Lenovo Legion Y520 Gaming Laptop review

Lenovo Legion Y520 Gaming Laptop review

Lenovo Legion Y520 Gaming Laptop review

The Lenovo Legion Y520 offers strong performance for its price and a sleek design. But its screen is dull, and its touchpad places form over function.



Just a couple of weeks ago, we reviewed the new Lenovo Legion Y720, which we found to be a terrific contender within the midrange gaming notebook segment. Not only was it well-priced given its specifications, but it was solidly built with predominantly reliable performance during gaming. Still, those looking for an even more affordable option—and not concerned with the flashier aspects of typical gaming rig yore, or 4K display options, or potential VR capabilities—will be pleased to hear that today, we’re evaluating the Y720’s more ordinary, middle-of-the-road sibling, the Y520.


the Y520 setup we’re evaluating today may succumb to some inevitable compromises, but nevertheless, at the component level, this is still nothing to sneeze at. It packs an Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU, paired with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU, and augmented by a 256 GB NVMe SSD and 16 GB of DDR4 memory. Let’s see how it stacks up against other budget gaming notebooks, courtesy of our unrelenting testing routine.
good (81%)Legion Y520-15IKBN-80WK001KUSIntel Core i7-7700HQNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (Laptop)Gaming - 05/26/2017 - v6
Test device courtesy of Lenovo US
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Lenovo Legion Y520-15IKBN-80WK001KUS (Legion Y520 Series)
Processor
Intel Core i7-7700HQ (Intel Core i7)
Graphics adapter
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (Laptop) - 4096 MB, Core: 1493 - 1620 MHz, Memory: 1752 MHz, GDDR5, 21.21.13.7350 (ForceWare 373.50), yes
Memory
16384 MB

, DDR4-2400
Display
15.6 inch 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixel 141 PPI, no, LP156WF6-SPK3, IPS, glossy: no
Mainboard
Intel Sunrise Point, Intel Kaby Lake-H
Storage
Samsung PM961 MZVLW256HEHP, 256 GB


Weight
2.524 kg ( = 89.03 oz / 5.56 pounds), Power Supply: 540 g ( = 19.05 oz / 1.19 pounds)FOR

Sleek design

Comfortable keyboard

Strong gaming and productivity performance

Useful software

solid CPU and GPU performance
good input devices
reasonable price
fast SSD and application performance
dual-storage configuration
easy maintenance and upgradeability

AGAINST

Dull display

Oddly shaped touchpad

plastic construction and rather flimsy display lid
washed-out display color
middling brightness and contrast
subdued, low-cost appearance
display clouding visible on dark screens






The Legion Y520 isn't Lenovo's first gaming laptop, but it marks a fresh start for the company in that market. The Y520 is the inaugural member of the new Legion series, and it makes a strong first impression. The laptop's sleek, tapered look and the strong performance of its Intel Core i7 CPU and Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti GPU make it easy to recommend this machine to gamers on a budget. However, users will have to overcome some annoyances, including a dull screen and a poorly designed touchpad.

Design: Plastic Kevlar

I'm a fan of the subtle look Lenovo is going for with its new "Legion" line of notebooks. The lid is black plastic with a woven pattern and a few lines that make it look aggressive but still approachable. A series of grates on the back wrap around to the bottom of the computer and frame two sets of vents, which makes them seem more like an intentional decoration than a technological necessity. Although it's made of plastic, the Legion Y520 feels solid. It's unsurprising to see the material used in the chassis for a budget gaming notebook, but I do appreciate that it feels like I can jam it in a bag and not have to worry about it.







When you lift the lid, you'll find the 15.6-inch, 1080p display with a thick bezel; a red, backlit, island-style keyboard; and a touchpad. The touchpad is surrounded by a red line and, oddly, some plastic that frames it as a trapezoid rather than a rectangle (more on that later).

At 15 x 10.4 x 1 inches and 5.6 pounds, the Legion is nice and portable. The Dell Inspiron 15 7000 is slightly larger and heavier, at 15.2 x 10.8 x 1 inches and 5.8 pounds, and the MSI PE60 Prestige is similarly sized, at 15.1 x 10.2 x 1.1 inches and 5.4 pounds. The Asus ROG Strix GL753VE, which has a 17-inch display, is unsurprisingly larger and heavier, at 16.3 x 10.7 x 1.3 inches and 6.4 pounds.

