Lenovo Ideapad 100S review

If you're really on a budget, maybe the Lenovo IdeaPad 100 is right for you. Maybe. Maybe. Lenovo intends for the IdeaPad 100 to take on Chromebooks, and thus it's selling these laptops for as little as $300 with Windows. Not bad, Lenovo.


But—and this is a big but—that price is only possible by taking a significant performance hit. Don't expect to do much on this laptop besides type up documents and browse the web.

The design
The design of the IdeaPad 100 is as inoffensive as possible. It is just a black rectangle with a slight carbon fiber-esque texture on the lid. It is the mid-size sedan of laptop designs, a.k.a. perfectly average in every way. And that's not necessarily a bad thing—when you're buying a laptop for this cheap, having it look "like every other laptop" is decidedly better than having it look like a cheap laptop.

The IdeaPad 100 model we took a look at is also a bit smaller than some of the competition, coming in at 14 inches with a glossy 1366x768 display. It's not a fantastic screen, but the viewing angles are quite a bit better than, say, the Acer Aspire E-15. And while color accuracy is (no surprise) poor, colors do seem to pop a bit more on the IdeaPad 100 compared to most of the competition.

Build quality is fairly solid, apart from some flexing at the bottom of the screen. The IdeaPad 100 feels like a laptop you could throw into the bottom of a bag with some textbooks and not worry about it. It's light on ports, with merely power, HDMI, Ethernet, a unified headphones/microphone jack, and two USB slots (one 3.0, one 2.0) on the left side. There's a card reader on the front. Nothing at all on the right.


The IdeaPad 100 is amazingly low price but outclassed by competitors in its class.
The keyboard is surprisingly nice, with a decent amount of click to the keys. You lose out on a numpad by downsizing to a 14-inch laptop, but…will you really miss it? Though on that note, it is odd that Lenovo decided to nix the numpad but still include a column of keys dedicated to the Home block (Delete, Home, End, Page Up, Page Down). It seems wholly unnecessary.

The trackpad is finicky, to put it politely. For some reason the trackpad seems to have no problem as long as I place my finger flat on the surface before dragging. If I try to use the tip of my finger however (like I'm pointing at the trackpad) it tends to only register half of my swipes. Considering that's how I typically use a trackpad, the IdeaPad 100 and I are constantly fighting. Your mileage may vary.

At least it has physical mouse buttons, though.

The sound quality is predictably terrible—almost all treble, and I managed to get it to crackle and distort just by turning the volume up to 100 percent on a YouTube video. I can say in all honesty that I get better audio quality out of the speaker on my Nexus 5 phone, which isn't saying much.



The IdeaPad 100 is amazingly low in price but outclassed by similarly-sized competitors.
The specs
Simply put: The IdeaPad 100 does not hold a candle to the competition  laptops here, performance-wise. It's not the worst in its class, but it's closer to the Atom-powered Acer Aspire 10 than it is to the Core i5 5200U powered Acer Aspire E-15 (to say nothing of our performance king, the Toshiba C55-C).


But that doesn't necessarily matter, provided you can find the IdeaPad 100 for cheap. As a $300 laptop, the IdeaPad 100 isn't a bad choice. I wouldn't buy it for more than that, though.

Our IdeaPad 100 unit was powered by an Intel Celeron N2940 clocked at 1.83GHz with integrated Intel HD Graphics, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB 5,400 RPM hard drive.

In PCMark 8 those specs translated to a Home Conventional (i.e. web browsing, video chat, word processing, et cetera) score of 1,339. That's a precipitous drop from the Toshiba C55-C's score of 2,527—which is itself a drop from your average gaming laptop's score of around 3,500.

Things are even worse when you need real performance, though. With a Creative Conventional score of 1,083 and a Work Conventional score of 1,631, the IdeaPad 100 barely edges out the scores of 801 and 1,382 posted by the Atom-powered Acer Aspire 10. And it doesn't even come close to the 2,198 and 2,771 posted by the C55-C.

And if you want a more real-world measure of performance, just check out our Handbrake test. We feed the laptop a 30GB MKV file and see how long Handbrake takes to transcode it. With the IdeaPad 100, it was a staggering four hours and nine minutes (compared to two hours and twenty-nine minutes for the C55-C).

One last note: Lenovo's done something weird with the hard drive: Aside from the usual handful of partitions created by Windows 8.1, there's also a 25GB D: drive partition titled "LENOVO." I assume this is to facilitate its OneKey Recovery, but I felt like it was worth pointing out you lose another hefty chunk of drive space in the process.

The bloat
Considering Lenovo was the key player in the recent SuperFish controversy, it's definitely worth taking a look at what third-party software is installed on this el-cheapo laptop—and see whether Lenovo has learned its lesson.

My initial impression? Maybe. With the exception of my least favorite antivirus software McAfee, most everything preinstalled on the IdeaPad 100 is either made by Lenovo or is Lenovo-branded. That includes file transfer software SHAREit, OneKey Optimizer, Lenovo EasyCamera, Lenovo Experience Improvement, Lenovo Reach, Lenovo OneKey Recovery, and more.

