Thoughts on the Lenovo Ideapad Y450
I’ve recently bought one of these laptops for school use, and so far I’m quite impressed by its performance and build quality.
As most of you should know, I’m still in high school. I was in need of a new laptop for use in class – my netbook couldn’t quite cut the mustard any longer, after all. So I went out last week and spent a little more than $800 on a Lenovo Ideapad Y450. This is a solid 14″ notebook with an LED-backlit glossy screen, a weight of 4.6 pounds, Intel processors and a durable design. So far it’s been working great, and I’ll tell you why in a moment.
First thing’s first – most images of the Ideapad Y450 you’ll find on Google Images or various review sites show a model with a white palmrest (as you can see in the picture.) I got one with a greyish-black palmrest due to lack of availability, which looks alright but doesn’t look as nice as the white one, in my eyes at least. Performance on this thing is fairly good with a 2.1Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 320GB 5400RPM Hitachi Travelstar 5K320-320 hard disk drive and Intel integrated graphics. (All of these components besides the Intel graphics can be upgraded via panels on the bottom.) Mine came with Vista Home Premium 64-bit and a free Windows 7 upgrade option, which requires a $30 shipping fee for some reason. Still, at least Lenovo bothered to include it.
One of the complaints I have with the Ideapad Y450 is the slow boot time even after shredding most of the bloatware and deleting unneeded startup processes. I just put it to sleep for the rest of the day anyway, so it isn’t that big of a problem. Another annoyance is the sound that plays when you first turn the laptop on (while the POST screen is displayed,) which, while a nice touch, is super loud. Thankfully it can be turned off in the BIOS.
After booting up completely, the laptop doesn’t “feel” much different than my home desktop running Windows 7. Web pages load fast, IBM Lotus Symphony 1.3 opens quickly, and most games with little to no 3D content run very well. (There are Y450 models out there with NVIDIA discrete graphics cards, by the way.) It runs all my school stuff much quicker than the netbook did (as expected) and doesn’t weigh that much more to boot. The battery also lasts quite awhile at around four hours or so. Intel’s wireless card offers solid range and fast speeds.
In the end, Lenovo created a nice machine and I recommend the Ideapad Y450 for those students who need a solid laptop that won’t fall apart after a few months. Actually, scratch that. Lenovo will soon release a new Ideapad Y460, which will feature Intel’s upcoming Core i3/i5 processors and ATI Radeon graphics; performance should be far better than the Y450. The exterior design looks to be similar (if not the same) as well. I recommend you wait for those to come out, but if you need a laptop right this second, go ahead and get the Y450. If you have any questions, go ahead and comment. I’ll do my best to answer them.
I am also a student and I’m thinking about getting this laptop. I was just wondering approximately how thick it is/how portable it is, etc.
According to the spec sheet, the dimensions are 13.4″ x 9.1″ (WxD). It is 0.8″ at the thinnest point and 1.4″ at the thickest.
Also when do you think the Y460 will come out/how much better do you think it will be?
It is supposed to be coming out in March. The new hardware is definitely faster, but I don’t know by how much.
Hey Rey,
Did you order your y450 online or did you buy it from a store?
I just ordered one for my self online last monday (Jan 4th) and got a great deal ($512.10 + Tax) for a slightly better processor (T6600 – 2.2 ghz) than yours with windows 7.
On a different note, are the speakers JBL ones or some other brand?
I got mine from a store (namely Canada Computers.)
I’m not sure about the speakers. There’s no writing on them or anything. However they’re the best laptop speakers I’ve ever heard (bar the lack of bass, but the included Dolby utility has a bass boost feature that works admirably.)
Nope, mine doesn’t have the nvidia graphics card. Not a gamer at all so didn’t see the need for it.
Maybe the price difference is because I ordered it here in the US where electronic items are marginally cheaper anyway.
Any chance you can put up a picture of the greyish black palmrest?
Thanks for the prompt response!!!
Same with me on the graphics.
Most Ideapads are expensive here for some reason, and the Canadian order site is almost a joke. Zero configuration options, and you can’t get NVIDIA graphics at all.
Anyway I will take a picture of my Y450 and post it soon. No problem.
Here you go:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pJZ6uImDqY8/S0v2h4KjOWI/AAAAAAAADVo/VthsuLEUlwI/s1600-h/IMG_9347.JPG
It’s a horrible photo but there’s not very much I could do about it. In light the palmrest is a kind of darkish-grey colour.
Thanks for the picture Rey!!!!
I kinda like the color :) hoping I get the same color too. Lenovo is taking forever to ship it……
No problem, and good luck. =D
I have a Y450 but am stuck with the white keyboard. I’d love to have the black one. Do you know what the model name is for the black one? (If you look on the back of the machine, you’ll see a Lenovo label. my white one is a 4189). Thanks!!
My IdeaPad isn’t in my possession right now, but when I get it back I’ll flip it over and let you know.