The left side of the Legion has a Kensington lock slot, a power jack, an Ethernet jack, a USB 2.0 port and a headphone jack. On the right side, you'll find a USB Type-C port, an SD card reader, a pair of USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI output.

The Y520 is mostly made of plastic. I assume there’s a metal frame underneath it all, because the device does feel sturdy. The lid features a textured finish that’s reminiscent of carbon-fibre. A Lenovo logo sits near one of the corners.

There are no garish logos or bright hues on the body, which I appreciate, but there’s also nothing striking about the design of the device. Personally, I don’t really care since I’d rather be gaming with the device than considering aesthetics, but to each his own.
Lenovo has made, and maintained, quite a reputation for itself in the business laptop segment. The company has made gaming laptops before, but I don’t think they managed to establish much of a reputation for the company in the gaming space.


The Lenovo Legion Y520

Established gaming brands like Asus’ ROG, Dell’s Alienware and MSI already sell capable gaming laptops, and very good ones at that. What is Lenovo offering that can set it apart from the rest?

With the Legion Y520, that’s exactly what I intend to find out.

Build and Design: 7/10

The Y520 is mostly made of plastic. I assume there’s a metal frame underneath it all, because the device does feel sturdy. The lid features a textured finish that’s reminiscent of carbon-fibre. A Lenovo logo sits near one of the corners.

There are no garish logos or bright hues on the body, which I appreciate, but there’s also nothing striking about the design of the device. Personally, I don’t really care since I’d rather be gaming with the device than considering aesthetics, but to each his own.


A profile view of the Y520


The design of the hinge is a bit unusual, visually, when compared to other laptops and there’s a gap between both edges and the laptop body. The speakers reside beside the hinge mechanism.

The air flows in from the bottom and is ejected out the back.

Features: 8.5/10

The Y520 features an Intel Core i7 7700HQ CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX1050Ti 4 GB graphics card, 16 GB RAM, a 128 GB PCIe SSD, a 1 TB HDD and a 15.6-inch 1080p display. 2x 2-Watt speakers provide the audio.

The left side of the unit features the Lenovo charging port, a full-size Ethernet port, a USB 2.0 port and a headphone jack.

The laptop is host to all the major ports that you'll need for connectivity

The right side features two USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI output, a USB Type-C Thunderbolt ready port and an SD card reader.

A copper heatsink and two fans help keep the system cool.


Lenovo is offering a sensible combination of features here. Nothing of importance has been left out and a Thunderbolt-ready USB-C port means that any adapter you need will have the bandwidth required to function.

Connectivity

The Y520 features a fairly standard array of ports for a 15.6-inch machine—but a little thin overall for a gaming notebook. On the positive side, there are four total USB ports, two of which are USB 3.0, one which is USB 3.1 Type-C Gen 1, and the final of which is USB 2.0. Apart from this, other items worth mentioning are the lack of video output apart from a single HDMI port (though USB Type-C technically can be repurposed for this), and the full-sized SD card port, which actually only accepts half of an inserted card (and thus cannot be relied upon for long-term storage expansion).

SD Card Reader


Though some machines feature considerably faster card readers, the Legion Y520’s isn’t bad. With 74.74 MB/s and 89.74 MB/s in our JPG copy test and AS SSD Read Tests, respectively, it’s near the top of the pack of direct competitors we’re comparing against in today’s review. Notebooks such as the Dell XPS 15-9560, however, manage speeds that are roughly anywhere from 60 to 180 percent faster. The card reader only accepts half of an inserted card.

Communication


It’s probably no surprise that the Y520’s Realtek 8821AE Wireless-AC adapter can’t match the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 of the Y720 or the Killer Wireless options in the Alienware/MSI devices, but even still, the 307 MB/s and 282 MB/s receive/transmit results we received are a bit underwhelming. It’s certainly fast enough for most purposes, but for heavier-duty transfers, it would probably be wise to opt for an Ethernet connection.

Speaking of which, the Realtek Gigabit Ethernet port features an expandable flap to accommodate its presence along the left side of the machine.

