Lenovo Legion Y530 - Review 2022

Lenovo, in revamping its gaming-laptop line for '18, scores with its fresh-looking Legion Y530. This machine punches above its weight, offering a sharp blueprint in a compact, sturdy build that apes a pricier gaming laptop. And despite its budget-mindedness (models start at $749.99), it doesn't make any major design concessions. Its Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics flake is no powerhouse, but the Y530 proves to exist a competent HD gaming machine with no real flaws. Our $one,029-list exam model, as we wrote this, was available for $849.99, a great deal. (Lenovo's web pricing is notoriously prone to fluctuation.) Versus similarly priced competition, information technology's merely a flake amend than you'd look in almost areas, snagging our Editors' Selection for budget gaming laptops.

Classiest in the Form

Crafting a low-price simply highly-seasoned gaming laptop is a tricky needle to thread. Shoppers expect a certain level of performance alongside a nice build and a robust feature set, all while keeping the toll low. Oftentimes, these laptops succumb to build-quality flaws that consequence from cutting costs: cheap plastic chassis, subpar keyboards.

The Legion Y530, on the other manus, flaunts my favorite pattern from a Lenovo gaming laptop to date, and i of the spiffiest in the budget-gaming marketplace. Information technology's not flashy or gaudy, dropping the far-too-pop cherry-red accents for a clean black-and-white scheme, and information technology still brings some way with its thin body and highly-seasoned angles.

Most of the ports and some internal thermal-oriented hardware are set in a sort of rear ledge that juts out behind the screen. This gives the laptop a singled-out look of its ain, while providing actress real estate for the cooling guts, contributing to both the aesthetics and functionality.

The body is entirely plastic, but of a sturdy guess that belies the laptop's price. The hat has a radial texture, likewise as the Legion brand name emblazoned along one side. In the middle of the "O" is a glowing-white "Y" logo, a holdover from Lenovo's former "Y-Series" nomenclature for its gaming-laptop line, which remains in the model name.

The Y530 measures 0.95 by 14.37 by ten.24 inches (HWD) and weighs v.ane pounds, respectably meaty for a gaming laptop. Only the virtually size-conscious (and generally far pricier) gaming machines are much slimmer and lighter; machines in this budget-power bunch tend to be this size or bigger. This model shaves nearly half a pound off the Legion Y520, its predecessor, whose build reflected its upkeep pricing to a much greater caste. In dissimilarity, the similarly affordable Acer Nitro 5, for i, comes in at 1.05 by 15.35 by ten.47 inches and 5.95 pounds, bigger and almost a pound heavier despite both machines having a 15.six-inch display.

Portability may not exist your primary concern for a gaming laptop, merely it's a nice-to-accept, and the precipitous blueprint doesn't hurt, either. Betwixt the size and style, the Legion Y530 stands in a higher place other inexpensive gaming laptops, looking similar it belongs in a college price tier.

Every bit for that display, the Legion Y530 boasts an IPS console with a 1,920-past-1,080-pixel native resolution and an anti-glare coating. The latter does its job, cutting downwardly on reflections, while the overall epitome quality is pretty practiced, if not a standout. Every bit we saw with the TN-panel version of the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming, a good display on a budget machine is not always a given.

Besides worth complimenting are the panel'due south thin bezels, which go a long mode toward making the organisation more than meaty. The border along the lesser is thick, but the meridian and side bezels are merely a quarter of an inch thick. This allows the laptop to have a smaller footprint than many of the other gaming laptops nosotros see with a 15.vi-inch screen.

Indeed, a 1080p full HD console is the smartest pick for the components here. The GeForce GTX 1050 is already not going to button 60 frames per second (fps) on maximum settings in demanding games at ane,920 by 1,080; had Lenovo gone with a higher-resolution panel, the graphics card would really struggle to keep upwards. A console upgrade would also add a good amount to the overall price, so given the budget-friendly bent of this system, 1080p is more than serviceable.

Now here's an improvement I tin can get around: the keyboard. Lenovo ditched the Legion Y520's cherry-red highlighting around the keys in favor of white on the Y530, and I think information technology's much classier for information technology. Equally with the exterior blueprint, it looks like a much more developed laptop, something you could bring out in public or to a coming together if it'southward your full general-use laptop without it screaming that it's a gaming car. The keyboard is adept for a budget arrangement—information technology doesn't experience cheap (which definitely happens in this price tier), offers a satisfying bounce while typing, and is backlit.

The touchpad, too, ups its game this time effectually. It drops the quirky geometric flourish from the Legion Y520 for a simple, clean look with dedicated left and correct mouse buttons beneath. It's responsive and tracks well, again a solid effort for a budget laptop. The speakers are provided by Harman, and are mostly just average. They can become pretty loud for blasting some music or playing a video, merely I noted some distortion at the highest volume level.

