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MagyarLenovo IdeaPad 1 14IGL05 Laptop Review: Too cheap to be perfect
There are many competitors in the low-end space besides the no-name PC manufacturers. Well-known companies such as Lenovo also dabble in this space, which is evidenced by the existence of the IdeaPad 1 14IGL05. What this cryptic name tells us is that this is a 14-inch laptop from Lenovo’s cheapest consumer product series (IdeaPad 1), which features a Gemini Lake-based CPU from Intel.
The price of the IdeaPad 1 is very low. Our review device can be purchased for about 300 Euros (~$353). However, for this money, you will only get 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of eMMC internal memory. Moreover, the 14-inch notebook comes with an HD TN panel.
The competing devices include: the Acer Aspire 1 A114, the HP Chromebook 14 G5 and the Chuwi Herobook 14.
Rating | Date | Model | Weight | Height | Size | Resolution | Best Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 74.6 % | 08/2020 | Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 Pentium N5030, UHD Graphics 605 | 1.4 kg | 17.8 mm | 14.00" | 1366x768 | |
| 71.7 % | 04/2019 | Chuwi HeroBook 14 E8000, HD Graphics 400 (Braswell) | 1.5 kg | 21.3 mm | 14.00" | 1920x1080 | |
| 81.5 % | 06/2019 | HP Chromebook 14 G5 Celeron N3350, HD Graphics 500 | 1.5 kg | 18.3 mm | 14.00" | 1920x1080 | |
| 72.5 % | 06/2019 | Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 Pentium N5000, UHD Graphics 605 | 1.7 kg | 17.95 mm | 14.00" | 1920x1080 |
Case & Connectivity - The Lenovo IdeaPad 1 is clad in plastic
The case of the low-priced IdeaPad 1 is made entirely of plastic. Our review device comes in the Silver Grey colour scheme with black bezels. The housing is about as good as the price would suggest: The wrist rest area is relatively rigid while the chassis and the display lid can be bent or twisted with little effort. While the plastic in the wrist rest area and on the display lid feels smooth to the touch, the plastic on the underside and around the bezels feels rough. This makes the device feel very cheap. However, we cannot complain about the build quality, because there are no obvious defects. The hinge is not well-constructed, though. This is why the display lid cannot be opened with one hand. When it is open, it wobbles. Unlike with many other Lenovo laptops, the screen lid offers only a 140-degree opening angle.
The Lenovo laptop is relatively light, weighing in at only 1.4 kg. Other competing devices are somewhat heavier. Moreover, the IdeaPad is also a little more compact. The 14-inch Lenovo notebook cannot be upgraded. Both RAM and internal memory are soldered-in. However, users can replace the battery, should the need to do so arise.
The selection of ports is appropriate for such a device. Nevertheless, we still miss a USB-C port. USB Type-C ports should become a standard feature of low-priced laptops as well. The SD card reader of the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 14IGL05 is very slow.
Connectivity
| SD Card Reader | |
| average JPG Copy Test (av. of 3 runs) | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 (Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| Average of class Office (8 - 196.8, n=65, last 2 years) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 (Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 (Toshiba Exceria Pro M501 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| maximum AS SSD Seq Read Test (1GB) | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 (Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| Average of class Office (23.6 - 183.3, n=63, last 2 years) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 (Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 (Toshiba Exceria Pro M501 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| Networking | |
| iperf3 transmit AX12 | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| Average Intel Wireless AC 9462 (95 - 365, n=13) | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
| iperf3 receive AX12 | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| Average Intel Wireless AC 9462 (119 - 360, n=13) | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
Input Devices: IdeaPad 1 with a surprisingly good keyboard
The Lenovo IdeaPad 1 has a surprisingly good keyboard for a cheap device. It exhibits very little deck flex, offers a longer travel distance than some high-end laptops and it has a very clear actuation point. The keyboard is suited for long typing sessions. The layout is quite normal, and most keys are well-sized (the up and down arrow keys are the only exception). However, there is something to complain about, namely the lack of a keyboard backlight. This is par for the course in this price segment, though.