Software


The Y520 includes a few different software packages. The first is Lenovo Companion, which can be used for system/driver updates, support, and diagnostics. Lenovo Settings is a central hub drawing together various options for battery management, input devices, audio, webcam, and display. Finally, Lenovo Nerve Sense features on/off toggles and some supplemental options for Extreme Cooling, network prioritization of gaming apps, palm/Windows Key rejection during gaming, and automatic Dolby sound enhancement with detected games.











Display: Dark and Dreary


Any setting less than maximum brightness makes it nearly impossible to see what's on the Legion's 15.6-inch, 1080p screen. On top of that, the display suffers from dull colors. When I watched a full-HD trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Gamora's green skin was pale and insipid, as if she had just seen a ghost. Meanwhile, the purple stripe down Nebula's face was clear, but the blue on the sides of her head blended into her brown and red vest.

Unlike its higher-end sibling, the Legion Y520 does not include an option for a 4K screen. Instead, we received a 1920x1080 resolution IPS anti-glare panel. That computes to a PPI of 141, just fine for most purposes—and, unlike 4K, 1080p is appropriate for gaming at native resolution when paired with the GTX 1050 Ti. Upon first glance, brightness and contrast seem average, and color saturation doesn’t appear to be the panel’s strong suit.


The screen was still a little dark when I played Mass Effect: Andromeda, as areas in the shadows were almost completely black. A few colors popped, though, like an Asari duelist's violet armor when she stood in a gray hangar.


Any setting less than maximum brightness makes it nearly impossible to see what's on the screen.


The Legion's screen covers just 68 percent of the sRGB color gamut -- a poor showing that barely surpassed the Inspiron's 67 percent, and that screen was horrible. The average mainstream notebook shows off 94 percent of the sRGB color gamut, while the Strix (124 percent) and Prestige (133 percent) were more vivid.



But the colors you can see are accurate. The Legion has a Delta-E score of 0.2 (0 ideal), which is far better than the average (2.4), as well as scores from the Inspiron (12), Prestige (5) and Asus (2.2).


The screen was still a little dark when I played Mass Effect: Andromeda, as areas in the shadows were almost completely black. A few colors popped, though, like an Asari duelist's violet armor when she stood in a gray hangar.


Any setting less than maximum brightness makes it nearly impossible to see what's on the screen.


The Legion's screen covers just 68 percent of the sRGB color gamut -- a poor showing that barely surpassed the Inspiron's 67 percent, and that screen was horrible. The average mainstream notebook shows off 94 percent of the sRGB color gamut, while the Strix (124 percent) and Prestige (133 percent) were more vivid.


But the colors you can see are accurate. The Legion has a Delta-E score of 0.2 (0 ideal), which is far better than the average (2.4), as well as scores from the Inspiron (12), Prestige (5) and Asus (2.2).


The touchpad, though, is awkward. It's an upside-down trapezoid with pieces of plastic filling in what would be the rest of the usual square shape. This is a classic case of form over function, and it was a real pain to use. The top of the trackpad is 4.1 inches long, and the bottom is 3.5 inches (making it a trapezoid), and it's 2.2 inches tall. While navigating Windows, I often found myself bumping into the plastic and quietly cursing to myself. If you don't hit the sides, it's great at recognizing gestures.









Accessories


The Legion Y520 includes no other accessories apart from a mid-sized (540 g) 135 W AC Adapter.

Maintenance
Maintenance is relatively easy apart from a large number of screws


13 Phillips-head screws and a somewhat tightly-affixed bottom panel come between the user and the Legion Y520’s replaceable/upgradeable FRUs. Those include both storage devices (2.5-inch hard drive and M.2 NVMe SSD), both RAM DIMMs (covered by a metal shield), the WLAN adapter, the CMOS battery, the heatsink/fan assembly, and the internal battery. Disassembly certainly isn’t as easy as many other gaming models, but it’s not really all that difficult either.

Input Devices

Keyboard

The Y520’s keyboard features well-sized and spaced keys with a comfortable smooth surface (which is unfortunately as much of a fingerprint magnet as the rest of the casing materials). The oversized arrow keys feature an extended width to better accommodate gaming usage, though the number pad on the right side is, oppositely, a bit cramped due to its reduced width. The keys overall operate with a medium stroke and a comfortable sense of feedback. They’re also relatively quiet. The only criticism is the visibility of the key labels, which are colored red against a black background—not the best contrast. Fortunately, backlighting does remediate this problem in lower-light conditions.