Overall, I'd say Lenovo actually wins this category. While I'd absolutely uninstall most of those Lenovo programs to free up space, at least they're all first-party native Lenovo programs. They didn't even include apps like Netflix or Spotify on this thing! Fantastic!

The verdict
The Lenovo IdeaPad 100 is a great bargain, provided you get it for a bargain price. Like, a really bargain price. Lenovo set out to compete with Chromebooks with this laptop, and that's exactly the kind of performance you can expect—so make sure you get it at a Chromebook-style cost. I'd say between $250-300 and not a penny more. Otherwise you're better off looking at some other options, either higher end (like the Toshiba C55-C) or lower (like the Lenovo S21e or Acer Aspire Switch 10 E).

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2956416/laptop-computers/lenovo-ideapad-100-review-this-big-laptops-got-a-tiny-little-processor-but-its-cheap.html

Dell XPS 13 (2015, Nontouch) Review

For the last year, the Dell XPS 13 has been our favorite notebook, because it combined a slim, light and attractive design with excellent battery life at a good price. For the newest version, Dell tweaked that winning combination by adding a 6th-generation Intel Skylake processor, Thunderbolt 3 port and a higher-capacity battery. The updated XPS 13 is faster than ever and, despite a step backward in battery life, lasts nearly 12 hours on a charge. This remains one of the best ultraportable laptops on the market.

 Editor's Note (12/1/15): In the process of writing this review, Dell informed us that a BIOS error was causing XPS 13 notebooks with NVMe-type solid state drives to use more power, and would result in lower than expected battery life. Dell sent us a BIOS update, which will be available publicly in December, that fixed this issue. As a result, we have updated the battery life section of this review.


Design
Not much has changed from the last-generation model, but not much needs to. The XPS 13 combines an attractive and durable aluminum lid with a soft-touch, carbon-fiber keyboard deck that felt great on my wrists as I typed.

However, it doesn't have the flashy hinge of the Yoga 900, and can't rotate its lid 360 degrees.

The bottom of the XPS 13 also has two raised rubber bumpers that run the width of the notebook. They not only keep the aluminum from getting scratched, but also provide an air channel to keep the notebook cool.

As with the previous generation, this model XPS 13 sports what it calls an Infinity display -- that is, a screen that extends nearly to the very edge of the lid. On the touch-screen version of the XPS 13, it looks like the display goes all the way to the edge; on the nontouch version, the bezel is more apparent, but, at a quarter of an inch, it's much smaller than what you'll find on any other notebook.

Regardless of whether you get the touch or nontouch version, the XPS 13 has a much smaller footprint than other 13-inch notebooks. Measuring 12 x 7.9 x 0.3 to 0.6 inches, it takes up less tray table space than the 13-inch MacBook Air (12.8 x 8.9 x 0.11 to 0.68 inches) and Lenovo Yoga 900 (12.75 x 8.86 x 0.59 inches).


The nontouch version of the XPS 13 weighs 2.7 pounds; opting for the touch-screen version ups the weight to 2.9 pounds. That's in the same ballpark as the Yoga 900 (2.8 pounds) and the Mac (2.9 pounds).

Display
It's not a 4K or a quad-HD panel, but I was more than satisfied with the 1080-pixel panel on my review configuration of the XPS 13.

When watching the Star Wars trailers over and over, I noticed that colors, such as the orange of Poe Dameron's flight suit, were rich and vibrant, and there were no artifacts muddying the blackness of space. According to our tests, the screen can display 92 percent of the sRGB color gamut, which is similar to the Yoga 900 (93.2 percent) and way ahead of both the MacBook Air (66 percent) and the category average (80.7 percent).

The screen's average brightness of 318 nits was lower than Dell's 400-nit claim, but the XPS was still brighter than the Yoga 900 (284 nits), as well as the ultraportable laptop category average (299 nits). The MacBook Air was slightly brighter, at 334 nits.



Keyboard And Touchpad
While it has a somewhat shallow travel of 1.3 mm (1.5 is typical of most notebooks), the XPS 13 remained as delightful as ever when I was typing. Its backlit, chiclet-style keyboard was snappy and responsive.

Likewise, the 4.1 x 2.4-inch touchpad had a crisp snap when pressed, and responded instantly and accurately to all of my inputs.


Ports And Webcam
Instead of the Mini DisplayPort on the previous version of the XPS 13, this model has a Thunderbolt 3 port on the left, which can be used not just to connect peripherals such as USB drives, but can also be used to connect to compatible displays.

 Placing the webcam in the lower left corner means that Skype callers will get a good look at your nostrils.
The XPS 13 also has two USB 3.0 ports, as well as an SD card slot and a headphone/mic jack.

The one downside to having a bezelless design is that there's no room for the webcam above the display. On the XPS 13, Dell had to move the webcam to the lower left corner, which means that Skype callers will get a good look at your nostrils. At least the details and colors were good.


