Legion Y720: Lenovo attacks in force

Construction

For this new gaming notebook, Lenovo largely takes over the design of the IdeaPad Y700, a model that we tested a few months ago. We thus find a predominantly black chassis, which allows a few touches of red here and there. The general design remains sober, almost elegant, a bias that we appreciate and which remains rare on laptops dedicated to gaming.

The glossy finish above the chassis, however, has the disadvantage of retaining much fingerprints and the whole quickly becomes very messy. Too bad, because the coating used is pleasant to the touch and the finish is impeccable. When you open the PC, you discover a large keyboard that occupies a good part of the surface, surrounded by a soft-touch coating, again very pleasant under the fingers, but very messy.

The keyboard is quite successful, but the stroke of the keys seems a bit short for a gaming laptop. We also regret the strange positioning of the numeric keypad, just above the directional arrows. A good point for RGB backlighting, configurable on 4 different profiles, using a homemade tool. The touchpad is well integrated and benefits from a fairly discreet red border.

The Legion Y720 is well equipped with connectors. There are three USB 3 ports, a USB 3.1 Type-C port, an HDMI output, a DisplayPort and an Ethernet port. The set is very accessible and distributed on both sides of the chassis.

If there is one point on which the Legion Y720 is flawless, it is in its noise and temperature management. The heat is given off at the back from below and is particularly effective. We thus note a hot point of 44.4 ° C at the front, at the level of the keyboard, and 50.2 ° C at the back, at the level of the evacuation. Good figures which are accompanied by a sound volume which did not exceed 40 dB during our test. We hear a dull breath and very little annoying during a game. The Legion Y720 is, without a doubt, one of the quietest laptops in its class.

---

---

Screen

The Legion Y720 benefits from an anti-reflective 15.6-inch IPS panel. Quite conventionally on this type of PC, there is a Full HD definition (1920 x 1080) which adapts very well to this diagonal and the on-board configuration. delta color E = 4.9 gamma 2.2 temperature 6140 K

Lenovo has in any case paid particular attention to this screen, which is not far from reaching 5 stars. We are indeed particularly excited by the very good contrast ratio of 1250: 1 - extremely rare on a mat screen in this category of PC - and by an almost ideal colorimetry. This takes advantage of a color temperature of 6140 K, a figure close to the standard (6500 K), and a perfectly stable gamma curve. The rendering is therefore very balanced and the gray gradient well defined. Only the Delta E disappoints a little and goes up to 4.9. Remember that the Delta E represents the difference between the actual colors and the displayed colors, and is considered to be very good below 3.

Unfortunately, there is one point on which the screen of the Legion 720 particularly sins: its maximum brightness does not exceed 250 cd / m². It's not much, knowing that most laptops for gamers go up to 300 cd / m² at least. This low luminosity is noticed immediately and is all the more infuriating that the rest is excellent. Pity.

---

---

Performances

It is an Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor that powers this Legion Y720. It comes with 8 GB of DDR4 RAM, a 128 GB SSD and a 1 TB hard drive at 7200 rpm. A configuration as solid as classic for this category of products and which gives hope for excellent performance. As a reminder, the Core i7-7700HQ has 4 cores and displays frequencies between 2.8 and 3.8 GHz (Turbo).

Unsurprisingly, therefore, our power index based on a series of benchmarks (3D calculation, file compression, audio and video conversion, photo editing) is very good and remains at about the same level as that of its competitors. The Legion Y720 is therefore very comfortable in all types of tasks, from the simplest to the heaviest.

---

---

Games

As for the "performance" part, we also give here in the classic and in the efficient. The Legion Y720 is thus equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card, which is now found in most laptops dedicated to gaming. It is equipped with 6 GB of video memory.

If our power index based on 3DMark is good, and in any case consistent with what usually delivers this GPU, the results in games are not outdone. All of the following results are based on a Full HD test (1,920 x 1,080), at a "very high" level of general detail. We thus noted 56 images / second on The Witcher 3 (Hairworks x4), 63 fps on Rise of the Tomb Raider, 60 fps on Crysis 3 (SMAA Standard), 47 fps on Metro: Last Light and 86 fps on Star Wars Battlefront. In short, you will understand, the Legion Y720 can play in Full HD in excellent conditions, and rarely below 50 frames / second.

---

---

Mobility / Autonomy

Laptops dedicated to the game are rarely light and easily transportable, but this Legion Y720 is still doing very well. Its 15 inch format allows it to slip fairly easily into a suitable bag, thanks in particular to a thickness of 2.7 cm and its charger remains of a reasonable size. The notebook is however quite heavy (3.1 kg), even in the gaming category.

On the autonomy side, the results are very positive for a PC of this type. Our streaming video playback test (Netflix in Chrome, brightness at 200 cd / m², headphones plugged in, backlight off) thus ran for 4h53. However, do not expect to play more than 1.5 hours in a 3D title, even by activating the Battery Boost function of Nvidia.

---

---

Audio

The audio part of the Lenovo Legion Y720 is particularly convincing, whether on the headphone or speaker output side. The first thus offers a low distortion rate (0.01%) and a very good output power (140 mV). The entire sound spectrum is impeccably reproduced.

The speakers deliver very good sound for a laptop. As on the IdeaPad Y700, a small subwoofer is located under the chassis and gives a slight surplus of bass. Do not expect a miracle, however, but it is clear that the sound experience is not unpleasant. The frequency response curve shows a good presence of midrange and high midrange and, indeed, a hint of bass.

---

---

Conclusion

This new Lenovo gaming laptop is a great success and ticks off most of the boxes that make such a good product. Power is there, noise and temperature are under control, the chassis is well built and the screen is particularly well calibrated. It lacks little to reach the perfect score, just a little more light on its screen, a less messy coating and a more pleasant keyboard. The 5th star was not far away.

---

---