There is a dedicated key for video recording located directly to the left of the right CTRL key. Recorded videos can later be easily viewed from within the Lenovo Nerve Sense application (which we covered previously).
Touchpad

The Synaptics touchpad, as usual, is quite good overall. Its responsiveness and accuracy are solid, and the surface is smooth and comfortable (it’s a far cry from glass, but it’s an agreeable plastic finish). The two separate physical buttons are center-mounted, meaning that the left side of the right button (and the right side of the left button) does not depress. This can lead to some headaches during the adjustment period to the input devices, but overall, the buttons are still fairly comfortable to use.



Audio

The speakers next to the Legion's hinge are just loud enough, but you don't get all of the detail in your music. When I listened to Yellowcard's "Sing For Me," the guitars and vocals were clear, but the drums were on the quiet side and the bass was almost indistinguishable. I wish the speakers were just a smidge louder, but at max volume, the sound easily filled a small meeting room.


I had a similar experience in Mass Effect: Andromeda. The loud, pulsing electronica in the multiplayer lobby sounded great, but some of the radio calls during the game were too quiet and were overpowered by gunfire.


The laptop comes with the Dolby Audio app and a few sound profiles to choose from, but I found that leaving it on the default Music setting offered the best results. Audio options are also available in Lenovo's Nerve Center (see Software and Warranty, below).


Gaming and Graphics: Budget Powerhouse


For an entry-level graphics card, the Legion Y520's Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB of VRAM is no slouch. I played on Mass Effect: Andromeda's multiplayer mode, fending off hordes of Remnant robots with my teammates on High settings at 1080p, and the game stayed between 38 and 50 frames per second.


The Legion ran Rise of the Tomb Raider (1080p, Very High settings) at 46 fps, sailing past the mainstream average (34 fps), the Inspiron and the Strix (both at 22 fps with 1050 Ti GPUs), and the Prestige (18 fps, GTX 1050). Of the four, only the Legion ran the game over our 30-fps playability threshold.



It was also the only system that could handle Metro: Last Light on High at 1080p. The Legion played it at 31 fps, just above the threshold. The Inspiron (29 fps), the Strix (28 fps) and the Prestige (26 fps) were lower, and the average is 34 fps.



Lenovo's laptop rendered Hitman (1080p, Ultra settings) at a smooth 60 fps, beating the average (56 fps) the Strix (40 fps), the Prestige (39 fps) and the Inspiron (35 fps).





Case


While the Y720 featured an aluminum-lined display back and a showier overall presentation, the Y520 is forced (by cost constraints) to defer to a purely plastic construction. This hardly affects the stability of the base unit, which—while resting on a surface especially—easily rivals that of most other comparable competitors, with hardly any flex when pressure is applied (thanks also to the large rubber feet lining the bottom of the device). However, the display lid seems unmistakably flimsy, and it’s admittedly a bit difficult to shake the budget PC sentiment at first glance. In other words, whereas the Asus ROG Strix GL553VD fought to preserve construction materials and aesthetics in pursuit of its (roughly) price tag, the Y520 does enough to get by and focuses instead on what’s inside.

Fortunately, the concerns over construction subside fairly quickly upon opening the machine. While it isn’t the most extroverted of gaming notebook designs by a far cry, the matte black palm rest and keyboard surround paired with red accents (and keyboard backlighting) is unmistakably Alienware/ASUS ROG in its styling. It’s been said before (in our Y720 review), but the material here is extremely prone to fingerprints. Nevertheless, it’s haptically-pleasing, and (as we’ll explore later in greater detail) it doesn’t heat up much at all under load.


Partially thanks to its plastic construction, the Y520 is among the lighter of the 15.6-inch gaming notebooks in its class. We measured a total weight of just 2.524 kg. The hinges (center-mounted) also bode well for portable use; they easily handle the lightweight display, effectively suppressing vibration and bouncing during motion or typing. It’s also possible to open the display lid with one hand, thanks to nearly all the weight being concentrated in the base unit.



Performance


Packed with a 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU; 16GB of RAM; a 256GB PCIe SSD; and a 2TB, 5,400-rpm HDD, the Legion is primed to get work done once you've finished gaming. I had 40 tabs open in two instances of Google Chrome, including one streaming a 1080p episode of "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" and didn't see even a hint of lag when scrolling or switching tabs.