The ClickPad is not particularly well-built, but it offers a large, smooth surface made of plastic. Together with Microsoft’s Precision Touchpad Drivers, it functions very well, even though mechanical components are quite subpar.
Lenovo laptop with an HD TN display: It does not get any worse than this
When it comes to the display, the low price of the 14-inch laptop makes itself obvious in a major way: The IdeaPad 1 comes with an HD (1366x768) screen. Moreover, it is based on outdated TN technology. The IdeaPad 1 also comes with a Full HD (1920x1080) display. It uses outdated TN technology as well.
The display of our review device has an average brightness of 239 cd/m², which is higher than the brightness claimed in the specifications sheet provided by Lenovo (220 cd/m²). However, in this day and age, this display can only be described as very dim.
The display exhibits PWM flickering at 60% brightness or lower with a comparatively high frequency of 1000 Hz.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 85 %
Center on Battery: 262 cd/m²
Contrast: 1456:1 (Black: 0.18 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 10.8 | 0.55-29.43 Ø5.1, calibrated: 4.18
ΔE Greyscale 12.09 | 0.57-98 Ø5.4
63% sRGB (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
40% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
43.5% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
62.9% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
42.07% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
Gamma: 2.12
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 N140BGA-EA4, TN LED, 1366x768, 14.00 | Chuwi HeroBook 14 InfoVision IVO057D, IPS, 1920x1080, 14.00 | HP Chromebook 14 G5 IPS, 1920x1080, 14.00 | Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 Chi Mei N140HGE-EAA, TN LED, 1920x1080, 14.00 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | -9% | -4% | ||
| Display P3 Coverage | 42.07 | 38.43 -9% | 40.35 -4% | |
| sRGB Coverage | 62.9 | 57.8 -8% | 60.3 -4% | |
| AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 43.5 | 39.72 -9% | 41.71 -4% | |
| Response Times | -51% | -46% | -18% | |
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 50 ? | 35.6 ? 29% | 44 ? 12% | 43 ? 14% |
| Response Time Black / White * | 14 ? | 32.8 ? -134% | 35 ? -150% | 13 ? 7% |
| PWM Frequency | 1000 ? | 521 ? -48% | 1000 ? 0% | 250 ? -75% |
| Screen | 6% | 17% | -21% | |
| Brightness middle | 262 | 213.6 -18% | 253 -3% | 208 -21% |
| Brightness | 239 | 197 -18% | 232 -3% | 192 -20% |
| Brightness Distribution | 85 | 82 -4% | 87 2% | 85 0% |
| Black Level * | 0.18 | 0.18 -0% | 0.15 17% | 0.41 -128% |
| Contrast | 1456 | 1187 -18% | 1687 16% | 507 -65% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 10.8 | 5.78 46% | 10.1 6% | |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 29.65 | 19.89 33% | 28.85 3% | |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated * | 4.18 | 4.2 -0% | 4.38 -5% | |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 12.09 | 4.6 62% | 3.04 75% | 10.96 9% |
| Gamma | 2.12 104% | 2 110% | 2.21 100% | 2.24 98% |
| CCT | 13276 49% | 7481 87% | 7015 93% | 11669 56% |
| Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 40 | 36.5 -9% | 38 -5% | |
| Color Space (Percent of sRGB) | 63 | 57.5 -9% | 59 -6% | |
| Total Average (Program / Settings) | -18% /
-7% | -15% /
-4% | -14% /
-18% |
* ... smaller is better
Display Response Times
| ↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
|---|---|---|
| 14 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 10 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 4 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows good response rates in our tests, but may be too slow for competitive gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 26 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (22.3 ms). | ||
| ↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
| 50 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 28 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 22 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.25 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 83 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (35.1 ms). | ||
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
| Screen flickering / PWM detected | 1000 Hz | ≤ 60 % brightness setting |  |
The display backlight flickers at 1000 Hz (Likely utilizing PWM) Flickering detected at a brightness setting of 60 % and below. There should be no flickering or PWM above this brightness setting. The frequency of 1000 Hz is quite high, so most users sensitive to PWM should not notice any flickering. In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 19035 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured. | |||
TN panels usually offer very poor image quality. The contrast ratio is low, the blacks appear greyish, and there is a noticeable bluish cast. The screen is not fit for image-editing by any means. Not least because it can only cover 63% of the sRGB colour space, which is a very poor result. Moreover, colours become distorted if you move your head. Like all TN displays, the panel in the IdeaPad 1 offers very poor viewing angles.
Performance - The Lenovo laptop is slow in all respects
There are three CPU options: two Celeron processors and one Pentium Silver processor. All chips are based on the Gemini Lake architecture. All models come with soldered-in Gigabyte DDR4 2400 MHz RAM. There are two storage options: Either 64 GB of nonexpandable eMMC memory or an M.2-2242 PCIe NVMe SSD.
Processor
The Intel Pentium Silver N5030 is a Gemini Lake Refresh based quad-core chip, which offers clock speeds of 1.1 to 3.1 GHz. You can find out how the Pentium Silver N5030 stacks up against other processors on our CPU Benchmarks page.
The CPU is extremely slow by today’s standards. Because the processor in the IdeaPad 1 is passively cooled, it throttles down under continuous load. The Pentium Silver N5030 is the fastest CPU option for the IdeaPad 1, which means that it represents the maximum level of performance our review device can achieve.
The laptop does not throttle down when running on battery power.
Cinebench R20: CPU (Multi Core) | CPU (Single Core)
Blender: v2.79 BMW27 CPU
7-Zip 18.03: 7z b 4 -mmt1 | 7z b 4
Geekbench 5.4: Single-Core | Multi-Core
LibreOffice : 20 Documents To PDF
R Benchmark 2.5: Overall mean
| Cinebench R15 / CPU Multi 64Bit | |
| Average of class Office (160.8 - 2492, n=130, last 2 years) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030 (203 - 249, n=2) | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
| Cinebench R15 / CPU Single 64Bit | |
| Average of class Office (80.1 - 284, n=126, last 2 years) | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030 (75.8 - 86, n=2) | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
| Cinebench R20 / CPU (Multi Core) | |
| Average of class Office (323 - 5079, n=131, last 2 years) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030 (360 - 491, n=2) | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| Cinebench R20 / CPU (Single Core) | |
| Average of class Office (114 - 764, n=131, last 2 years) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030 (171 - 194, n=2) | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| Blender / v2.79 BMW27 CPU | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030 (3319 - 3580, n=2) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Average of class Office (246 - 3895, n=133, last 2 years) | |
| 7-Zip 18.03 / 7z b 4 -mmt1 | |
| Average of class Office (2059 - 6687, n=132, last 2 years) | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030 (2555 - 2735, n=2) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
| 7-Zip 18.03 / 7z b 4 | |
| Average of class Office (4226 - 55049, n=131, last 2 years) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030 (6598 - 7878, n=2) | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
| Geekbench 5.4 / Single-Core | |
| Average of class Office (531 - 1974, n=125, last 2 years) | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030 (431 - 532, n=3) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Geekbench 5.4 / Multi-Core | |
| Average of class Office (1150 - 11744, n=125, last 2 years) | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030 (1039 - 1529, n=3) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| LibreOffice / 20 Documents To PDF | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030 (130 - 137, n=2) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Average of class Office (23.6 - 210, n=131, last 2 years) | |
| R Benchmark 2.5 / Overall mean | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030 (1.402 - 1.473, n=2) | |
| Average of class Office (0.4244 - 2.07, n=132, last 2 years) | |
* ... smaller is better
System Performance
The poor results in the PCMark benchmarks should not be surprising to anyone, given the kind of hardware we are dealing with here. Users will have to be patient when working on the 14-inch device.
