WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.799 I sometimes avoid reviewing certain products when I know the internet has a 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:09.920 massive raging hard on for them. If I like it, then I'm not telling anyone 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:13.120 anything they don't already know. And if I don't like it, then I get to deal with 00:00:11.440 --> 00:00:16.720 a bunch of vitriol just for having a contrary opinion. Not worth it. I don't 00:00:15.040 --> 00:00:21.039 need a few video views that badly. That's actually why I've never reviewed 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:25.600 the Audio Technica ATTHM50s. I have a pair. They're good for the money, but 00:00:23.439 --> 00:00:29.359 they don't blow me away or anything. So, that along with not having a contact for 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:33.440 review samples is actually the reason that I hadn't planned on reviewing the 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:36.880 Lenovo Y50 up until now. I thought everyone knew about it and loved it 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:41.120 already until I tweeted that I was looking into it and someone said, 00:00:38.160 --> 00:00:46.800 "Lenovo does cases." What? And I was like, "No." So, I resolved to double my 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:54.559 efforts to get one. And here it is. So, let's get this show on the road. 00:00:54.559 --> 00:01:01.120 The Flash Voyager GTX USB3 drive from Corsair provides SSD- like performance 00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:05.439 and fits comfortably in your pocket. Click now to learn more. Lenovo 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:10.159 classifies the Y50 as a gaming essentials model. And honestly, I would 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:14.159 agree with that if it wasn't so darn good at everything else. But let's back 00:01:12.880 --> 00:01:18.960 up for a second. We'll start with a physical tour. The top has a striking 00:01:16.960 --> 00:01:22.880 brushed finish that manages to be clean and professional while hinting at the 00:01:20.960 --> 00:01:27.200 horsepower underneath. And the bottom looks the same, adorned only by a 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:31.360 subwoofer for the shockingly good JBL designed audio system, as well as a 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:35.360 large air intake. The front has the usual indicator LEDs for power and 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:39.200 whatnot. The right side has a Kensington lock, a USB 2 port, an SD reader, a 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:43.920 headset jack, and a spit of audio output. Then the left side has two USB 3 00:01:41.759 --> 00:01:48.240 ports, an HDMI output that I wish was DisplayPort, a gigabit Ethernet port, 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:52.320 and a reversible power jack. Back to how to categorize this notebook, though. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:55.920 It's not just for gamers. It's more of a sensible option for pretty much anyone 00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:59.920 who doesn't mind the size kind of thing, if if that was a category. Even though 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:04.399 it is a bit on the big side with sizable bezels around the screen, I feel like it 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:08.959 compensates by weighing only 5.3 lbs and being a mere 0.9 in thick. Both very 00:02:06.960 --> 00:02:13.360 reasonable values for a 15.6 6 in notebook. And it also helps me forgive 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:17.040 the size to see Lenovo use that space to equip this bad boy with one of the best 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:21.680 keyboards that I've ever used on a gaming notebook. It's got a striking red 00:02:19.200 --> 00:02:26.560 backlight and matte wrist rest. Commits no cardinal sins like short shifts or 00:02:24.239 --> 00:02:31.520 backspace keys. Includes a full number pad for productivity. Has correctly laid 00:02:28.720 --> 00:02:36.319 out arrow keys. And most importantly, the tactile feedback is excellent. My 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:40.400 two complaints are that it lacks mute and media control keys. even with a 00:02:38.239 --> 00:02:44.080 function modifier. And the tops of the key caps are a little bit slippery out 00:02:42.239 --> 00:02:47.599 of the box. But that didn't prevent me from being at full speed within 2 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:50.720 minutes of using it. Although, given how many business notebooks Lenovo makes, I 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:55.840 guess it shouldn't surprise me that much that they know a thing or two about how to make a keyboard. It's just a shame 00:02:53.760 --> 00:03:00.319 that this didn't carry over to the touchpad. To be clear, there are some 00:02:58.640 --> 00:03:04.319 really good things about it. It almost never misinterprets multi-touch and 00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:08.480 Windows 8 gestures, a big problem with my XPS that forced me to disable them 00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:11.760 all. The positioning is perfect, allowing me to easily type without 00:03:10.239 --> 00:03:15.519 touching it. And whenever I intentionally brush my palms on it to 00:03:13.440 --> 00:03:20.400 test it, it did a great job of palm rejection. Tracking and the Surface 00:03:17.440 --> 00:03:25.680 finish are all right. But even with all those positives