Lenovo Legion Y520 Laptop prices and specs

The best part of waking up isn’t Folgers in your cup, it’s knowing that you still have some money left over after splurging on a gaming laptop. In this regard, the Y520 delivers. It competently runs modern games, its keyboard is comfortable, and it doesn’t fire up like a recalled hot plate — all in all, it’s a great gamer that’s cheap. Enough said.

But, with great price consciousness comes not-so-great features. Per-key customization is so common now on gaming laptops that when it’s missing, it’s side-of-the-milk-bottle missing. And we very much miss it on the Y520.

We also miss a decent display. The Y520’s is dim and color-poor, a big whiff for a gaming machine.

With the Y520, it starts and ends with price. Lenovo’s gamer is only a contender because of its price to performance ratio. It may lack many of the super features of a premium gamer (per key customization; bombastic speakers; vibrant display), but at the end of the day it does what it’s designed to do: play games cheaply.

The Y520 is also not completely featureless. It stays rather cool, rather quiet and it’s keyboard, outside of a wonky numpad, is comfortable enough to endear even enterprise users. It’s one major flaw – a dark, joyless, display – isn’t fatal either. 

Gamers on a budget should take note: the Y520 is one of the best options out there. Lenovo got this first impression right. We look forward to seeing what else comes out of the Legion line.

FOR

• Easy on the wallet
• Stays cool
• Comfortable keyboard

AGAINST

• Dim display
• No chroma or macro programmability

Pros

+solid CPU and GPU performance

+good input devices

+reasonable price

+fast SSD and application performance

+dual-storage configuration

+easy maintenance and upgradeability

Cons

-plastic construction and rather flimsy display lid

-washed-out display color

-middling brightness and contrast

-subdued, low-cost appearance

-display clouding visible on dark screens

The Lenovo Legion Y520 is a good choice for a gamer on a budget. It features solid CPU and GPU performance, relatively easy maintenance and upgradeability, and good input devices. While construction and styling obviously was forced to subordinate to raw functionality, the sacrifices will soon be forgotten if the machine is mostly used around the house anyway… and the price ($1,060 as configured) certainly doesn’t hurt, either.

The NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti is a far cry from the GTX 1070/1080 adapters we find in higher-end gaming notebooks, but it should be able to handle most modern games at 1080p resolution and high settings with respectable framerates. Stability under sustained gaming loads (as well as heavy CPU operation) is very good overall, revealing no signs of weakness in the realm of thermal management. And the Y520 configuration we evaluated today is also well equipped in the storage department, with an extremely fast 256 GB NVMe SSD supplemented by a 2 TB secondary mechanical hard drive.

The Lenovo Legion Y520 is a good choice for a gamer on a budget. It’s fast, it’s reliable and stable, and it provides the basics at a significant discount over higher-end models.

The biggest drawback here is the lack of available GPU upgrade options—though we suppose it’s hardly a surprise given the existence of the Y720 as the logical next step up. Apart from the merely midrange GPU capabilities, however, the Y520 does cut a few other notable corners to reach its goal of affordability in the gaming sector. The first of those is the aforementioned construction and design; gone are the rigid metal surfaces and RGB zoned keyboard backlighting options of the Y720—the Y520 is all plastic and unapologetically red and black. Other notebooks, such as the ASUS ROG Strix GL553VD, emphasize casing and design quality over other items, and so they feature some of the higher-end design and bells and whistles that are absent from the all-business Y520. The other significant disappointment is the screen, which—while decent—lacks in brightness and color saturation. Again, the Y720 offers upgrade options, while the Y520 doesn’t.

For a few hundred bucks more, the Y720 may prove an even more compelling package (depending on budget). And other machines, such as the Dell Inspiron 15 7567, are comparably-priced and also worth a look. But for what it is, the Y520 succeeds well enough. It’s fast, it’s reliable and stable, and it provides the basics at a significant discount over higher-end models.

The Lenovo Legion Y520 is a budget gaming laptop with a sleek, tapered design and a comfortable keyboard. And, most importantly, it offers strong performance for the price. If only it had a brighter, more vivid screen and didn't have annoying plastic around the trackpad, it would be even better.

If you want a laptop that screams "gaming PC," consider the Asus ROG Strix GL753VE, which is $1,229 and has a much better display and longer battery life. Just know that its design isn't as nice, and its gaming performance isn't as good.

If you can look past the screen, though, the Legion Y520 is a solid choice that will serve you well when you're gaming and while you're at work.

Pros

+Sleek design

+Comfortable keyboard

+Strong gaming and productivity performance

+Useful software

Cons

-Dull display

-Oddly shaped touchpad