Lenovo IdeaPad 120s Review - Review 2022

How low can they go? No, we're not talking about celebrities or politicians; we mean laptop manufacturers and their quest to offer ultra-affordable systems for entry-level shoppers. Take the Lenovo IdeaPad 120s ($249.99), for instance: This 11.6-inch notebook (there'southward also a xiv-inch model) has just 2GB of RAM, which is half what we recommend for Chrome Os, allow alone Windows 10, though its 64GB of eMMC flash storage is double that of another rock-bottom bargain, the HP Stream 11-y010nr. It has mod conveniences like USB-C besides as two USB iii.0 ports. Its sleek, meaty chassis is available in Denim Blueish likewise as our examination unit'southward Mineral Gray.

The IdeaPad doesn't unseat our Editors' Choice upkeep ultraportable, the Acer Swift ane ( at Amazon) ; the 13.3-inch Acer, though priced $100 higher, offers a relatively luxurious IPS screen with higher resolution and wider viewing angles, too as better performance in our benchmark tests. But the Lenovo is a handy grab-and-go tool for everyday apps, equally well equally a good candidate if y'all're buying a laptop for a kid and want to go the Windows route instead of with a chromebook.

Lenovo Ideapad 120s (11.6-inch) Design

Plumbing equipment Into the Fullest Briefcase

At 0.69 past 11.3 past 7.9 inches, the IdeaPad takes upwards fifty-fifty less room than the HP Stream 11 ($194.77 at Amazon) (0.71 past 11.8 by 8.1 inches), or about as much as the Dell Inspiron eleven 3000 (3162) ($179.99 at Dell) (0.78 past eleven.five by seven.7 inches). It tips the calibration at 2.53 pounds, a hair less than the 2.six-pound HP and Dell. An etched Lenovo logo is the just ornament on the gray plastic lid; a smaller logo is tucked into a corner of the wide bezel around the display.

Build quality feels fairly solid—at that place's some flex if you grasp the screen corners or apply pressure level to the middle of the keyboard, simply nothing yous'd phone call flimsy. A power push button occupies the height right corner of the keyboard; nosotros accidentally tapped it once or twice when aiming for the side by side Delete central, but our presses were too quick or low-cal to really put the car to sleep.

Lenovo Ideapad 120s (11.6-inch) Keyboard

On the Lenovo's left edge, yous'll discover a connector for the AC adapter, a USB three.0 port, an HDMI video output, and a USB-C (not Thunderbolt 3) port. On the right side are some other USB three.0 port, a headphone jack, and a microSD card slot which to our consternation wouldn't take our microSD cards—the ii SanDisk cards we tried each stuck well-nigh halfway into the slot and wouldn't go further, though we couldn't see any obvious obstruction.

Speakers on the laptop's bottom produce soft, hollow-sounding audio that'south neither loud enough to fill a room nor rich plenty to deliver realistic vocals and instrumentals. The webcam to a higher place the screen takes pale, soft-focus selfies.

The IdeaPad'south keyboard has a potent, shallow feel reminiscent of a tablet's type encompass; it's too firm to be comfortable for long typing sessions. The top-row keys conveniently default to arrangement settings such every bit volume, brightness, and aeroplane mode instead of F1 through F12. The cursor arrow keys are arranged in the HP- or Apple-style row that's our pet peeve (one-half-sized up and downwardly arrows sandwiched betwixt full-sized left and right), not the inverted T we adopt. The small, buttonless touchpad responds smoothly to swipes and taps.

The 11.6-inch display offers 1,366-past-768 resolution, so your YouTube viewing is limited to 720p rather than 1080p videos (full Hard disk drive would exist arguably likewise squished at this size anyway). There's adequate if non dazzling brightness. Colors don't pop, just are presentable if you get the screen angle adjustment just right—besides much or too little tilt, or a seat slightly to ane side instead of dead center, produces either dark or washed-out images. Contrast is simply fair and details don't stand out.

Treatment Productivity Basics

The IdeaPad 120s relies on an Intel Celeron N3350 processor, a 1.1GHz (2.4GHz turbo) dual-core with a score of 83 points in our Cinebench CPU examination that topped the older Celerons in the Dell Inspiron 3162 and the HP Stream 11 but savage short of the 140 points scored by the Pentium chip in the Acer Swift 1.

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Lenovo Ideapad 120s (11.6-inch) Productivity

To its credit (and different numerous past systems with 2GB of retention), the little Lenovo completed all of our benchmark tests except for the demanding 3DMark Burn Strike Extreme graphics test, intended for serious gaming rigs. Probably its finest 60 minutes came in our PCMark general office productivity test, where it tied the Swift; it finished well behind the Acer, merely ahead of the HP and the Dell, in our Adobe Photoshop paradigm-editing and Handbrake video-editing scenarios.

Lenovo Ideapad 120s (11.6-inch) Gaming

Neither the IdeaPad nor whatever of these entry-level, integrated-graphics machines came within a country mile of the 30 frames per second threshold for smoothen gameplay in our Heaven and Valley gaming simulations. The 120s lasted for viii hours and 42 minutes in our battery-rundown test, enough to go you through a workday simply well brusk of the stamina shown by the Acer Swift 1 and the Lenovo Miix 320 detachable, which landed just less than and more the thirteen-hr mark respectively.

On an Extreme Budget?

All told, the IdeaPad 120s joins the Inspiron 3162 and the Stream eleven as a worthy choice for ultraportable buyers on tighter-than-tight budgets—it outperforms both of them, though nosotros narrowly adopt their screens and keyboards. If you can spare an extra C-note, nonetheless, the Acer Swift 1 is in a class of its own due to its larger, sharper display.

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