in mind, I wasn't a huge 00:03:23.040 --> 00:03:30.159 fan of using the mouse pad two-handed with clicks often registering as 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:34.799 downward movements. And the overall fit and finish left a fair bit to be desired 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:38.400 for me with some noticeable rattling when using Tap to Click. and the 00:03:36.640 --> 00:03:43.120 clickpad functionality on the rest of the pad being extremely inconsistent 00:03:40.799 --> 00:03:48.480 with the middle requiring a little bit of force and the edges 00:03:46.239 --> 00:03:51.519 much more. I guess it makes sense that there would have to be at least a few 00:03:49.760 --> 00:03:55.760 compromises like this on a notebook that costs anywhere from around $1,000 to 00:03:53.200 --> 00:04:00.319 around $1,500 and delivers these kinds of specs, though. The $1,300 model on 00:03:58.239 --> 00:04:05.519 Amazon has a Core i7 2.4 4 GHz quad core, 16 gigs of RAM, a GTX 860M with 2 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:11.280 gigs of RAM, a 256 gig SSD, and last but not least, a 4K IPS display. I mean, 00:04:09.200 --> 00:04:16.560 think about that. For less than the cost of buying a 4K IPS monitor, you can buy 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:21.359 an entire notebook with one attached to it. The world is a funny place. Speaking 00:04:18.880 --> 00:04:25.040 of the 4K display, what a great value. My unit even has a touchcreen, although 00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:28.560 a quick search on Newegg didn't reveal an option available like that, so your 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:32.880 mileage may vary. But back to how it looks, it's beautiful. No, it's not 00:04:31.280 --> 00:04:37.360 perfect. Mine has some noticeable backlight bleed, especially along the 00:04:34.639 --> 00:04:43.360 left edge. But man, that kind of pixel density is amazing, even with my nose 10 00:04:40.479 --> 00:04:47.280 cm from the screen. Correctly scaled text looks astoundingly crisp. Viewing 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:50.560 angles are easily suitable for sitting and watching 4K videos with a group of 00:04:48.960 --> 00:04:55.440 friends with no one getting a crappy view or lousy colors and doing my usual 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:59.440 drag Windows around and see how noticeable motion blur is. quick and 00:04:57.280 --> 00:05:03.360 dirty test didn't reveal anything unexpected given that we know it won't 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:08.400 have the same speed and responsiveness of a TN panel. Now, I've seen a lot of 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:13.520 people online being very harshly critical of Lenovo's use of a 48 Hz 00:05:10.960 --> 00:05:18.639 display here instead of a 60 Hz one, but to be honest, it doesn't bother me that 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:22.560 much. 30 Hz is unbearable, but I've used 50 Hz by accident on my computer before. 00:05:20.880 --> 00:05:26.720 And while things do feel a little bit off, and I I'll notice, and I'll change 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:32.080 it back eventually, it never really bothers me in 2D work. And frankly, in 00:05:29.520 --> 00:05:37.680 games, your IPS panel, slow response time, and GTX 860M are going to likely 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:41.919 be bigger performance bottlenecks than the maximum refresh rate of your screen 00:05:39.440 --> 00:05:47.600 being 48 hertz, especially if you're gaming at 4K. Which leads us nicely into 00:05:44.400 --> 00:05:50.240 the overall gaming experience, which 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:55.600 isn't as seamless as I think it needs to be. While more casual games like Dirt 3 00:05:53.280 --> 00:06:00.800 were actually playable at 4K on high settings with minimum frame rates around 00:05:57.520 --> 00:06:03.039 30 FPS, hardcore titles are not going to 00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:08.000 run at that resolution, which wouldn't be a problem except that due to the way 00:06:05.440 --> 00:06:12.400 Intel's driver handles scaling on this display when you're running at native 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:17.440 resolution, DirectX11 games, the ones that I tried anyway, will run at the 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:21.600 resolution you set, like 1080p, in the middle of the screen with black bars 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:26.720 around them. There are a couple of workarounds, but the first is to force 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:30.400 the lower fidelity DirectX9 render path, which can involve weird config file or 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:35.120 registry edits. So, not everyone will want to do that. And the second involves 00:06:32.880 --> 00:06:38.880 changing the desktop resolution, which will likely require you to change the 00:06:36.960 --> 00:06:43.039 text scaling, which by default is set to the maximum and will push a bunch of UI 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:47.840 elements off screen. So then in order to do that, you have to log out of Windows 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:50.880 and log back in every time you want to 00:06:47.840 --> 00:06:53.840 run a DirectX11 game at 1080p. 00:06:50.880 --> 00:06:57.680 I hope a driver can fix this, but given that the NVIDIA control panel doesn't 00:06:55.680 --> 00:07:01.599 control display scaling in dual graphics mode, and the most recent Intel graphics 00:06:59.919 --> 00:07:06.880 drivers validated for this model are over 3 months old, I don't know if I 00:07:03.840 --> 00:07:08.800 would hold my breath for that fix. But 00:07:06.880 --> 00:07:12.880 and there are some other issues too, like the GPU power limit throttling that 00:07:11.039 --> 00:07:17.680 occurs sometimes when gaming at high settings on battery, causing large frame 00:07:15.599 --> 00:07:22.080 rate fluctuations, even when I set the NVIDIA control panel to prefer maximum 00:07:19.840 --> 00:07:25.360 performance for the GPU. It's not all bad or anything, though. The battery 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:30.160 lasts for over an hour of straight gaming and about 4 hours doing other 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:35.680 things, an acceptable result. And the system runs really cool with neither the 00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:38.160 CPU nor the GPU reaching over 70° even 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:42.400 after an hour straight gaming and only the top of the keyboard between the E 00:07:39.840 --> 00:07:46.319 and Y keys developing a bit of a toasty hot spot. Something that really didn't 00:07:43.919 --> 00:07:50.400 affect me much. The problem is I just don't think these things are enough to 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:56.080 turn my conclusion into a super positive one. The Y50, at least the 4K model, 00:07:53.759 --> 00:08:00.479 just isn't easy for me to recommend as a gaming notebook. Honestly, it's issues. 00:07:59.199 --> 00:08:05.120 most of which are relating to the cutting edge screen are not Lenovo's 00:08:03.039 --> 00:08:09.120 fault. It's hardware or driver limitations that are beyond their 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:14.319 control. But for the customer spending his or her own real money on the product 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:19.520 that says Lenovo on it, I don't know how much that matters. With that said, while 00:08:16.960 --> 00:08:24.560 gaming on the Y50 had problems, other than the frustrating touchpad, it was a 00:08:21.680 --> 00:08:29.520 pleasure to use in every other way. So, I still have no problem recommending it 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:34.000 as a powerful CUDA capable productivity and multimedia notebook. It delivers 00:08:31.520 --> 00:08:38.080 astounding specs, great build quality, a fantastic keyboard, a rich content 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:43.200 enjoyment experience, basic gaming functionality, and to my eyes, beautiful 00:08:40.959 --> 00:08:47.360 stealthy looks, and it does it all at a price that real people can afford. So, I 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:52.800 have to give kudos to Lenovo for all of that. But as a gamer, I feel like option 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:57.040 one is settling for the 1080p model with the much less beautiful screen. And 00:08:54.640 --> 00:09:00.480 option two is waiting for either a driver fix for this one or a next 00:08:58.800 --> 00:09:06.080 generation product to iron out the wrinkles, which is IMO not a terrible 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:10.080 choice because once they fix that stuff, this baby is going to be really hard to 00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:14.480 beat. Speaking of hard to beat, audible.com's massive selection of over 00:09:12.160 --> 00:09:18.160 150,000 audio books. Embarrassingly enough, I still haven't gotten around to 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:21.600 reading The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, someone whose work I admire very 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:26.399 much. So, when it came time to pick this month's audio book, and I had Sihow open 00:09:23.839 --> 00:09:29.360 in another tab, I was like, "Oh, snap. Hank Green is hosting that. I still 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:34.640 haven't read his brother's latest critically acclaimed book. Got to pick that up." And that's basically how the 00:09:32.560 --> 00:09:38.240 monthly audiobook membership works. You sign up to get your first book for free, 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:44.880 and then every month after that, you get one included with your membership and discounts on additional audiobooks. 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:46.399 Check it out now at audible.com/lininus. 00:09:44.880 --> 00:09:50.720 Guys, thank you for watching. Like if you liked, dislike if you disliked. Leave a comment letting me know what you 00:09:48.880 --> 00:09:53.839 thought of the video, future video suggestions, all that good stuff. Don't 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:58.399 forget to check out the support us link in the video description. You can buy a sweet t-shirt like this one. You can 00:09:56.800 --> 00:10:03.760 change your Amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code in it, so we get a small kickback. And if you love us so 00:10:01.839 --> 00:10:06.959 much that you need to contribute to us making more videos about notebooks like 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:10.880 this, then you can also give us a monthly contribution outright, which we 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:15.600 will appreciate very much and love you long time for. Thank you. That's not 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:21.530 very politically correct. Has this show ever been politically correct? 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:37.519 I think we're done here. 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:39.600 Heat.