Lenovo IdeaPad Y500

The very first thing I did when prepping up for the review, was taking a closer look at the keyboard. Unfortunately, due to cold, a powerful sneeze jolted my entire body. The result? Immediate departure of the laptop from my hand. And thanks to Isaac Newton's law of gravity: one heart pounding second of free fall towards the carpeted floor. The owner of the laptop, a very dear friend of mine, stared at me with a bewildering look in his eye. Me, understanding the magnitude of the misdeed that I had just done, was fumbling for any word/s to break that awkward silence. My neurons, enjoying the tongue-tied situation of mine, humored me by throwing out the following words after searching my entire vocabulary: DROP TEST! Well, these two words were good enough to draw a demure smile on my friend's face and allowing me to continue with the review.
Coming to the review:  The IdeaPad Y500 does not at all look awe-inspiring when the lid is closed. But as they always say that never go with the look. So we dared to open the lid. And boy! We were amazed.  The dark brush metals and backlit keyboard greeted us.  Truly speaking, the inviting design does not exactly indicate the actual potency of the hardware. Only the vent that blew out heat with a slight hum made it clear- the device has a purpose.

The device is powered by Intel Core i7-3630QM which is a mobile Ivy Bridge 22nm high-end processor. The lethality of the processor can easily be felt when you run any of the latest games. Gaming freaks will also be very happy to see the Hyperthread and Turbo Boost technology that elevates the clock considerably high (theoretically up to 3.4 GHz) when demanded by applications. The 8 GB RAM with 1333MHz Front Side Bus ensures that you get to run almost any software anytime very smoothly.   The keyboard of this laptop is great too. The backlit radiance and the chiclet formation are just perfect for gaming experience. Users without any high requirement on the keyboard will be satisfied for sure. The touchpad is one of the biggest shortcomings in the Y500. It is responsive but the lower right corner is very uncomfortable to click in to. So even when you are not gaming, an external mouse is a must.  The 1TB (actually 1000 GB) primary hard disk comes from Samsung and spins at 5400 rpm. An average transfer rate of 75-80 MB/s was found using Teracopy, which is pretty decent.
Coming to the Graphics of the laptop, it is breathtaking. If you were wondering whether the SLIed GeForce GT 650Ms can make the cut? The answer is 'Hell yeah'! It ran 'Call of Duty Ghost', 'Far Cry 3' and 'Just Cause 2' slickly. Since this beast sucks up most of the juice of the laptop in less than a couple of hour, so be sure to plug it in before you get lost in the alternate reality!

Verdict

Inspired from the success of the precursor (IdeaPad Y580), Lenovo came up with the IdeaPad Y500. The option of adding a second graphics card or an additional hard disk is certainly refreshing. The metal exoskeleton of the laptop survived the drop test by staying fully functional after hitting the floor from approximately 4 feet height. The SLIed GeForce GT 650M really meet and exceed all basic requirements of a gamer. Even high-end games like the Call of Duty Ghost can be played with ease. This laptop is affordable too. At least when compared with other gaming laptops like Republic of Gamers or Alienware. The moderately high-quality LED was enjoyable. And as always, the JBL speaker lives up to the expectation. The brilliant looking backlit chiclet keyboard also provides smooth gaming and typing experience. Disappointingly, the device comes with some pointless flaws. For example, the poor placements of fan and the metallic soundlessness of the keyboard. The most disappointing thing of all is the lack of SSD. So the boot time is a bit higher and loading time is a bit slower in this device. Also the non-SLI version of the laptop is not worth buying since it becomes too pricey. To summarize, if you are looking for an awesome looking but reasonably priced gaming laptop that is not too bulky, then this is the laptop to go with. 

Specs

Display: 15.6" HD display (1366x768)
Processor: 3rd gen i7-3630QM (2.40GHz up to 3.2 GHz 1600 MHz 6MB)
Memory: 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Storage: 1TB SATA HDD
GPU: GT 650M 2GB (SLI)
Interface: 2 X USB 3.0 ports 1 USB 2.0 port 6-in-1 card reader etc
OS: Windows 8 64Bit
Battery: 3 hours (6-cell battery)
Price:  1 GB GFX card: 88,500/-
2 GB GFX card: 90,500/-