Lenovo Legion Y720 Laptop Review: High Performance, Affordable Mobile Gaming

Lenovo Legion Y720: Final Thoughts and Ratings

Performance summary: Lenovo put together a compelling gaming notebook with the Legion Y720. All configurations come with a GTX 1060 6GB, which delivers smooth frame rates and a taste of VR readiness, if you’re so inclined. Performance from the system in a variety of workloads, from gaming to office application, is strong, thanks to the system's fast CPU, GPU, and NVMe storage. The aluminum top and bottom covers also look and feel good and the overall chassis is quite sturdy.

We’re impressed with the JBL-tuned speakers too, which are among the best laptop speakers we’ve come across. The tininess typically associated with tiny laptop speakers isn’t there. The Legion Y720 won’t shake the house or anything, but it produces pleasant highs and mid-range in music and games.


We have a few minor quibbles, however. The LCD could be brighter, the RGB keyboard doesn't allow per-key modifications and uses pre-set colors, and the machine lacks an SD card reader. But overall, The Y520 a well-built notebook with performance where it matters -- for gaming.

Ultimately, your configuration of choice for the Legion Y720 will depend on your budget, but even the base model looks solid. It carries an MSRP of $1299 but is typically on sale for $1099 and comes with an Intel Core i7-7700HQ, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, 1080p IPS display, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB 5400 RPM HDD. While the storage and RAM in that model won’t reflect the benchmarks seen with our tested configuration, which featured more RAM, NVMe storage, and a 4K display, Lenovo makes the Legion Y720 easy to upgrade if you'd like to tweak it down the road – a few screws hold the bottom cover on.

Overall, if you’re looking for a gaming notebook and don’t mind the form factor, the Lenovo Legion Y720 is a relative bargain in the segment and is absolutely worthy of consideration.

hothardware recommended

 hot not 
  • Stylish chassis design
  • Standard GeForce GTX 1060 6GB graphics
  • JBL-tuned speakers
  • Easy upgradability
  • Excellent value
  • Too many red accents inside
  • Dim LCD
  • RGB keyboard only has four zones and limited colors


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