I have received the Lenovo IdeaPad S340 81VV008TIN laptop from Ahmedabad for review. So, I have unboxed it and reviewed it from A to Z. And, here is my perspective.
Technical Specs of Lenovo IdeaPad S340 81VV008TIN
- CPU: 1.0 GHz Intel Core i5-1035G1 | 10th Gen | 4 Cores | 6MB Cache
- GPU: Integrated Intel graphics
- RAM: 8GB DDR4 | 2666MHz | Dual channel | Not upgradable
- Storage: 1TB 5400RPM HDD + 256GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
- Display: 14-inch FHD | IPS and Anti-glare panel | 223 Nits
- Battery: 52.5Wh Li-ion | 3 Cell | Approx 8 hrs and 39 minutes on YouTube
- Wireless connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi | Bluetooth 4
- Weight: 1.55 Kg (3.42 lbs)
- Laptop dimensions: 32.3 x 23 x 1.8 cms
- Best laptops under Rs 50,000 in India
- Best laptops under Rs 60,000 in India
The Build Quality
This Lenovo laptop has a metal lid with a poly carbon base. It gives it a pretty solid build. The aluminum lid contributes heavily to the durability side while keeping the weight very low. In addition, the design is classic, not a premium one that you get in Acer or Asus laptops of price Rs 60,000 in India.
Furthermore, the palm rest easily attracts fingerprints. But, it’s pretty easy to clean using a microfiber cloth. In addition, I have not detected any color change on the surface over the use.
Dimensions and Weight
The dimensions of this Lenovo IdeaPad S340 81VV008TIN are 12.7-inch in width, 9-inch in depth, and 0.7-inch in height. In addition to that, I have also measured the weight using Propert’s weighing scale.
- For laptop only: 1.55 kg (2.6 lbs)
- For laptop + Accessories: 1.7 kg (3.74 lbs)
Here, I have checked the laptop’s weight is its charging accessories, so that, you can get an idea about the total weight you may need to carry while traveling.
When comparing it with other laptops under Rs 60,000 in India, I found this Lenovo IdeaPad S340 average lightweight.
Display
The Lenovo IdeaPad S340 81VV008TIN laptop has a 14-inch FHD IPS display with a 60Hz refresh rate. In addition, the screen contrast ratio is 1114:1, which is above the lower limit we recommend (1000:1). The display has good viewing angles. Furthermore, the display is surrounded by 6mm side bezels.
In the case of this laptop, I have no option to check for G-Sync availability because it has no NVIDIA GPU. It’s not a dedicated gaming laptop. But, it can fulfill your gaming needs up to certain limit.
To check the screen color reproduction, I have tested the screen color gamut using Spyder 5 PRO. And, here are our results of 3 tests for SRGB, AdobeRGB, and NTSC.
As you can see the results are not up-to-the-mark to meet the goals of content creators like photo and video editors. But, this result is perfectly fine for office-level jobs.
See in the below chart where this laptop is in comparison to other laptops of nearly similar prices.
In addition, I have also tested the brightness of this laptop in terms of display nits. And, here are my results.
At LaptopRadar.In, our review unit has reached 223.4 nits, which is too below what we recommend. At our lab, we recommend at least 290-300 nits for easier visibility of content in direct sunlight.
When compared it with other laptops under Rs 60,000 price, Acer swift 3 has secured 2nd last position and that’s pretty awesome.
In addition to that, When I moved the screen up and down to check flex, I found a little bit of flex. But, to be honest, it wasn’t problematic for me. The display has also an aluminum lid which contributes more to flex reduction.
Furthermore, the hinge runs mostly along the base and it allows the display to turn 180 degrees right back to the keyboard. When I have tried to open the display using one finger, I have also lifted the base along with display. That shows the uneven distribution of weight across the hinge.
Keyboard
The chiclet keyboard of this Lenovo IdeaPad S340 81VV008TIN laptop has gray keys and white fonts on it including secondary functions. The keyboard has a poly carbon island.
During typing, I found the keys were traveling almost 1.45mm distance down and the tactile feedback I got was consistent. However, the keys are a little bit noisy but you will find them considerably silent when compared to the mechanical keyboards.
In addition, it has a zonal white backlit also which is able to illuminate both primary and secondary key functions.
The shape of the power button is quite different compared to other laptops I have tested till now. It’s too thin. But, I liked the placement. Like many Acer and Asus laptops, there will be nearly no possibility of the accidental wrong press.
Furthermore, the size and placement of the Up and Down arrow keys are pretty disappointing. It triggers the accidental wrong press very easily. So, overall, the keyboard is better than the Asus VivoBook Ultra 15 M513 and Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptops.