The Legion notched a score of 13,037 on the Geekbench 4 overall performance test, handily surpassing the mainstream-notebook average (11,455) and the competition. The Inspiron (10,363, Intel Core i5-7300HQ), the Strix (12,394, Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU) and the Prestige (12,678, Intel Core i7-7700HQ) all had lower scores.


The Legion transferred 4.97GB of mixed media files in 14 seconds, which translates to a rate of 363.5 MBps. That outpaces the average (193.9 MBps) as well as the Prestige (231.3 MBps), the Strix (221.3 MBps) and the Inspiron 15 (106 MBps).


It took 3 minutes and 19 seconds for the Legion to complete our OpenOffice spreadsheet macro benchmark, which pairs 20,000 names and addresses. That's the same as the Strix, and ahead of the average (3:57). The Inspiron completed the test in 3:37, and the Prestige finished in 3:39.

We measured an average brightness of just 244.3 cd/m², which is subpar, but suitable for indoor environments. Meanwhile, the black value of 0.35 cd/m² yields a contrast ratio of just 683:1, which is also merely adequate. At least brightness is fairly uniform across the breadth of the panel; we recorded a brightness distribution of 88%, which is relatively even. The right side of the panel is measurably brighter than the left, but in practice, it’s unnoticeable. What is noticeable, however, is the visible clouding/backlight bleed on dark screens. Have a look at our attached photo above for an (exaggerated) example of what this looks like in a dark room.

Color saturation and sRGB/AdobeRGB coverage, meanwhile, is sorely lacking. With just 55 percent of the sRGB color space covered by the panel, colors predictably appear rather drab and washed-out. AdobeRGB, of course, is even further from ideal, with only 35 percent coverage measured. The results from competing machines from other manufacturers are all considerably more positive.


CalMAN 5’s results aren’t terribly offensive, but they’re nothing impressive, either. With ColorChecker and Greyscale DeltaE values of 7.3 and 4.9, respectively, color accuracy isn’t the panel’s strong suit. Total gamma, however, is close to ideal at 2.19 (ideal: 2.4), while the CCT average of 7332K is on the cool side (ideal: 6500K). The panel responded well to calibration (for those so inclined), however, which brought the average Colorchecker / Greyscale DeltaE readings down to 5.5 / 2.0 with a nearly perfect CCT Average of 6580.


Lenovo Legion Y520 Gaming Laptop review


















Although we did detect PWM from the display on all brightness levels below 100 percent, the frequency (21550 Hz) was sufficiently high that it is unlikely to be bothersome to most users.

Outdoors, the panel is usable in shaded areas thanks to the anti-glare coating and wide IPS viewing angles… though it does struggle a bit thanks to its subpar brightness and merely decent contrast ratio. Those same deficiencies, predictably, render usage in sunlight considerably more challenging.


While the Legion Y520 isn’t necessarily going for the most luxurious build or attractive styling, its internal components are hardly anything to be ashamed of. Our review unit features an Intel Core i7-7700HQ quad-core CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU, 16 GB of DDR4 dual-channel memory, and a 256 GB NVMe SSD. While 4K gaming isn’t in the conversation, this machine ought to be handle most 1080p challenges without too much trouble.

Entry-level Y520 notebooks with a Core i5 CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and a conventional mechanical hard drive (no preinstalled SSD) can be had for as little as of this writing. As previously mentioned, the RAM and SSD are mostly easy to upgrade if the user chooses to do so post-purchase. Straight from the factory,

We’ll take a much deeper look at each facet of the machine’s performance next. Before we get to that, however, a couple of quick notes: performance while on battery is (as is usually the case with gaming machines) notably diminished; a secondary run of 3DMark Fire Strike produced a score of 5549, 28 percent below our original score (7682).

LatencyMon reports no latency issues, meanwhile, suggesting that the device should be able to handle real-time audio and video streaming without difficulty.












Processor


The Intel Core i7-7700HQ has already been exhaustively evaluated here at Notebookcheck. This quad-core Kaby Lake 14 nm CPU features a 2.8 GHz base clock rate with the capability of increasing its frequency to up to 3.8 GHz/3.6 GHz/3.4 GHz (single-core/dual-core/quad-core), provided thermal headroom exists. With a max TDP of 45 W, it’s also well-suited for notebooks of this size.

