Lenovo Legion Y730 (15-inch) review: Good gaming extras without the budget-busting price
If you like keyboard macros and lights -- lots and lots of lights -- the Y730 might be worth the premium over the entry-level Legion Y530.
Lenovo's 2018 Legion Y530 and Y730 gaming laptops are like mash-ups between its last-gen Legion systems, which had more typical "gamer" styling, and one of the PC maker's ThinkPad workstation notebooks.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
There are no big stylized fan vents or angular edges with color highlights. They're just black and gray and even the Legion logo on the lid is reasonably discreet. The most striking thing about the design is that the display hinge on both is shifted forward, which allows for better cooling with rear and side air vents. It also gave Lenovo space to move power and a majority of its ports to the back, so you don't have a tangle of cords coming from the sides.
However, while the Y530 and Y730 look alike at first glance, there are some meaningful differences. The Y530 is mostly plastic and has white lights for the keyboard backlight. The higher-end Y730 has an all-aluminum chassis and is fitted with RGB lighting for the keyboard, fan vents, side ports and lid emblem. The lighting is all programmable, too, right down to individual key colors with included software from gaming hardware and peripheral company Corsair. The Y730 also adds an extra row of keys on the left side of the keyboard for custom macros.
While the Y730 also has slightly better memory and storage options as well as a better display than the Y530 we reviewed, the system processor and graphics options are the same: An eighth-gen Intel Core i7-8750H or i5-8300H and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 or GTX 1050 Ti.
Pricing for the Legion Y730 starts at $907.49 and £1,200 in the UK. It currently isn't available in Australia, but the Y530 is and it's available with a GTX 1060 card starting at AU$1,511.10. As reviewed here, the price is $1,549, but after discounts it's $1,162.49. It's also currently listed as sold out on Lenovo's site. You'll have to keep checking with Lenovo for this configuration, go with this $1,100 configuration (it just has less storage than my review system) or pick one up from a retailer like Best Buy.
If having good gaming performance now and well into the future is crucial, you'll want to get a laptop with at least a GTX 1060 graphics card. That's not offered on the Y730, but is on the Y530. If you don't mind dialing back your video settings to save some money however, the Legion Y730 is an excellent choice for the money.
Lenovo Legion Y730-15ICH
Geekbox | Lenovo Legion Y730-15ICH |
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Price as reviewed | $1,549 |
Display size/resolution | 15.6-inch 1,920 x 1,080 display |
CPU | 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-8750H |
Memory | 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,666MHz |
Graphics | 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti |
Storage | 2TB HDD + 256GB SSD |
Networking | 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.1 |
Operating system | Window 10 Home (64-bit) |
The keyboard is key
The aluminum body is nice, but the higher-end keyboard and lights are the better upgrades from the Y530. Having 16 million customizable color combinations at your fingertips is a lot of fun and pretty useful.
The included Corsair iCue software lets you easily set the color for individual keys or select keys en masse by using your cursor to draw a box around them. There are preset patterns you can choose from or you can set up your own patterns and save them to call up when you want, say for a specific game or if you simply want to switch to a more businesslike all-white backlight.
There is also another app for setting up custom macros for a row of six keys on the left side of the keyboard. It, too, is easy to use. However, the macro key placement shifts the entire keyboard slightly to the right, which, for touch typists like myself, might cause some initial frustration. There's also a softness to the key travel that feels fine for long gaming sessions, but might disappoint for typing.
The keyboard is paired with a responsive touchpad that seems unusually small for a 15.6-inch laptop and while it has discrete mouse buttons opposed to single clickpad, but the buttons, like the keyboard, feel a little soft. If you'd rather connect your own peripherals, there are plenty of options.
In back, you'll find two USB 3.1 (Gen 2) ports, Ethernet, Mini DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 ports along with the power input. On the left there's a headphone jack and a Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port and on the right is a USB 3.1 (Gen 1) port. There's no SD or microSD card slot.
The 15.6-inch 1920x1080-pixel resolution matte display looks good with games, photos and videos. It's brighter and has better color than the Y530's display I tested, too, so if you're considering that model over the Y730, keep that in mind. Lenovo gets points for surrounding the display with a thin bezel instead of the thick ones on most gaming laptops, even pricier ones. Although it also loses points for putting the webcam below the screen so it's shooting upward at an unflattering angle.
Good gaming right now
At its full 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution and settings on high, older games like BioShock Infinite and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided ran smoothly, though the latter was better at medium, as were Battlefield 1 and Strange Brigade. Really anything graphically demanding, you'll want to play on medium. Strange Brigade, for example, started out fine on high, but after about an hour frame rates started to drag. Sessions of PUBG and Fortnite were fine, so if you're just looking for a nice-looking gaming laptop to do battle on breaks in your work or school days, this configuration is plenty.
The exception to that statement is storage. Personally, I would skip configurations with a 128GB solid-state drive because it doesn't leave you much space for game storage. On the other hand, storage drives (and memory) are user accessible for expansion or upgrades, so you can always swap it out on your own later. The laptop supports PCIe NVMe SSDs that will help speed up performance, especially launching games.
Long battery life isn't typical for a gaming laptop, but the Y530 actually lasted longer than most, hitting a little more than 7 hours on CNET's streaming video playback battery test. The Y730, on the other hand, fell way short of that mark, lasting only 2 hours and 49 minutes.
Entry-level with extras
The Lenovo Legion Y730 is essentially the Y530 with an aluminum body and a better keyboard and display for not much more money. This is also one of my favorite designs for a budget-friendly gaming laptop that I've seen this year. While it's thin and light for a gaming laptop, I appreciate being able to connect an external display, mouse and keyboard to back, keeping the cables tidy and out of the way. However, if you care more about graphics performance than design, you'll be better off to get a GTX 1060 in the Y530 or going with another option like Dell's G5 15 or something else.
System configurations
Lenovo Legion Y730-15ICH | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.2HGz Intel Core i7-8750H; 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,666MHz; 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti; 2TB HDD + 256GB SSD |
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Dell G5 15 (5587) | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.2HGz Intel Core i7-8750H; 8GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,666MHz; 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti; 1TB HDD + 128GB SSD |
Lenovo Legion Y530 | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-8300H; 8GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,666MHz; 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti; 1TB HDD + 128GB SSD |
Dell Inspiron 15 7577 Gaming (late 2017) | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-7300HQ; 8GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,400MHz; 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 with Max-Q Design; 256GB SSD |
Acer Nitro 5 | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-8300H; 8GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,660MHz; 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti Graphics; 256GB SSD |
Asus TUF Gaming FX504GD | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-8300H; 8GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,660MHz; 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics; 1TB HDD |