How is Lenovo Legion Y740 battery life?

Just how bad is battery life on the Legion Y740?

For both the Lenovo Legion Y740 15 and the Lenovo Legion Y740 17, the battery life is abysmal.

During gaming sessions, you get less than a single hour of time to play before needing to charge, and even using the laptops just for basic web browsing or work will drain the battery in around two hours. This terrible performance is due to the fact that, despite having an Intel Core i7-8750H 6 Core processor and RTX GPUs that require a lot of power, these laptops come with batteries that simply aren't strong enough to keep the system running for long.

Just how big on an issue is this?

While the awful battery power is absolutely a downside, it's not as huge of a deal as it may seem initially. You won't be able to use the device for long without a charger, true. However, wall outlets are a frequent sight in many buildings, and it's unlikely that you would be playing on a gaming laptop in a place that doesn't have any of them around. Of course, this doesn't apply to everyone, but I think it holds true for the majority of people who would consider buying one of these devices.

It is important to note that the beefy 230 W adapter used to charge the laptops is bulky, which will be a pain to work with since you'll always need to have it. That said, I still think that the ability to take cutting-edge gaming power outside of the house may be worth dealing with that annoyance. Being able to play a game like Metro Exodus on high settings with ray tracing enabled with a laptop is a pretty big deal, and while the Lenovo Legion Y740 devices have clear flaws, they're ultimately some of the least expensive laptops on the market that allow you to do so.

Alternative option

If the Lenovo Legion Y740's battery woes are a deal-breaker for you, then you'll find the Dell G5 15 Gaming laptop an excellent alternative option. The best graphics card you can get with it is an RTX 2060, which is the least expensive (and least powerful) of the RTX GPUs, meaning that you can't buy a version that matches the strength of more expensive Lenovo Legion Y740 variants. However, the trade off is that you'll be getting a significantly better battery performance for roughly the same price.

Additionally, the RTX 2060, while not being super powerful, is by no means a weak GPU. Also, the device comes with an Intel Core i7-8750H processor. This combo means that the laptop, while overall being weaker than the Lenovo Legion Y740, is still a great choice for modern gaming.