Lenovo IdeaPad Y560d Is Latest 3D Notebook

Lenovo, headquartered in Morrisville, N.C., will make the 15.6-inch consumer-targeted IdeaPad Y560d available at the end of June for a starting price of $1,200. Other new 3D notebooks from rival manufacturers include the 15.6-inch Acer Aspire 5738DG 3D, priced at $780, the 15.6-inch Asus G51J-3D, a $1,550 notebook, and the Toshiba Satellite A665 3D Edition, available in 14-inch and 16-inch versions and starting at $1,600.

Unlike those rival products, which utilize Nvidia’s 3D Vision software, emitter and wireless active shutter glasses, Lenovo’s first notebook with a 3D display features ATI graphics from Advanced Micro Devices and a 3D kit from TriDef.

The IdeaPad Y560d has an HD 16:9 widescreen that, combined with TriDef’s polarizer glasses and software, “transforms a standard movie into a 3D experience [and] ... turns standard photos into eye-popping 3D,” according to Lenovo.

Lenovo is also promising faster Windows 7 boot-up times and improved application performance on the Y560d courtesy of its Enhanced Experience RadidDrive technology, which combines a solid state drive and hard disk drive, providing up to 750GB of in-system storage. The notebook can be configured with up to 8GB of DDR3 memory.

Powering the Y560d is a multi-core Intel Core i7 processor and the unit features AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 5730 mobile discrete graphics. Options include a Blu-ray drive, HD graphics support and an HDMI output. Other configuration possibilities include high-speed integrated 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.