Lenovo is respected primarily for its ThinkPad series laptops, which are rightfully considered classics of the corporate genre and almost a standard of reliability and ergonomics. However, there is no merit in this Chinese developers, since the mentioned series was developed in the USA by IBM. As for the IdeaPad line, aimed at end users, it is less known and popular, according to at least we have.

In our opinion, Lenovo's range of consumer laptops is not well developed: on the one hand, some models are too similar in technical specifications or design, but on the other hand, some market segments are not covered. For example, Lenovo has only one model with a 17.3" screen - the entry-level laptop G770, which cannot fully satisfy the needs of both home and office users. Lenovo does not have a gaming series at all, and the direction of "advanced" entertainment laptops is represented only one Y line, including only two models - with screens 14 and 15.6".

In our review we will focus on the senior model of Lenovo's consumer series, which belongs to the mentioned Y line. The IdeaPad Y570 laptop is a rather interesting option for home use: at a price typical for middle-class home laptops, it is equipped with a fairly powerful graphics card, which is usually present in models premium.

Specifications

It's no surprise that the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 laptop is built on Intel platform Huron River and is equipped with a variety of processors - from the inexpensive Core i3 (as in our test configuration) up to 4-core Core i7. However, the central unit of the device, which determines all the main design and functionality features, is the discrete video card GeForce GT 555M.

By the way, this video card exists in no less than three various options, differing in both graphics chips and memory configuration. The version installed in the Lenovo model is an overclocked version of the well-known GeForce GT 540M video card (GPU frequency increased to 750 MHz, that is, by 12%). More powerful GDDR5 video memory is used, but with a lower clock frequency and on the same 128-bit bus as the GeForce GT 540M video card. Thus, it does not reach the level of gaming mobile video cards, but its level of performance in games will be higher than that of the video cards of the vast majority of mid-range laptops.

The graphics of the IdeaPad Y570 are switchable. Branded software technology Nvidia Optimus is complemented by a small switch on the front edge, which allows you to choose between the priority mode of the integrated or discrete video card. In the second case, the white LED lights up, which is quite convenient for visual control.

Lenovo engineers paid enough attention to the issue of adequate cooling. The laptop is equipped with a massive cooling system with a copper radiator. Separate heat pipes are connected to the processor and video card; the internal space is divided into several independent zones by a plastic frame. The large cover, which occupies 3/4 of the bottom, provides access to the fan, which can be easily removed by unscrewing several screws, which is convenient for cleaning and lubricating it. Moreover, the cooling system has convenient software control using a touch button. You can select one of four fan operating modes - normal, quiet, intensive and cleaning (pulsating to blow out dust), each of which is differently indicated by backlighting (intensity + flashing). No one has yet come up with a more convenient and practical way to control cooling.

Lenovo Y series laptops are equipped only with inexpensive LCD matrices with a resolution of 1366x768. We do not know anything about the appearance of modifications with a 3D screen on sale. The issue of built-in sound is given a little more attention - for example, the speakers are equipped with the JBL logo, but there are only two of them, and there is no subwoofer.

The laptop case has a compartment for one standard 2.5" hard drive and one solid-state drive in the mSATA form factor. Lenovo produces configurations with a pre-installed 32 GB SSD, which is used for caching system files. In theory, a larger capacity SSD can be installed there as well.

The Y570 laptop has a standard set of interfaces for its price class. There are two USB port 3.0, one regular USB 2.0 port and one eSATA/USB 2.0 port. There are two outputs to an external monitor/TV, both standard - HDMI and VGA (RGB). Configurations with a built-in TV tuner are available, but they are quite rare. There is a multi-format card reader, a webcam with a resolution of 2 MP (not in all configurations), and a microphone array - as befits a good-quality model for home use. The location of the ports is convenient: almost all of them are placed on the left side, with the exception of the card reader (front) and both USB 3.0 ports (right).

Battery capacity increased by almost 30% compared to basic level. Thanks to this, a laptop with "gluttonous" The video card can work without recharging for an acceptable time.

Overall from a design point of view Lenovo model Y570 is made at a good level. All aspects that the owner of a laptop with a high-performance video card may encounter (cooling, cleaning, increased energy consumption) are taken into account. SSD support, the ability to independently access all important components is provided. True, the case turned out to be quite bulky, oversized, with excessive thickness and weight by today's standards, but this, in general, is inevitable in laptops of this class.

Design

For some reason, Lenovo designers decided to unify the appearance of the two consumer series, and the IdeaPad Y570 laptop looks very similar to the IdeaPad Z570 model, but has a wider and thicker body and a different design additional buttons. Thus, the interior of the device is a large smooth aluminum panel of gray-violet color, framed by a glossy plastic insert. The island keyboard with black keys is located in a shallow recess and is equipped with a matte stencil to match the color of the surrounding aluminum. Above the keyboard are rectangular grilles of JBL speakers and a row of backlit buttons, touch and mechanical. The wide touchpad with a fine dot pattern is framed with shiny milling and equipped with a flat matte button.

