Lenovo joins 3D laptop fray with IdeaPad Y560d

The 3D laptops are coming fast and furious now, with Toshiba announcing one the other day and now the normally staid Lenovo venturing into the third dimension with the IdeaPad Y560d.

The Y560d is a little different in that it uses passive polarized 3D glasses rather than active-shutter ones, and uses an ATI Radeon HD 5730 graphics card instead of an Nvidia one. The laptop does offer switchable graphics, meaning it will rely on the integrated chipset for less-demanding graphics tasks to save battery life.

It also features Enhanced Experience RapidDrive technology, which combines an SSD and hard drive to speed up boot times -- Lenovo claims it can boot Windows 7 up to 66-percent faster. You can add on a Blu-ray drive, but it doesn't appear to be a 3D-compatible model, which could have been handy when more 3D Blu-ray discs start appearing.

Whether Lenovo's passive 3D approach is adequate compared to the active-shutter 3D approach remains open to debate, though we'll know more when the Y560d debuts at the month's end for a starting price of $1,199.99.