Review Laptop

Build and Design
The Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 has a modern design with a sleek shape and a rather pronounced contrasting color scheme. The exterior view of the Y550 when closed is thin and flat with a thick orange trim piece breaking up the two black halves on the notebook. From a distance the outside color of the screen cover appears to be matte black, but looking at it closer it is actually a faintly embossed surface. This particular design is an overlapping honey-comb finish that gives the notebook a nice subtle look while also giving it a light texture. The inside is a combination of a glossy black and metallic grey with chrome accented speakers and white LED-backlit controls. I really think that the Lenovo design staff has to hold so much back when building ThinkPad models that they really go all out with the IdeaPad series.

Screen and Speakers
The WXGA display on the Y550 appears to be the highest resolution offered on this model. Even the better configurations are limited to 1366x768. This is lacking when compared to the Dell Studio 15 that can be configured with a 1080p panel in configurations starting at less than $800. The panel offers good color and contrast, ranking middle of the pack compared to most notebooks. Black levels are good at low and middle backlight levels, but show some backlight creep near 100%. Peak brightness levels are great for viewing in bright office conditions with a comfortable home viewing level somewhere between 60 and 70%. Viewing angles appear average with colors showing significant inversion in as little as 10 degrees when tilted back. Horizontal viewing angles look much better, showing no notable color shift even when viewing from the very edge of the screen.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 has above average sounding speakers, making use of two primary speakers up top and a subwoofer below. Listening to music and movies the speakers have good midrange and bass, but is still weak compared to other notebooks with dedicated subwoofers. Peak volume levels sound strong enough to be listened to in a small or mid-size room, but not loud enough to over-power a lot of background noise. For watching feature-length movies in large rooms the HDMI-port is a great way to pass digital audio over to a home theater system.

The Y550 has a spacious Synaptics touchpad with a very nice texture. While some notebook manufacturers might carry the glossy palmrest surface onto the touchpad, Lenovo breaks it up with a barely-bumpy texture that is easier to slide over. Out of the box it was hard to slide across and almost tacky from the multitouch sticker over it, but with some oil build-up over the first few hours it broke in perfectly. Sensitivity is great out of the box... requiring only a light touch to move the cursor across the screen. Lag is not present under any circumstance including very fast movement. The touchpad buttons have a long throw and emit a mild click when fully pressed.

Ports and Features
Port selection is adequate although I feel there was enough room left unused to account for an additional USB port. The Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 offers two USB ports, one eSATA/USB combo port, VGA and HDMI ports, Ethernet, and audio jacks. Expansion slots include an ExpressCard/34 slot and SDHC-card slot.

Lenovo also includes a number of touch-sensitive and click-style buttons around the keyboard to control quick access functions. The standard buttons include one to switch video modes, another to load the Dolby audio control panel, and audio switches to adjust volume and mute the speakers. A blinking slider bar in the middle lets you quickly access four pre-set Lenovo applications.

Performance and Benchmarks
The Y550 performs well in average day-to-day activities like surfing the web, typing documents, listening to music, and watching movies. If you plan on using it as a multimedia-only rig the shortcomings of the integrated graphics dont become a problem, but if you do intend to game, you might want to look at a better configuration. In our tests the Y550 with Intel X4500 integrated graphics had no trouble playing 720p and 1080p video while still multitasking in the background. Using the HDMI port you could output a video with audio to an HDTV and still use the notebook for surfing the web. If your ideas of gaming include titles like Left 4 Dead 2 or Modern Warfare 2 instead of Peggle, one of the higher configurations with an Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GT 240M graphics would be recommended.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Thermal performance is good under normal conditions when the system is not under much stress. The palmrest and keyboard stay just above room temperature which is nice for longer typing sessions. Fan noise is excellent with a very relaxed cooling system. Under light usage the fan defaults to fully off; only coming on when needed. Increased system activity makes the fan stay on in longer intervals but overall the notebook still stays relatively quiet.

Battery Life
The Y550 offers reasonable battery life for a 15.6" notebook, but still shows some room for improvement. In our battery test with the screen brightness set to 75%, wireless active, and Vista on the balanced profile the system stayed on for 3 hours and 52 minutes. During the test the Y550 consumed between 13 and 14 watts of power; well above more power efficient notebooks.

Conclusion
The Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 is a stylish and well built multimedia notebook offered with a wide array of options. Build quality is good overall with only a few areas sticking out at us as needing improvement. The design is very nice with a subtlety textured lid and an attractive color scheme. The keyboard proved to be comfortable to type on with an equally usable bumpy touchpad. System performance was more than adequate for everyday use with our configuration ... and if you have gaming in mind Lenovo has alternative builds for that purpose. Overall the Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 fits the bill regardless if you are looking for a basic desktop replacement or gaming system.

Pros:

• Textured lid design
• Better than average speakers
• Comfortable keyboard and touchpad

Cons:

• Some minor fit and finish concerns
• Low 1366x768 resolution with all configurations