The design of the lid is more interesting than that of the Z570 model: black plastic with imitation transverse polishing is equipped with a shiny dotted geometric pattern, original, but, as it seems to us, not very harmonious with the interior. For some reason, the inside of the lid is made of glossy plastic, which is quite thin and uneven. Of course, this is a matter of taste, but we found the purple metal boring and not very attractive, and the manufacturer did not provide another color option. (By the way, the Z series models have recently changed color scheme towards brownish-gray. Perhaps the same fate will befall the Y series models.)

Unfortunately, the laptop body does not have a rigid frame and is flexible and unstable when deformed. When twisted and slightly squeezed, the plastic crunches, the panels, including metal ones, bend, the lid bends easily, although it is not pressed down to the matrix. The lid hinge is fragile, has some play, and the hinges are made of thin plastic. And in general, the laptop case does not make the most pleasant impression; it seems cheap, flimsy and short-lived, although in reality this may not be the case.

Screen

Our copy Lenovo laptop was equipped with an LCD matrix manufactured by LG. An ordinary unremarkable budget matrix, with low contrast, narrow color gamut, small viewing angles. True, the image is not very cold - on the contrary, White color even warmer than necessary (5900 K). The gamma is heavily distorted towards exaggerating dark tones and increasing contrast in light tones, which is supposedly optimal for 3D games. There is a slight graininess noticeable, the colors are slightly distorted, especially the red (it appears brick orange).

Using the Movie button, the screen can be switched to a special mode that increases brightness and contrast. This is done programmatically through gamma correction, which is not very effective, but still slightly improves the visual experience of watching movies.

Sound

Under the rather modest grilles are hidden good speakers with relatively powerful, rich sound. Of course, we are not talking about the level of the highest quality built-in audio systems - there are laptops with more powerful sound, however, the difference compared to typical entry-level speakers is clearly felt.

True, we were unable to find any settings panels other than the standard one Realtek panels, however, the laptop already sounds convincing, with a good frequency spectrum, noticeable bass and a generally pleasant, balanced timbre.

Keyboard, display, touchpad

The Lenovo laptop is equipped with a keyboard design characteristic of this manufacturer - concave keys on a flat stencil backing. Yes, the design of the keyboard is excellent, the backing does not get dirty and does not sag when typing, the keys hardly dangle, and have an optimal shape for centering the fingers. However, I didn’t really like the rigid, tight mechanism with an increased stroke (more than 2.5 mm); it requires some getting used to. The layout is almost standard, but there are some features that not everyone will like: for example, very short Enter and right Shift, reduced-width numeric field keys included in the general “cursors” field, a remote Pause/Break key.

The laptop's display and buttons are implemented in a unique way - more convenient than beautiful (although for a home device the latter aspect is usually not in last place). Top right row touch buttons looks like concave holes with uneven illumination, rather sloppy and too small. Three keys are responsible for controlling the volume, another one turns on the Movie mode and one controls the cooling.

On the left there is a power button with a dotted luminous pattern, a OneKey Recovery button (system Reserve copy) and three “invisible” indicators (keyboard and hard drive). Four more indicators, this time dot indicators rather than icons, are located on the front edge under the touchpad - power, battery, Wi-Fi and touchpad (off). The LEDs and their designations are clearly visible when the cover is closed.

The touchpad has decent dimensions (99x50 mm), is placed shallowly, but it barely fits under the palm when typing, since the laptop has a large area for the wrists. The finger glides over the touchpad easily, the dotted corrugation does not interfere, the cursor is responsive and fast. The Synaptics controller works quite clearly and confidently; However, I didn’t like the support for two- and three-finger movements. The mouse buttons make a loud click and are quite stiff and therefore uncomfortable. In general, the usability of the touchpad is below average.

Performance

Since the Lenovo laptop is built on a standard hardware platform, we don’t see much point in considering its overall performance. We will be interested in its discrete video card, and more specifically, its advantage over a typical mid-class laptop video card, the GeForce GT 540M. We recently added a couple of more modern gaming applications to our list of 3D tests, with which we can add a little more to the overall picture.

As a reference we will take the recently tested Acer laptop Aspire 5755G with GeForce GT 540M video card.

So, according to the results of all tests without exception, the IdeaPad Y570 model thanks to GeForce video card The GT 555M provided an advantage of 20-30% depending on the application. The highest winnings were recorded in the most demanding game on our list, Crysis 2 - 38%. True, our FPS indicator is not playable, although we chose a gentle quality level (High). The Lenovo laptop handles games of the previous generation more or less successfully.

The Windows 7 test traditionally did not rate highly, firstly, the capabilities of a discrete video card in 2D/video, and secondly, the performance of the hard drive. He had no questions about the processor, memory and 3D; our configuration seemed relatively balanced to him.

Time battery life

The Lenovo laptop uses switchable graphics, and we tested battery life in "Power saving GPU"(selected using a hardware switch). Thanks to the use of a normal-capacity battery, the absolute indicators of battery life are quite good - from 5 hours when using Wi-Fi to 7 hours when reading PDF(MobileMark 2007 Reader test).

The average power consumption in the MobileMark 2007 Productivity test was 11.3 W, which is for a laptop with discrete graphics, albeit switchable, a very good result.

