Review: Lenovo Y40

Introduction and design

Deciding between performance and style is the unavoidable, brain-racking step during the otherwise exciting time of buying a laptop. The tighter the budget, the more difficult the struggle, as the luxury of finding a machine that performs well and has some style at a decent price isn't too common.

The Lenovo Y40 is the smallest and most affordable option in Lenovo's high-performance Y series of gaming laptops. This rig aims to sit pretty in the sweet spot for those seeking a fairly capable and well-made machine at a good entry price.

Starting at just $699 (about £426, AU$790), the Y40 boasts several brag-worthy features inherited from the 15.6-inch Lenovo Y50 and 17-inch Y70, also in the Y series. With sharp design, fantastic battery life and JBL audio that absolutely kills it, it's clear that the Y40 is a chip off the block, at least in some regards.

Design

The Y40 echoes the style of the Y50 throughout with its slick, yet modest clamshell design. The matte plastic lid (with crosshatch texture) and underside are a noticeable downgrade from the Y50's metal accents, but it's nothing to knock the Y40 for. The crosshatch design looks deluxe and also did a good job deflecting my fingerprints, too.

Flush with its lid is an embossed Lenovo logo. On our review unit, the logo's adhesive began to peel, causing it to stick out a bit. Hopefully, this is not a widespread issue. But for a machine with otherwise great build quality, it was a disappointing flaw nonetheless.

Lifting the lid is a breeze. It can easily be done with one finger while the laptop itself rests on a desk or on your lap. The top edge of the lid has a small lip that jets out, spanning its entire width. It hangs over ever so slightly, just enough for you to confidently lift.

The wide lip is functional on a stylistic level, but lifting from anywhere but the center of the lid will cause the whole unit to lift.

Opening the laptop reveals a brushed metal palm rest. A little different than the rubber-glazed palm rest found in the Y50, it's definitely not a step down. If anything, the material is a subtle addition that might win a lot of people over on this machine.

Not limited to its function as a palm rest, the keyboard deck earns big style points as a uniform sheet of metal that hugs each key of the amazing AccuType keyboard and it's bold, red-wrapped keys. The metal ends just shy of the hinge in the back, giving way to two tiny, yet mighty speakers.

The good looks really shine through if you choose to remove the factory-applied stickers. There are four, so have some Goo-Gone handy.

Display

Embedded in the lid's underside is a 1080p screen attached to a rigid plastic hinge. It's secure and doesn't wobble too much when you pick the laptop up or set it down. A thin strip of rubber lines the inside of the lid, preventing any plastic on metal clashing.

The screen is surrounded by a thick, glossy bezel that houses a 720p webcam and light sensor that dynamically adjusts the brightness of the screen based on the amount of ambient light in your environment. These aren't cutting-edge additions, but add to the impressive list of cool features in this machine.

In our sun-soaked New York office, the screen's matte gloss significantly limited the amount of glare. It is glaring, however, that the viewing angles aren't too hot at all. The vivid colors of the Windows 8.1 lock screen, which look pretty well-represented and stunning, immediately lose their luster if you attempt to view the screen from any other angle than head-on.

A 1920 x 1080 resolution is a deluxe feature for a machine that starts under a grand. That said, there's more to every screen than just a resolution and for the Lenovo Y40, it's not all great.

While the matte screen helps prevent glare, it hurts with subpar color accuracy. The screen just isn't all that bright. It may not concern some, but with the brightness turned up fully, the whites shine while most colors appear dull and washed out.

Adjusting the brightness down even one notch makes things difficult to read and similar to what our reviewer thought of the Y50, I found myself cranking up the brightness in a pitch-black room.

Finger toys

The AccuType keyboard is the laptop's greatest feature. As someone who frequently switches between Mac and Windows, the tactile, spaced-out keys helped to prevent too many unintentional key presses.

