Lenovo Legion Y720 vs Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro Black Edition (VN7-593G) – two mid-rangers with some premium features

We have recently compared the Lenovo Legion Y720 to the Legion Y520 and the Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro Black Edition to the ASUS FX502VM. Now it is time to see how Legion Y720 and Aspire V 15 Nitro hold up to each other.

Those are two great mid-rangers equipped with a Core i7 CPU from the latest 7th generation and a powerful GTX 1060 graphics card. Their mid-tier hardware and pricing could potentially make them solid all-rounders.

We will cover their pros and cons and compare them to each other in the following comparison.

Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro Black Edition (VN7-593G): Full review / Check price

Lenovo Legion Y720: Full review / Check price

Contents


Design and construction

In terms of design, the two notebooks are very different. The Legion Y720 has this aggressive gaming look which is achieved by these sharp edges, big exhaust vents, red ornaments and the Y-series logo in the center of the lid. On the other hand, the Aspire V 15 Nitro BE has a more premium business look without the flashy colors of gaming notebooks. It also quite a bit portable with a weight of 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs) and a profile of 22.5 mm (0.89″) which can be considered very good for a device with a dedicated GTX 1060 GPU. Contrary, the Y720 is a bit on the heavy side – 3.094 kg (6.82 lbs) but it keeps a rather thin profile of 25.8 mm (1.01″).

Construction-wise the two models are quite similar. They use aluminum for the lid and plastic for the other parts . Both lids have an interesting brushed textured pattern which unfortunately attracts quite a few fingerprints in both cases. In terms of quality, we can say that the Legion Y720 feels a bit more sturdy with very little bending of the lid when pressured. Also, Y720’s hinge design is more reliable and stable. The centered hinge doesn’t allow the screen to wobble and it is also overtightened a bit so you need both hands to open it. Aspire V 15 Nitro BE has two hinges which are spaced too far from each other which lead the middle section of the screen to remain a bit flexible. However, they provide smooth opening and allow one hand opening.

Both notebooks offer all the necessary ports including a single USB Type-C port with Thunderbolt 3 support for connecting an external GPU, a screen of high-speed data transfer. The Lenovo Y720 has three USB 3.0 ports while the V 15 Nitro BE offers two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports for a total of four. However, except the HDMI and Thunderbolt 3 port, the Y720 has another option for display connecting which lacks on the Aspire V 15 – mini DisplayPort. Also, distribution of the ports between the two sides seems better on the Y720 while the right sides appears a bit overcrowded on the V 15 Nitro BE.

Display

The display is one of the downsides of the Y720. It uses the same panel as the Lenovo Legion Y520 which is a more affordable budget version. It is an AH-IPS panel from LG with a model number LP156WF6-SPK3. On the other hand, Aspire V 15 Nitro BE features a great IPS display made by BOE model number NV156FHM-N43 which as we will see further in the comparison has great specs that could allow it to be suitable even for graphics designers. The resolution on both models is Full HD (1920 x 1080p) with a pixel density if 142 ppi and a pixel pitch of 0.18 x 0.18 mm.

As expected from an IPS matrix, viewing angles are excellent on both models. Brightness levels ar also very similar – we measured a maximum brightness of 311 cd/m2 in the center of the screen for the Y720 and 308 cd/m2 for the V 15 Nitro BE. Color temperature is the same – 7000K which will make colors appear a bit colder than the optimal 6500K. The contrast ratio is fairly high on both models – 820:1 for the Y720 and slightly more on the V 15 Nitro BE – 980:1.

Color reproduction and accuracy are where the Y720 lets us down. It covers only half of the sRGB gamut (51%) which is insufficient for a good multimedia experience. Poor color reproduction is common for budget notebooks but the Y720 claims to be of a higher class with a higher price. It is a whole different story for the V 15 Nitro BE. Its display has 94% coverage of the sRGB gamut which will result in a great multimedia and gaming experience. Color accuracy is also far better on the V 15 Nitro BE. The average DeltaE (lower values are better) is 5.3 on the Acer and almost twice as much – 9.4 on the Y720. Even after calibration with our custom-tailored Office & Web Design profile the V 15 Nitro BE remains better with a DE of 1.6 vs 3.1.

Unfortunately, both screens use PWM for regulating the brightness level. However, on the Y720 the frequency used is quite high (21.6 kHz) which reduces the harmful effect while the frequency on the V 15 Nitro BE is low (1.0 kHz) and can be considered aggressive. Luckily, our Health-Guard profile eliminates PWM and also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions.


Our display profiles

Here at LaptopMedia, we create a set of custom-tailored profiles for every notebook we review. They boost the productivity of display and reduce negative effects such as blue light emissions and PWM. You can read more about them here.

Buy our profiles from here:

Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro Black Edition (VN7-593G): Profiles

Lenovo Legion Y720: Profiles

 Specs sheet

Specs wise both models are nearly identical. They are running on the Intel Core i7-7700HQ from the latest 7th generation Kaby Lake. The CPU features four physical and four logical cores (Hyper-Threading) with a base clock speed of 2.80 GHz. The chip’s consumption is 45 Watts, and its maximum operating temperature is 100 degrees Celsius.

More information about Intel Core i7-7700HQ and its position in our Top CPU Ranking you can find HERE.

The graphics card on both models is the 6 GB GDDR5 version of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 which is a powerful GPU, based on the company’s latest Pascal architecture.

More information about NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 and its position in our Top GPU Ranking you can find HERE.

