Lenovo y410p vs y510p comments appreciated

[bsc249]

I am going to buy either the Lenovo y410p or the y510p. There are only a couple primary differences:
y410p: $829, 1TB HDD+24GB SSD, 14” HD+ LED Glossy LED Backlit 1600x900
y510p: $800, 1TB HDD, 15” HD LED Glossy 1366x768
All the other stuff is the same:
Win 8, i7-4700MQ, GeForce GT750M, 8 GB SDRAM, integrated camera, DVD Recordable, Bluetooth 4, HDMI out.

I guess I really only have two concerns:
I’ve always used a desktop at home, but my new son just got my ‘office’ Is the more portable 14” screen gonna be OK & will the 1600x900 res on the smaller screen be too small? - I may just end up using the HDMI to hook it up to one of my old monitors.
and/or
is the smallish 24 GB SSD worth it? I probably will just continue to use it as a cache the way Lenovo has it configured.

Any thoughts and or comments appreciated
Thx!

 

[jaguarskx]

I think it is best to go to a computer store can check out 14" laptops with 1600x900 resolution screens and also 15.6" laptops with 1920x1080 resolution screens. Generally speaking, if your eye sight is good, then you should not have any issues looking text on a 14" @ 1600x900, but it may be to small for your preference.

I generally do not like 1366x768 resolution. Desktop is too small which limits multitasking. That's why I recommend looking at a 15.6" screen with 1920x1080 resolution. I am going to buy a new laptop specifically because my 14" Lenovo Y470's screen is 1366x768.

Since both laptops have the same GPU, lower resolution means better performance. The GT 750m is not powerful enough for 1920x1080 to play games with high graphics quality. At best it will be medium quality with decent performance. But from a productivity point of view 1920x1080 is best. You can also lower the resolution to 1600x900 or 1366x768, but graphics will not look as sharp as max resolution. You can get a feel for it buy simply using a lower than max resolution on your desktop PC. You can also try it on laptops in a computer store.

If you are gonna hookup to an external monitor, then I suppose it does not matter.

I don't know how much of a difference a 24GB SSD cache will be on responsiveness. I do know that if you do not order the 24GB SSD cache, then your laptop will not come with a motherboard that has a M.2 slot for a M.2 SSD future upgrade. M.2 is a new format for SSDs there are now basically three different versions that I am aware of:

1. Standard 2.5" hard drive format; SATA drive
2. mSATA card format; not compatible with hard drive slot where a typcial SSD drive would go.
3. M.2 is the new standard which is to replace mSATA. Currently these cost 2x more than mSATA.

It would be possible to install a 128GB M.2 SSD drive in the future and then use it as the primary drive (C: drive) and the hard drive as a secondary drive. You must research this or post back later in this forum on how to do this because laptops will default to the hard drive (or a SSD drive in the hard drive bay) as the primary drive and by default the M.2 SSD drive be simply be a cache drive.

 

[bsc249]

Excellent insight, especially on the M.2 slot. Also, I did get to play with a 14" inch & a 15.6" in the office today - another nice tip! Not really much of a difference to me for applications.

Since I'm not a gamer on my pc/laptop and I will use an external monitor in a dual screen most of the time and the 1920x1080 screens add another $150 to a budget I already exceeded, I think the 14" with the M.2 slot is the clincher - especially if I want to avoid an unnecessary argument just before x-mas
Thx!

I think it is best to go to a computer store can check out 14" laptops with 1600x900 resolution screens and also 15.6" laptops with 1920x1080 resolution screens. Generally speaking, if your eye sight is good, then you should not have any issues looking text on a 14" @ 1600x900, but it may be to small for your preference.

I generally do not like 1366x768 resolution. Desktop is too small which limits multitasking. That's why I recommend looking at a 15.6" screen with 1920x1080 resolution. I am going to buy a new laptop specifically because my 14" Lenovo Y470's screen is 1366x768.

Since both laptops have the same GPU, lower resolution means better performance. The GT 750m is not powerful enough for 1920x1080 to play games with high graphics quality. At best it will be medium quality with decent performance. But from a productivity point of view 1920x1080 is best. You can also lower the resolution to 1600x900 or 1366x768, but graphics will not look as sharp as max resolution. You can get a feel for it buy simply using a lower than max resolution on your desktop PC. You can also try it on laptops in a computer store.

If you are gonna hookup to an external monitor, then I suppose it does not matter.

I don't know how much of a difference a 24GB SSD cache will be on responsiveness. I do know that if you do not order the 24GB SSD cache, then your laptop will not come with a motherboard that has a M.2 slot for a M.2 SSD future upgrade. M.2 is a new format for SSDs there are now basically three different versions that I am aware of:

1. Standard 2.5" hard drive format; SATA drive
2. mSATA card format; not compatible with hard drive slot where a typcial SSD drive would go.
3. M.2 is the new standard which is to replace mSATA. Currently these cost 2x more than mSATA.

It would be possible to install a 128GB M.2 SSD drive in the future and then use it as the primary drive (C: drive) and the hard drive as a secondary drive. You must research this or post back later in this forum on how to do this because laptops will default to the hard drive (or a SSD drive in the hard drive bay) as the primary drive and by default the M.2 SSD drive be simply be a cache drive.