Today’s deal of the day is an exclusive from our sister-site LogicBuy. Lenovo is offering a hefty $250 off coupon for one of their IdeaPad Y460 models, bringing the price down to a sweet $649.
This particular Y460 model is well loaded, although not fully loaded. You really won’t be able to find another Core i3-powered notebook with a quality design like the Y460 for only $649.
This deal expires November 1st.
How to get the deal
Click here to purchase the IdeaPad Y460 model 06334DU
Apply coupon code in shopping cart with no spaces before/after: LOGICBUY4D
NVIDIA has a new lineup of mobile GPUs coming out and recently announced a number of manufacturers who would be adopting the new chip. Lenovo is among those ranks and the IdeaPad Y460 will be getting the new GPU, at some point.
Announced at the recent IFA conference, the new GPU lineup is the first mobile variant to use NVIDIA’s Fermi architecture and supports Direct X 11. The chips are all also Optimus-enabled, allowing seamless switching between the discrete NVIDIA chip and the Intel HD graphics that come on every 2010 Intel Core processor.
NVIDIA’s 400M GPUs in performance level from mid-range (GeForce GT 445M, 435M, 425M, 420M, and 415M) to enthusiast (GeForce GTX 460M, 470M and 480M).
The IdeaPad Y460 currently only ships with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 switchable graphics, so it will be interesting to see when the new NVIDIA GPUs hit the market.
I really liked the Y450 when I reviewed it last year and the Y460 looks like it doesn’t change much. The refreshed Y460 now sports Intel’s newest platform, but looks to keep the already quite excellent chassis.
The model on sale here is powered by the speedy Core i3-330M 2.13GHz chip and runs Win7 Home 64 with 4GB RAM, Intel HD graphics, a 320GB 5400rpm HDD, DVD burner and Bluetooth.
At the normal price of $899 this isn’t exactly a steal, but at $699 it sure is a bargain. This deal ends April 5th, or when 150 units have been sold. Details on the deal are below
How to get the deal
Click here to configure your IdeaPad Y460 model 0633-47U (left column)
Apply coupon in shopping cart with no spaces before/after: USPY32947
Our sister-site eCoupons alerted us that some of Lenovo’s recently announced PCs are now available for purchase, including the ThinkPad X201, ThinkPad X201s, and ThinkPad X201 Tablet ultraportable notebooks.
We covered the announcement of the new X201 models last week, citing the major revisions as Core i5 and i7 processors, an updated fingerprint reader and the optional touchpad. Lenovo also recently updated their handy PSREF documents, which confirm to us that the X201 models officially support a maximum of 8GB RAM, via two 4GB sticks. This is great news for power users, who can now really take advantage of a 64-bit operating system.
Also of note is that the controversial, and optional, touchpad on the X201 is a $20 option. The X201 Tablet is particularly limited in its configuration options: you can’t even get an 8-cell battery, so expect those offers to expand in the coming weeks.
On the opposite side of Lenovo’s laptop spectrum, the value line G455 and G555 laptops are also now for sale. We knew at launch that both would be powered by AMD dual core processors, with the smaller G455 starting at $699 and the G555 at $729.
Lastly, you can also pick up the refreshed IdeaPad Y460. The overall design appears the same as the IdeaPad Y50 when I reviewed it, but with more powerful Core i3 and i5 processors and ATI graphics.
Hit the jump to check out the base specs and price of each model
If you missed the rather subtle announcement at CES, Lenovo is debuting a new feature on their IdeaPad Y560 and Y460 models. Dubbed ReadyDrive, this technology combines SSDs and spinning drives to maximize performance and still offer low cost, high capacity storage.
Boot time is said to be especially improved, with a claim from Lenovo of up to a 66% reduction. Unfortunately this system will only be available on these select IdeaPads for now, but a ThinkPad version isn’t out of the question.
Matt Kohut covered this topic well, so I’ll let him cover the important details:
The breakthrough is using a Lenovo patent-pending technology that connects both the SSD and HDD simultaneously as one big, contiguous drive. Unlike my setup above, this storage is dynamically pooled and managed. The end user does not need to do anything. The system manages the SSD depending on usage. Programs, documents, and other files are dynamically moved on and off of the SSD so that you can always get the fastest speed possible.
This sounds like a neat system, but its success will be determined by two things. The first is of course price: I know Lenovo is very sensitive to price, so they wouldn’t do this if it was going to be cost prohibitive, but value in the eyes of the customers is what matters in the end.
The exact implementation will also be important to ReadyDrive’s success with customers. A black box that magically routes all the data where it would best go sounds nice on paper, but in practice it must be flawless. One question that enters my mind is partitioning. It would be safe to assume that there must be at least one partition on the HDD where ReadyDrive can play with all its data, but can there be an additional one that remains untouched? Questions, questions.
If you thought Lenovo’s gander of brand new products and highly revised ThinkPads were all she wrote, then you don’t know the new Lenovo. The IdeaPad line gets some refreshed Y Series models, revised “value line” G Series and brand new V Series. Is that enough letters of the alphabet for you?
Hit the jump for a breakdown of each model, along with official pics