Noise and heat

Thanks to the ability to select the fan operating mode, the user will not encounter either strong heating of the case under intense load, or increased noise during quiet operation. When the intensive mode is turned on, the noise level is naturally above average, but the processor and graphics chip do not overheat (up to 70° when using the stress test from AIDA64 and graphics test Unigine Heaven). The temperature of the panels under the wrists does not exceed 31°; in the interior, heating of the upper part of the center of the keyboard is noticeable (up to 40°), since the video card components are located in that area. At the bottom the temperature is low, 30-35°, only in a small area near the radiator there was an increase to 40°, which is not significant.

Conclusion

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 model should be called budget option premium entertainment and home laptop. The thing is that in order to achieve an excellent combination of price/performance in games, the developers sacrificed many components present in expensive models, and above all, a high-quality screen. However, unlike, for example, Acer, which takes the same approach, Lenovo takes reliability and durability seriously. In particular, the Y570 model has enough effective system cooling, with program control and easy self-service. And this, you see, is important.

Advantages:
good price/performance combination, especially in 3D games;
good (in its class) built-in sound;
good cooling system with simple controls;
normal set of ports;
sufficient battery life.

Flaws:
massive and heavy, but not very durable body;
unique design, only one color option;
inexpensive screen of mediocre quality;
not the best ergonomics.
A source of information:

On the Lenovo blog on Habré, we pay the most attention to the ThinkPad series, which is quite logical - judging by the reviews, most of you like these models, created for work and creativity, strong and strict in appearance. But today we have a review of the IdeaPad Y570 model, a bright representative Lenovo's "custom" series of laptops, very different from IBM's legacy business models. It’s difficult to ignore such a laptop: at a cost of 30 thousand rubles, it provides you with one of the most powerful video cards, a modern Intel Core processor, as well as incredibly fast disk system. The hybrid of a capacious hard drive and a fast SSD became standard in 1950: most laptop modifications are equipped with it. In this review, I'll talk about the benefits of loading in 15 seconds, what changes have occurred in the new Y-series model, and why you should choose this model as a home entertainment center.

Appearance

Let's start talking about the design of the IdeaPad Y570 with the fact that this model has much less gloss. I know that this criterion is very important for many users. The updated laptop from the gaming series retains a glossy display and a frame around it. Everything else is not shiny and does not collect fingerprints. Moreover, the keyboard panel is completely made of metal, which adds strength to the laptop’s design.

The display cover is covered with a “dot” texture, on which light scratches are invisible.

The signature orange bezel remains in place, but the keyboard panel, previously completely glossy, now looks completely different.

The keyboard and touchpad have also changed. Appeared digital block the keys, although tightly “ground in” to the main keyboard, the touchpad has increased in size. It is very pleasant to work with, although it does require some training, especially with the mouse buttons spaced far apart from each other. When typing, the touchpad is temporarily locked to prevent accidental clicks. But from the touch panel, which allows you to quickly launch the right application, they decided to abandon the new modification.

The laptop is equipped with a universal set of connectors. There are 4 USB ports, two on each side, and two of them support speed standard USB 3.0, another one is combined with an eSata port. To connect an external display you can use analog interface D-Sub or digital HDMI. Finally, there are separate headphone and microphone jacks, an Ethernet port, and an SDHC card reader.

One cannot fail to note the powerful audio system developed jointly with JBL. It provides very powerful sound for a laptop, and performs well in cases where it is not possible to connect to a device external speakers.

Performance

Y-series laptops are also attractive because their modifications usually differ only in the processor model, hard drive size and the number of installed RAM sticks. The video card in all versions is the same, in this case it is a powerful GeForce GT 555M accelerator with a gigabyte of its own memory. This allows you to purchase a cheaper model, for example with a Core i3 processor, but in terms of graphics you will get an equally powerful machine.

Game lovers will also like the display resolution: 1366x768 pixels. For some, this resolution on a 15-inch matrix will seem too small, but in 3D applications it allows you to achieve better performance compared, for example, with FullHD displays. I tested the laptop version with Intel processor Core i5-2410M (2.3 GHz), with a price tag of about 35,000 rubles. It is noteworthy that a model with a 4-core Intel Core i7 and an otherwise identical configuration costs only 3,000 rubles more.

The GeekBench test results were higher than the ThinkPad X220 with more powerful processor Intel Core i5-2520M. This was due to the faster memory running in this laptop in dual-channel mode (2x2 GB).

The laptop is equipped with switchable graphics, which ensures high performance and decent battery life. To switch, there is a special lever on the front edge: this is perhaps the most convenient solution, since you don’t need to go into the video settings to determine optimal mode work. In the already old 3DMark test, when working with integrated Intel graphics, the following result is obtained:

When switching to an NVIDIA video card, we get a twofold increase:

Under prolonged load in the FurMark test, the GPU temperature does not rise above 85-87 degrees. A fan in combination with a fairly massive radiator copes with this load quite well, but makes quite a noticeable noise. By the way, in proprietary software Lenovo has a special utility for this laptop to control the cooling system, which allows you to set a “quiet” operating mode, or vice versa - force the cooler to turn on at maximum speed. The latter is presented as a means for cleaning dust, which in general may not be amiss.

