Make no mistake – opting for a consumer-oriented IdeaPad instead of a professional ThinkPad means sacrificing both case quality and durability of the latter for potentially better internal performance and consumer-centric features of the former. With that in mind, the Y580 has an exterior more akin to a stationary DTR than a notebook that is meant to be constantly carried and transported around.

Appearance has been notably improved over last year’s Y570. While thickness has remained unchanged at 35.7 mm, the sleeker dark gray outer lid and black palm rests now have a lustrous and silky brushed metal appearance instead of the more dull and plastic look of the predecessor. The chassis utilizes both aluminum and polycarbonate plastic, although the metal is used much more conservatively. The inner bezel, for example, is mostly reflective plastic that seems a bit out of class compared to the more elegant brushed finishing of the lid and base. In other words, the plastic lining makes the Y580 look cheap relative to its one grand price tag. The rest of the notebook is otherwise quite stylish from its chrome-lined touchpad, buttons, and JBL speakers. Be ready to face fingerprints and dust, however, as they will accumulate everywhere quite easily.

Despite the upgrades in overall appearance, case quality is a mixed bag. The outer lid in particular is very susceptible to pressure and feels very thin; a slight depression can be observed even by putting a smartphone on top of the notebook. Compared to other notebooks we have tested, the stability of the outer lid is below average and we would recommend a carrying case or sleeve if the notebook is to be transported by backpack alongside other items.

On the bright side, the hinges are relatively stiff (only minor amounts of vibration if not on a stable surface) and the lid shows no severe amount of edge-to-edge twisting. The base of the notebook is moderately well-built and sturdy with no creaking or significant flexing. Even the center of the keyboard, which is usually a weak spot for most notebooks, has better-than-average resistance to pressure. Perhaps the only area in need of most improvement is the touchpad itself as it can also feel quite thin and cheaply made.

The overall chassis is satisfying in appearance, but the feel and texture lean towards a plastic impression that is not quite representative of its high starting price. Especially when compared to the similarly priced HP Envy 15 series, the Y580 could benefit from stiffer and hardier materials.

Outdoor usability is possible, but not recommended. The glossy display will reflect objects quite clearly and can be a bit distracting to say the least. The unfortunate glare is somewhat counterbalanced by the acceptable maximum screen brightness, though keep note that the Power Saver and Balanced profiles will reduce the maximum brightness advantage in favor of longer battery runtimes. Working under shade would be the best option if available as direct sunlight is out of the question.

Viewing angle stability is excellent for a TN panel. The color degradation is still present when viewing at obtuse angles, but the effect is less severe. Horizontal angles hold up even better, so multiple users should have no problems viewing the screen simultaneously. This, when combined with the excellent black levels and gamut range, makes it a high-profile display panel for the Y580.

Storage Solution

Like the similarly-equipped Asus G55VW, the storage solution of the Y580 is probably the weakest link since multimedia users and gamers will typically favor storage space over the speed advantages of an SSD. The 1 TB Seagate Momentus drive in our review model runs at a paltry 5400 RPM albeit with a respectable average transfer rate of 84.3 MB/s according to HD Tune. This advantage, however, is offset by the drive’s high access time of almost 21 ms. Typical hard drives in expensive notebook models will often have access times closer to 15 or 16 ms, meaning program performance and launching times will feel comparatively slower on the Y580. In fact, we recorded a cold boot time of about 1 minutes and 28 seconds – hardly a record even for mechanical drives.

Luckily, Lenovo offers models with mSATA caching options – the unlucky part is that it will add another $140 for a modest 32 GB mSATA SSD. Since our review unit lacks an SSD and Intel RST support is preloaded on the Y580 regardless of model selection, we decided to install a 60 GB Renice X5 mSATA SSD to see if any noticeable gains in performance can be observed.

Unfortunately, enabling RST on the mSATA drive requires configuring the SATA PCH to RAID through the system BIOS, a function that Lenovo apparently does not allow on the Y580. Such a setup is likely done at OEM, meaning end-users will not be able to install an mSATA drive for use as RST system cache, at least not through normal means, and will have to buy a preconfigured model from Lenovo that already includes an mSATA drive. Nonetheless, Windows was able to instantly recognize our Renice SSD as a letter drive and users can still install an OS on the drive and boot from there as needed.

