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Our verdict
For less than $300, the Lenovo IdeaPad 120S is an attractive laptop with solid performance and long battery life.
To the
Stylish looks; USB Type-C charging; Solid performance
Against
Flexible body;Washed out screen;Poor webcam
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It used to be difficult to find a worthwhile laptop for less than $300, but Lenovo makes it easier than ever to have a pleasant user experience with its $270 IdeaPad 120S.By combining sleek design, long battery life and performance that surpasses similarly priced notebooks, the IdeaPad 120S offers excellent value for money. The screen is a bit washed out, but at this price point, the IdeaPad 120S is one of the best Windows laptops you can get.
Design: Elegant
Yes, Lenovo's IdeaPad 120S is cheap, but it doesn't look cheap. With its mineral gray body and matte finish, the IdeaPad 120S almost looks like it's made of aluminum. However, the slight curve of the deck and keyboard gives away the IdeaPad's polycarbonate and
ABS Plastic
Structure.
A silver Lenovo logo on the lid breaks up the seamless design. Lifting the lid of the IdeaPad reveals an island-style keyboard with charcoal-colored keys, a screen with medium-sized black borders, and a small Lenovo logo in the lower-left corner, as well as a matching gray one Touchpad. The IdeaPad's hinge folds back almost 180 degrees, but the bracket feels a bit flimsy - so I'd caution anyone with this model against applying pressure. The "subtle rubber" grips on the bottom of this laptop could be better be; I found the IdeaPad slid slightly across my desk.
Lenovo IdeaPad 120S (14-inch Gray) at Amazon for $299.99
The IdeaPad 120S measures 13.14 x 9.25 x 0.73 inches and 3.24 pounds, which is a typical size for a laptop in this category
Lenovo IdeaPad 100S-14
(0.7 inches thick, 3.2 pounds) and the
HP stream 14
(0.7 inches thick, 3.11 pounds) are slightly smaller, but the IdeaPad 120S is lighter and slimmer than that
Asus L402SA
(0.9 inch thick, 3.3 pounds).
For less than $300 you won't get all the fantasy
ports
You see in premium laptops, but the IdeaPad 120S has enough to get you some work done. On the left is a proprietary charging port, a
USB3.0
port, one HDMI output and one
USB Type-C
connector (which can charge the laptop). On the right side is another USB port, a 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD card reader.
Display: OK for the price
The 14-inch screen of the IdeaPad 120S registers
1366x768
resolution, so you won't get the sharpest image. But remember, this is a sub-$300 laptop. According to our colorimeter, the IdeaPad 120S reproduces 69 percent of the
sRGB color space
, which is a rather lackluster score that falls short of the category average (100 percent). Lenovo's sub-$200 IdeaPad 100S-14 was livelier (84 percent). Also the Asus L402SA (92 percent) and HP Stream (81, 5 percent) performed better.
The actual viewing experience on the IdeaPad 120S was mixed. When I watched 2NE1's "Gotta Be You" music video, yellows and reds popped up, but they weren't as vivid as I've seen on other screens; some lighter colored items The colorful walls in the background in particular were noticeably undersaturated and CL's blue contact lenses appeared gray. Dark tones, such as those in Park Bom's black and purple hair, were reproduced without problems. I was also impressed with the IdeaPad's clarity since it's a lower resolution screen. I could clearly see the tufts of fur on Minzy's pink sweater and the Jeremy Scott print on Sandara's blue shirt.
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The screen of the IdeaPad 120S scores in our . better off
brightness
Test registering 219 nits on our light meter. This figure didn't beat the category average (254 nits), but it's better than the results we found on the Lenovo IdeaPad 100S-14 (188 nits), the Asus L402SA (206 nits), and observed the HP Stream 14 (186 nits). .
In direct sunlight, the IdeaPad 120S's panel doesn't handle glare well. It also has narrow viewing angles; image quality suffered whenever I strayed from 90 degrees, making the flip-back hinge almost pointless. Viewing angles were fine when I looked at the screen from the right and left.
Audio: As good as it gets
The IdeaPad 120S has dual downward-firing speakers that provide adequate sound. The 2 x 1-watt stereo speakers reproduced semi-accurate audio that was loud enough to fill our small conference room. When I "Call Me Baby" When I listened to EXO I could hear the bass and synth just fine. But the percussion sounded tinny and the strings were barely audible. At least the vocals came through clearly with little distortion.
The IdeaPad 120S's microphone is integrated into the top bezel along with its webcam. When I recorded some voice memos to test how well the microphone picked up audio, I was pleased to hear that the playback of my voice sounded accurate.
keyboard and touchpad
The IdeaPad 120S's island-style keyboard is a little flat, offering just 1.2 millimeters of travel (1.5 to 2 mm is typical). The keys require 69 grams of actuation force (65 to 70 grams are typical), giving them a responsive feel , but our results were mixed. On the 10fastfingers.com typing test, my average speed of 58 words per minute dropped by 22 percent (45 wpm). My editor found the keyboard a bit more comfortable, clocking in at 95 wpm, which is about 5 percent below his typical score lies.
The IdeaPad's 4.1 x 2.7-inch buttonless touchpad is so smooth it's almost slippery. The touchpad provided accurate navigation and was responsive to pinch-to-zoom and three-finger swipe gestures.
Performance: Solid
Lenovo's IdeaPad 120S comes with one
Intel Celeron N3350 processor
, 4GB
R.A.M.
and a 64GB
eMMC storage drive
, which in our tests delivered strong performance for a notebook in this price range. When I had eight tabs open in
Google Chrome
-- including streams from
youtube
,
Pandora
and
Netflix
-- I have not experienced any lag.