Hybrid disk system

But this feature of the IdeaPad Y570 is practically not covered in independent tests, but in vain. Trying to find a reasonable balance between performance and price, Lenovo engineers decided to use two drives in this laptop: a 32 GB SSD installed in the mSata slot and a large and rather slow 750 GB hard drive with a rotation speed of 5400 rpm. In the system they are combined into one section: this technology is called RapidDrive, and in Windows it is controlled by a special driver.

The result of this approach is visible the first time you turn on the laptop: the system boots in 10-15 seconds, and the laptop wakes up instantly from sleep mode. Programs also launch quickly, as when using regular drive SSD. In the HDTune test, in the initial area of ​​the logical partition, average speed linear data reading approx. 140 megabytes per second.

IdeaPad Y570 owners have a lot of questions about clean Windows reinstallation using RapidDrive. There are special instructions for such cases on the technical support website. In short, the system needs to be installed on an SSD, and then the RapidDrive driver must be installed. The “large” hard drive must not be partitioned: the program will automatically create a virtual partition with a total volume of about 730 “honest” gigabytes.

Autonomous operation

The laptop is equipped with a 6-cell battery, which in early Y-series models provided at most a couple of hours of battery life. With the advent hybrid graphics everything changed, and in the standard video playback test I got very impressive 4 hours 28 minutes autonomous work. Although the size and weight of the model make the Y570 more of a home device, if necessary, it can be used away from a power outlet for quite a long time. During the test, the screen brightness was set to 70% of the maximum, the WiFi module was turned on, the sound was output to the headphones, and the Intel graphics.

Summary

Main distinctive features I would call the Y570 a hybrid RapidDrive system and a powerful video card. It is these two features that make the laptop very pleasant to use: you simply enjoy the instant response of programs and the model’s ability to effectively cope with any task, including games and video encoding. A universal set of connectors allows you to turn your laptop into a home entertainment center: you can connect both a large TV and a fast external drive to it, although it itself is equipped with an impressive data storage of three-quarters of a terabyte. And all this - at a cost of 40,000 rubles for the most powerful configuration and from 30 for the basic one, which is not that much inferior in performance. When buying a laptop, I recommend choosing a model with a hybrid SSD+HDD system. For a small difference in cost, it provides a real performance boost in everyday tasks.

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At the beginning of 2008, the first Lenovo IdeaPad Y series laptops were presented at CES. These mobile PCs quickly gained recognition and authority among users due to their outstanding appearance, powerful hardware, excellent build quality, and the presence of useful functions and technologies. In addition, laptops were often equipped with an audio system with JBL speakers and a bright, colorful display. In other words, Lenovo IdeaPad Y laptops had everything to become indispensable assistants in providing leisure time for the whole family. In essence, these are full-fledged multimedia centers with a fantastic appearance.

The IdeaPad Y line has been updated more than once over its three-year history. Last time this happened at the beginning of this year. In May, two new models went on sale: the fourteen-inch IdeaPad Y470 and the fifteen-inch IdeaPad Y570. Both devices received processors Intel Sandy Bridge and video cards from NVIDIA. The display of both laptops has a resolution of 1366x768 pixels, the set of ports and interfaces in the models is similar. But if we take into account that it is “tags” that are more popular, the demand for the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 will most likely be slightly higher than for the Y470.

Our test laboratory received just a fifteen-inch device equipped with an Intel Core i5-2410M processor, video cards NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M and Intel HD Graphics 3000, four gigabytes of RAM and hard drive at 640 GB. Agree, the equipment is more than worthy. So, what pleased and surprised us with the multimedia laptop from Lenovo, we will tell you in this review.

Specifications

CPU:	Intel Core i5-2410M 2300 MHz
RAM:	4 GB DDR3-1333 MHz
Data storage:	640 GB 5400 rpm SATA
Display:	15.6" 1366 x 768 LED Glare
Video card:	NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M (1024 MB)/Intel HD Graphics 3000
Drive unit:	DVD/CD Combo burner/reader
Wireless connection:	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
Interfaces:	USB 2.0, USB/eSATA, 2xUSB 3.0, VGA (D-Sub), HDMI, LAN (RJ-45), card reader
Additionally:	2 MP webcam, JBL 2.0 speaker system with SRS Premium Surround Sound
Battery:	six-section lithium-ion 4400 mAh
Dimensions, weight:	385 x 255 x 22/35.7 mm, 2.7 kg
Operating system:	Windows 7 Home Basic

Design

Lenovo IdeaPad Y series laptops have always been characterized by creative design. This mobile PC is no exception. The body of the IdeaPad Y570 is made entirely of metal, and the lid and topcase have completely different textures. If the under-palm area is smooth, then the lid is made of textured aluminum. It is covered with a pattern of small dots. It seems as if the surface of the lid is perforated. This is a visual deception, a very “stylish and practical” deception, please note. By the way, the coating is matte, so fingerprints, scratches and other traces of use will not be visible on the laptop body. The strong black aluminum lid does not creak or bend under hand pressure, which indicates the highest quality of materials and assembly. The rim of the lid is made of orange plastic. The combination of black and orange colors (Black Orange) looks very stylish, fresh and relevant.

