Lenovo Y550P

I have one, Its great. Mine came with 4GBs of RAM and is expandable up to 8. Hardly any heat and plenty of snap. Really good bang for the buck. A lot of the Lenovo software is a little bloaty. all you really need is the synaptics driver (because the mouse is very sensitive without it). The energy manager (if uninstalled you get an "unknown device" in the device manager), and the bluetooth seems to work better with the drivers off the Lenovo site rather than the stock Microsoft drivers. DVD encoding and burning is very fast.
There is a touch sensitive pad at the top to cycle through the Lenovo programs that I have removed so its useless now but good riddance.
 Although the face recognition software slows the computer down a little, Its pretty slick. Speakers a bit weak but if you plug in some 2.1 computer speakers, it sounds really good.
The absolute greatest thing is the HDMI output...crystal clear. It's actually clearer than my Satellite HD channels.
 I work with Dell's a lot and haven't run into anything than I think is cooler than the Y550P. If you get it, you won't regret it.

Hi Ivan, thank you for the information provided. You mentioned that you got the bluetooth drivers off the Lenovo website rather than the Microsoft Drivers. Are not all the drivers provided, as how Dell does for its laptops and PC's?

How do you find out what drivers are used for Bluetooth and th Wireless card and the NIC?

http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/us/en/DriversDownloads/drivers_list.aspx?CategoryID=818067
Oh yes, All the drivers are loaded when you get it. Sorry I neglected to mention that I reloaded my laptop. Not that it needed it, I just like to start off with a fresh OS sans bloatware. If you ever need the drivers, they are at the above link. you can find out what drivers your hardware uses by clicking the start button and typing in "devmgmt.msc".

Hi Ivan, I have a question. I was told that most of the drivers are available from the Windows 7 OS. Is this true?

I tried looking for the InteL (R) WiFi Link 5300 AGN driver from the website that you provided but I'm unable to find it.

The Driver version that I have installed is 13.0.0.107, but I can't seem to find this on the website that you provided.

Ivan, and my Bluetooth shows Driver Provider is Microsoft. How do I find out which is the  correct driver to download from the website? I'm uncertain of the Bluetooth brand and model.

ben1211, it looks like it is a good one but I wouldn't spent my money on that. it has only 1 year warranty. I would go for asus has 2 year warranty and one year drop , spill  and etc warranty. I think you should gives us your price range and we can give you better choices.

I personally don't buy a laptop with one year warranty.  I don't want to spend lot of money and have my laptop broke down 1 year later and they won't fix it.

I use dell with 3 year warranty or asus with 2 year warranty. Laptops needs at least 2 year warranty.

some people will say then why don't you upgrade warranty well if you upgrade the warranty did you see what happens to the price :) that is why i don't go for lenovo :)

Did a litte research for you ben1211. I have come up with some prices for laptops from Dell and Asus. the specs are very similar to the y550p. I have added 3 year warranties (including accidental) to them and the y550p. Had to get the new egg warranty for the Asus. as you can see, the Lenovo beats them all pricewise. Not to demean kkoray in anyway, but I did do a lot of research before buying mine and I am very happy with it.

.....I love the smell of battle...jj
Asus.pdf
Dell.pdf
lenovo.pdf

crzyivan0000 is the laptops you spec have the same configuration ?? I'm seeing you have very expensive graphic card on asus unit and 360 geforce. do you have the same graphic card in the lenovo unit ???

let me answer I don't think so. check the one i upload it.

Newegg.com---ASUS-N61JQ-X1-...pdf

also you added 300 dollar extend warranty :) darn. you can have Asus to extend your warranty cheaper then that. it is little inaccurate quotes don't you think. oh weel good luck. I'm not going to fight here but I won't by lenovo.

Close, its 1 series down
NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M 1024MB
Although the 360M is superior in every aspect, the 240M plenty fast and the HDMI is super clear.
Are you going to be using this for gaming ben1211?

hi guys, thank you for all the information provided. I've gone ahead and purchased the Lenovo Y550P. This is the first time I have purchased a laptop other than DELL. One thing that I'm pleased about the DELL is all the necessary drivers are supplied to you for re-installation etc. With Lenovo, I hardly know if I'm downloading the correct drivers or not. I'm planning a clean re-format, but am worried about the drivers that may be missing.

Ivan the links that you provided above, is it sufficient?

Ivan....the Intel WiFi link that you provided has a Description name of : Installation for Intel WiFi Link 6200 & 6250

But when I go to my Network Sharing, I see the my Wireless Card is named as InteL (R) WiFi Link 5300 AGN.