Oddly enough, however, although single-core performance is right where we’d expect it to be, our multi-core tests revealed a deficiency of over 10 percent as compared to the Y720 (which features the same CPU). For instance, although the Y720—along with every other notebook in our comparison field—scores well above a 700 on this test (737 to be exact), the Y520 only manages a score of 652. At first we suspected possible thermal limitations, so we engaged the so-called Extreme Cooling mode and monitored temperatures while re-running the test—and the results were practically unchanged. Of course, a score of 652 in Cinebench R15 isn’t anything to be ashamed of, but when it’s 10 to 15 percent below the rest of the notebooks out there packing the same CPU, it is a little bit disappointing.

Our new Cinebench R15 loop test, which seeks to approximate real-world stability under realistic sustained loads, at least yielded positive results. The graph featured a bit of unexplained fluctuation, but the differences between scores, at their extremes, were still below 5 percent. This test was performed with Extreme Cooling off, also, so it’s possible that enabling it might further compress the graph. The results here suggest mostly stable performance in real-world usage—so at least we know that thermal limitations are not of paramount concern on the CPU side. We’ll explore this from another angle in our Stress Test section later on.

System Performance

Subjectively, general operation of the Y520 is smooth and without hiccups or pauses. Startup and shutdown procedures are also very fast, as are sleep/resume cycles. Due to a problem with the system configuration, we have been unable to collect scores from successful PCMark 8 benchmark runs thus far. However, we are currently troubleshooting the matter and will reach out to Lenovo for answers if we continue to have no success. We will update this article with any new information as soon as it becomes available.

Storage Devices

At the lowest end of the pricing spectrum, Y520 configurations with basic 1 TB 5400 RPM hard drives are available. Naturally, much more positive results are possible with solid-state storage, and in the case of our review unit, we received the best of both worlds: the speed of a 256 GB M.2 NVMe SSD combined with a 2 TB mechanical hard drive. The results, however, speak for themselves.

The PCIe SSD in the Legion Y520 is already fast from the start, but in order to further boost performance and solicit more realistic benchmark values from our tests, we performed a switch from SATA RAID interface over to AHCI in the system firmware setup menu, after which we followed these steps to switch from RAID to AHCI drivers within Windows 10 without requiring a reinstallation of the operating system. The result was an excellent total score of 2617 from AS SSD (1232 Read, 807 Write) with sequential read/write values of 2649 MB/s and 1392 MB/s, respectively. Coupled with the also very high 4K-64 R/W values, those are blistering speeds which should easily communicate the fluidity with which the system moves through everyday tasks.

As we mentioned previously, storage upgrades are relatively easy on the Y520, requiring only the removal of the rear cover (which isn’t too difficult a task).

GPU Performance

The performance of the GTX 1050 Ti essentially splits the difference between the GTX 1050 and GTX 1060, and that should be fine for most gaming purposes at 1080p resolution. The score of 7682 we received in Fire Strike Graphics is 45% below that of the GTX 1060 in the Legion Y720, but that still indicates a very capable machine nonetheless.

Gaming Performance

Our benchmarks show that, as expected, most modern games are playable on high settings at the native resolution (1920x1080). However, the machine is not nearly as future-proofed as the Y720, which packs a GTX 1060 instead.


Battery Life

The Legion might be portable, but you'll need to bring a charger with you. It endured for just 3 hours and 39 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test, which browses the web continuously over Wi-Fi. The average for mainstream notebooks is 7:06, and all of the competition outlasted the Legion. The Prestige endured for 4:13, the Strix survived for 6:25 and the Inspiron ran for a whopping 11:23.

Power Consumption

The Legion Y520 manages lower power consumption than just about every other laptop in our field apart from the Samsung Odyssey, with which it’s essentially neck-and-neck (and which only features a GTX 1050). The idle average consumption of 9.1 W is very reasonable for its size and class, and even under load, the average of 79.9 W isn’t bad. We measured a load maximum value of 121.5 W, which is well below the power adapter capacity of 135 W. Hopefully these values will lead to respectable battery life figures.