When closed, the laptop looks even more interesting and “tastier.” The case thickness is 22-35.7 mm (front-rear). All corners of the case are rounded, the lid is slightly beveled towards the edges. Two small hinges are made of glossy black plastic. Not to say that this is the standard of rigidity and elasticity, because the hinges are not able to hold the lid at the final closing point. However, this drawback cannot be called critical.

Since the lid fits tightly to the topcase, some inconvenience may occur when opening it. Fortunately, on the edge of the front edge you can see a special notch. The Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 looks solid and monolithic; it seems as if such a case is not afraid of “neither rain, nor slush,” nor scratches, nor dirt, nor stains.

The interior of the laptop is no less attractive than the exterior. The topcase is made of polished aluminum, the color is just a little red. The palmar area is very pleasant to the touch; it feels comfortable and pleasant to the hands. By different sides from the touchpad you can see several nameplates signaling the installed processor, video card and OS, as well as the advantages that make the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 special (AccuType keyboard, JBL acoustics, SRS Premium Sound, OneKey and more). Above the keyboard you can see two speakers hidden under a perforated grille, a power button, a OneKey Rescue System key, several blue-white LEDs and five additional touch buttons.

The bottom is made of black matte plastic. You can see four pyramid-shaped rubber feet on it. All replaceable components are hidden under one large removable panel. You can get to the hard drive and RAM slots in a matter of seconds.

Display and sound

The laptop received a widescreen display AU Optronics B156XW02 V2, the diagonal of which is 15.6 inches. The AIDA64 diagnostic utility showed that the maximum viewable screen area is 15.3 inches (34x19 cm). The colors on the display are realistic, rich and colorful, the picture contrast is quite high. However, the color scheme is a bit cold, and some colors in the pictures will appear bluish. According to the screen's passport data, the brightness level is 220 cd/m2, the response time is 8 ms, and horizontal viewing angles are in the range of 40-45°. Vertical viewing angles are somewhat smaller (the upper ones are 10-15 degrees, and the lower ones are 30-35°).

The resolution of the matrix is ​​1366x768 pixels. For displays with this diagonal, the resolution is standard. Undoubtedly, a multimedia laptop with a screen resolution of 1600x900 or 1920x1080 pixels would look much more presentable, but the developers of this model decided to focus on something else. Thus, the laptop has a high-quality acoustic system, which even seventeen-inch mobile devices can envy. But more on that a little later. The cinematic aspect ratio of 16:9 allows you to watch HD videos without black bars on the sides of the screen. It is better to watch films in the format in which they were created.

Due to the glossy coating of the matrix, working on a laptop in bright artificial or natural light (sunlight) will be awkward and uncomfortable. This is a drawback of absolutely all “mirror” screens; the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 is not worth reproaching for this.

The laptop is equipped with an audio system with JBL speakers. This American company specializes in the production of audio equipment. High-quality engineers have been working for decades to create the perfect sound. The volume, clarity, depth and richness of the sound of the JBL speakers in the IdeaPad Y570 laptop will not raise any questions or complaints. The loudspeakers are located above the keyboard and hidden under a perforated metal cover. You can easily watch a movie in a large company without connecting additional acoustics. Fortunately, the quality of the speakers allows you to enjoy media content. In addition, the laptop has SRS Premium Sound technology, which creates natural surround sound. The IdeaPad Y570 actually “sounds” quite well, and, perhaps, not every modern fifteen-inch laptop can boast such acoustics.

The laptop also features Lenovo OneKey Theater II technology. In fact, this is special software that allows you to optimize the color gamut and volume of your laptop when watching videos. With one press of the corresponding button, the laptop is switched to “entertainment” mode with optimized video and audio settings.

Keyboard and touchpad

The laptop is equipped with a proprietary AccuType chiclet keyboard, consisting of 102 black buttons. Their shape is square, the bottom side of the keys is slightly curved. The buttons are small in size, the distance between them is 2 mm. Typing on a laptop with such controls is very easy; your fingers quickly find the right key, thereby reducing the number of errors when touch typing. The buttons are pressed softly and clearly, and have a clear response moment. The substrate itself does not bend under the pressure of the hands, which indicates high quality materials used. The letters of the English and Russian alphabet are printed in white, but the additional symbols are full of red. It's about about marking buttons that work only in conjunction with function key Fn. By combining the Fn button with several keys on the main keyboard (Esc, F1-F6, F9-F12, PrintScreen, Insert, arrow block), you can control volume, brightness, media content, etc. There was also a place for a digital panel, which is useful when working with a large amount of numerical data.

Above the main block of keys there are several additional buttons. There is a power key, a button to call OneKey Rescue System (system recovery system), three LEDs (CapsLock, NumLock, hard drive boot). All buttons and indicators are illuminated in white. Closer to the right speaker are five recessed speakers touch keys. Using the first three, you can control the sound volume (“turn off”, “quieter”, “louder”). The penultimate key calls up the OneKey Theater II application (selecting video and music playback modes), but the last one allows you to change the operation plan of the cooling system fan (standard, ultra-quiet, effective heat dissipation, dust collection).

