The Lenovo Y700: A Gaming Laptop with a Premium Feel

Hey guys, this is Austin. Recently, we took a look at a $400 gaming laptop, but this time, we're going to see what happens when you take it up a notch. This is the Lenovo Y700, a 14-inch gaming laptop that comes with a lot of goodies for its price of $750. The first thing I notice about this laptop is its carbon-fiber finish, which actually looks like plastic, but is definitely designed to give it a premium feel.

As we open up the laptop, we can see that it's well-built, with very little keyboard flex and a backlit keyboard that's all metal around the palm rest. This feels like a high-quality laptop, and the attention to detail is impressive. The ports are also straightforward, with a power adapter, single USB port, headphone and microphone jacks, as well as two more USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, and Ethernet. Overall, this is definitely a gaming laptop that's designed for serious gamers.

Despite its premium feel, the Lenovo Y700 has a fairly understated design. For the most part, it's just a black laptop with a few red accents here and there. The speakers are perhaps the only area where you might notice any gamer-themed design elements, but once you close up the lid, the laptop looks pretty tame. In comparison to other laptops we've reviewed, such as the Dell Inspiron 15, the Lenovo is smaller and more portable, which makes it a great option for students or professionals who need a reliable laptop on the go.

One of the big advantages of the Lenovo Y700 is its display. This laptop rocks a 14-inch, 1080p IPS panel that looks great, and is actually better than the TN panel on the Dell we reviewed last time around. However, it's worth noting that you can currently get this exact same model with a 4K display on Amazon for the same price - although, as Austin notes, this won't allow the laptop to game at 4K resolution.

The Lenovo Y700 also features solid speakers that are front-facing and relatively big for a laptop of its size. The sound isn't too loud, but it's clear and decent for a device of this type. The keyboard is also well-built, with backlit keys that are nice and responsive, although the trackpad isn't quite as impressive, lacking Windows precision drivers.

Inside the laptop, we find a quad-core i7-6700HQ processor paired with 16 gigabytes of DDR4 memory and Radeon R7 M375 graphics. While this may not be as powerful as some other gaming laptops on the market, it's still a solid performer that can handle most modern games at medium to high settings. In fact, in our testing, we found that CS:GO ran smoothly at around 60-80 frames per second at 1080p with everything cranked up to high.

However, some newer titles may require turning the settings down just a bit to keep frame rates stable, which can be frustrating for serious gamers. On the other hand, Overwatch ran beautifully at 40-50 frames per second on medium settings. But what's really impressive is that this laptop can also handle non-gaming tasks with ease - in fact, it's not a bad editing PC at all.

To put this to the test, we recorded gameplay footage and then brought it into Adobe Premiere for editing. To our surprise, the Lenovo Y700 handled everything smoothly, even at full resolution and scrubbing through the timeline was nice and smooth. Overall, the Lenovo Y700 is a solid gaming laptop that's worth considering - especially given its price.

Would you want to pick up the Y700? Let us know in the comments below!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Hey guys, this is Austin.Recently, we took a lookat a $400 gaming laptop,But this time, we'regoing to see what happensWhen you take it up a notch.This is the Lenovo Y700.It's a 14 inch gaming laptopwhich, for $750, has a lot going for it.So the first thing I see is itactually looks like ithas a carbon-fiber finish.I mean, that is definitely plastic, butit actually looks pretty nice.Inside here, we have thepower cable, some paperwork,what I assume is the power adapterwhich is, actually pretty big.Open this guy up andnot only do we have the14 inch display, but we also havewhat's actually really well-built,there's very little keyboard flex.It's a backlit keyboard,it's all metal around the palm rest.This feels like a pretty premium laptop.For ports, its pretty straightforward.We have a power adapter,a single USB port,As well as headphone and microphone.And on this side, we have two more USB 3,HDMI and ethernet.This is definitely a gaming laptop,But I'm glad that Lenovowent a little moresubtle with the styling.For the most part, it's just a black laptop with a few red accents.Sure, maybe like the speakers lookA little bit gamer-y,but for the most partonce you close it up, it's actually afairly understated looking laptop.Compared with the Inspiron 15that we did a video on a few months ago,the Lenovo is a lot smaller, which I like.Especially if you'regoing to be taking thisto something like school,its going to be a littlebit more portable.but also, it really doeslook a lot more understated.While this is not a bad-looking laptop,the whole Spider-Man aestheticis not going to be for everyone.One of the big advantagesis with the display.So this guy is rocking a14 inch, 1080p IPS panel,which looks a lot better thanthe TN panel on the Dell.Now, while this looks good as is,for right now, you canactually get this exact samemodel with a 4K display onAmazon for the same price.Now sure, it won't be able to game at 4K,but for normal use, that is going to lookreally, really nice at 14 inches.- Hey guys, this is Austin.The Galaxy Note 7 was one of thehottest phones of last year.- Terrible puns aside, thespeakers are pretty solid here.So they're actually front-facingand from the looks of them,they're actually reasonably big.They don't get superloud, but no complaints.What is pretty good is the keyboard.So like I said earlier, it isgoing to be backlit which is niceand the travel is pretty decent.Lenovo does a good jobwith keyboards usually.Now the trackpad isn't quite so amazing.So, its totally usable, but it doesn't usethe Windows precisiondrivers, which means that,its fine but for pretty much anything morethan a quick little bit of use,you're going to want a mouse.Inside, this guy is poweredby a quad core i7-6700HQ16 gigabytes of DDR4 memory, as well asRadeon R7 M375 graphics.It stacks up pretty wellcompared to the Dell.Now while is Skylake processorcompared to Kaby Lake on this guy,it's going to be an i7 versus an i5,which I would definitely prefer.It has twice as much memory.It also has a 256 gigabyte SSDon top of a 1 terabyte hard drive.This guy only has the SSD.The main thing you're giving up hereis that 1050Ti on the Dell.Now the Radeon graphics should bepretty decent here and it is $100 cheaper,so let's see how it performs.First up, we have CS:GO.Now this is by no means a new game,but it still runs prettywell on the Lenovo.We're getting somewhere between60 to 80 frames per second,and this is with everything cranked upon high settings at 1080p,as I get shot in the face.(laughs)Next, we have Shadow of Mordor.This is a little bit of a newer gameand importantly, it looksa lot nicer than CS:GO.Now the issue here is that we do have toturn settings down just a little bit.So right now we're runningat 900p on Medium andwe're getting anywhere between30 and 40 frames per second.It is playable, but it's not thegreatest experience in the world.I think that's kind ofa trend with the Lenovo.It can definitely handle gaming, no doubt,but for a lot of newer titles,you are going to have toturn the settings downto around medium or so.One game the Y700 candefinitely handle is Overwatch.So again here on 1080p at medium settings,we're anywhere between 40to 50 frames per second.It's a pretty good experience, butone of the nice things about the Lenovois it can handle more than just gaming.Taking that same gameplayfootage that we just recordedand bring it insideAdobe Premiere, you can seethat this is also not a bad editing PC.So with stuff like a Corei7 and 16 gigs of RAM,inside Premiere, thatactually runs pretty well.Now, to be fair, thisis only 1080p footage,but we are playing it at full resolutionand even stuff like scrubbing throughthe timeline is nice and smooth.The Lenovo Y700 definitely isn'ta perfect gaming laptop, butthere's a lot to like here.The screen is great,the specs are pretty solid.The only real issue here is thatthe graphics could just be better.But, for the price, there'snot a lot to complain about.So, as always, I'll have a linkto check this guy out in the description.I'm curious, would youwant to pick up the Y700?Let me know in the comments belowand I will catch you in the next one.