Now, if only the trackpad were as graceful. Slightly off-centered underneath the keyboard, the trackpad struggled at times to correctly register my touch. It's sensitivity to touch, sometimes overly sensitive and other times, less so, is fidgety at best. For a gesture-enriched Windows 8 experience, this is especially problematic.

Specifications and performance

The Lenovo Y40 starts at $699 (about £426, AU$790) and ranges up to $1299 (around £791, AU$1469) at the time of writing. The unit that I spent time reviewing is currently priced out at $999 (about £609, AU$1130).

The review unit configuration provided by Lenovo is listed below:

Spec sheet

• CPU: 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-4500U (dual-core, 4MB cache)


• Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 M275X (2GB GDDR5 RAM); Intel HD Graphics 4400


• RAM: 8GB DDR3L


• Screen: 14-inch, 1920 x 1080 FHD, anti-glare LED


• Storage: 256GB SSD


• Ports: 2 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0, combo mic/headphone jack, HDMI-out, 4-in-1 card reader, Ethernet, SPDIF


• Connectivity: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160, Bluetooth 4.0


• Camera: 720p HD webcam


• Weight: 4.85 pounds


• Size: 13.7 x 9.8 x 0.9 inches

Each of the configurations currently available have identical offerings (screen quality, build materials and speakers.) For the most part, the eight Y40 configurations offer little variance in terms of CPU and GPU performance and storage options for each price boost.

For the best value, go with the entry model. It matches our review unit's amount of RAM and GPU and better yet, it even has a slightly faster processor. Also, the stock 500GB SSHD hybrid drive offers more space, which for a gamer, movie or music buff, is valuable.

Performance

For a machine starting at such a low introductory price, the Lenovo Y40 puts up some respectable numbers. Here's how the machine performed under the weight of our synthetic tests:

Benchmarks

• 3DMark: Ice Storm: 45,024; Cloud Gate: 4,687; Fire Strike: 1,559


• Cinebench CPU: 213 points; Graphics: 49 fps


• PCMark 8 Home: 2,675 points


• PCMark 8 Battery Life: 3 hours, 54 minutes


• BioShock Infinite (1080p, Ultra): 14 fps; (1080p, Low): 44 fps


• Metro: Last Light (1080p, Ultra): 6 fps; (1080p, Low): 25 fps

Outside of benchmarks, the Y40 certainly has no problem performing standards tasks with ease. The optional SSD in our review unit assisted in making the already snappy Windows 8.1 experience even faster, booting and shutting down quickly. I'm confident, however, that you'd experience similar results with the standard SSHD hybrid drive on offer.

The amazing battery life will also keep you going for a long time in between charges. Our synthetic test estimated that, under the scrutiny of some fairly standard applications (video chat, document and photo editing software), the Y40 would last 3 hours and 54 minutes.

With the power level set to "Balanced" and volume and brightness level cranked down to 50%, I ran the battery down with five tabs in Google Chrome (one of which being Spotify) and a few run-throughs of Binding of Isaac in 3 hours and 37 minutes. Not too bad for 700 bucks.

I have some issues with the gaming performance on show, however. After some dreadful initial benchmark results, I swapped the current driver for an older one that was available on Lenovo's support site. Surprisingly, it ran better, but not by much.

Still not satisfied, I performed a factory reset and installed the most current driver again from AMD. Mysteriously, it ran well enough to consider it to be as powerful as it was going to be. Knowing that customers will need to go through a similar process makes my head hurt.

Identity crisis

The Lenovo Y40 is marketed as budget gaming notebook and frankly, it shouldn't be. During my testing, the Y40's subpar gaming performance popped up again and again. Titanfall, at native 1080p resolution, ran at an average of 20 fps with everything on low. The machine can run the equally fast-paced Burnout Paradise, a racing game from 2009, at about 30 fps with settings cranked up.

The Maingear Pulse 14, one of the most affordable, high-performance gaming laptops out there, starts at $1,199 (about £730, AU$1356). That rig was able to provide results in Bioshock Infinite and Metro: Last Light (on low settings) well above 60 fps.

