GAMING

Powerful yet portable gaming laptop

Gaming laptops of yore used to be bulky and large, but we’ve well and truly moved into a new era. We had the pleasure of reviewing the Lenovo Legion Y540 recently, which is surprisingly light and compact, yet powerful.

With a price point considerably lower than most gaming laptops, the Legion Y540 is perfect for the budget-conscious among us. It might be slim and lightweight, but it packs a punch.

Lenovo Legion Y540: What you need to know

Design

Gaming has a new look indeed. The 15.6-inch gaming laptop comes in Raven Black. It also features Lenovo’s unique hinge which leaves an edge at the rear of the device. This allows the device to fold back 180 degrees.

“The bulky gaming laptops of old are gone. Now is the time to embrace a machine that is worthy of you: stylish on the outside, savage on the inside”.

Its design is smooth, sleek and sensible while still sporting the eye-catching Legion logo along the edge. It measures 365mm x 260mm x 25.9mm and weighs approximately 2.3 kilograms, thanks to its minimalistic plastic build.

lenovo legion y540 gaming laptop
Photo: TheSouthAfrican.com/Cheryl Kahla

Screen and display

The Lenovo Legion Y540 has a 15.6″ FHD non-touch IPS (in-plane switching) screen with thin bezels. It handles higher frame rates of up to 144 Hz, along with a decent contrast ratio and 72% colour gamut.

The IPS panel features anti-glare film, which made working in a sunlit office all that much easier. My office gets a fair amount of sun and I’m usually forced to work with the curtains drawn, but not while reviewing the Legion Y540.

Let that sunshine in, baby! The only downside for me was the brightness. At around 300 nits, it was just a tad bit too low. A nit is the standard unit of measurement of luminance; the higher the rating, the brighter the display.

While 300 nits aren’t that bad (you need about 250 nits to game in a dark environment), I’m used to 500 nits, so it was a slight adjustment. That said, a device can only be considered as sunlight-readable at 1 000 nits, so I was still pleasantly surprised.

Ports and connectivity

The Legion Y540 has USB 3.1 Gen 2 and Gen 2 Type C ports; as well as a Mini Display Port 1.4, an HDMI 2.0 port, a USB-C port, a NOVO hole, a Kensington Lock slot, a 3.5 mm audio jack, and an ethernet port.

Unfortunately for the photographers out there, it has no SD card slot. Then again, if you’re getting this for gaming with a dash of work on the side, you probably won’t even miss the SD card slot.

The ports are nicely lined up along the rear. This is a massive plus for me, as some laptop would line up the ports along the sides. USB ports on the right side of a laptop is a pet peeve of mine. Where am I supposed to mouse?

I didn’t have that problem with Legion. The cables were out of sight, out of mind. There are additional USB ports along either side of the unit if you need it, but I managed just fine using the ports on the rear.

lenovo legion y540 gaming laptop 6
Photo: TheSouthAfrican.com/Cheryl Kahla

Keyboard and trackpad

The Legion Y540 has a backlit keyboard, which was ideal for those late-night gaming or working sessions. The keyboard on the Legion Y540 delivers best-in-class gaming controls to give you the edge over any opponent.

“This keyboard delivers 100% anti-ghosting, laser-engraved WASD highlights, less than 1 ms response time, white backlighting, and more for ultimate control of your system”.

Lenovo

The full-sized keyboard has a numeric keypad, too. It is placed a bit higher when compared with a regular keyboard. I kept hitting 6 when I was aiming for 9, or 8 when I wanted 5. But I got used to the layout eventually.

Performance and battery

The 9th-generation Intel Core i5 processor delivers on performance. Couple that with the GeForce RTX 2060 GPU and 8GB RAM, and you’re good to go with more than enough gaming storage.

I had no problem at all while playing Elder Scrolls Online; it was even snappier with some of the indie games I have in my Epic Games library. The Legion Y540 is also thermally optimised to run cooler and quieter.

The 52.5 Wh battery clocks in at four hours of medium to heavy usage; depending on what you are using it for. If you want to play games on the go, remember to pack that charger or you probably won’t go longer than an hour.

Lenovo Legion Y540: Conclusion

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 GPU ensures smooth gaming, and the lightweight laptop is perfect for those who want to game on the go, as long as you don’t forget to pack the AC adapter.

It’s a powerhouse for non-gaming tasks, and the cheaper price point makes it a better option for those of us who can’t afford premium-priced gaming laptops. I loved the port placement, but I wasn’t fond of the numeric keypad.

Pros

  • Lightweight for a gaming laptop
  • Sleek, minimalist design
  • 144 Hz panel
  • Display and backlit keyboard perfect for gaming
  • Absolutely love the port arrangement along rear edge

Cons

  • Average battery life
  • Screen at 300 nits
  • No SD card reader
  • numeric keypad placement

DMCA.com Protection Status

Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *