Lenovo B50-45 Notebook Review Update
For the original German review, see here.
With the B50 series, Lenovo offers several low-priced notebooks. With the B50-30 (Celeron N2815, HD Graphics (Bay Trail)), we have already reviewed the cheapest model of the series (269 Euros, ~$341, with Windows 8.1 Bing) a few weeks ago. Our test model comes with an AMD APU. Its price of 390 Euros (~$494) is significantly higher than the B50-30's. Our review will reveal whether the device is appealing.
Since the design of the two B50 models is identical, we will not cover case, connectivity, input devices, and speakers here. Information about these is available in our Lenovo B50-30 review.
Display
The Lenovo B50-30's display was not very bright and the B50-45 is not different. While a brightness of 191.1 cd/m² corresponds to the low price of the computer, it cannot be called good. Contrast (519:1) and black value (0.37 cd/m²) perform better. The display achieves very decent results in these aspects.
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Brightness Distribution: 86 %
Center on Battery: 192 cd/m²
Contrast: 519:1 (Black: 0.37 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 11.03 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.89
ΔE Greyscale 11.59 | 0.5-98 Ø5.1
Gamma: 2.3
In factory state, the average DeltaE 2000 is 11.03. Most displays perform similarly. Values smaller than 3 are desirable. In addition, the display has a strong bluish tint.
Lenovo only equipped the B50 with a simple TN panel. As a result the viewing angles are narrow. Thanks to the matte surface, the notebook can be used outdoors to some extent.
Performance
With the B50-45, Lenovo offers a simple 15.6-inch office notebook. The performance of its AMD APU is more than sufficient for office and Internet applications. Videos run without problems, too. Our test model costs about 390 Euros (~$494). Lenovo also offers other configurations - with Intel as well as with AMD hardware, in the B50 series.
Processor
The B50 is powered by an AMD A6-6310 (Beema) APU. The CPU part of the APU is a quad-core processor with a base clock of 1.8 GHz. Thanks to Turbo, the clock rate can be increased to up to 2.4 GHz. AMD specifies a TDP of 15 Watt for this APU. The CPU did not run with its maximum clock rate in the CPU tests of the Cinebench benchmarks. The clock rate ranges from 2 to 2.4 GHz in the single thread tests, while it is 2 GHz in the multi-thread tests. On battery, the clock rate ranges only from 1.6 to 1.8 GHz in the multi-thread tests. In terms of performance, the processor ranks in between the Haswell Pentium and Haswell Core i3.
System Performance
The system runs smoothly. We did not face any problems. The good results in the PCMark benchmarks add to the good overall impression.
| PCMark 8 Home Score Accelerated v2 | 1914 points | |
| PCMark 8 Creative Score Accelerated v2 | 1997 points | |
| PCMark 8 Work Score Accelerated v2 | 2781 points | |
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| PCMark 8 - Home Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo B50-45 | |
| Packard Bell EasyNote TE69HW-29574G50Mnsk | |
| HP 15-g005ng | |
| Acer Extensa 2510-34Z4 | |
| Lenovo G510-59416358 | |
| Acer Aspire E5-551-T8X3 | |
Storage Devices
Data is stored on a hard drive from Seagate with a revolution speed of 5400 rpm and a capacity of 500 GB. About 25 GB is occupied by a recovery partition. The transfer rates of the hard drive are throughout good.
Graphics Card
The graphics core of the B50 also stems from AMD. It is called Radeon R4 (Beema). The GPU supports DirectX 11.2 and has a clock rate of up to 800 MHz. Depending on the benchmark the performance of the GPU is between Intel's HD Graphics 4200 and HD Graphics 4400.
| 3DMark 11 Performance | 753 points | |
| 3DMark Ice Storm Standard Score | 30225 points | |
| 3DMark Cloud Gate Standard Score | 2747 points | |
| 3DMark Fire Strike Score | 442 points | |
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Gaming Performance
At best, casual gamers are able to make use of the B50. The APU can run a few games smoothly with low resolution and low quality settings. Higher settings are only possible in games with low hardware requirements. For example Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of these. A second RAM module will not increase the frame rates, since the APU does not support dual-channel mode. The latter would use the graphics core more efficiently and ensure higher frame rates.
| low | med. | high | ultra | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deus Ex Human Revolution (2011) | 40.1 | 19.5 | ||
| Dead Space 3 (2013) | 46.2 | 21.1 | 16.5 | |
| Tomb Raider (2013) | 31.7 | 15.9 | 11.6 | |
| StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (2013) | 64.6 | 26.4 | 15.4 | |
| Saints Row IV (2013) | 15 | 12.8 | 7.4 | |
| The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (2013) | 19.3 | 11.7 | 8.3 | |
| Total War: Rome II (2013) | 27.1 | 20.2 | 16.2 | |
| Batman: Arkham Origins (2013) | 27 | 16 | 9 | |
| GRID: Autosport (2014) | 52.4 | 20.3 | ||
| Risen 3: Titan Lords (2014) | 16.5 | 10.8 | ||
| Sims 4 (2014) | 60 | 22.9 |
Emissions
System Noise
Noise Level
| Idle |
| 32.3 / 32.3 / 32.3 dB(A) |
| DVD |
| 35.7 / dB(A) |
| Load |
| 32.6 / 36.2 dB(A) |
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30 dB silent 40 dB(A) audible 50 dB(A) loud |
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min:  , med:  , max:  Voltcraft sl-320 (15 cm distance) | ||
Temperature
During the stress test (Prime95 and Furmark run for at least one hour) the CPU clocks at 1.4 GHz in mains operation and on battery. The GPU clocks at 800 MHz during the stress test in mains operation. On battery, its clock rate is limited to 400 MHz. In mains operation the CPU temperature hovered around 60 °C. The case of the B50 never gets especially hot. Even during our stress test, the temperatures remain significantly below 40 °C at each measurement point. The throttled CPU is noticeable here.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 35.7 °C / 96 F, compared to the average of 34.3 °C / 94 F, ranging from 21.2 to 62.5 °C for the class Office.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 34.1 °C / 93 F, compared to the average of 36.8 °C / 98 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 26.4 °C / 80 F, compared to the device average of 29.5 °C / 85 F.
(+) The palmrests and touchpad are reaching skin temperature as a maximum (35.5 °C / 95.9 F) and are therefore not hot.
(-) The average temperature of the palmrest area of similar devices was 27.6 °C / 81.7 F (-7.9 °C / -14.2 F).
Energy Management
| Off / Standby | 0 / 0.2 Watt |
| Idle | 4.5 / 7.8 / 8.4 Watt |
| Load |
21.4 / 24.8 Watt |
   
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Key:
min: ,
med: ,
max: Voltcraft VC 940 | |
Battery Life
Verdict
With the B50-45, Lenovo has a simple 15.6-inch notebook in its line-up, which performs well in office and Internet use as well as video playback. Its CPU and GPU performance are significantly higher than the already reviewed Lenovo B50-30's. Intel's Bay Trail is not a competitor to the AMD APU. In addition, we liked the low system noise and the low temperature increase of the B50-45. Thanks to the big maintenance hatch, the hard drive can be easily replaced. The matte display surprises with a very decent contrast. However, the springy keyboard is a point of critique. Other cheap notebooks come with significantly better keyboards. In addition, we did not like that the warranty period is only for 12 months. The poor battery life in the WLAN test has to be mentioned, too. Nowadays, we expect a result of above 4 hours. With a battery life of 6:31 h, the Extensa 2510 is exemplary in this aspect.
