While looking for laptops that balance style, functionality, portability and of course the price, we got our hands on the Lenovo Ideapad 330S. Lenovo’s Ideapad and the Yoga series of laptops are ideal for home and business use. The Ideapad 330S is a slightly updated version of the older Ideapad 330. This laptop is crafted elegantly inside and out. Priced at Rs. 38,999*, let’s find out if the Ideapad 330S shines in our performance tests, while justifying the price.
Design and Build
The simple looks of the Lenovo Ideapad 330S is above its class. Our review unit was a silver colour variant. The top lid has a plain matte surface with a very minimalistic branding on it. Even the “Lenovo” logo is stamped vertically at the extreme left corner. The build of the laptop is quite good. The chassis is a mix of polished aluminium and a plastic material. It was a little hard to figure out its finish and construction when we first saw it. The lid of the laptop is made up of aluminium, whereas the base is hard plastic.
On opening up the laptop, we see a 15.6-inch screen fitted into a thin bezel. The lower side of the bezel is slightly broader and has the Lenovo logo carved on it. The lid and the base of the laptop are connected with a single hinge. It is strong and has the ideal amount of resistance and flexibility. The hinge can swivel to 180 degrees, which is great if you want to adjust the screen of the laptop to a preferred angle.
The keyboard on this laptop is wide, the keys are large and have enough space in between them. This means, there are less chances of you missing keystrokes during fast paced typing. There is also a separate numerical pad, which you won’t find on most laptops these days. As for the trackpad, it is large and wide. The mouse hover response is smooth, with precise clicking. There is a lot of space on either sides of the trackpad for resting hands while typing. The underside of the laptop has three rubber stoppers that let the laptop sit firmly even on slippery surfaces. There are two heat vents - one near the hinge and other at the base.
Two speaker grills, both slightly facing upwards are on either side of the Lenovo Ideapad 330S. The base of the laptop has a fine angular profile, which gets slimmer at the front. As far as the connectivity goes, all the ports are placed equally on the two sides of the laptop.
Features
The Lenovo Ideapad 330S is an updated model of the old Lenovo Ideapad 330. Our review unit was powered by an 8th generation Intel Core i3-8130U quad-core processor along with 4GB of RAM. This is enough to get most software running without any issues. The storage is handled by a 1TB hard drive inside the Ideapad 330S. There is also Intel’s HD Graphics 620 on-board, which can supposedly handle basic graphic applications very well.
The 15.6-inch screen on the Ideapad 330S is a highlight. It sports a full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution. It is sharp with good details, but we didn’t find it bright enough. Also, the viewing angles of the Ideapad 330S are not really great. The screen looks washed out when viewed from a 45 degree angle. The connectivity ports on this model includes one USB Type-C 3.1, two USB 3.0, one HDMI, 4-in-1 card reader and a headphone jack. This is good enough to get most devices connected. In terms of wireless connectivity, the Ideapad 330S includes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11ac.
The 330S comes with Windows 10 built-in. The precision touchpad supports multi-finger gestures that works well with Windows. They are great, if you want to scroll, zoom in, zoom out with simple swipes.
Performance
Our experience of using the Lenovo Ideapad 330S was good. It has proven itself to be an efficient performer. We ran several benchmarks to test the performance. This laptop recorded average scores in the Cinebench synthetic benchmark, with an overall CPU score of 307cb and 34.40 fps in OpenGL. We also ran the StreetFigther IV benchmark test to check the on-board graphics performance. This laptop performed really well when the display resolution to 1280 x 720. The overall score obtained was 9,937 with an average of 59.87 fps. When we tweaked the display settings from HD to full HD, we noticed some stuttering. The Ideapad 330S was able to score 8,030 with an average frame rate of 46.80 fps. These scores clearly indicated that the laptop can handle basic graphical tasks very well, but not heavy ones like running graphic designing software, intensive games, etc.
The system boot time of the Lenovo Ideapad 330S was not impressive. It took more than 20 seconds to shut down and start the system. Talking about the everyday usage, software launching and browsing was quick. It was only when we had a Chrome browser with 25-30 tabs open with websites loaded that we noticed some delay in switching between tabs. Even multi-tasking was not very smooth. We had a browser, MS Paint and a word editor running at the same time. Things do slow down a bit then.
It seems Lenovo has not skimped on the screen quality on the Ideapad 330S. It is a good quality screen, with detailed text and more accurate colours. Vertical viewing angles are good, and we were able to read text on the screen even with the display pushed back to 180 degrees. Sideways viewing angles are not great owing to average brightness levels. Oddly, the icons on the main screen appear pixelated, but this isn’t very noticeable. Talking about the colours, the screen produces basic colours accurately. We also checked sound quality. We played several MP3 tracks and movie trailers. The 2 x 2 Watts speaker on the Ideapad 330S produces good quality sound. It wasn’t really loud, but not flat either.
Having spent time with the Lenovo Ideapad 330S, we found that the battery performance was below average. It was able to last for only 4 hours on continuous usage, set at high performance. Of course, this may vary depending on your usage patterns.
Verdict
The Lenovo Ideapad 330S is a simple yet classy looking laptop. It features a slimmer profile than older Ideapad 330 models. The 15.6-inch full HD screen is one of the highlighted features at the price it is offered. While this laptop has commendable build and design, it does not make its mark in performance tests. Graphic designers and gamers may consider this laptop as a secondary machine. It would have been better if Lenovo had bumped the hardware specifications just a bit. For those looking for an everyday laptop, this might be a worthy purchase at Rs. 38,999*.