Heat
After streaming an HD video at full screen for 15 minutes, the lower right corner on the bottom of the XPS 13 hit 97 degrees; that's slightly hotter than our comfort threshold of 95 degrees, but nothing to be too concerned with. The rest of the notebook stayed cooler.



Performance
HOW THE DELL XPS 13 STACKS UP

3DMark Fire Strike
1 of 10
Tests notebook graphics performance.
Dell XPS 13 (2015, Nontouch) Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2014)Lenovo Yoga 900Category Average (as of 11/30/15)
214Not Tested840598.79
 0 160 320 480 640 800 960
3DMark Fire Strike3DMark Fire StrikeBattery LifeBattery LifeColor AccuracyColor AccuracyDisplay Brightness (Nits)Display Brightness (Nits)Gamut VolumeGamut VolumeGraphics Performance (3DMark)Graphics Performance (3DMark)Hard Drive SpeedHard Drive SpeedOverall Performance (Geekbench 3)Overall Performance (Geekbench 3)Spreadsheet PerformanceSpreadsheet PerformanceWorld of Warcraft (autodetect, 13x7)World of Warcraft (autodetect, 13x7)

Updated with a 6th-generation Intel Core i5-6200U processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, the latest generation of the XPS 13 will cruise through pretty much anything. I streamed two movies at the same time and churned through a big spreadsheet without noticing any performance hit.

 I streamed two movies at the same time and churned through a big spreadsheet without noticing a performance hit.
On Geekbench, which measures overall performance, the XPS 13's score of 6,391 topped the Yoga 900 (6,264), despite that notebook having an Intel Core i7-6500U CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. The MacBook Air, which runs a 5th-generation Core i5 processor, scored 5,784.

Despite its high score on synthetic tests, the Dell fell behind both the Mac and the Lenovo on our spreadsheet test. Its time of 4 minutes and 34 seconds, to pair 20,000 names and addresses in OpenOffice, was slower than the Yoga 900 (4:18) and the Apple (4:03).

In duplicating 4.97GB of multimedia, the Dell's hard drive speed of 231 MBps proved faster than the Yoga by about 50 MBps, but slower than the Air's flash memory by 127 MBps.

MORE: Best Gaming Laptops

The Intel HD Graphics 520 in the XPS 13 can handle mainstream games. On World of Warcraft, the Dell averaged a playable 40 frames per second with the effects on Good, and the resolution at its native 1080p. At these same settings, the Yoga 900, which has the same GPU, averaged a slightly better 49 fps. When we increased the eye candy to max, the Dell and the Lenovo performed about the same, at 21 and 18 fps, respectively.


Battery Life
The last version of the Dell XPS 13 lasted an impressive 11 hours and 42 minutes on the Laptop Battery Test (Web surfing via Wi-Fi with the screen at 100 nits). Following a BIOS update, the newest version, which has a higher-capacity 56-wHr battery and a supposedly more efficient Skylake processor, lasted a slightly longer 11:54.

The Dell's endurance is much better than the Yoga 900 (7:57) and the ultraportable average of 8:10. The MacBook Air continues to dominate, with an excellent time of 14 hours, but it also has a lower-resolution display.



Based on our previous experience with the 1080p nontouch and the QHD+ touch versions of earlier XPS 13s, we can reasonably assert that the model with the higher-resolution display will have considerably lower battery life.


Configurations
The XPS 13 starts at $799; at that price, consumers get a 1080p nontouch display, Intel Core i3-6100U processor, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD.

The next preconfigured model costs $999, and has a more powerful Core i5-6200U CPU and 8GB of RAM. This is the version I reviewed, albeit with a 256GB SSD, which increased its price to $1,149.

Stepping up to $1,399 -- the least expensive configuration with a touchscreen -- gets you the same Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM, but a 256GB SSD and a QHD+ (3200 x 1800) display. Spend $200 more, and you can upgrade the CPU to an Intel Core i7-6500U.


Software And Warranty
As one of Dell's premium notebooks, the XPS 13 refreshingly comes with little in the way of bloatware. The only apps preinstalled are Flipboard, Solitaire, Groove Music, iHeart Radio, Twitter and the ubiquitous Candy Crush Saga. The laptop also comes with a one-year warranty, but Dell didn't fare all that well on this year's Tech Support Showdown. Click here to see who did better.


Bottom Line
The latest version of the Dell XPS 13 has much of what I liked in the previous model: A chassis that's smaller than the competition, strong performance, and a great keyboard and touchpad.

While the battery didn't last much longer than its predecessor, we'll happily take 12 hours of use on a charge.

Our XPS 13 cost $1,149, and had a 1080p nontouch display, Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. For $50 more, you can get a Yoga 900 with a Core i7 processor, a 3200 x 1800 touch screen and a 512GB SSD. The trade-off is that the Yoga 900 is larger and has shorter battery life. If portability is paramount, the XPS 13 is an ultraportable you shouldn't pass up.