk with a set of pre-installed software: Adobe Reader, Power2Go, CyberLink YouCam, Lenovo DirectShare , McAfee Virus Scan, PlusReadyComm, VeriFace; disc player WinDVD lenovo 1.2, which is also installed on the laptop. Completes the list of user manual for 140 pages, a brief reminder of the initial setup.

The first impression of the work was unpleasant. Installed on a laptop Win7 HB decent brakes, crashed a few times, not only in carrying out the tests, but simply on the level ground, repeatedly dumped into the system “blue screen”. In addition, there have been problems with data transmission via Bluetooth and, most unpleasant, refused to work normally touchpad with multi-touch feature well-known firm Synaptics … Conducted himself as an old optical mouse on the mirror surface – the cursor jumping around the screen or did not work ( lost device), instead of moving press the button and vice versa! Most likely, this particular model deficiencies, but it characterizes the level of quality control at the factory. So the performance of your laptop is still worth checking out when shopping.

Let’s look at the basic elements of the functionality of the laptop in position.

1. Built-in camera, is used for video conferencing, recording commercials and a face recognition system, VeriFace.
2. Built-in microphone with echo compensation and noise reduction.
3. Antenna module wireless network.
4. Computer display with 16:9 aspect ratio.
5. System status indicators – HDD / Bluetooth / Wireless LAN / Num Lock / Caps Lock / Touch Lock / GPU – burn with active devices. However, if a Bluetooth adapter turns off after Win7, but no utility Lenovo (Fn + F5), then the icon will light up to the moment until it happens mechanically disable all wireless devices.
6. Speaker System JBL.
7. Power button with lights.
8. Button to run the OneKey Rescue System – Backup and restore data.
9. Ambient light sensor – can automatically adjust the screen brightness when activated in ALS utility Lenovo Energy Management, the section “intelligent control”.
10. Lenovo SlideNav bar – customizable “hot keys”.
11. Capacitive touch buttons run power management Lenovo Energy Management, Configuration screen mode OneKey Theater II and located at the side push buttons control volume + / -/mute.
12. The touchpad buttons TouchPad c.

All the lights are dim milky-white and not very distracting at night.
Keyboard

Key block has remained the same as in the model last year.
[Enlarge]

Keyboard classic keys nadkursornogo unit located a vertical line to the right. The digital block is missing, although now it appears in the 15-dyumovyh notebooks, more and more often. No other additional advanced features such as backlight, no. Over large buttons with white chocolate “stickers” large and legible font printed characters. System functions that one or the other key in combination with the Fn, indicated by orange symbols on the lower edges of the keys.

By the way, Fn is located in the corner, which is very bad for usability. If you are using a different keyboard in parallel, such as a desktop computer, then continually move from one to another – torment. If the other computers you use, you get used to this the relative position of the Ctrl and Fn can, but with the keyboard will still be less convenient.
[Enlarge]

The form of the traditional key, with beveled edges. A little is not enough separation between the deepening of the buttons (finger does not sink), and therefore provide some mistakes, such as the narrow Enter.

Auxiliary keys (Shift, Ctrl, etc) are large, and it was good. Particularly pleasing large raised buttons on the block arrows. They also combined with the Fn brightness setting and provide a sound (the sound for a separate + / – buttons and mute, with the latter mode is activated glows white).
[Enlarge]

Keys nadkursornogo unit, Home / End / PgUp / PgDown, as we have seen, lined by a vertical line on the right side of the keyboard. Above them is Delete an unusual form. Horizontally, this key and a half times longer than the others. PrintScreen is in the form of separate keys, but here in Ins place was not enough, this key is made of a combination of Fn + F12. In the vertical column would like to see the block split-type series F1-F4/F5-F8/F9-F12.

Keystroke is soft and does not create a lot of noise at work, except for the Enter key and space bar are significantly louder. When you print a keyboard unit is bent noticeably, especially in the center. Housing is also easy to bend and twist like an eraser, and in particularly rough handling is likely to damage the internal parts of the motherboard, the appearance of microcracks, etc. Perhaps it is a struggle for weight, perhaps – for the final cost. In any case, this shortcoming that must be considered. On the Enter key, there is another problem – if you press on the center, holding the top down, the toe pad rests on the sharp edge of the upper-right keys Shift, bringing discomfort.

In general, the keyboard is not the worst. For the Internet and playing with WASD block is fine.

I should add that to the English-speaking market comes like a keyboard, but with a short left-Shift, by adding in its place the button “\” in turn make way for a large “L-shaped» Enter.
The touchpad and pointing devices
[Enlarge]

In Y560 touchpad is Synaptics (V7.4) with the function of multi-touch, available in medium Win7 by default. Functions multitouch touchpad do work with a more convenient, for example, simply scroll through the document – enough to the surface of two fingers. Here he became more narrow as compared with the touchpad on the previous series, Y550. Physical dimensions are approximately 90 × 50 mm (16:9). To provide feedback touchpad surface is studded with small tubercles, ie, You can clearly feel as moved a finger. On the surface there is a dedicated vertical scroll zone, at this point there is no bumps.

Movement on the surface a little tighter than the “Teflon” brothers, but a better positioning, without slipping. In general, the sensitivity of the touchpad at the high and the driver offers a huge number of settings, but it is unlikely you will need to change something. To eliminate false positives when using the keyboard, touch-block can be disabled by pressing Fn + F6, display the buttons light up brightly white. In those rare moments when the touchpad worked on it were only a good impression.

Buttons are still two, but this time they are glossy copper-and surely will be collecting fingerprints. In addition, they are soft, flimsy and a little dangling from side to side, and the absence of the usual hard clique very very nervous doing the work.
Additional keys and indicators

The location of the main indicators and multimediaklavish been described in the section “Housing”, and here we take a closer look at their functionality.

1. System OneKey Rescue System – this is an easy-to-use application for data backup system partition (drive C) and simple recovery, if necessary. OneKey Recovery can be used in Windows, and the OneKey Rescue System can be used without the operating system Windows.
2. SlideNav Bar – fine ribbed touchpad with seven LEDs. Touching runs a utility Lenovo, which you can open the custom entities quick start, with a gesture to change wallpaper, hide or reveal the screen (in fact, enable screensaver) to change the workspace of a finger on the pad (although this feature is available only in software, which is not supplied with a laptop .)

The most demanded feature to run applications implemented as follows: open the list of applications that are driving your finger along it, reaching the desired program, raise a finger – and the selected item starts. By default, SlideNav Bar is highlighted. To remove pesky point on the center panel, you need to put a checkbox in the settings of the “Turn off blinking”, and turn off their sound effects does not hurt. The remaining functions are more cosmetic jewelry.

3. Battery icon – it’s sensory button quick access to customized power supply, and the camera – run OneKey Theater II, the utility selection of optimal screen settings of the predefined scenarios: normal mode, watching movies and intelligent mode. By and large, useless tool.

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