Below the spacebar is a large touchpad made by Synaptics. Its dimensions are 100x53 mm. It has a dotted surface, allowing the cursor to be positioned easily and clearly. There are vertical and horizontal scroll bars for scrolling. The first, by the way, is marked with small red dots, but the second is not highlighted at all. The touchpad recognizes multi-gestures, making it much more convenient to use the touch pad. The touchpad button is double. When it is triggered, a characteristic ringing sound is produced. The key is quite hard to press. When working with touchpad buttons, you need to be extremely careful, because LMB and RMB will have to be distinguished “by eye”. We advise you to press the touchpad keys along the edges, because the rocker key in the center will not work. By the way, touchpad can be disabled by pressing the key combination Fn+F6.

Processor and performance

There are several configurations of the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570. Depending on the model, different Intel Core processors of the Sandy Bridge family, different amounts of RAM and hard drive may be used. All modifications of the IdeaPad Y570 have one thing in common - the NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M card. It is this graphics adapter that is installed in all versions of the Y570 mobile PC.

We received a Lenovo IdeaPad Y570-524A-1 laptop for testing. This is not the most powerful, but also far from the weakest laptop in this series. It is equipped with an Intel Core i5-2410M processor with a clock speed of 2300 MHz. This dual-core CPU is built on Sandy Bridge architecture and supports Hyper-Threading technology to process all four threads simultaneously. Moreover, the processor is equipped with an overclocking function Turbo Boost 2.0, thanks to which the frequency can reach 2.6 GHz (2 active cores) and 2.9 GHz (with one active core). The Intel Core i5-2410M is equipped with integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000, which operates at frequencies from 650 to 1200 MHz (with Turbo Boost). An improved dual-channel DDR3 memory controller is also built into the processor chip. The third level cache is 3 MB.

The laptop's graphical performance is provided by two video cards: a built-in Intel HD Graphics 3000 adapter and a discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M card. The first one is useful when working with undemanding applications, office programs, surfing the Internet, listening to music, etc. That is, HD Graphics 3000 is used in cases where the graphics power of the computer is not needed. This will save battery power and, consequently, increase the autonomy of the laptop. Switching between integrated and discrete graphic cards can be carried out either automatically or manually. For this purpose, there is a special rocker button, which is located on the front edge of the laptop. When the NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M is activated, a white light next to the switch lights up. It is worth noting that the lit LED indicates that the discrete and integrated cards can switch between each other using NVIDIA Optimus technology. When the indicator is off, only Intel HD Graphics 3000 will be active.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M is a fast mid-range graphics adapter built using a 40 nm process technology. It supports DirectX 11, Shader 5.0, OpenCL, CUDA and DirectCompute 2.1, and is equipped with PureVideo HD and 3D Vision technologies. The IdeaPad Y570 has 1024 MB of GDDR5 video memory. With this adapter you can play Mafia 2, Crysis 2, Risen, at medium and high settings. Need for Speed ​​Shift and even in Metro 2033. The latter, however, will noticeably “slow down” at high settings.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y570-524A-1 is equipped with four gigabytes of DDR3-1333 RAM. Both slots are occupied by Ramaxel RMT3020EF48E8W1333 RAM strips (2 GB each). To increase the memory capacity to the maximum (8 GB), you need to change the installed memory sticks to four gigabyte ones. It is worth noting that the effective memory frequency is 1333 MHz, and the memory controller built into the processor, as often happens, does not limit this value to 1066 MHz.

The tested laptop has a Toshiba MK6465GSX hard drive with a capacity of 640 GB. The spindle speed of this hard drive is 5400 rpm, and the buffer is 8 MB. HD Tune Pro 4.50 app helped us determine speed characteristics installed hard disk. Thus, the average reading speed was 64.4 Mb/s (minimum – 26.3 Mb/s, maximum – 88.2 Mb/s). The access time, according to the results, is 17.4 ms, and the shooting speed is 121.2 Mb/s.

Benchmark system operating system Windows 7 gave its assessment to the laptop. Index Windows performance measures the capabilities of the laptop's hardware and software. This produces a score - a number called the Basic Performance Index. Thus, Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 earned 5.9 points. The graphics and hard drive performed the worst (5.9). Memory scored 7.4, processor 6.9, and gaming graphics 6.7. It is worth noting that at the time of testing the Intel card was active. This can be seen in the screenshot.

To test the gaming capabilities, the 3DMark 06 benchmark was used. In this package, the IdeaPad Y570 scored 10575 points, of which SM2.0 Score – 4606, HDR/SM3.0 Score – 4390, CPU Score – 3164.

Since the card installed in the laptop supports DirectX 11, we tested the mobile PC in the 3DMark 11 application. The results can be seen in the screenshot below.

To determine the performance of the video card and central processor, the Cinebench R11.5 program was used. The results were as follows: OpenGL – 28.52 fps, CPU – 2.56 pts.

Using the comprehensive PCMark Vantage test, we fully analyzed the performance of the computer. Essentially, this is a benchmark designed to measure the performance of the main subsystems of a laptop in software scenarios that correspond to real-life operating conditions.

Information about the processor, motherboard and RAM can be obtained using the CPU-Z application, and information about graphics adapter shows the GPU-Z program (separately for discrete and integrated cards). All screenshots can be seen below.

