Lenovo IdeaPad S300-59359324 Pro Reviews

The Lenovo IdeaPad S300 isn't exactly the slimmest, nor is it definitely the lightest, but it is very attractive, well-built, very nice to use for long periods of time and it does have a decent amount of lick underneath the hood, thanks to its Ivy Bridge processor. Its only real downside is the lack of a strong battery life compared to the 'all-day' boasts made by many of the Ultrabook manufacturers. Lenovo has been consistently coming up with the goods recently, especially for those on a budget. While its Ultrabooks haven't completely set the world on fire, the Lenovo IdeaPad S300 shows that being the best isn't always the name of the game. It offers a lot of real-world performance, looks and connectivity. If you want outright performance and portability, you might be better off forking out a little more cash for something better.

Lenovo wants to create an Ultrabook replacement. Their 13.3 inch model is cheaper (550 Euros) and offers a dedicated GPU (Radeon HD 7450M), for occasional gaming. Sadly, Lenovo bet on the wrong horse: the Radeon GPU may be better than the HD Graphics 3000 IGP of the Core i3, but it can not match the competition, like the Geforce GT 620M, in terms of performance. The weak gaming prowess is not the only disappointment. The run time of 2 hours is too short (WLAN test). The Aspire V5 competition uses low-capacity batteries, but runs about 1:15 hours longer (15 inch). Both our test model and the 15 inch gaming laptop have poor brightness. The workmanship of our test model is riddled with flaws and weaknesses, as is the workmanship of the Acer models. The matt surfaces are nice, but the malleability of the case can be ignored. The keyboard of the Aspire model is better than that of the Lenovo S300. The keys are quiet on both laptops, but the spongy typing feel, caused by the weak keyboard base, puts the S300 behind. We like the low temperature and noise emissions of the IdeaPad S300. The low weight of 1,600 grams is also quite nice.