 "Lenovo 3000 Y410")
The laptop market has grown and matured over the last several years, and demand has built up steadily. Manufacturers have taken every measure to ensure they offer the largest possible range for virtually any kind of consumer. Now while consumer choice is always a good thing, it’s a different matter when the choice becomes just too bewildering and confusing for the average human being.
Oermit me to explain. I feel there’s just too much choice available now and not enough clear differentiation in products based on actual performance. For example, take Sony’s VAIO range of laptops. This year alone the company introduced over 50 new models with near identical specs and different covers – from ’nature themes’ to dedications to obscure artists that no one has heard of.
The same trend can be observed in products from Lenovo, Dell and HP – Dell with its Inspiron range, Lenovo with the 3000 range, and HP with its 6x/9x range of machines.
With that rant out of the way, let’s examine the product in hand – the Lenovo 3000 Y410 (quite a mouthful, eh?) The company says this is a multimedia powerhouse. Is this true or does the 3000 Y410 fall into the same quagmire as others with tall claims and no show? Let’s find out.__PAGEBREAK__
Design & Features
My first reaction at the sight of the Y410 was to stifle a yawn. Yep, it looks that boring. It sports a ‘Premium Silver’ finish on the lid and underside which is ho-hum and does nothing to enhance the appeal. Some kind of variation might have been appropriate (sarcasm intended). Thankfully the same theme is not prevalent in the ‘working area’ of the laptop, as the screen sports a light silver-gray bezel and a plain black finish is evident in the area around the keyboard.
One major grouse I had immediately with the Y410 was that for a 14.1" laptop it’s just too big and heavy. Though the physical robustness, reinforcement of hinges and screen area, and thick plastic are vintage Lenovo, there’s a lot of wasted space around the keypad and a rather ungainly profile. The extensive use of plastic has imparted some extra flab that makes it uncomfortable to lug around.
Quite a few manufacturers have improved in this area by using lightweight materials that offer the same level of rigidity and strength, and this is something Lenovo needs to look into. In an era of the slim and svelte, the Y410 is the proverbial fat boy riding around on his bicycle desperately trying to lose weight so that he can look cool.
However, not everything is gloom and doom. There are saving graces. Thanks to all the plastic there’s less flex in the laptop and when you add in the reinforced hinges and the literally bolted-down screen, there’s a sense of stability that other brands sorely lack.
The keyboard of the Y410 is an enigma, in the sense that it’s just a little too firm. The trend is to offer soft keys that will firm up over time and still be usable some years later. Lenovo seems to have bucked the trend and offered a very firm set of keys that while being comfortable to use will definitely get a lot harder and might become plain annoying later. Another thing is the elevation of the keys is a tad higher than required. This may cause users to feel as if they’re hammering away.
The LCD panel of the Y410 is, on the other hand, simply brilliant. It has a native resolution of 1280x800 and offers excellent brightness and contrast levels. The screen area for a 14.1 inch is very good and reading text is a pleasure. The enhanced brightness, contrast levels, and uncommonly good viewing angles make it a pleasure to watch movies on this laptop.
In the same vein, keeping in mind the multimedia aspect of the laptop, Lenovo has thoughtfully provided a Dolby-compatible 2.1 audio speaker system for the Y410. This offers vastly improved audio when compared to other laptops, and is in many ways comparable to a decent mid-end system. It packs a decent amount of bass with good stereo output, and does not distort even at fairly high volumes.__PAGEBREAK__
Performance & Conclusion
The Y410 has a Centrino Duo T5450 CPU, 1GB RAM and a 120GB HDD, and is powered by a Intel X3100 chipset for its graphics with 256MB of VRAM support. These are very base-level specifications and this was reflected in its PCMark score of an even 3200. 3Dmark produced an atrocious 675. It’s clearly not designed for games.
As for battery life, the laptop was able to last 2 hours 10 minutes before it shut down. We nudged the laptop into ‘improved battery life’ profile, and found it managed to hold out for nearly 3 hours. All in all, this is pretty average.
One good thing about the Y410 is the increased security it offers. The laptop supports face recognition software, which has improved over time and allows you to log in easily. The only drawback that continues to hamper usability is its inability to recognise people who wear spectacles. Otherwise it works well.
In conclusion, the Lenovo Y410 is an average laptop. It suffers from an uninspiring design, odd design flaws, and strictly average battery life. However, it’s touted as a multimedia machine and in that respect I have to admit it shines. For its price of Rs 53,000 you may be hard-pressed to find a laptop that offers such good multimedia performance and decent security features to boot.