With the Lenovo Y40's starting point at roughly $500 cheaper, and considering the understandable measures in cost-reduction, I am happy with the performance it showed for how little it costs in comparison. There's a caveat, however: games with advanced physics (e.g. most games, even Goat Simulator) buckle the system.

The Acer Aspire E1, a budget multimedia laptop starting at $499 (about £304, AU$565), provided benchmark scores nearly half of what the Y40 was able to put out.

This leaves the Y40 in an uncomfortable place. Is it a low-fi mobile gaming rig or a high-performance multimedia machine? It depends on what you do more of, really.

The Lenovo Y40 excels at tearing through basic tasks and looking awesome while doing so. It's just not great at running games, and your expectations will likely sour that experience.

Speakers

Added to the mix are two JBL speakers hidden underneath two small grilles. Powered by Dolby software, I was thoroughly impressed with the full sound produced by the Y40.

I ran these thumpers through their paces, from the calculated aggression of Rage Against The Machine to a quiet, emotional scene in The King's Speech. There wasn't a situation in which the Y40 failed to deliver awesome audio.

Bundled software

In each Lenovo Y40, there's an exhaustive amount of pre-loaded software, courtesy of Lenovo. Here are the sole two notable mentions (the others you can just uninstall):

• Lenovo VeriFace Pro takes control of your camera upon boot and will attempt to log you in via facial recognition. It works well in perfect lighting and only while keeping a straight face. If it fails, you simply type your password in. A neat, yet inconsistent feature.


• Lenovo Motion Control allows your camera to track basic hand gestures, ideal for very basic purposes like swiping from right to left to scroll through a slideshow.

Verdict

The Lenovy Y40 is jampacked with premium features not usually seen at its entry price. Compared to others in the 14-inch arena, it also represents a good value for those looking to dip their feet into gaming and save some money while doing so.

We liked

The Lenovo Y40 is an attractive, 14-inch budget gaming option that's fast in most general and multimedia tasks. Not to mention that the machine simply feels good to use. Lenovo's peerless attention to detail in the design does not go unnoticed. From the classy clamshell design to the amazing keyboard, I love the way it looks and wouldn't be afraid to show it off in public.

This laptop has more than just looks, though. It's a fairly powerful machine capable of providing a smooth experience, whether you're watching movies, listening to music or playing casual games.

I also like that the Lenovo Y40 stays cool under pressure. Its fans run cool and don't get too hot to the touch, even while gaming. The speakers are out-of-this-world good, too. To put it in perspective, I've heard much worse standalone 2.1 systems than these gumdrop-sized speakers.

We disliked

Frankly, the Lenovo Y40 doesn't deserve the moniker of "high-performance gaming notebook." Packing dedicated AMD graphics should be a laptop's highlight, but dealing with the AMD driver system was a pesky drag.

The machine simply doesn't possess the "set it and forget it" luxury common in most gaming laptops. Each game will require constant adjustments and tweaks to its settings, all with the hope of squeezing out just a few extra frames per second.

Controlling the trackpad is more cumbersome than it should be, failing to match the quality of the amazing keyboard. Finally, the screen is too dim at any other level than maximum, which makes conserving battery life a challenge.

Final verdict

With understated features aplenty packed into its hood, the Lenovo Y40 impresses with its sleek design and premium build quality for the price. The Y40 might be the crowning victor among multimedia laptops, but Lenovo is pushing this as a gaming laptop, which simply won't do.

If you buy this laptop to play the latest games, you will be frustrated and disappointed with its poor performance. The Y40 is too pricey to fully recommend as a budget multimedia machine, and simply isn't punchy enough to be a sufficient mobile gaming rig.

In the rare case that your needs fall smack dab between multimedia and gaming, the Lenovo Y40 might serve you well. Otherwise, opt for a more focused machine.

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