 

Lenovo Legion Y720Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro Black Edition (VN7-593G)
CPUIntel Core i7-7700HQ (4-core, 2.80 -3.80 GHz, 6MB cache)Intel Core i7-7700HQ (4-core, 2.80 -3.80 GHz, 6MB cache)
RAM8GB (1x 8096MB) – DDR4, 2400 MHz8GB (1x 8096MB) – DDR4, 2400MHz
GPUNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB GDDR5)NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB GDDR5)
HDD/SSD1TB HDD (5400 rpm)1TB HDD (5400 rpm)
Display15.6-inch Full HD (1920×1080) IPS, matte15.6-inch Full HD (1920×1080) IPS, matte
Features
  • 3x USB 3.0
  • 1x USB 3.1 Type-C (Thunderbolt 3 support)
  • mini DisplayPort
  • SD card reader
  • 3.5 mm combo audio jack
  • HDMI
  • RJ-45
  •  keyboard backlight
  • 2x USB 3.0
  • 2x USB 2.0
  • 1x USB 3.1 Type-C (Thunderbolt 3 support)
  • 2x 3.5 mm audio jack
  • RJ-45
  • HDMI
  • memory card reader
  • keyboard backlight
Battery60 Wh69Wh
Profile thickness25.8 mm (1.01″)22.5 mm (0.89″)
Weight3.094 kg (6.82 lbs)2.5 kg (5.5 lbs)
PriceCheck priceCheck price

Battery

Both models have the same hardware and large batteries – 60 Wh for the Y720 and 69 Wh for the V 15 Nitro BE. Maybe it is better optimizations, maybe it’s just that extra 9 Wh on the V 15 Nitro BE but it manages to give us about an hour more when performing simple tasks like video playback or web browsing. However, the Y720 has a better score when gaming.

In our Web browsing test where we use our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites, the Y720 scored 350 minutes (5 hours and 50 minutes) while the V 15 Nitro BE – 408 minutes (6 hours and 48 minutes). Video playback for the Y720 is 284 minutes (4 hours and 44 minutes) and 330 minutes (5 hours and 30 minutes) on the V 15 Nitro BE. And lastly, the Y720 pumped out 113 minutes (1 hour and 53 minutes) of gaming while the V 15 Nitro BE managed just 69 minutes (1 hour and 9 minutes). Overall good results for gaming notebooks.

Performance

As expected, with the same hardware both models had almost the same performance. However, we see that the Y720 tend to provide higher FPS when playing on medium settings. Despite that, when the graphics are maxed there is no difference in performance whatsoever.

GTA-V-benchmarks

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5) – LenovoFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Max (Check settings)
Average FPS107 fps37 fps

 

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5) – AcerFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Max (Check settings)
Average FPS87 fps37 fps

 

rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016) – LenovoFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Max (Check settings)
Average FPS85 fps 29 fps

 

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016) – AcerFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Max (Check settings)
Average FPS51 fps31 fps

Tom Clancy’s The Division- LenovoFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Max (Check settings)
Average FPS 88 fps 18 fps

 

Tom Clancy’s The Division – AcerFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Max (Check settings)
Average FPS 82 fps19 fps

Temperatures

We performed our usual temperature tests on both devices. As usual, we start with a 30 minute 100% load CPU stress test. The Lenovo Y720 performed rather odd – the CPU ran at 3.4 GHz for about 10 minutes but afterward, it dropped to 2.7 GHz which is 100 MHz below the base clock. However, this is not thermal throttling because the CPU ran at a very low temperature of around 60 °C. Our best guess is that this has something to do with the engineering sample. The V 15 Nitro BE’s CPU ran at its maximum speed for some time but them it started to wobble between 2.8 GHz and 3.4 GHz which is nothing to worry about. Temperatures were a bit high (around 90 °C) but no thermal throttling occurred.

Then we added the GPU stress test to the scene. We are happy to say that the Y720 performed very good in this scenario. The CPU frequency did not change and the temperatures raised to around 85 °C which is expected. The GPU ran at 1455 MHz and got a bit hot though – 81 °C. Things weren’t so good for the V 15 Nitro BE. The CPU frequency started dropping below the base clock of 2.8 GHz sometimes reaching as low as 2.0 GHz. Temperatures also got very high up to 96 °C which is very near the maximum operating temperature. The GPU ran at its base 1404 MHz frequency for a while but shortly after, dropped down to 1189 MHz while being even hotter (90 °C) than in Y720’s case. This is nothing too alarming and you won’t be able to push the system to its limits in real life but it is a good representation of the cooling capabilities of the devices.

Surface temperatures at the palm rest area were comfortable on both devices. The Lenovo Y720 kept its hottest points under 50 °C while the V 15 Nitro BE jumped over the 50 °C mark which isn’t very pleasing.


Verdict

Overall both devices are great. Lenovo Legion Y720 stands out with its aggressively looking design and ensures a good gaming experience with its reliable cooling system, powerful hardware, longer battery life (when gaming) and Dolby Atmos certified 2.1 sound system. On the other hand, the Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro Black Edition (VN7-593G) gives you that more premium look and it is easier to carry. It also provides you with longer battery life when performing daily or office tasks. The excellent display makes is suitable for graphics designers. Overall, it is a solid all-rounder. It is up to you to choose whether you want a gaming notebook or a more versatile assistant.



Why choose Lenovo Legion Y720?

  • mini DisplayPort
  • more reliable cooling system
  • overall better build quality




Why choose Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro Black Edition (VN7-593G)?

  • far better display
  • thinner and lighter
  • slightly better battery life


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