Am I correct to say that the name/brand of the wireless card installed on my laptop is InteL (R) WiFi Link 5300 AGN, as how I see it from the Network Sharing?

I believe the drivers are good for all these models
-Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300: 13.1.1.1
-Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6200: 13.1.1.1
-Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250: 13.1.1.1
-Intel® WiFi Link 1000: 13.1.1.1
-Intel® WiMAX/WiFi Link 5150: 13.1.1.1
-Intel® WiMAX/WiFi Link 5350: 13.1.1.1
-Intel® WiFi Link 5300: 13.1.1.1
-Intel® WiFi Link 5100: 13.1.1.1
-Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN: 13.1.1.1

I'll run it to make sure I'm not steering you in the wrong direction

yep, that's them for sure

Hi Ivan, which link did you test out to state that the drivers are good for all the above mentioned models?

http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/us/en/DriversDownloads/drivers_show_1901.html

Intel
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18748&lang=eng

Meaning, it can be used for InteL (R) WiFi Link 5300 AGN?

And these are the additional drivers that I will need for the complete installation, right? :
http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/us/en/DriversDownloads/drivers_show_1877.html
http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/us/en/DriversDownloads/drivers_show_1893.html
http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/us/en/DriversDownloads/drivers_show_1885.html
http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/us/en/DriversDownloads/drivers_show_1889.html
http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/us/en/DriversDownloads/drivers_show_1898.html

Nothing more?

Hi Ivan, are Lenovo laptops reliable or do they break down easily? Any heating problem, hard disk problem, motherboard problem? Are you aware of any of these?

Ivan, you mentioned that you re-formatted your laptop to get rid of some of the software. Why? Do these softwares slow down the laptop? Please advise me.

No heating problem as yet..I do give the vents a blast of canned air every once in a while as a precaution though. I've had no hardware problems as yet. I've owned it for about 2 months. In all laptops there is bloatware. For some reason the manufacturers beieve it is necessary to install software that is unneeded and usually there are applications that come with windows that do exactly the same thing. After making the recovery disks, I  format and reload to get rid of all traces of unecessary software just to get the laptop performing at it's full potential. This is merely personal preference, it is my no means manditory.

Ivan, what do you mean by bloatware?

I'm thinking of re-formatting my laptop too, but am not that confident as I used to be with a DELL. All drivers were always provided.

Ivan is it necessary to install this Lenovo Energy Management?

Ivan, I need some help.

The drivers that I'll need would be the:
1. Broadcom LAN
2. Wireless (Intel)
3. Bluetooth
4. Audio
5. Graphics
6. Touchpad
7. Card Reader
8. Webcam
9. Intel Chipset Driver

Anything else? Do I need to install the Intel Chipset Driver?

bloatware is software that when installed, slows you system down. all those drivers are on the lenovo link I sent you, just make sure to download the ones that are for your operating system (probably windows 7 64bit). it is always good to install the latest chipset driver. energy management is needed, if not installed you will be left with an "unknown device" in the device manager

Ivan, my apologies for the tons of questions. What did you mean by "I do give the vents a blast of canned air every once in a while as a precaution though" ?
What is the purpose of this, and how do I do this?

if you put your hand on the top right hand corner of the laptop while it is running, you can feel air blowing out. that is one of the vents and that is one of the ones that gets the dirtiest. the second you should take special care to blow out is the one that is about an inch away on the bottom of the laptop. that one sucks air in to cool the processor. blow those out every once in a while to keep the air flowing freely. Many laptop that come in my shop that are overheating are cured just by doing this.

Ivan for the NVIDIA graphics card....I'm using a NVIDIA GeForce GT240M 1GB card for a Win 7 64 bit OS. Would it be better to download it from the NVIDIA website or the Lenovo website? I noticed the file size is different. The file size from the Lenovo site is 97MB and the one from the NVIDIA site is 135MB.
Which do I choose from?

I do, but its not manditory. I just like to have the latest and greatest

Ivan, i didn't understand your last comment - "I do, but its not manditory"

I'm using a NVIDIA GeForce GT240M 1GB card for a Win 7 64 bit OS. Would it be better to download it from the NVIDIA website or the Lenovo website? I noticed the file size is different. The file size from the Lenovo site is 97MB and the one from the NVIDIA site is 135MB.
Which do I choose from?

if you use the lenovo site, the version they have may not be the latest. If you go to the nvidia site, it's always the latest version.