For the gamer on the go, Lenovo Legion Y520 is a sleek laptop that visually looks stunning and solid performance for its price.
May you be a parent looking to purchase your child with a gaming laptop that can play today’s games or a gamer that has a budget of under $1,000 (base model), the Lenovo Legion Y520 offers surprisingly more bang for the buck.
The base model version uses a Core i5-7300HQ CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB 5,400-rpm hard drive and an Nvidia GTX 1050Ti with 4GB of VRAM.
And for most gamers who want to play games in 1080p and 60 fps, today’s games will play just fine.
For me, there were a few tests that I wanted to do with my Steam games, my teen son tested it extensively with his Roblox games that require more power than his previous laptop. And for today’s games, the GTX 1050 ti has been reviewed constantly by gamers on 60fps for games such as “Overwatch”, “Counterstrike: Global Offensive”, “Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordar”, “Fallout”, etc. and has passed with flying colors.
With that being said, with the Lenovo Legion Y520 utilizing the GeForce GTX 1050 ti video card, there is no problem playing with today’s games. Yes, if you want even better performance, you will probably want to spend a bit more for a laptop with an RX470 or a GTX 1060 3GB card but with the Lenovo Legion Y520, this is for the gamer who doesn’t want to spend $1000 and wants to play with higher settings for today’s games. The question is tomorrow’s games…2018-2019…I think we know already that technology changes ever year but dialing settings down a bit is not going to compromise things too badly. And the motherboard can be overclocked.
As for the laptop now, aesthetics is a big thing with this laptop. It’s sleek looking and once you plug it in and get it running, the red-backlit keyboard and touchpad was pretty cool. It would have been nice if Lenovo allowed for changing of the colors for those who don’t like red. I like it! But others may prefer blue, green, purple, etc.
The mouse is rather interesting and awkward. But to me, I have always preferred using a gaming mouse or let alone a wireless mouse than the onboard laptop mouse (which I disabled). While the keyboard was easy to use.
The 1080p display was very good, not uber vibrant compared to my friend’s more expensive laptop but again, under $1,000, I wasn’t expecting too much. This is probably the main thing that the laptop doesn’t do all that well as it’s slightly dark. But still visual presentation alone for the Lenovo Legion Y520 and at the pricepoint, I was impressed.
Onboard camera is 720p which is fine. But the keyboard has a button to record your gaming which I’m sure some people who like to upload their clips on social media will enjoy.
Legion 520 Harman Speakers for audio which sounds good but seriously, I’m hoping if you are gaming, you are using really good headphones or speaker system.
As for battery power, this laptop is not going to last you six to eight hours. At best, you are going to get 3-4 hours before recharging on the Lenovio Legion Y520.
And for long term gaming, the laptop didn’t heat up like an oven.
As for the operating system, it is Windows 10 and like all new laptops, there is bloatware which you can easily remove.
JUDGMENT CALL:
While I am only reviewing the base model which is under a thousand bucks, that begs the question for the purchaser…is $900 your sweet spot and all your willing to spend? If so, then the Lenovo Legion Y520 is a solid laptop that will serve you well. It doesn’t have the great display screen, especially if you intend to watch a lot of movies and want vibrant colors.
If vibrant display and longer battery power is important to you, then you may want to consider the ASUS GL753VE-DS74 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop GTX 1050Ti 4GB Intel Core i7-7700HQ,5400RPM HDD but that adds another $300+ to the overall total.
But if it’s for the gamer that will more than likely play at home, on their desk and the laptop is constantly plugged in, watches movies but is not picky of vibrant 1080p screens and just wants to play their games at a higher resolution and not spend over $1000, let alone not far from $900, then the Lenovo Legion Y520 is for you!
