Lenovo Ideapad Y650 Review

The new Lenovo Ideapad Y650 is the latest launch by Lenovo in the consumer notebook market. It is a 16 inch notebook at an affordable price which offers a very nice hardware spec, a slim design and good looks. It has a very nice display and offers very good performance with great speakers. In this review, we check out the new Lenovo Ideapad Y650 and see how it stacks up against the other 16 inch notebooks in its range like the Dell XPS Studio 16, HP Pavilion HDX 16 etc.

Lenovo Ideapad Y650 Specs:

• Dimensions: 15.4 x 10.2 x 1.0 inches
• Weight: 5.6 pounds
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 at 2.53 GHz
• RAM: 4 GB DDR3 RAM
• Hard Drive: 320 GB SATA HDD, 5400 RPM
• Optical Drive: 8X DVD +/- RW DL
• Display Size: 16 inch LCD display, 1366 x 768 pixels
• Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce G105M with 256 MB VRAM
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1
• Operating System: MS Windows Vista Home Premium
• Ports: 2 USB v2.0 ports, Ethernet, HDMI, Headphone, Microphone, VG, eSATA, 6 in 1 card reader, ExpressCard slot

Design and Build Quality:

The Lenovo Ideapad Y650 sports a very sleek design, very different than the older plain boxy Ideapad designs. The black and white look really suits office settings, it stands out due to its simplicity. It combines the matte black exteriors with the glossy white interiors to create a very compelling design. It should be appealing to most users, casual and office alike. It has dimensions of 15.4 x 10.2 x 1.0 inches which make it one of the slimmest 16 inch laptop in existence. It is also very light and portable at just 5.6 pounds, which it owes to its carbon fiber chassis. The build quality is excellent and very durable. It should easily last for more than a couple of years with proper use.

Display and Speakers:

The Lenovo Ideapad Y650 sports a 16 inch display with a native resolution of 1366 x 766 pixels. The display quality is pretty good and the display has nice brightness and contrast levels. The viewing angles are very wide, both horizontal and vertical which is a must in a multimedia centric notebook. It would have been great if it sported a larger resolution. The display is perfectly suited for gaming and movies. It is one of the best displays in this range. The legibility under direct light is decent. The display has a very thin bezel and almost looks like it is an edge to edge display. The glossy look is very appealing.

The Lenovo Ideapad Y650 comes with a set of twin speakers next to the keyboard. It is powered by Dolby Technology and offers superb sound quality and well as awesome volume. They are perfect for multimedia usage. You can also use headphones for even better quality.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

The Lenovo Ideapad Y650 sports a standard full sized keyboard with nice spacing and the standard key layout. The keys have good travel and offer good feedback. There is zero flex in the keyboard area which is proof of the superb build quality and sturdy chassis. It is totally suited for touch typists. The keys have a nice feel. It doesn’t include a dedicated numberpad despite having the space to accomodate one but that shouldn’t be much of an issue for most users. Some keys have been shrunk a bit to accomodate speakers and a power button on the left and volume controls on the right. Just above the keyboard, you will find a series of touch sensitive media controls.

A lot of space has been wasted near the keyboard and touchpad area. Just below the keyboard, you find the touchpad located exactly in the center. The touchpad is very spacious and can easily pan the whole screen at standard resolution. It is nicely responsive and offers good sensitivity levels. It has a nice textured feel which aids in navigation. It also has a vertical scroller to the right of the touchpad. The two touchpad buttons have a nice feel and offer good feedback. As the touchpad is a Synaptics one, it also has some basic Multi Touch functionality.

Performance:

The Lenovo Ideapad Y650 sports a superb hardware configuration – it is powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 at 2.53 GHz with 3 MB L2 cache. It is based on the latest Intel Centrino 2 Duo technology. It also has 4 GB DDR3 RAM which is more than enough for the bundled MS Windows Vista Home Premium. The storage part is handled by a 320 GB SATA HDD at 5400 RPM. The graphics department is handled by the Nvidia GeForce G105M with 256 MB VRAM. The processor is very fast and efficient. The graphic performance of the Lenovo Ideapad Y650 is slightly below expectations. It can manage older games at low settings but don’t expect it to run the latest games especially at high settings. The overall performance is good though, especially at this price. It falls behind the Dell XPS Studio 16 slightly, in terms of performance. The hard drive is pretty fast and has good read / write speeds.

Battery Life and Other Features:

The Lenovo Ideapad Y650 is powered by a 6 cell battery which can juice the notebook for about 2 hrs and 50 mins on a single charge with moderate usage. It can reach 3 hrs and 10 mins with some battery saving tips in place like lowering the system volume, lowering the display brightness and switching off the Wi-Fi.

The Lenovo Ideapad Y650 comes with an array of expansion ports – it has 2 USB v2.0 ports, Ethernet, HDMI, Headphone, Microphone, VG, eSATA, a 6 in 1 card reader and an ExpressCard slot. It also has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1. The Wi-Fi reception is pretty nice and offers good speeds.

Pros:

• Slim Design
• Portable and Durable Build
• Nice Display
• Superb Speakers

Cons:

• Low Graphics Performance

Final Words:

The Lenovo Ideapad Y650 is a very good option for those looking for an affordable 16 inch option with great multimedia capabilities in a slim and compact form. However if you can compromise on the slimness, I would recommend the Dell XPS Studio 16 which is also a great option and also offers much better graphics. You can check out the Dell XPS Studio 16 review here.

Our Rating: 3.5 / 5.