Unfortunately, the 45 Wh 3-cell battery in our review unit doesn’t do the device any favors in this department. There are also no upgraded sizes available for the Y520, so those looking for better battery life would be happier with the Y720 instead (which packs a 33% larger 60 Wh battery). Fortunately, most users probably don’t mind this, seeing as a gaming PC even as portable as this one still generally remains a gaming PC these days; it’s unlikely that it will be meant to replace the Dell XPS 13s and HP Spectres of modern-day computing.

Our Wi-Fi Surfing benchmark lasted for just 4 hours on the Legion Y520, enough to get you through a brief trip or for some occasional unplugged use around the house. Under load, the Y520 succumbed in just 46 minutes, while the Battery Eater Pro Reader’s Test went for 8 hours and 29 minutes.


Heat: Cool Under Pressure

The Legion stayed nice and cool in our regular testing. After streaming HD video from YouTube for 15 minutes, it measured 83 degrees Fahrenheit on the bottom, 80 degrees at the center of the keyboard and 77 degrees on the touchpad.

It was still comfortable after I played Mass Effect: Andromeda, measuring 77 degrees on the touchpad. The keyboard and bottom of the system measured 87 degrees (except for the bottom vent, which hit 105 degrees). We consider anything under 95 degrees to be comfortable.


Webcam

The 720p webcam's photos are on the soft side in terms of detail, but the colors are accurate. In a photo I took in our labs, my periwinkle shirt appeared as it does in real life.


It caught some fine details, too, like the subtle pattern in our lab tech's shirt as he photobombed me, and my dimple stood out. Some light coming in from the windows was blown out, but not to a degree that distracted from the focus of the photo.

Speakers


The Legion Y520 features two top-mounted speakers flanking the central hinge beneath the display, and for the most part, they sound pretty balanced (apart from a predictable lack of bass). The included Dolby Audio software applies an annoying reverb effect by default as a part of its Surround Virtualizer feature, which we immediately disabled. The Volume Leveler feature is perhaps more useful, though while gaming with headphones especially you’ll want to disable it for full dynamic effect.


Software and Warranty: On My Nerves


Lenovo is introducing some new software on the Legion. Its new app is called Nerve Sense, and it serves as a hub for anything related to gaming. It has options to turn on stronger cooling, give specific apps priority on your network, disable the Windows key and touchpad while playing, and manage gameplay videos.


You also get some better-known Lenovo apps, like Companion to update your system and check its health, and the Settings app to customize the machine to your liking.


There's a bit of bloatware, too, but it's the kind you get on any Windows 10 laptop: Candy Crush Soda Saga, Paradise Bay, Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition, Twitter, Facebook, and Sling.

Stress Test
Full synthetic system stress


Our conventional stress testing regimen of weighing down a machine with FurMark and Prime95 is a great way of discerning just how far a machine can be pushed before it reaches its thermal and power consumption limits. In this test, we witnessed CPU clock rates stable at 2.7 GHz (never above) with temperatures of around 84 °C alongside GPU clock rates hovering within the 1700 MHz range (with a temperature of 65 °C). The CPU clock rate is actually slightly below the base frequency for the chip, which classifies the behavior as throttling. However, it is highly unlikely that the user will ever experience such conditions during real-world usage.

On the other hand, for a more realistic look at a device’s sustained performance (separate from our Cinebench R15 loop test we explored earlier), we turn to our new Witcher 3 Ultra stress test. Over the course of an hour, we tracked and graphed the FPS reported during the test, along with thermal data. During the test, CPU temperatures remained safely positioned in the 60 °C – 66 °C range, while GPU temperatures never exceeded 68 °C (sticking most of the time around the 66 °C mark). No thermal throttling of any type was reported by the system during the test.

System Noise
The dual-fan cooling system is normally pretty unobtrusive.


Without Extreme Cooling enabled (which is most of the time, as the setting automatically reverts to off after a reboot or sleep/resume cycle), the Legion Y520 is a relatively unobtrusive machine. Even while under load, the average noise level we recorded was 40 dB(A) with a maximum of only 42.6 dB(A). That’s within a couple percentage points of the Y720’s values, and it’s considerably better than all of the rest of the notebooks in today’s comparison field—even including the Samsung Odyssey, which is only running a GTX 1050 (and which still is 23% louder on average under load).