Connections, Configurations

Every bit mentioned, most of the ports are located on the rear extension "ledge." There, you will find a USB Blazon-C port, a USB 3.1 port, a mini-DisplayPort connection, an HDMI output, an Ethernet jack, and the power connector. In addition, on both flanks of the laptop, you'll find an additional USB 3.1 port, while the left side also hosts the headset jack. The laptop too features a 720p webcam, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.one.

Lenovo offers multiple models of the Legion Y530, ranging from $749 to $i,099. Before I explain some of the other choices, for the sake of context, this tester unit I take in paw (again, $i,029 listing, $849 directly at this moment) comes with an Intel Core i5-8300H processor, 8GB of memory, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 I mentioned, and a 256GB solid-land bulldoze (SSD).

The cheapest Y530 model comes with a 1TB hard drive instead of a smaller simply speedier SSD, while the nearly expensive model pairs a 1TB hard drive with a 128GB SSD, the latter existence the boot drive. Given that relatively tight spread in price between the tiptop and lesser models, these aren't drastically dissimilar machines to cull among. Rather, Lenovo offers a few variants to adjust your specific needs, but all fall within this budget tier—there'south no high-ability Legion Y530 option. You can crash-land up the graphics card to a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti for a chip more power, choose 16GB of retention, and upgrade to a more powerful Core i7-8750H CPU.

Note that the keyboard on the to the lowest degree expensive selection isn't backlit, and all units conduct the same display. Admirably, the bottom-terminate model doesn't fall back on a TN screen in the same way equally, say, the lowest-cease model in the Asus TUF Gaming FX504G line does.

Good-Enough Gaming Performance?

The Cadre i5-8300H is a lower-power eighth-generation processor, but it's withal a very capable fit for this type of organization. The efficiency on the newest-gen CPUs from Intel is but quite high, pregnant that fifty-fifty the to the lowest degree powerful models in the serial have a solid functioning baseline. Its PCMark viii score demonstrated this, as that score would have been on the college end in the past, and is now coming from a budget organisation.

Similarly, its multimedia test results point to a new bar for expectations. The Legion Y530, perhaps, shouldn't be your professional workstation, just those are, again, better results than nosotros used to meet from such systems. Even the Legion Y520, with a Core i7 CPU from the already-efficient Intel 7th generation, posted noticeably slower times and lower scores on this suite of tests. To the Legion'southward credit, the Acer Nitro 5 shares the same processor and amount of memory, merely Lenovo'south machine all the same outpaced it on average.

One of the more limiting aspects of this arrangement is, of course, the GeForce GTX 1050. Yous'll accept to take the reality that this is a budget-friendly system in terms of raw graphics performance, more than in whatever other aspect (which is also a compliment to the build quality), as the GTX 1050 but has muscle-power limitations. As you can meet on the Heaven and Valley gaming-simulation tests, playing in HD at Ultra quality settings pushes its limits for maintaining smooth gameplay. Information technology averaged 30fps and 40fps on these tests, respectively, technically holding stiff at or above the 30fps flooring, but without much jerk room.

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A Fiddling Real-World Gaming

What we saw in the Sky and Valley tests was reflected in real-world game testing, also. We ran some trials with the games Far Cry Cardinal and Ascent of the Tomb Raider, using the in-game benchmark tools.

On medium detail settings at 1080p, the Legion Y530 scored 50fps and 38fps, respectively. And then, with those tests boosted to the maximum quality preset in each case, the Legion Y530 averaged 32fps and 33fps. Medium settings are a respectable compromise between visuals and performance, then those numbers are decent considering the GTX 1050. (Given fluctuations in minimum and maximum frame rates, at those high settings, you'll ofttimes be nether 30fps.) The reality is that you'll have to kick down a few visual settings in more-demanding games to maintain a shine frame rate with this budget system, and 60fps on maximum (or even loftier) settings isn't happening on all just older, much less demanding games.

The battery rundown, meanwhile, was solid on the Legion Y530, lasting for 7 hours and 59 minutes (7:59). While not matching the all-day longevity of some ultraportables, that's good for a gaming laptop, and decent for a laptop y'all may too utilise for full general tasks off the charger. The Nitro 5 didn't hold out quite as long (6:22), while the Dell Inspiron xv 7000 Gaming lasted for an impressive xi:01.

A New Benchmark for Budget Gamers

The bottom line: For an inexpensive gaming laptop, the Legion Y530 gets yous through the door for smooth HD gaming in some style. Though the GTX 1050 has its clear power limits, "proficient enough" is really the main objective for this type of inexpensive machine, and on that score, mission accomplished. On top of that, the build is higher quality and better looking than near of the contest.

If you need a bit more power, going with a version of the Legion Y530 with a GTX 1050 Ti adds some juice, just this is, and will remain, an entry-level gaming laptop even if you go for Lenovo's top configuration. Simply put, though, if budget gaming is indeed what you are afterward: The Y530 is amend all-around than you'd expect for this price, and information technology makes some of the competition look and experience cheap. Given the low price and in a higher place-course design, it earns our Editors' Choice for budget gaming laptops.