There are a lot of gaming laptops on sale, which one to choose and how much money do you need for this? It’s good when you have about 100 thousand rubles on hand, but what if it’s less? Acer, Dell, ASUS, HP – there are enough options, this time let’s look towards the newcomer, this is the Lenovo Legion Y520. It costs less than its competitors, which means it’s already interesting what it will offer for its money.

Lenovo has recently started to develop a separate gaming area in laptops, so let’s see what it did. For a change, I will build the text in the form of questions and answers, so as not to load it with a long footcloth of letters and words.

What are the modifications?

Various! Choose between Intel Core i7 processors, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti graphics, up to 16GB of RAM, and a variety of storage options. Hard disk from 1 to 2 TB, SSD from 128 to 512 GB. As usual, all fantasies are limited by price – well, it’s up to you to decide whether to take the version with a margin or buy a simple basic model. Of course, if the budget allows, it is better to take a more powerful laptop.

We had this option: Intel Core i7-7700HQ, 16 GB of RAM, Intel HD Graphics 630 paired with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 4 GB of memory; 128 GB SSD and 1 TB HDD. There are a lot of connectors in the laptop: USB 2.0, USB Type-C, 2xUSB 3.0, HDMI, Ethernet, SD reader, 3.5 mm mini-jack.

Does the game pull?

Here’s the thing, the GTX 1050 Ti with 4 GB of memory in our version is not a top-end card, it’s a good middle class. You can and should play, the main thing is not to overdo it with the graphics settings. Fallout 4 runs at maximum settings with 40-45 fps, and Battlefield 1 starts at the same frequency. But The Witcher 3 already drops to 30 at maximum quality, then you go one level lower in the graphics settings.

I liked the quiet cooling system, the laptop does not roar even in games, not to mention those cases when you just use it for work, typing texts. Heating is also normal, unless, of course, you play with a laptop on your knees – then it will not be very pleasant to feel hot air on your skin.

What’s with the screen?

Lenovo Legion Y520 received an IPS-matrix. Having learned about the characteristics, I was delighted at first, but then, when I sat at the laptop, I changed my mind. It happens that gaming laptops get TN displays, manufacturers are chasing response times. And they do it for good reason – this Lenovo does not have the fastest response.

In my opinion, the TN matrices that are in the ASUS ROG gaming series will be better. And with Lenovo, the picture looks dull, there are not enough colors, a bright palette, it is somehow pale.

The resolution of the 15.6-inch screen is 1920×1080, standard. By the way, there is a matte matrix here, they are usually praised for the fact that glare does not appear on displays of this type. So it is, there is no feeling of “mirror”.

Is the design good?

In principle, gaming laptops can be divided into 2 groups: the first will have models with a bright design, where something glows, blinks, the case is decorated with additional elements. The second includes more modest models. Lenovo Legion Y520 I define in the second category – it does not look like a starship from the near future, which is what I liked about it.

The case is trimmed with carbon-like plastic, it does not look collective farm, neat, but not premium. Plastic, it is plastic, to decorate the case with aluminum! But this is a question of another budget.

Is it hard to carry?

I liked the laptop in size – it weighs 2.4 kg, for comparison, that’s how much the MacBook Pro weighed 15 years 5-7 years. But on a poppy with games, everything is sad to this day, and here it is a universal machine for any entertainment.

There will be no screenshots with frame rate measurements in games, but I will say that no brakes were noticed at all. Logically, after all, there is a GeForce GTX1050 Ti. Therefore, I think that the performance margin for the near future is solid, the desire to upgrade the system will appear no earlier than in 3-4 years. And this will be a completely different generation of laptops, remember, not so long ago, a weight of 3.5 kg for a gaming laptop was commonplace. And here – enough power in a compact package.

True, remember that if you plan to take a laptop with you, then do not forget about the power supply. It weighs a lot, around 400 grams, but that’s common on gaming machines.

How much work?

Lenovo claims up to 4 hours of operation for the Legion Y520, I didn’t manage to squeeze that much out of it. If you just surf the Internet, print texts, watch videos in the browser, it will take around 1.5-2.5 hours of work. It won’t even last an hour in games. Of course, for a gaming laptop, battery life is the tenth parameter, so I won’t worry about that.

About buttons

The buttons are decorated with red edging, it would look strange in a regular laptop, but this is a gaming model, so it was not without embellishments. The keyboard is comfortable and quiet, if you ask your parents for a laptop to work with essays, you might feel it when you decide to study.

Although who buys a gaming laptop for classes, who am I kidding? Young gamers were given a hint – WASD is highlighted in red more than the rest of the buttons, do not mix it up. The touchpad is normal – you can just work in Windows without a mouse, but for games it will already be necessary.

The sound let us down

A gaming laptop should create an exciting atmosphere. When you cut into toys, both a smooth picture and a response are important, and of course, the sound! And the situation here is not very good with the sound, it is kind of flat and lacks volume, that same battle effect when you rush under fire on the fields in Battelfield 1. Yes, you can put on headphones or connect more powerful speakers, that decides everything.

Worth adequately

When preparing a review, I usually use Yandex.Market data. Several versions of the laptop are offered there, the most affordable one will cost 70,000 rubles, and such an option, as we had on the test, costs around 80 thousand.

Opinion

So what happened in the end? Notebook Lenovo Legion Y520, as expected, copes with all modern games, it has a neat design and an acceptable price for a device with such stuffing. Of the shortcomings – the average quality screen and not very powerful sound. In my opinion, this is a good option for a relatively inexpensive gaming laptop, analogues will cost more. You can, as an option, look towards ASUS or Acer gaming solutions, but you have to spend more money, and the economy must be economical.

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