Lenovo Legion Y530 vs. Legion Y730 vs. Legion Y7000: Battle of brothers

Lenovo unveiled the budget Legion Y530, mainstream Legion Y730, and mainstream Legion Y7000 early last year all at the same time. The Y530 and Y730 supplant the Y520 and Y720, respectively, while the Y7000 is a special offshoot of the Y530 designed for large retailers. Their motherboards are all nearly identical as shown by our comparison shots below for very similar serviceability and port placement.

Let's start with the budget Y530. This particular model is mostly plastic with no per-key RGB lighting or Thunderbolt 3, but it includes a NumPad and up to the GTX 1060 GPU. It's currently one of the least expensive laptops with the GTX 1060 money can buy.

Moving up one step is the mainstream Y730. This model comes in 15-inch (15ICH) and 17-inch (17ICH) sizes, but we'll focus on the 15-inch option for a more direct comparison to the 15-inch Y530 and 15-inch Y7000. The 15-inch Y730 improves upon the Y530 with aluminum surfaces, a thinner profile, Thunderbolt 3 port, and per-key RGB lighting. The NumPad on the right edge is omitted in favor of a column of Macro keys on the left edge to cater more towards gamers.

The crux of the Y730 is that it ships with only the GTX 1050 Ti GPU at the time of writing whereas both the Y530 and Y7000 can go up to the GTX 1060. We're unsure why Lenovo would limit the Y730 to the slower GPU when it is supposed to be the higher-end alternative to the Y530. The manufacturer did eventually announce a Y740 at CES 2019 with RTX graphics, but its planned Q2/Q3 launch window is still a long ways off.

Finally, the Y7000 takes the guts of the Y530 and replaces the chassis with a new "gamer" aesthetic. The result is a slightly thicker chassis with select features from both the Y530 and Y730. For example, its connectivity options and keyboard are identical to the Y530 while its larger battery capacity and IPS panel are identical to the Y730.

Our measurements and benchmarks below compare the Y530, Y730, and Y7000 in more detail. A single model isn't necessarily better than the rest since there are both unique and overlapping features. Core gamers who crave performance should avoid the Y730 because it carries the weaker GPU, but this same laptop would be the most balanced option for an office worker who also plays games on occasion.

We recommend checking out our individual reviews below for more information on each model.

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