Out of the 931.51 GB of space available from the 1 TB drive, 25.47 GB is reserved for recovery and 886.32 GB is immediately available to the user.

Gaming Performance

The 28 nm GeForce GTX 660M (based on the GK107 core) is equipped with 2GB GDDR5 RAM and is one of the more powerful Kepler-based mobile GPUs as the GTX 670M and 675M are simply rebranded 40 nm Fermi cards. The 660M has faster core and memory clock rates than the latter two, but Nvidia has scaled the performance of the 660M accordingly largely by halving the width of the memory bus: 128-bit versus 256-bit of the 675M.

Nonetheless, performance in games is remarkable. Every game tested is more than playable on High settings and some can even run at a respectable 30 Hz on 1080p Ultra settings, most notably Skyrim and Arkham City. Battlefield 3 continues to be one of the most demanding PC first-person shooter titles, but even that is playable at 40+ FPS on High settings.

Players who opt for a native 1366x768 display on the Y580 should have no problems maxing out details for all major titles released thus far. Those going for the 1080p route, however, may want to trim off some graphical embellishments to reach those higher frames. Regardless, games on the GTX 660M will run great on 1080p and phenomenally on 720p. Additional information and benchmarks on the GTX 660M can be seen on our dedicated GPU page here.

The Y580 comes standard with a 6-cell 72WHr battery with no options for larger capacities. Even so, Lenovo promises up to 5 hours of productive usage from a full charge.

Our standard battery assessment utilizes BatteryEater to put manufacturer claims to the test. Automatic idling actions, such as screen dimming and sleeping, are all disabled for consistency. At a 150 cd/m2 brightness level (14/15) in the Balanced Profile setting, we were able to record a battery runtime of 4 hours 26 minutes while running our looping browsing script. We don’t have details on how Lenovo classifies “productive usage”, but 4.5 hours is fairly close to the 5 hour claim and so users should expect at least 4 hours of typical word processing and/or browsing use out of the Y580.

Maximum battery life was conducted under the Power Saver Profile at minimum brightness and disabled WiFi with the BatteryEater Reader’s Test. The notebook lasted for 8 hours under these conditions.

For minimum battery life, we put the system under the Performance Profile at maximum brightness and activated the dGPU. With the BatteryEater Classic Test, the battery depleted after about 1 hour 30 minutes.

Overall runtime is an improvement over its predecessor and distinctly longer than many other popular 15.6-inch notebooks with dGPUs such as the MSI GE60, MSI GT60, and Asus N56VZ. The similarly equipped Asus G55VW is also no match for the Y580, although to be fair the Asus notebook lacks hardware support for Optimus. Battery life is practically on par with the Samsung Series 5 550P7C, however, despite the fact that the latter utilizes a smaller 57 WHr and has a larger 17.3-inch display. In general, users can still expect to get respectable runtimes from a full charge and when running from the integrated graphics.

We have nothing but praise for the performance of the Y580. The GTX 660M amazes and the Ivy Bridge core should handle practically anything a typical user may demand from a primary home computer. The usability of the keyboard and touchpad are above average as well, but the ergonomic consequences of the close port placement may annoy users with wires protruding from the sides instead of the rear. However, the rather unanticipated additions in the form of a high-quality 1080p panel and a keyboard backlight, combined with a modest-but-sleek redesign, all add up to a notebook with a great balance between performance and presentation and an ultimately worthy successor to the Y570.

The major downside of the Y580 is that it looks and performs better than it feels. The glossy finish and nice metallic sheen feel like mediocre quality plastic to the touch. The touchpad and outer lid fare even worse and should have no place in a notebook of this price range. The screen glare during gaming and movies and the easy fingerprint buildup may annoy users who are more accustomed to notebooks with matte displays and duller chassis. Outdoor performance is also average at best even if under favorable conditions, which is rather unfortunate given the decent battery life.

We also feel that the overall system performance of the Y580 can be a bit bottlenecked by the 5400 RPM HDDs that are included with almost each model. Gamers especially will appreciate the storage size, but the hybrid storage solution will cost users much more.

In short, portability is not the focus for the IdeaPad Y580, which is absolutely fine. The target buyer is the multimedia home user or roaming hardcore gamer; this is no notebook for users or students who work outdoors more than they play indoors. To this end, the Y580 performs exceptionally well - we only wish it could have shipped with 7200 RPM drives as standard and have been made with better materials given the $1000 asking price.