Lenovo Ideapad 720s-15 Review
The Lenovo Ideapad 720s-15 is a 15.6-inch laptop that aims to offer a balance between performance, portability, and design. It features a sleek metal chassis, a thin bezel display, and a discrete graphics card that can handle some gaming. But is it a good laptop for your needs? This review will examine the pros and cons of the Lenovo Ideapad 720s-15 and see how it compares to some of its competitors.
Design and Build Quality
The Lenovo Ideapad 720s-15 has a stylish and sophisticated look, with a dark silver metal finish and angled edges. The lid has a subtle Lenovo logo on the top right corner, and the bottom has no stickers except for the Microsoft badge. The laptop is relatively thin and light for its size, measuring 0.6 inches thick and weighing 3.4 pounds. It is easy to carry in a backpack or a briefcase but more portable than some of the smaller ultrabooks on the market.
The laptop has a solid build quality, with no noticeable flex or scratching on the keyboard or the screen. The hinges are smooth and sturdy, and the screen can be opened with one hand. The keyboard is spacious and comfortable, with a full-size numpad and variable-intensity backlighting. The keys have a reasonable travel distance and feedback, but they could be more shallow and mushy than other laptops. The trackpad is large and smooth, with integrated buttons and support for multi-touch gestures. Some users have reported that the trackpad becomes sluggish after extended use, but we did not encounter this issue during our testing.
The laptop has a decent selection of ports, including two USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI port, one USB Type-C port, an SD card reader, and an audio jack. The USB Type-C port supports Thunderbolt 3, allowing fast data transfer and connection to external monitors or docks. However, the laptop does not have an Ethernet port or a DVD drive, which might be inconvenient for some users.
Display and Audio
The Lenovo Ideapad 720s-15 has a 14-inch IPS LED display with 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution. The display has a thin bezel design that gives the laptop a modern and immersive look. Display has good brightness, contrast, and color accuracy, with wide viewing angles and minimal glare. The display suits web browsing, office work, media consumption, and casual gaming. However, some users prefer a higher resolution or a touchscreen option for more clarity and interactivity.
The laptop has two bottom-firing speakers that are powered by Harman Kardon technology. The speakers produce a clear and loud sound, with decent bass and treble. The speakers are good enough for watching videos or listening to music in a small room, but they might need to be more for larger spaces or gaming. The laptop has a built-in HD webcam captures decent images and videos in well-lit environments.
Performance and Battery Life
The Lenovo Ideapad 720s-15 is powered by an Intel Core i5-7200U processor, a dual-core chip with a base speed of 2.5 GHz, and a turbo boost of up to 3.1 GHz. The processor has 8 GB of DDR4 RAM and a 256 GB SATA SSD. The laptop also has an NVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics card with 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM, a low-end discrete GPU that can handle some light gaming.
Laptop delivers excellent overall performance for everyday tasks such as web browsing, office work, video streaming, photo editing, and multitasking. The laptop boots up fast and runs smoothly without any lag or stuttering. The SSD offers fast read and write speeds, improving the system’s overall responsiveness.
Thanks to the discrete graphics card, the laptop can also handle some gaming on low to medium settings. The laptop can run games such as Overwatch, Fortnite, Rocket League, FIFA 18, and GTA V at playable frame rates on low to medium settings at 1080p resolution. However, the laptop is unsuitable for more demanding games or higher settings, as it will need help to maintain smooth performance.
About of Battery Life
The laptop has a large 79 Wh battery that delivers up to 9 hours of backup on a single charge with UHD resolution. This is much better than the average battery life of laptops in this price range, which is around 6 hours. The laptop can last a full day of moderate or several hours of heavy use without needing to plug in. However, the battery life will vary depending on the usage, settings, and environmental factors.
The laptop has a fan that keeps the system cool and prevents overheating. The fan is usually quiet and unnoticeable during everyday use, but it can get loud and annoying under heavy load or gaming. The laptop also gets warm on the bottom and the keyboard area, but not to the point of being uncomfortable or harmful.
Conclusion of Lenovo Ideapad 720s-15
The Lenovo Ideapad 720s-15 is a good laptop that balances performance, portability, and design. It has a sleek metal chassis, a thin bezel display, and a discrete graphics card that can handle some gaming. It also has a comfortable keyboard, a smooth trackpad, and a long battery life. However, it also has some drawbacks, such as a slightly mushy keyboard, a loud fan, and a need for an Ethernet port or a DVD drive. The laptop is suitable for users looking for a compact and powerful laptop that can handle everyday tasks and some gaming, but not for a high-end gaming machine or a touchscreen device.
The laptop is priced at $969.99 in the US, £949.99 in the UK, and AU$1,600 in Australia, which is reasonable for its features and performance. However, it faces stiff competition from other laptops in this segment, such as the Dell XPS 13, the HP Spectre Pro 13, or the Asus ZenBook UX430UA. Therefore, users should compare the pros and cons of each laptop before making their final decision.