Communication ports

All modern laptops have approximately the same set of connectors. The difference, in fact, is only in the number of USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, the presence of eSATA and ExpressCard. Oh yes, these interfaces can also be located differently. So the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 does not stand out in anything remarkable. The only thing that might catch your eye is the presence of a combined USB/eSATA port.

Due to the design features, it was not possible to place the connectors on the rear edge. There was only room for the hinges and the battery. The front side is occupied by a card reader (SD/SD-Pro/MMC/MS/MS-pro/XD), a discrete and integrated graphics switch, and a lever for activating/deactivating wireless modules.

On the left side there are two audio connectors, one USB 2.0 port, a combined USB/eSATA, RJ-45 for connecting to local network, HDMI interface, VGA video output. There is also a grille for the laptop's cooling system.

On the opposite side you can find two USB 3.0 ports, an optical drive (DVD/CD Combo burner/reader), a power supply connector and a Kensington Lock.

Responsible for access to wireless networks Wi-Fi adapters 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth. A webcam (2 megapixels) is provided for video chatting and Skype. There is a built-in microphone next to it. As you can see, there is nothing superfluous in the set of ports. Everything is balanced, reasonable and justified.

Software

Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 comes with pre-installed operating system Windows system 7 Home Basic. In addition, you can find a lot of useful things on your laptop. software, which is designed to make working on a mobile PC easier.

The OneKey Rescue System complex is used to backup and restore the operating system. The application starts even when the laptop is turned off by pressing a single button located near the laptop's power key. OneKey Theater II improves picture and sound quality when watching movies. IdeaPad Y570 received Lenovo Enhanced Experience 2.0 certification. This is a new generation of proprietary program that allows you to optimize system settings. The laptop supports Lenovo RapidBoot technology for quick launch PC, and applications open twice as fast as usual. The corresponding sticker can be seen on the under-palm area. The VeriFace 3.6 program is used for facial recognition. This application helps protect your computer from unauthorized access. The Energy Management program is designed to manage laptop power.

This is not the entire list of pre-installed software. Rest assured: all programs will be useful to you to one degree or another.

Heat

Using the CPUID HWMonitor utility, we determined the heating temperature of the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 components. We found out that the processor heats up to 66ºC on average (min 47ºC, max 86ºC). The average heating temperature of the discrete video card was 53 degrees Celsius (min 32ºC, max 74ºC). The hard drive is subject to less heating, so the minimum and maximum temperatures differ slightly (min 38ºC, max 45ºC, value 43ºC). This program also showed us the capacity installed battery. The corresponding screenshot can be seen below.

After this, we determined the heating temperature of the laptop surfaces. Readings were taken at five points of the work area and the bottom of the mobile PC. Subjectively, it was found that heating is felt after 32ºC. Based on these criteria, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 turned out to be a “hot” laptop. Thus, in idle mode, the highest value was recorded at the central point of the top case and the bottom of the laptop.

To determine the degree of heating of the laptop under maximum load, we alternately ran the AIDA64 stress test and the 3DMark06 benchmark. After this, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 became even hotter, the temperature at the central points of the working area and the bottom reached 40.7ºC and 43ºC, respectively.

The air temperature at the time of testing was 27 degrees Celsius. In the area of ​​the ventilation grille (copper, by the way), the air heated up to 50 ºC.

Battery

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 laptop comes with a six-section lithium-ion battery, whose capacity is 62 Wh. The battery looks quite compact. To get it, you need to perform simple operations: move the slider and press the latch. The power supply has a power of 120 W.

The laptop was tested for autonomy using the Battery Eater v 2.70 program. By changing the power supply type, we tested the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 in different BE modes. First, we determined how long the device would last in idle mode. The laptop we tested turned off after 9 hours and 27 minutes. After that, we charged the laptop. It took us 3 hours 55 minutes to do this.

By setting the power plan to “Energy Saving”, we found out how long the IdeaPad Y570 will work in classic and reader modes. In BE Classic the laptop lasted 3 hours 45 minutes, and in BE Reader - a full 6 hours! Quite a good result, isn't it? It is worth noting that the discrete video card was disabled on the laptop at that time, that is, the laptop was working with Intel HD Graphics 3000.

After that, we activated the NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M video card using the switch and set the power plan to “High Performance”. In reader mode, the IdeaPad Y570 lasted exactly 5 hours, but in “Classic” mode the laptop lasted only 1 hour and 31 minutes. The conclusion can be drawn as follows: if you decide to watch a movie or play games on the road, turn off discrete graphics and set the “Energy Saving” mode. Only in this case will you be able to actively use the laptop for more than 5 hours.

Conclusion

The number and variety of laptops on the computer market at the moment allows you to choose a device that fully meets the criteria of absolutely any user. With all this, most companies are trying to create something special in order to look more presentable against the rest. Lenovo, for example, presented a laptop that combines style, power and functionality. The Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 multimedia laptop turned out to be simply wonderful. It has a strong, attractive metal case, an ergonomic AccuType keyboard, a powerful speaker system with JBL speakers, and is equipped with a processor Intel family Sandy Bridge and discrete NVIDIA video card GeForce GT 555M, and also supports many useful features and technologies. Moreover, the IdeaPad Y570 offline mode can work for about 6 hours, which not every fifteen-inch laptop can do.

