The Lenovo Y700: A Gaming Laptop Review

Hello guys, it's Dave 2D here, and welcome back to my channel. Today, I'm excited to share with you my long-term review of the Lenovo Y700, a gaming laptop that has been making waves in the market. As many of you may know, the Y700 is the successor to the popular Y50 model, which was well-received for its specs and performance at an affordable price point.

As I took a closer look at the Y700, I noticed that it looks similar to its predecessor, with the same patterned aluminum surface. While this design choice may not be the most exciting, it does have some benefits. For one, it's easy to upgrade, as removing a few screws on the bottom of the laptop gives access to the RAM slots and both drive bays – including a 2.5-inch SATA drive and an M2 slot. Additionally, the Y700 has a good number of ports on the right side, including USB 3.0, HDMI out, and Ethernet. On the left side, we find the power connection, SD card reader, audio jack, and system restore button.

One area where the Y700 improves upon its predecessor is in terms of build quality. After months of regular use, I can confidently say that the hinge is still working perfectly, and it's openable with one hand. The tension in the hinge is nice and smooth, making it easy to open and close without any issues. However, I do wish the location of the hinge was better – it feels like you're still torquing it every time you open it. Despite this minor quibble, the inside surface is a soft touch finish, which adds to the overall premium feel of the laptop.

The keyboard on the Y700 is also worth mentioning. It's not perfect by any means, but it's definitely an improvement over its predecessor. The arrow keys are positioned a bit close to each other, but the keystrokes are nice and responsive. Unfortunately, the backlit keys don't turn red until you press them – which might be a disappointment for some users who prefer the look of red backlighting. On the flip side, the trackpad is standard fare for an affordable gaming laptop. It has a smooth surface and decent tracking, but I'm not too fond of the buttons – they're just a bit too shallow for my liking.

One area where the Y700 really shines is in its display. The 1080p panel is not perfect by any means, with viewing angles that are only okay. However, the contrast and black levels are excellent, making it a great choice for gaming. Unfortunately, the screen also has poor color accuracy – which might be a deal-breaker for users who need accurate colors for color-accurate work or video editing. The other notable feature of the display is its matte layer, which is actually one of the few laptops out there that offers this. I did manage to remove the layer myself using a hair dryer and some careful manipulation – but be warned, it's not easy!

Speaking of speakers, the Y700 has JBL-branded speakers that are excellent in terms of sound quality. They're loud, clear, and well-positioned, making them perfect for gaming or watching videos. Additionally, there's even a subwoofer on the bottom of the laptop, which adds to the overall audio experience.

Under the hood, the Y700 is powered by a Skylake i7 processor, paired with an NVIDIA GTX 960m graphics card. While the CPU does throttle a bit in benchmarks, I've never noticed any issues for CAD applications or games. In terms of gaming performance, the laptop can easily handle light games at ultra settings, and moderately demanding games will need reduced graphic settings to maintain smooth frame rates.

Finally, let's talk about battery life. The Y700 has a 60W hour battery that lasts around 3-4 hours with the screen at maximum brightness – which is pretty impressive for an affordable gaming laptop. However, gameplay results in shorter battery life, with around 1.5 hours of useable time.

In conclusion, the Lenovo Y700 is an excellent choice for gamers who don't need a super-color accurate display. With its improved build quality, excellent speakers, and strong performance from the Skylake i7 and GTX 960m, it's one of the best gaming laptops available at this price point. If you're looking for a color-accurate display, there are other options out there that might be better suited to your needs – but if you're an avid gamer on a budget, the Y700 is definitely worth considering.

Thanks for watching, and I'll catch you guys in the next video!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey how's it going guys this is Dave 2D so last year Lenovo had a gaming laptop called the y50 very popular laptop because it was speced well for the price but there were two issues one the screen wasn't very good but more importantly the build quality was questionable we had two of them at work both of them developed hinge issues after a couple of months so when the successor came out the y700 I held off on my review I wanted to see if issues would pop up over time but I'm ready now to give you my y700 long-term review so aesthetically it looks similar to the older y50 it's the same patterned aluminum surface that looks pretty nice but fingerprints still show easily it's pretty easy to upgrade if you remove a bunch of screws on the bottom you get access to the ram slots and both drives the 2.5 in Sater drive and the M2 slot it has a good number of ports on the right we have USB 3s HDMI out and ethernet and on the left we have the power connection USB 2 SD card audio jack and a system restore button there is no Thunderbolt 3 Connection though the build quality is much improved over the y50 after months of regular use the hinge is still working perfectly it's openable with one hand and it's got nice tension I don't love the location of the hinge like you're still torquing it every time you open it but the actual mechanism is much better it's smoother it's easier to open and most importantly it's durable the inside surface is a soft touch finish the keyboard is pretty good the arrow keys are positioned a little close to the adjacent keys but the keystrokes are nice the back lighting is red and even if you don't have it on the sides of the keys are red so if Red's not your favorite color too bad the trackpad is okay it's a pretty standard trackpad for an affordable gaming laptop it has a smooth surface decent tracking but I don't like the buttons they're a little too shallow for me and they need some pretty heavy pressure to click but who cares right you got a gaming mouse the screen is a mixed bag so this one is the 1080p panel it's not super right and the viewing angles are only okay but the contrast and black levels are excellent and when I'm playing games that's super important to me unfortunately the screen has poor color accuracy it doesn't affect gaming for me because I don't care if Diablo is like the perfect Hue of red but I wouldn't want to use it for color accurate video or photo work the other thing I want to mention is that the screen has a matte layer on it it's actually one of very few laptops out there that has a matte finish touchcreen someone discovered that you could take a hair dryer heat up the adhesive and then peel off that layer so I did it on one of the earlier units and the immediate reaction was oh my God the screen is so much nicer the thing is it is a very reflective display so if you plan on using this Outdoors or brightly lit environments I recommend leaving it on like this one the speakers are excellent JBL branded if that matters loud clear and well positioned it also has a subwoofer on the bottom so the y700 took the crown for the best speakers in my comparison video it's running a Skylake i7 with a GTX 960m properly cooled quiet on idle and it doesn't get too loud at maximum load the CPU does throttle a bit on benchmarks but I've never noticed an issue for CAD applications or games so I think you're probably good in terms of 1080p gaming frame rates it'll easily handle light games so ultra settings will still get you over 60 frames per second moderately demanding games will need reduced graphic settings to maintain 60 frames per second and then very demanding games you can still hit 50 or 60 frames per second but you'll definitely need to lower graphic settings or the screen resolution it's a 60w hour battery and battery life is pretty good with screen at Max brightness so around 250 nits I was getting 3 to 4 hours of regular use and then 1 and 1/2 hours of gameplay okay the Lenovo y700 it has a much improved build quality from the previous y50 the touchscreen display is great for playing games but it lacks the gamut for color accurate work the keyboard is good and has red back lighting trackpad is just okay inside the i7 and the 960m are properly Co and they can handle most current games reasonably well it has 16 gigs of RAM and 1 TB hard drive and it's fueled by a respectable 60 W hour battery pricing starts at just over $1,000 so I think Lenovo did a really good job on this laptop they took the y50 community feedback fixed the stuff that was broken and made the y700 if you're an avid gamer and you don't need like a super color accurate display this is one of the best available gaming laptops right now at this price point if you do need a super color accurate display this is not the one for you that's the end of this video hope you guys liked it give me some thumbs if you liked it subs if you loved it it's been nice see you guys next time\n"