As for color reproduction — another spot where many budget gaming laptops fall behind their premium competition — the Y730 hit 97 percent sRGB and 75 percent AdobeRGB. These are excellent results, and here's no doubt where some of the price difference is made up. It's a big step up over the panels in the Y530 and Y720, which both only managed to hit 66 percent sRGB and 50 percent AdobeRGB. Gaming on this laptop looks great.
The keyboard on the Y730 is really the first spot where the extra features over the cheaper Y530 really shine. Here is a keyboard with RGB lighting handled by Corsair iCUE, which allows you to set up just about any color combination and effect you'd like. I had a rainbow spiraling around for the first while but eventually settled on a gradient that was far less distracting.To the left of the main QWERTY setup is a column of six extra keys, with a couple that can be customized for just about any use. The others give you quick control over camera recording and backlight levels. These keys are handy, but they push the keyboard off center, which takes some getting used to. Key travel and response, though, are both satisfactory and I didn't mind doing a fair bit of typing while not gaming.
Lenovo Legion Y730 review
The relatively small touchpad has a mylar surface for smooth tracking, and it uses Precision drivers for full multi-gesture support. There's no click on the touchpad itself, but there are two physical buttons. Its size makes me think Lenovo understands that no one is going to use it for gaming (first thing I did was plug in a mouse), and in that case, I would have liked to have it moved over to the right a bit more. As it sits now, my left hand rubs against the edge while using the WASD keys standard for gaming. At least the touchpad disables itself when the laptop senses a game has been launched.
It's kind of surprising that the Y730 saw a GPU downgrade from the GTX 1060 in last year's Y720, but I guess that's tied in with the slim new build. There's still an updated 8th Gen Intel Core CPU that this time delivers six cores of power, but for the most part, you'll get about the same gaming performance from the top-of-the-line Y530 that costs hundreds less. The back cover comes off with the removal of 11 small Philips-head screws, allowing access to the SSD, Wi-Fi card, storage, and RAM, of which there two SO-DIMM slots for easy upgrades down the line.
I ran some real-world tests to see how the laptop performs while gaming. In Rise of the Tomb Raider, the Y730 averaged 42.32 FPS on High settings. I also tested out Dying Light, averaging 56.37 FPS on Best settings. You shouldn't have an issue running popular esports titles on the Y730, and it will even be able to power more demanding modern games, if at a lower framerate with lesser settings.The 57 Wh battery is a small step down over last year's Y720, but it gets about the same life. Expect somewhere around four hours while doing general productivity stuff, and expect about an hour while gaming. Keep your charger close, as is the case with most gaming devices.
The dual fans kick on as soon as you start gaming, and while they're pretty loud, they do a good job of keeping the laptop cool. I gamed for an hour while charging the battery and didn't notice any spots that got too hot to handle.After using the Legion Y730 for about a week, it has me divided. On one side, it has a smart design, a display with great color reproduction, fast storage, customizable macro keys, and in-depth RGB lighting, but it maxes out at a GTX 1050 Ti, which definitely limits its gaming performance. A 17-inch Y730 is also available, but it doesn't go higher than a GTX 1050 Ti either. Where are the high-performance Legion laptops?
This model I tested, which is as good as it gets from Lenovo, costs about $1,500. Compared to the Y530 I tested, which costs $200 less, you're going to get about the same gaming performance but will miss out on all the fancy keyboard features and better display. The Dell G7 I recently reviewed also costs $200 less, and it delivers better performance but in a chassis that looks dated and chunky. The Y730 is a more premium offering than these other two laptops and you get some impressive hardware for the price paid, but performance is key in a gaming laptop, and the Y730 didn't quite deliver up to my expectations.
Who is this laptop for?
If you have your heart set on a Legion laptop and appreciate the extra features in the Y730 that I think definitely warrant the extra price, it will serve you well. Don't plan on heavy gaming with it, and you shouldn't be let down by the performance. However, if you want to save a couple hundred dollars and get the same or superior performance without the extra goodies, there are certainly other options out there.For a few years, if you wanted to nab a laptop from Dell that was specifically made for gaming, you had to look at its Alienware department. Those laptops are pretty great, but they do cost a good chunk of money.
Dell's G series aims to cut down on price while still delivering the performance gamers need. Available in three different classifications — G3, G5, and G7 — these laptops rise in price and hardware accordingly. I have here for review the 15.6-inch G7 with an alpine white color scheme and typical aggressive gaming design. Let's take a look at how well it performs and whether or not it's worth your attention.
Dell supplied Windows Central with a review unit of the G7 15 (7588) gaming laptop. This specific configuration has inside an 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8750H processor (CPU), 16GB of DDR4-2666MHz RAM, a 128GB Samsung PM871b M.2 SATA solid-state drive (SSD) coupled with a 1TB 5,400 RPM hard-disk drive (HDD), and a NVIDIA GTX 1060 (Max-Q) with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM. This exact model costs about $1,310, though they start at about $1,100 and go up to about $1,760.
When first taking the G7 7588 out of the box, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a 17-inch device. It's made primarily from a plastic chassis with plenty of bulk, though it's sturdy as anything else I've tested. There's hardly any flex in the main body, and picking the thing up you don't feel like it will break if dropped (don't try it). That's no doubt partly thanks to the weight of 6.31 pounds (2.85 kg), which even for a gaming laptop is up there.The G7 is packed with some impressive hardware that contributes to the weight, but it partially also comes from the extra grates on the front and back that house speakers and cooling vents. It's a lot of extra plastic that deliver a gaming look that many love, but to me, it just doesn't seem necessary. It looks a bit outdated, especially compared to the 15-inch Lenovo Legion Y530 I reviewed, but it certainly stands out.
There's a lot of room for ports, and Dell makes good on the space. You get on the right side HDMI 2.0, Thunderbolt 3 with four lanes of PCIe, two USB-A 3.1, and a 3.5mm audio jack, and on the left, you get RJ45 Ethernet, another USB-A 3.1, an SD card reader, and the large barrel-style charging port. There's also a Kensington lock slot for safekeeping. You can connect a speedy Thunderbolt 3 dock for extra connectivity, and, since the G7 is advertised as VR-ready, you have the stock ports to handle those systems.
A power button resides in the top-right corner, but it doesn't have a fingerprint reader built in, nor is there an IR camera in the spacious bezel above the display. The 720p front-facing camera captures a respectable image, and I wouldn't be too shy to use it for video conferencing or while gaming streaming. Two front-firing speakers are built into the grating just below the palm rests, and for a gaming laptop, they're not bad. There's some severe volume that doesn't distort when loud, and the sound is full; explosions and bullets kind of hit you in the chest, but for something like competitive play I would still not stray from a headset.
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