- Best Wireless Keyboard Mouse combo under Rs 1500 in India
Touchpad
The touchpad of this laptop is made of plastic and occupies an area of 4.1 x 2.75 inches. At LaptopRadar.In, we found it pretty smooth, responsive, and accurate. And, you’ll be surprised to know that the touchpad supports Windows precision drivers.
Furthermore, it clicks down anywhere. It’s pretty solid and doesn’t get bend down anywhere unlike Mi Notebook 14’s touchpad. However, for gaming, it’s not good. You have to buy a dedicated gaming mouse.
RAM
The Lenovo IdeaPad S340 81VV008TIN laptop comes with 8GB of 2666MHz DDR4 Dual Channel RAM. Here, the 4GB out of 8GB is soldered RAM. So, you can’t upgrade it. But, from an amount perspective, it’s enough for smooth multitasking at the office level.
In addition to that, below I have compared it with the RAM of other laptops of Rs 60,000.
- Mi Notebook 14 Horizon: 8GB DDR4 | 2666MHz | Single Channel | No upgrade option (read full review)
- Acer Swift 3 SF314-57: 8GB DDR4 | 2400MHz | Dual Channel | Upgradable to 32GB (read full review)
- Dell Inspiron 3593: 8GB DDR4 | 2666MHz | Single channel | Upgradable to 16GB (read review)
- Asus VivoBook S14 S403JA: 8GB LPDDR4X | 3733MHz | Dual channel | Not upgradable (review)
- Acer Aspire 5 A514-52G: 8GB DDR4 | 2400MHz | Dual channel | Expandable to 12GB
- Lenovo IdeaPad S145: 8GB DDR4 | 2400MHz | Single channel | Upgradable to 12GB
- HP 14s DR1009TU: 8GB DDR4 | 2666MHz | Dual channel | Upgradable to 16GB
- Dell Inspiron 14 3493: 8GB DDR4 | 2666MHz | Single channel | Not upgradable
- Acer Aspire 3 A315-23: 8GB DDR4 | 2666MHz | Single channel | Upgradable to 12GB
CPU and GPU Performance
The Intel Core i5-1035G1 CPU and Intel UHD GPU are powering the laptop’s performance. In addition, it got 256GB of PCIe-based SSD storage. So that, you will be able to open and edit large files smoothly. It has also 1TB of the hard disk.
CPU and GPU Benchmarks
To check the performance CPU, I have conducted the Cinebench tests. Cinebench score represents the CPU’s performance.
As you can see in the above image, our Lenovo laptop is at the 5th last position in CB single core score comparison but that’s still a pretty good achievement. the Core i5 laptop should be above 400 score at least.
The same position. I’m impressed.
In addition, I have also checked Geekbench 5 benchmark performance.
In a test at LaptopRadar.In by Geekbench 5, the Lenovo IdeaPad S340 81VV008TIN laptop has achieved a 1084 score on single core and 3386 score on multi core. See where it’s when compared with other laptops under Rs 60,000.
The GB single core score is good and our dear Lenovo laptop is at 4th position. If you look at Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop (review), it’s at 3rd last despite having an Intel Core i7 processor.
As you can see in the above image, our Lenovo laptop has shown a good position in the comparison of the Geekbench 5 multi core score.
Now, what does this scores tell?
It tells the performance of the laptop. The higher the score, the higher the performance. Here, you have to consider the multi-core score. Take a note that, Geekbench doesn’t put an excessive load on the CPU like Cinebench R20. And, Geekbench considers mainly productivity tasks like emailing, browsing, multitasking, etc, to evaluate the hardware.
And, these ways cannot give you an idea about the cooling solution. Because tiny tasks don’t make much stress on the CPU. Hence, If the laptop has a higher Geekbench multi-core score means its capability for productivity is much better. But, at the same time, information about thermal throttling and the cooling solution will remain unanswered by this tool.
Average CPU and GPU Clock Speeds
The Lenovo IdeaPad S340 81VV008TIN has Intel Core i5-1035G1 which has a base speed of 1.0GHz and can be overclocked to 3.6GHz.
The average CPU and GPU clock speeds were measured by performing the stress test using AIDA64 tool. The average of 3 runs is in the below image.
As Intel UHD GPU is integrated on the same board, I’ve not checked its speed separately. The CPU clock speed was 2675 during the stress test at an auto fan and raised by 9MHz when the cooling pad was introduced. It gives you an idea that a cooling pad is nearly useless to buy for this laptop for performance increment.
Furthermore, as Lenovo IdeaPad S340 81VV008TIN is not a gaming laptop, I don’t have to check it for TDP as it isn’t required here. I would have done it if this was a gaming laptop.
