Lenovo Legion Y740-15ICH (i7-8750H, RTX 2070 Max-Q) Laptop Review

[Redaktion]

Lenovo is back in the 15" gaming laptop fray with their Legion Y740—nearly identical to the previous Y730, but now packing an i7-8750H and an RTX 2070 Max-Q GPU alongside other improvements. At a price point of just around $1990 USD, its performance might surprise you.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Legion-Y740-15ICH-i7-8750H-RTX-2070-Max-Q-Laptop-Review.413926.0.html

[Sheng]

There is optimus option, have to update bios

[King sisqo]

I love this review. It goes to show the notebook I already bought after considerable thought shows it's quality after such a high rating given.
My only complaint is that the cons given in regards to the lack of number pad is unfair because it is a reviewers "preference". It doesn't need one as the 17" does this.
I understand from a "work" view why you would want one.
But a centred touchpad and non cramped keyboard is highly better and aesthetically pleasing to the eye than if one was there. And in all honesty I wouldn't of bought the laptop had Lenovo did.  Their thinkpads ARE the reason why I like it like that.
Nobody criticises a MacBook or Razer Blade for omitting them in their 15" every model.
I will buy all models of this until they stop making it like this and I'll buy a Razer after that.

[ratcashh]

As written before. Lenovo Vantage allows turning off G-SYNC and using optimus instead (requires BIOS update). Please re-do the battery (WIFI) benchmark with G-SYNC off.
Also worth mentioning is that according to the HW manual, the 17"s bigger battery fits the 15" model, albeit without the HDD. Even if one would need to invest a hefty amount for a bigger NVMe drive, it would still be cheaper than many of the competitors and with a bigger battery + Optimus it COULD get provide sufficient battery life (subject to proof by the re-test).

[ghibif ghib]

I would also like to see another battery benchmark with optimus enabled, and with the bigger battery if possible.
Thank you.

[tourist07]

What about coil whine?

[Steve Schardein]

Hey guys,

We won't be able to benchmark with the larger battery, but I just switched the setting in the updated UEFI to enable switchable graphics and the Wi-Fi websurfing battery benchmark value leapt to 4 hours exactly (240 minutes). The review will be updated shortly to reflect this second run.

No coil whine from what I can tell on our review unit whatsoever.

Cheers,

Steve

[lucdec]

There seems to be some confusion regarding the display - at least I am confused.

I don't think that two different panels exist. I think it's one panel with 300 nits that boosts to 500 nits when HDR is enabled in the Windows settings.

I bought the base version (i5-8300H and RTX 2060) and I can set the display to HDR mode.

Youtube HDR videos look bright and vivid. Netflix looks great too!

Could you check this?

[ratcashh]

Dear Steve,

I see you have updated the text to reflect the battery runtime on optimus. However, I don't see the table for WIFI (still says 166mins) and overall SCORE updated.
To be objective, we should measure and compare apples and apples. So if, for example, the Gigabyte AERO gives us 382mins for the WIFI test using Optimus, a corresponding number should be provided in the table for the Lenovo as well (240). Which, I assume, will probably move the overall score as well. Won't it?

[Danny Ng]

So does this model have one or two SSD slots? It doesn't say clearly... 1 HDD/SSD slot and 1 NVMe slot, are they the same or different? I'm a newbie on tech and this is confusing :(

[Peter Bauer]

It has one HDD 2.5 zoll 7mm slot and one NVME SSD m.2 slot.

[Peter Bauer]

The Laptop also works with 64gb ram = 2x32 GB RAM. There is currently only one 32gb non ECC sodimm available: Samsung M471A4G43MB1-CTD
This one works. I tested it with the current bios version. In general the Laptop stays cool and silent for CPU computing intensive tasks so its worth considering buying it for data science Jobs.

[kljoki]

Pricecompare is wrong !     >:D
Price indicated is for power adapter, not for the laptop.

[NikoB]

As it turned out in practice, the main problem of the Y530 is the constant howls of the cooler, because Lenovo underestimated the inclusion threshold of the coolers in the office-surfing load up to 55-60С, unlike the Dell G5, where the coolers are turned on not earlier than 70-75С. Because of this, despite the fact that the coolers themselves and the cooling system are better, according to reviews than the Dell G5, despite its nightmarish weight of 2.8kg and a hefty body that does not fit into any 15.6 "laptop bag, it Constantly buying customers with periodic howls of coolers in regular surfing every 2-3 minutes. And despite the fact that people have already managed to get access to the engineering menu with 43 settings screens, they have not yet managed to raise this threshold.
On my Dell G5, I was able to achieve complete noiselessness (like on a tablet) in office surfing! Thanks to the W10 tunnig and the volt mode in ThrottleStop with BIOS 1.5! Coolers not work 99% of time! A periodic noise on the Y530 makes the brain to all customers, Lenovo! replace the threshold in the BIOS with 70-75C as in Dell G5, or at least give the choice to buyers in the BIOS !!!

The second strongest drawback of the Y series is the curve of the keyboard for an additional digital block. It is impossible to print blindly using such indecency as a navigation or copy-paste block. What prevented to put the keyboard at least from the Lenovo E580? Sales would have increased dramatically, because statistically gaming laptops occupy less than 10% of the global market. Many people would gladly buy these laptops with a 2-year warranty and such a magnificent case, a convenient set of ports, just like cheap workstations, work computers with powerful stuffing, where you can work comfortably during the day, and play and have a rest in the evening . But no, Lenovo marketers why did they want to hang out and ruin a good laptop with a curved keyboard ...

Well, the screen contrast is terrible! I consider the minimum permissible 1300: 1, no less!

[Peter Bauer]

I also tested the fan behaviour of the Y-740, the m15 Alienware 2018 model, the new Omen 2019 model and the Clevo PB5xExx (XMG Pro 15, 2019 Early model). In terms of buit in hardware the Clevo wins with the fastest SSD, 2 m.2 slots, but low battery runtime of 2 hours. In terms of stock configuration the Y-470 was most silent while keeping high clock rates, but the fan profile cannot be tweaked such that it jumps from low to high, which might annoy quite some people. It turned than out that the fan profile with the Clevo can be well customized with the Obisdian fan control software, while all other laptops coudn't be configured with EC modding. With that tweak the Clevo becomes most silent among all competitors (basically unhearable at gaming, below 35-40dB), while keeping the clock of the CPU at 3.9Ghz in Entertainment mode and with this outperforming the Y-740 in terms of silence-power competition. So I sticked with the Clevo Model. I posted the fan profile on the notebookchat forum, just google  Official Clevo PB5xExx(-G) Owner's Lounge and then page 83. Have fun with your decision