Lenovo Y50-70 Touch Slim Gaming Notebook Review

Reviews
By Thomas Soderstrom
published

The Y50-70 extends Lenovo’s touchscreen emphasis to the mobile gaming crowd. But a entertainment-oriented notebook still has to game. We run this one through its paces to determine if the compact form factor is still packed with ample performance.

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A Touch Of Gaming Portability

At seven pounds (including the adapter), my comments about the Y50-70 Touch (59420895) being thin and light are really only relative to traditional gaming notebooks. Today’s comparison included a full-performance model of similar screen size that was nearly two pounds heavier, while toting an even larger charger. And let’s face it, anyone anticipating less than two hours of game time from the battery probably will bring along an AC adapter.

This model of the Y50-70 Touch approaches the value of MSI’s heavier notebook in overall computing. A non-touchscreen version would have evenly matched it, due to the $100 price difference. And we’ve seen lower prices on various other part numbers that bend the cost/benefit curve in favor of the touch-enabled Lenovo.

This version of the Y50-70 even beats the value of its heavier rival in games, and that brings us to the point of this suite, gaming adequacy. Even in its worst-performing game, Arma 3, the Y50-70 Touch reached playable frame rates by using either Standard quality at 1920x1080 or by dropping to 1600x900 at Ultra quality. There was enough frame rate left between those settings that 1920x1080 “High” looked like a good middle ground.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
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19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • TallestJon96
    I fail to be impressed with gaming notebooks, a GTX 750 ti attached to a $500 OEM desktop with $200 for a monitor, speakers, nice, etc. will beat this for about $800-$900, with the ability to upgrade. I know some people need to be mobile, but these $1200 machines don't even have an SSD.
    Reply
  • varun706
    I would like to see how my Ideapad Z500 stacks up against Y50-70.
    Reply
  • shahrooz
    I have the none-touch version with 16GB RAM and SSHD. I'm very satisfied.
    Reply
  • greghome
    At the same price, could have gotten the UHD model with no touch
    Reply
  • Crashman
    15099874 said:
    At the same price, could have gotten the UHD model with no touch
    That's basically what the article recommends (if you like this one, find a different P/N with features you like even more, for less money)

    Reply
  • NC92
    I have a very similair laptop but without touch screen, bought half a year ago, and can say that I am very statisfied wiht the product. It plays the games that I want to play well, and is otherwise a very silent and nice everyday working laptop. I actually find that the battery lasted longer then i expected (in comparison to the old Dell laptop that i had, which barely managed 2.5 hours when it was new) Sitting in the living room, casually browsing and reading it can go for a whole evening, and that is basically all I need the battery for.

    Two comments about the things about it that I do not like:
    1. The SSHD. It is basically just a hdd but with a small ssd part added to it, but that part is way to small to have any significant performance difference. They would have been better off just installing a better quallity hdd, that would have been a much better investment (or an ssd for that matter, although that is quite more costly)
    2. The trackpad is completely smooth, I would have liked some physical indication when you move your finger to one of the button positions. a little annoyance, but something that could be easily changed i think.

    I would recommend this laptop to anyone wanting to buy a gaming-capable laptop for mid-range prices. I definitely found it to be a great bang-for-the-buck-machine when I bought it, and it probably still is.
    Reply
  • SuperVeloce
    I fail to be impressed with gaming notebooks, a GTX 750 ti attached to a $500 OEM desktop with $200 for a monitor, speakers, nice, etc. will beat this for about $800-$900, with the ability to upgrade. I know some people need to be mobile, but these $1200 machines don't even have an SSD.
    To even mention laptop and desktop in the same sentence is just wrong. WRONG I tell ya!
    Reply
  • tomfreak
    Lenovo Y series have serious problem = Cooling. The lack on cooling in this type of notebook post a serious problem after u use a while. After sometime the dust accumulated which is going to make the notebook cooling insufficient. Cutting the warranty down to 1yr only further shows that lenovo wasnt confident about the cooling reliability. Dont get me wrong Lenovo dont have reliability issues if taken with care, it is only the cooling, be prepared to do regular fan cleaning if u guys want these slim gaming notebook

    Seriously if u guys need to get a gaming notebook, get the real gaming notebook with proper cooling. Not these.
    Reply
  • SylentVyper
    My Sager NP8651 is under 1" and packs a GTX 970m (vastly more powerful than the 860m) and has dual fans cooling the GPU.... This isn't very thin, especially considering you can get the NP8651 for about the same price.

    To add to that, the 970m being far more powerful, I don't ever go above 70 degrees on anything. CPU only gets to about 80 under load as well.

    If you're in the market for a thin(ish) gaming notebook that performs identically to a 4690(non-k) + GTX 760 (desktop) that doesn't break the bank too bad, Sager is the way to go. I just cringe when I see the HP gaming laptop or the Acer Nitro going for over $1,500 with only an 860m. Yuck.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    A bit pricy, but if thats with 4k then it makes since.

    I do not see why they need to add a 4k display, that gpu is not capable of 4k gaming.
    Reply