Interview with Lenovo’s Engineers

Nov 16, 2017

The Lenovo Legion Y920 is one of my favorite laptops of 2017. Naturally, I needed to know more about it. How did Lenovo accomplish the performance and why didn’t they scale back the weight? Below is a brief interview. If you have additional questions, leave them in the comments below and we’ll run them by Lenovo.

GWW: After several gaming sessions with the Y920, I’ve found that it runs fairly quietly and it doesn’t feel too warm to the touch, particularly for other laptops in it’s class. Is there a correlation between this and it’s 10lb weight, which is higher than other laptops?

Lenovo: More important than portability, we know that performance is the #1 thing gamers care about. That’s why we’ve improved the Lenovo Legion Y920 Laptop’s performance – by using a metal fan to dissipate heat instead of a plastic one. We believe giving gamers better performance is the most important thing.

GWW: Like many other black-aluminum laptops, the Y720 is prone to fingerprints. The Y920, however, is also black-aluminum, but it’s more resistant to fingerprints. What is the difference between the material?

Lenovo: The Lenovo Legion Y920 Laptop is our top-of-the-line gaming laptop, made of premium materials. Its A and D covers are made of aluminum with IMR film, while its C cover and keyboard are coated with rubber paint. The touchpad area is encased by leather.

GWW: The Y270 and Y920 share a similar look, that is similar to 2013’s IdeaPad Y510p. Since that time, many laptop manufacturers have used a similar black and red design. In your mind, was the Y510p the pioneer of modern laptop design? If not, can you pin it down to a particular laptop from yesteryear?

Lenovo: Lenovo gaming devices’ visual identity has always been strikingly bold with an all-black sleek exterior and a design language that’s brought to life in red LEDs. Yet it stands for our clean and straightforward approach to design. For more on our gaming design, check out this interview with one of our gaming designers: http://news.lenovo.com/resources/pc-and-smart-devices/employee-stories/a-look-at-lenovo-y-series-gaming-design-with-johnson-li.htm

GWW: Why did you choose the GTX 1070 over the GTX 1080?

Lenovo: While performance is the #1 priority for gamers, we know that accessibility can be a big pain point as well. So we wanted to offer a configuration that balances high performance at the best value for our customers.

GWW: How did you get so much power out of the GTX 1070? I hit a Time Spy 1.0 score of 5,272!

Lenovo: That’s awesome to hear. The Lenovo Legion Y920 Laptop is THE top-of-the-line gaming laptop, so we made it a point to pack it with features to overclock so that there’s no compromise to your game!

GWW: While the Y920 features a 17.3″ G-Sync display, I was able to connect it to my FreeSync monitor and actually get FreeSync to run in-game. Is that something Lenovo engineered or just luck?

Lenovo: They’re supported by different partners, but glad to hear that it worked well for you!

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