Temperature

Even alongside the Legion Y520’s low noise levels, temperature development still remains mostly unproblematic. Under max load, we measured average temperatures of 30.7 °C / 29.9 °C on top/bottom respectively (against an ambient room temperature of 21 °C), which is extremely reasonable for a gaming notebook. The palm rests also remain cool, with only the number pad exhibiting any noticeable thermal development (at 40.6 °C). The only hot spot worth mentioning is the top left quadrant of the underside of the notebook, which reached 55.8 °C and would be rather uncomfortable if resting on the lap.

Idle temperatures were only slightly higher than ambient ones, with readings of 25.1 °C / 24.7 °C on top/bottom, respectively.


Bottom Line

The Lenovo Legion Y520 is a budget gaming laptop with a sleek, tapered design and a comfortable keyboard. And, most importantly, it offers strong performance for the price. If only it had a brighter, more vivid screen and didn't have annoying plastic around the trackpad, it would be even better.


If you want a laptop that screams "gaming PC," consider the Asus ROG Strix GL753VE, which is has a much better display and longer battery life. Just know that its design isn't as nice, and its gaming performance isn't as good.


If you can look past the screen, though, the Legion Y520 is a solid choice that will serve you well when you're gaming and while you're at work.

The Lenovo Legion Y520 is a good choice for a gamer on a budget. It features solid CPU and GPU performance, relatively easy maintenance and upgradeability, and good input devices. While construction and styling obviously was forced to subordinate to raw functionality, the sacrifices will soon be forgotten if the machine is mostly used around the house anyway… and the price certainly doesn’t hurt, either.

The NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti is a far cry from the GTX 1070/1080 adapters we find in higher-end gaming notebooks, but it should be able to handle most modern games at 1080p resolution and high settings with respectable framerates. Stability under sustained gaming loads (as well as heavy CPU operation) is very good overall, revealing no signs of weakness in the realm of thermal management. And the Y520 configuration we evaluated today is also well equipped in the storage department, with an extremely fast 256 GB NVMe SSD supplemented by a 2 TB secondary mechanical hard drive.

The Lenovo Legion Y520 is a good choice for a gamer on a budget. It’s fast, it’s reliable and stable, and it provides the basics at a significant discount over higher-end models.

The biggest drawback here is the lack of available GPU upgrade options—though we suppose it’s hardly a surprise given the existence of the Y720 as the logical next step up. Apart from the merely midrange GPU capabilities, however, the Y520 does cut a few other notable corners to reach its goal of affordability in the gaming sector. The first of those is the aforementioned construction and design; gone are the rigid metal surfaces and RGB zoned keyboard backlighting options of the Y720—the Y520 is all plastic and unapologetically red and black. Other notebooks, such as the ASUS ROG Strix GL553VD, emphasize casing and design quality over other items, and so they feature some of the higher-end design and bells and whistles that are absent from the all-business Y520. The other significant disappointment is the screen, which—while decent—lacks in brightness and color saturation. Again, the Y720 offers upgrade options, while the Y520 doesn’t.

For a few hundred bucks more, the Y720 may prove an even more compelling package (depending on budget). And other machines, such as the Dell Inspiron 15 7567, are comparably-priced and also worth a look. But for what it is, the Y520 succeeds well enough. It’s fast, it’s reliable and stable, and it provides the basics at a significant discount over higher-end models.



Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.1
Brand Lenovo
CPU 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU
Card Slots 4-1 card reader
Company Website lenovo.com
Display Size 15.6
Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB / Intel HD Graphics 630
Hard Drive Size 256GB
Hard Drive Type SSD
Highest Available Resolution 1920 x 1080
Native Resolution 1920x1080
Operating System Windows 10 Home
Ports (excluding USB) USB 2.0, USB 3.0, Headphone/Mic, Ethernet, USB Type-C, HDMI, Kensington Lock, SD card slot
RAM 16GB
Secondary Hard Drive Size 2TB
Secondary Hard Drive Speed 5,400-rpm
Secondary Hard Drive Type SATA Hard Drive
Size 15 x 10.4 x 1 inches
Touchpad Size 3.7 x 2.2
USB Ports 4
Video Memory 4GB
Warranty/Support One year
Weight 5.6 pounds
Wi-Fi 802.11ac
Wi-Fi Model 1 x 1 WiFi 802.11 ac + Bluetooth 4.1 Combo
Lenovo Legion Y520 Gaming Laptop review














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