The Intel Celeron N3350 CPU of the IdeaPad 120S scored 2,626 on Geekbench 4, a synthetic benchmark that measures
overall performance
.This score surpassed the scores of the Lenovo IdeaPad 100S-14 (1880), the Asus L402SA (1934), and the HP Stream 14 (1817), all of which are equipped with Intel Celeron N3060 CPUs.
The IdeaPad 120S copies a 4.97GB batch of multimedia files in 1 minute and 28 seconds at a speed of 57.8 megabytes per second
hard drive speed
is significantly faster than the Lenovo IdeaPad 100S-14's 43.5 Mbps (1 minute and 47 seconds), the Asus L402SA's sluggish 14.1 Mbps (6 minutes), and the HP's 24.5 Mbps Stream 14 (3 minutes and 28 seconds).
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It took the IdeaPad 120S 9 minutes and 41 seconds to find 20,000 names and addresses in our OpenOffice Spreadsheet macro test. This time is faster than the renderings of the Lenovo IdeaPad 100S-14 (14 minutes and 33 seconds), the Asus L402SA (13 minutes and 15 seconds) and the HP Stream 14 (13 minutes and 04 seconds).
With integrated
Intel HD Graphics 500
processor, the IdeaPad 120S scored a solid 19,827 points on the Ice Storm Unlimited test, a synthetic benchmark that measures
graphics performance
.This score is better than the values of the Lenovo IdeaPad 100S-14 (13586), the Asus L402SA (19784) and the HP Stream 14 (19073).
The IdeaPad 120S performs better than its competitors in the graphics test, but it is not a suitable notebook for gaming. 5 fps.
Battery life: Beats the competition
If you need the IdeaPad 120S for a full day's work or school, you might want to have your charger handy. But for less than $300, the IdeaPad's battery life is excellent.
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With a 2-cell battery (32 Wh), which supports our test device, the IdeaPad 120S lasted a good 7 hours and 43 minutes in our test device
Battery test for laptop magazine
(continuous web browsing over Wi-Fi). This runtime is longer than the Lenovo IdeaPad 100S-14 (5:51), Asus L402SA (6:03), and HP Stream 14 (7:04) but shorter than the class average (8:42).
heat cool
Lenovo's IdeaPad 120S stayed cool during our heat test. After playing a full-screen video for 15 minutes, the touchpad measured 75 degrees Fahrenheit, its keyboard (G and H keys) registered 82 degrees, and the bottom hit 85 degrees. These results passed our heat test with flying colours, as we find temperatures above 95 degrees uncomfortable.
Webcam: Poor
Decent laptop webcams are hard to find even on premium models, so it's not surprising that Lenovo hasn't invested in the IdeaPad's camera. With a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera, the IdeaPad 120S captured blurry and undersaturated photos that what bad imitations of Snapchat filters look like.
Taking a selfie in my office under the neon lights, my features were hard to make out, with a lot of grain in the background. The colors were off, too, making my chocolate brown sweater appear black and my tanned skin washed out with a gray cast.
All in all, if you need to use the IdeaPad 120S for a video call in a professional setting, you'd be better off using the money you saved on this sub-$300 laptop to buy a laptop
external webcam
.
software and warranty
To run
Windows 10 Home
, the IdeaPad 120S comes with a minimal amount of preinstalled software, including first-party utilities and third-party bloatware.Lenovo Companion tests your hardware for errors and checks for driver updates, while you use Lenovo Settings to manage performance, sound, camera, display, and touchpad settings The IdeaPad also comes with some preinstalled games like Minecraft, Candy Crush Soda Saga and Bubble Witch Saga.
The IdeaPad 120S includes a one-year limited hardware warranty, parts and labor. See how
Lenovo
it happened on our
Technical support showdown
.
bottom line
With a number of notable features — including a decent Intel Celeron N3350 CPU, USB Type-C support, and solid battery life — the $270 Lenovo IdeaPad 120S offers strong value for money. In some areas you get still what you pay for, however, as this laptop has a less-than-stellar display and sound system, and a body that flexes.
If you want the cheapest laptop money can buy, the $183
Lenovo IdeaPad 100S-14
is a solid choice, especially considering the colorful display, but trade-offs include shorter battery life and slower performance. The $248
Asus L402SA
is another affordable option that offers a colorful display, strong audio, a wider range of ports, and a comfortable keyboard. The $219
HP stream 14
is a cheap but flashy alternative that also offers strong battery life.
However, if you are simply looking for a cheap notebook with decent performance, the IdeaPad 120S is a reliable choice for web surfing and office tasks.
Credit: Shaun Lucas/Laptop Mag
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Lenovo IdeaPad 120S specifications
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 4.0
brand
Lenovo
CPU
Intel Celeron N3350 processor
card slots
microSD
corporate website
www.lenovo.com
screen size
14.1
graphic card
Intel HD Graphics 500
disk size
64GB
disk type
eMMC
Highest resolution available
1366x768
native resolution
1366x768
operating system
Windows 10 Home
Connections (except USB)
HDMI, Headphone/Mic, USB Type-C, USB 3.0
R.A.M.
4GB
size
13.14 x 9.25 x 0.73 inches
touchpad size
4.1 x 2.7 inches
USB ports
3
Warranty/Support
one-year limited hardware warranty
Weight
3.24 pounds
Wireless Internet access
802.11ac
Fewer
