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If you want the portability and low price of a Chromebook, but can’t live without Windows, check out the Lenovo IdeaPad S215 ($379.99 as tested). Powered by a quad-core AMD A4 processor, this 11-inch budget laptop has what it takes to handle your everyday home productivity and multimedia workload, and it’ll give you more than six hours of battery life. It’s slim, lightweight chassis is ideal for frequent travel, but it suffers from sluggish performance and lacks a touch screen.
Design and Features
At 0.82 by 11.7 by 8.1 inches (HWD), the S215 will fit easily into most carry-on bags, and at 2.8 pounds, you’ll hardly know it’s there. The matte-black chassis has a textured finish, and like the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E545( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), the lid’s dual-hinge assembly gives the laptop a sturdy, well-built feel.
The 11.6-inch, 1,366-by-768 display has a non-reflective matte coating and delivers crisp, well-balanced colors and a sharp picture. Unlike the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147)($399.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) and the HP Pavilion 10z, the S215’s screen lacks touch capabilities, so you’ll have to rely on the keyboard and touchpad for input. Fortunately, the island-style keyboard is full-size, responsive, and quite comfortable for an 11-inch laptop. You don’t get backlighting at this price, however. The slightly recessed touchpad is on the small side, but there’s still sufficient room for gesture commands, such as swiping, zooming, and scrolling. The two mouse buttons are also responsive and deliver a subtle click when pressed.
There’s a decent selection of I/O ports, considering the S215’s slender chassis. The right side contains one USB 2.0 port, a headphone/microphone jack, a 2-in-1 card reader, and the power port. On the left side are a USB 2.0 port, a USB 3.0 port, an HDMI video output, and a LAN port. There’s a 720p webcam and microphone array embedded in the display’s upper bezel and a pair of tinny-sounding speakers embedded in the base. Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 networking circuitry are also included.
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The S215 contains a solid-state hybrid drive (SSHD) comprised of a 500GB, 5,400rpm traditional hard drive and 8GB of solid-state storage. It has Windows 8.1 installed, as well as Lenovo Photos, Cyberlink PowerDirector, Cyberlink PhotoDirector, trial versions of Microsoft Office 365 and McAfee LiveSafe, and Lenovo’s VeriFace face recognition software. Lenovo covers the S215 with a one-year warranty.
Performance
Armed with a 1.5GHz AMD A4-5000 processor, 4GB of memory, and an integrated AMD Radeon HD 8330 graphics engine, the S215 turned in mediocre scores on our benchmark tests. Its PCMark 8 Work Conventional score of 1,661 squeaked past the Intel-Celeron-powered Lenovo G40 (1,581), but lagged the AMD-E1-powered HP Pavilion 10z (1,922), and the Intel-Pentium-powered Dell Inspiron 11-3147 2-in-1 (1712).
Video encoding performance is better. The S215’s Handbrake encoding test score of 6 minutes 39 seconds is more in line with the Acer Aspire E3-111-C1BW( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) (6:03) and the Dell 11-3147 2-in-1 (5:54) and thrashes the Lenovo G40 (15:54) and the HP 10z (15:29) by a wide margin. Gaming performance is slightly better than what we saw from systems that use the integrated Intel HD Graphics engine, but with frame rates of 6 and 8 frames per second on the medium-quality Heaven and Valley tests, respectively, the S215 is simply not cut out for gaming. The 36-watt battery lasted a respectable 6 hours 19 minutes on our battery rundown test, but couldn’t match the battery life of the HP 10z (6:38) or the Dell 11-3147 2-in-1 (8:24).
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Conclusion
The Lenovo IdeaPad S215 is a good choice for Windows users who require ultrabook portability at budget pricing. Its quad-core CPU notwithstanding, you’ll have to be patient while it slogs its way through certain productivity and multimedia tasks, but it’s easy to travel with and offers a comfy full-size keyboard and a nice selection of I/O ports. Unfortunately, you don’t get touch-screen capabilities with this model. If that’s a deal breaker, our Editors’ Choice entry-level convertible-hybrid laptops, the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147), is the way to go. It’s a better performer with longer battery life and a flexible touch screen, and its list price is around $75 less expensive.
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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/lenovo-ideapad-s215