However, this was not without its drawbacks. The matrix installed in the IdeaPad Y570 would be more suitable budget laptop, but not a multimedia laptop. The second drawback is the high heating temperature of the case. Under maximum load conditions, a mobile PC can heat up to 43 degrees Celsius, which will undoubtedly affect operating comfort. Otherwise, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 has no shortcomings. Only the switches for graphics and wireless networks are made for amateurs. In our opinion, it is more expedient to implement such “sliders” in the form of buttons.

“Have you cleaned your laptop lately?!”
I recently asked this question to my friend when he began to complain that his laptop began to get very hot and turn off. I remember how we bought it together, it was a year and a half ago. And when my friend started talking about his problems, I immediately realized that I would have to disassemble him and clean him of all the rubbish that he had sucked in over these years and a half)))

Disappointing symptoms...

The patient, represented by a Lenovo%20Y570%0A laptop" rel="noopener nofollow">Lenovo Y570, according to the owner, suffered from overheating at the slightest load and subsequent reboot. Well, all the symptoms of a “radiator clogged with dust” are evident. To confirm this hypothesis, I tried to perform several tests on the CPU and GPU. But as soon as I launched the RealTemp program, designed to monitor the CPU temperature, the fan immediately began to howl, and after 5 seconds a “blue screen” appeared :-D
Hmmm... Everything is much sadder than I thought. The loaded BIOS informed me that the CPU was overheating, after which it completely refused to load Windows, citing the high temperature of the CPU. After several minutes of inactivity, Windows booted successfully, but trying to measure the temperature again using RealTemp led to the same result as the first time. Having thought about this whole situation and not coming to any conclusion optimal solution, I decided to improvise. Remembering my desktop thermometer with a remote temperature sensor, which stood on the computer desk, it was decided to measure the “exhaust” temperature.
The laptop has one radiator, to which I attached a thermal sensor:

After starting the laptop, I tried not to run any programs to avoid overheating, as a result of which I was able to measure the temperature:

Almost 63 degrees! It's not surprising that the laptop behaved this way. The CPU temperature most likely reached over 100 degrees, causing the overheat protection to trip. Without further torturing the poor fellow, I moved on to the autopsy)))

Opening

Turning the laptop upside down, I discovered an impressive removable panel and a small hole for air flow to the fan:

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Hoping that I wouldn’t have to unscrew anything else, I unscrewed the bolts and removed the cover:

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“It seems like there is access to all the screws...” I thought. But it was not there! Taking a closer look, I found several radiator mounting screws under the plastic casing that were impossible to access:

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As they say, there was no sadness... Well, you'll have to completely remove the back cover. First, it was necessary to remove all removable internal components, including the hard drive and battery. The HDD is attached to the case using a strip screwed to the sides of the hard drive:


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Removal DVD-ROM drive was carried out using a paper clip. First you need to unscrew the screw securing the drive, and then insert a paperclip into a small hole and pull it towards you:

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After removing the drive, several mounting screws were found:

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Having unscrewed all the existing mounting screws, I once again tried to remove back housings. But it didn’t work out for me, not surprisingly, since several more racks for screws were clearly visible in the area of ​​​​the keyboard and the panel adjacent to it. Armed with a utility knife, I carefully pryed the keyboard panel away from the screen side, and then carefully pulled it out. Great effort You shouldn’t apply it here, as you can tear out the cable when removing it, or even worse!

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One of the screws was hidden under a Lenovo company sticker:

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But even after I unscrewed it, the ill-fated panel did not give in to me. Having come to the conclusion that the lower part was not removable, I decided to remove all the plastic panels around the keyboard unit. Before removing all the panels, it was necessary to disconnect all existing cables from the board:

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And here's another screw:

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Removing the remaining part was not difficult; all you had to do was pry up the panel and bend the clips. After the last element of the “skin” was removed, the board appeared in all its glory:

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By disconnecting the USB 3.0 controller cable, the laptop display, as well as the connector from the speakers, it was possible to free the board from its plastic prison:

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The board's cooling system consisted of a standard radiator and a set of heat pipes. Unfortunately, the fan, like the radiator itself, was small, although the heat pipes were much larger in diameter than on the laptop I reviewed earlier.
Having removed the fan and radiator with heat pipes, I proceeded to replace the thermal interface:

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Testing

Now when you start the laptop, the fan is almost inaudible. After making sure that the system was completely stable, I installed the necessary software for testing and measuring the temperature. To begin with, the CPU was tested using LinX and RealTepm programs:

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The maximum core temperature stopped at 78 degrees after 10 minutes of testing, with stable performance indicators (Gflops). The exhaust temperature was 43 degrees:

The GPU was tested using the well-known online shooter Battlefield 3. After a 35-minute battle with “Medium” graphics settings, the maximum temperature was 77 degrees:

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Not bad results! The laptop got a second wind, in the truest sense of the word. The noise and temperature have decreased, and most importantly, the stable work all systems. This concludes my misadventures with dissecting the Lenovo Y570 laptop, I hope the information will be useful to someone.

Attention!
Opening and disassembling a laptop requires a certain skill and knowledge of the internal structure of the laptop. If you doubt your abilities, it is better to entrust this matter to the specialists of the SC!
Thank you all for your attention.