Geek Lifestyle Review: Legion Y740

Legion's new gaming notebook does not disappoint!

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The recent gaming laptops we’ve reviewed were all equipped with GTX 16-series GPUs (such as the Lenovo IdeaPad L340). The 16-series cards were powerful enough to run esports titles at high settings with smooth framerates, though they won’t fit the bill if you’re looking to max out triple-A titles.

To play triple-A games on max settings at 60FPS, you’ll have to get a more powerful gaming notebook, preferrably with an RTX-series card. One such laptop is the Legion Y740, a 15-6-inch gaming machine that packs an RTX 2060 GPU paired with an 8th gen Intel Core i7 processor.

On paper, the Legion Y740 is one powerful laptop that should be capable of running nearly every game you throw at it. But what about in real-world use? We find out if the Legion Y740 is a good buy for your gaming needs here in our full review!

 

Geek-sthetic

While gaming laptops nowadays are going for more subtle designs, high-end gaming laptops still tend to be more eye-catching compared to their entry-level counterparts. The Legion Y740 is an exception; sure, it has eye-catching RGB lighting at the vents, but overall the Y740 looks more “low-profile” than other high-end gaming notebooks. This is most apparent in the lid as the Legion branding is fairly small.

Personally, I’m a big fan of this more subtle design, as I prefer a laptop that doesn’t scream “gamer.” Even if it’s more subtle, the Legion Y740 is still one good-looking laptop, especially up close; its aluminum construction makes it look and feel premium as well. Now, if you want to make it “pop” more, it has lots of spaces with customizeable RGB lighting.

With the premium construction and beefy internals, the Y740 does lean a bit on the heavy side; though thankfully, it’s still fairly thin for a laptop with an RTX GPU. Just be ready to carry around a heavy backpack if this is your daily driver.

For I/O, the Y740 is unique in that most of its ports are located at the back, a great design choice for neat cable management. At the back is a Mini DisplayPort, 2 USB Type-A ports, an HDMI port, an ethernet port, and a kensington lock. Meanwhile, the left side of the laptop has a 3.5mm combo jack and a Type-C port. Finally, the left side has 1 USB Type-A port.

 

Binge Watching Factor

The Legion Y740 packs a 15.6-inch FHD IPS display with a 144Hz display. As it’s an IPS panel, the Y740’s display is a great screen to watch movies and tv shows on thanks to great color reproduction and wide viewing angles. The fact that the display has thin bezels is just icing on the cake.

For binge-watching, the 144Hz refresh rate is unnecessary; the same can’t be said for gaming though. As you can imagine, the Y740’s screen is also amazing for gaming (more on that later).

 

Sound Trip

In terms of volume, the Y740’s onboards stereo speakers deliver. But where it falls a bit flat is sound quality as it doesn’t have much low-end oomph, plus the sound distorts a bit near max volume. That’s not to say that audio ouput is bad; it’s good enough for some light use (say if you’re just gonna watch a YouTube video or two), but if you plan on binge-watching, I recommend getting some external speakers or a pair of headphones.

 

Pro-Gaming Controls

While a lot of 15.6-inch laptops pack a numpad, the Y740 opts for a tenkeyless layout, likely to make way for the shortcut keys at the left side. In use, the keyboard performs well enough, with a good tacticle feel (meaning it’s not too mushy when clicking) both for gaming and for typing. I also found the left side shortcut keys to be quite helpful.

The only problem with the Y740’s keyboard is the unusual placement. Unlike most keyboards where the alphabet keys are slightly on the left side (or centered), the Y740’s keyboard is placed more to the right. This meant that I often mistyped or mispressed some keys when I first started using it.

 

Gaming Prowess

Under the hood of the Y740 is an RTX 2060 (6GB) GPU paired with an Intel Core i7 8th gen processor. Coupled with its 16GB of RAM, the Y740 on paper should be able to run esports titles at max settings at over 100 FPS.

The Y740 proved to not just be a powerhouse on paper, as it easily ran esports titles. Take Overwatch for instance, the laptop ran the game at 1080p Epic (max) graphics settings with a framerate of around 130 FPS, with no major dips below 120.

Couple this performance with the laptop’s 144Hz G-SYNC display, the Y740 is a great partner for fans of esports titles; especially for those who want to run these games as fast and as smooth as possible on a portable device.

For triple-A gaming, the Y740 also does not disappoint. The Legion Y740 produced an average FPS of 85.10 on the Rise of the Tomb Raider in-game benchmark tool while at the Very High graphics setting. In actual gameplay, the Y740 is able to run Rise at max settings with an average FPS of around 60.

In benchmarks, the Y740 produced a score of 5844 on 3DMark Time Spy and a 5622 score on PC Mark 10. Both benchmark scores are quite high, and indicate that the RTX 2060 + Core i7 combo is a powerhouse that should satisfy all but the most hardcore of tech enthusiasts.

 

Everyday Reliability 

As the high PCMark10 score suggests, the Y740 is a great laptop for productivity and for general use. Whether you’re just browsing the web or are doing some heavy photo/video editing, the Legion Y740 should hold up nicely.

For everyday use, the Legion Y740 hits almost all the right marks except for one crucial part — battery life. The Y740’s battery life is not the best, especially compared to other new gaming laptops. After playing a 2 and 1/2 hour movie at 50% volume and brightness, the Y740’s battery only had 15% remaining by the end. This should mean that the laptop will only last around 3 hours or less on a single charge. It doesn’t help that the laptop’s power brick is massive, nearly twice as big as other adapters.

 

Final Geek Lifestyle Verdict – 8.5/10

In terms of sheer gaming performance, the Legion Y740 does not disappoint. Thanks to its RTX 2060 GPU and Core i7 GPU, the Y740 handles both esports titles and triple-A games with ease. The laptop’s great performance also extends to day-to-day use, as well as for productivity.

Design-wise, the Y740 is also great thanks to its more subtle looks paired with a good amount of customizeable RGB lighting. The laptop also has a good amount of I/O to boot.

Overall, the Y740 ticks almost all the boxes when it comes to a gaming laptop. The only problem is that its poor battery life and unusual keyboard placement. Still, at PHP 129,995, the Legion Y740 is a good deal even with some minor drawbacks thanks to its impressive if gaming performance.

Legion Y740 Specs

  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-8750H
  • Installed Memory: 16GB DDR4
  • Operating System: Windows 10 Home
  • GPU: NVIDIA RTX 2060 6GB
  • Storage: 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD
  • Display: 15.6” FHD IPS, 144Hz
  • Ports:
    • 1 x USB Type-C (Thunderbolt 3)
    •  2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1
    • 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2
    • 1 x HDMI 2.0
    • 1 x Mini DisplayPort 1.4
    • 1 x 3.5mm headphone and microphone combo jack
    • 1 x Kensington lock
    • 1 x Ethernet Port
  • Price: PHP 119,995