Video Editing Performance
In this test, I have exported the 16 minutes and 13 seconds long video in YouTube 4K H.264 preset using Adobe Premier CC. And I have repeated the same test 4 times further to show you the average result.
So, during my test of video export in 4K preset, the Lenovo IdeaPad S340 has ended up in on average 30 minutes and 41 seconds. That’s too much.
I’m a little bit disappointed because of the performance during the video export. Till now, I have criticized the Mi Notebook, but I think I’ve to upvote it in this section. Also, it’s worth mentioning that this laptop wasn’t all-time smooth during video editing.
Thermal Performance
I’ve performed the thermal performance test using the AIDA64 tool to check whether a cooling pad is useful in temperature reduction or not.
So, you can see in the above image that the cooling pad has reduced the CPU temperature from 81 to 78 degrees Celsius, which is average but not good.
Furthermore, in the following chart, I have compared the temperatures of laptops measured during the stress test at an auto fan.
As per the above chart, this machine is in the middle that shows the average temperature of the processor during processor-intensive tasks like video editing, gaming, and like. That directly reflects the average-efficient thermal management when compared to other laptops shown in that chart.
In addition, I have also checked for the laptop’s exterior temperature.
- At idle: Keyboard and palm rest were cool.
- During stress test at auto fan: The palm rest was cool and Keyboard was at mid-37 degrees C. The exterior above the function keys was hot.
- With the use of a cooling pad: I found a little bit cooler scene than the above test.
Noise Emitted by Fans
At idle, the fan was very silent, not audible. But, when the stress test was going on, the noise level was varying around 42.7dB.
In addition, also find a position in terms of fan noise emission when compared to laptops of price under Rs 60,000.
You can see in the above chart that Lenovo IdeaPad S340 81VV008TIN comes with the second-most silent fan whereas Dell Inspiron 14 3493 has the noisiest fan when I ran the stress test at the auto fan.
Camera and Microphone
The 720p camera and microphone are placed at the top bezel of the display. I have tested both of them outdoors. And, my ratings for both ended with 5/10. In addition to that, the camera in this laptop doesn’t support Windows Hello unlock.
Here is the position of this Lenovo device when compared with other laptops of Rs 60,000 price.
Speakers
The 2 down-firing speakers are placed on the front side of the laptop. And, both are pretty loud. The Digitech’s sound level meter measured the sound level of 84dB while a YouTube video was being played.
So, from the comparison, I can say the Lenovo got a pretty good speaker.
Ports
On the left side, there are the following ports from left to right.
- 1 Power input
- 1 HDMI 2.0
- 1 USB Type-C Gen-1
- 1 3.5mm Audio/combo jack
You can see that there are two laptops, Acer Swift 3 SF314-57 and Asus VivoBook S14 S403JA, that have a thunderbolt-3 port.
On the right side, there are the following ports from left to right.
- 1 Full size SD card reader
- 2 USB Type-A 3.1 Gen-1
On the back, there are only air exhausts. And, on the back cover, there is one belt of air intake vents.
Battery
The Lenovo IdeaPad S340 81VV008TIN laptop has a 52.5Wh battery.
It has lasted for 132 minutes during the continuous stress test and for 519 minutes while watching YouTube videos at 50% of screen brightness, keyboard backlighting off, and background apps disabled.
Storage
Let me tell you that this Lenovo IdeaPad S340 81VV008TIN has 256GB of PCIe-based SSD storage. I have measured its speed and performance using CrystalDiskMark. CrystalDiskMark is a tool most popular for the measurement of storage performance.
You can see that it’s too fast at reading and writing. The reading speed is almost 3067MB/sec and the writing speed is almost 1073MB/sec.
Final Thoughts
The Lenovo IdeaPad S340 81VV008TIN is feature-rich to some extent and cheap to buy. It’s classic design but a pretty solid build laptop. The display is made of all aluminium and the base of made of poly carbon. It’s not for professional photo and video editors because the display’s colour gamut aren’t up to the mark. Also, the display’s brightness is disappointing. The keyboard is tactile and the touchpad is smooth, responsive, and accurate. And, it also supports Windows precision drivers. So, quite better results for content writers, bloggers, and programmers. When it comes to performance, the benchmark scores like Cinebench and Geekbench have impressed me. I was also impressed when I compared the laptop’s performance with other laptops under Rs 60,000 price. It basically reveals the good internals and efficient thermal management. However, this Lenovo IdeaPad S340 81VV008TIN laptop is average good for video conference. The speakers are pretty much loud and its 256GB of SSD storage is extremely fast. Overall, quite a good but classic design laptop to buy under Rs 60,000 in India.
READ ARTICLES ON LAPTOP REVIEWS:
- Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop review
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- Lenovo IdeaPad S340 laptop full review
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