Y730 Need Answers before Purchase

[LavaIce]

I've been looking at the Y730 Series for awhile now and I've been relucatant to purchase for a few reasons and I was hoping that the community would be able to answer the questions that Sales, Technical Support and Parts have all failed to be able to answer.  I'll start with the easy one: Does the Y730 have a Gigabit Lan Card? The specifications of the Intel Chipset do not make it clear whether or not it supports 1000Mbps connections.

Now the the tough question.  Is it possilbe to replace the Game Zone on the Lenovo IdeaPad Y730 - 40532AU (Orange) with a NumberPad (Parts refused to give any information on this without an FRU number witch Technical Support was unable to lookup (yes I had both of them on the line).  Or more personal preference take the screen from a  Lenovo IdeaPad Y730 - 40532AU (Orange) and have it installed into a Lenovo IdeaPad Y730 - 405335U (Dark Blue)?

And now for a quick rant. Why aren't these options already avaiable? Where are some decent high resolution photos of the Y730 Orange and Blue all angles similar to Newegg's Image Slideshow?  I desperately want to spend my money on the quality machine that I know the Y730 to be, but without some decent configuration options and proper marketing material to answer my questions why should I spend $1500 to $2000 on a machine and risk not liking it to the point of having to return it and pay a 10% to 15% restocking fee.  Or end up suffering with a machine that I find to be unaccepable from the lack of ablity to get something better all because of buracacy.

I hope I'm not the only one out there you has noticed and voiced their concerns to every Lenovo employee that they have spoken with so that something might change.  If you do have these issues please post on this thread so that we might get noticed and something can change for the benefit of all Lenovo and potential Lenovo customers.  Anyone you can give me answers to my questions I'd like to put out and advanced thanks for taking the time to respond.

[LavaIce]

Bump. What does it take to get a reply around here from someone with knowledge? Breaking the forum TOS?

[JaneL Community SuperMod]

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LavaIce wrote:
Breaking the forum TOS?

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Welcome to the forum!  Starting out by breaking the rules just because no one who knows the answer you seek has answered yet would really not be advisable.

Have you looked at ipbook?

[LavaIce]

The ipbook answers the minor question which is does it have gigbit ethernet which is a disappointing no. However, the bulk of my issues are with the screen size and numberpad / gamezone combination question as well as trying to get some decent photos.  I had decided that this post might be a little over complicated so I have posted some of easier to answer questions in sparate threads.  As for the TOS, it seems like ranting, raving ill thought out posts get more attention which is rather offensive to someone to tries to do the research and forumate a well thought out post.

Thank you JaneL for acknowledging my post, on a large forum activity gets noticed and I feel I have a better chance at getting anwsers now.

[JaneL Community SuperMod]

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LavaIce wrote:

Now the the tough question.  Is it possible to replace the Game Zone on the Lenovo IdeaPad Y730 - 40532AU (Orange) with a NumberPad (Parts refused to give any information on this without an FRU number witch Technical Support was unable to lookup (yes I had both of them on the line).  Or more personal preference take the screen from a  Lenovo IdeaPad Y730 - 40532AU (Orange) and have it installed into a Lenovo IdeaPad Y730 - 405335U (Dark Blue)?

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I'm not at all familiar with ideaPad specifics, but here's some general thoughts re the above.

While it might technically be possible to swap the Game Zone or screen if you had both systems, the ideaPad series is generally preconfigured for the consumer market, and there are few, if any, CRU (Consumer Replaceable Parts) options for it.  It's unlikely that you could purchase that configuration from Lenovo if the options aren't available when the system is ordered.

Also, I haven't found an HMM (Hardware Maintenance Manual) published publicly as there is for some other series, so there's no handy reference for FRU part numbers so that you could order the parts yourself.  (Oddly enough, there is an HMM published for the S10e which puzzles me over the inconsistency).

Making the changes would almost certainly void your warranty.

I know this isn't welcome news, but I hope it helps anyway.

[LavaIce]

It's really discuraging that Lenovo seems to only be half applying themselves when it comes to the new market ninche that they are doing with the entire Ideapad Series.  When they initally released them I was quite hopeful, now it seems as more and more time as passed and the more I look into the systems there has been a real lack of attention to details and that doesn't just included technical aspects but also marketing and sales support.

What I'm ultimately hoping to do is bring this to the attention of the real decision makers so that they will hopefully change such lack of forsight for the next round of Ideapad's as it is really looking like the only way I would purchase one at this point is a complete system failure of my T40.

[Mark_Lenovo Administrator]

Lavalce,

We'll try to run down answers on some of your specific questions, like the Network card.

Regarding the game zone / Keypad part switch.  IdeaPads are set model designs, and service parts are not orderable as individual parts as they are with ThinkPads.  The service model at present, is through a repair depot.

As you note, Options are limited, and I agree that this is an area where we could improve to allow our customers more flexibility, and perhaps make the IdeaPads even more successful.

The S10e is a bit of a different matter as Jane notes above.  The S10 is a consumer IdeaPad, while we then also launched a version into the commercial market channels, to best serve customers in segments like education.   These (commercial channel) models are then serviced and supported through our infrastructure in much the same way ThinkPads are.

Best regards,

Mark

Message Edited by Mark_Lenovo on 02-16-2009 07:56 AM

[KNK112]

I would like to purchase Y730 or Y530! I agree there's a lack of information and PHOTOS. I want to see what I get b4 I pay my money! I have never been so indecisive in my life about a purchase. Where's the sales people and marketing pitch to wheel me in. The sale is there and it's ends tomorrow but I feel so lost.......