| PCMark 10 | |
| Score | |
| Average of class Office (2325 - 6418, n=107, last 2 years) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030, Intel UHD Graphics 605 (1838 - 1900, n=2) | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
| Essentials | |
| Average of class Office (5095 - 11807, n=107, last 2 years) | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030, Intel UHD Graphics 605 (4469 - 4614, n=2) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
| Productivity | |
| Average of class Office (3053 - 9512, n=107, last 2 years) | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030, Intel UHD Graphics 605 (2994 - 3036, n=2) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
| Digital Content Creation | |
| Average of class Office (1912 - 7799, n=107, last 2 years) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030, Intel UHD Graphics 605 (1204 - 1391, n=2) | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
| PCMark 8 - Home Score Accelerated v2 | |
| Average of class Office (1275 - 5686, n=15, last 2 years) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Average Intel Pentium Silver N5030, Intel UHD Graphics 605 | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
| PCMark 8 Home Score Accelerated v2 | 2142 points | |
| PCMark 10 Score | 1900 points | |
Help | ||
DPC Latencies
| DPC Latencies / LatencyMon - interrupt to process latency (max), Web, Youtube, Prime95 | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
* ... smaller is better
Storage Devices
The soldered-in eMMC memory represents the third chokepoint for the 14-inch laptop, the first two being the RAM and the CPU. It is significantly slower than all SSDs. Moreover, there is only 64 GB of internal storage, which is barely enough to store any data or applications.
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 SanDisk DA4064 | Chuwi HeroBook 14 SanDisk DF4064 | Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 64 GB eMMC Flash | Average SanDisk DA4064 | Average of class Office | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CrystalDiskMark 5.2 / 6 | -52% | -31% | -6% | 773% | |
| Write 4K | 37.8 | 15.35 -59% | 24.08 -36% | 38.1 ? 1% | 158.8 ? 320% |
| Read 4K | 23.2 | 10.86 -53% | 11.48 -51% | 18.1 ? -22% | 57 ? 146% |
| Write Seq | 228.8 | 92.1 -60% | 149.7 -35% | 222 ? -3% | 1928 ? 743% |
| Read Seq | 303 | 146.2 -52% | 271.2 -10% | 277 ? -9% | 2156 ? 612% |
| Write 4K Q32T1 | 45.56 | 15.19 -67% | 23.87 -48% | 45.7 ? 0% | 414 ? 809% |
| Read 4K Q32T1 | 58.2 | 33.62 -42% | 30.76 -47% | 56 ? -4% | 489 ? 740% |
| Write Seq Q32T1 | 162.7 | 87.9 -46% | 137.2 -16% | 153.7 ? -6% | 2284 ? 1304% |
| Read Seq Q32T1 | 212.8 | 142.8 -33% | 205.1 -4% | 204 ? -4% | 3426 ? 1510% |
Continuous read: DiskSpd Read Loop, Queue Depth 8
Graphics Card
The Intel UHD Graphics 605 is a very slow eGPU. It can play back Full HD video, but it is not capable of more.
| 3DMark 11 - 1280x720 Performance GPU | |
| Average of class Office (599 - 11538, n=122, last 2 years) | |
| Average Intel UHD Graphics 605 (588 - 902, n=13) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
| 3DMark | |
| 1920x1080 Fire Strike Graphics | |
| Average of class Office (712 - 8114, n=121, last 2 years) | |
| Average Intel UHD Graphics 605 (411 - 576, n=10) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| 1280x720 Cloud Gate Standard Graphics | |
| Average of class Office (5681 - 46247, n=112, last 2 years) | |
| Average Intel UHD Graphics 605 (2874 - 4485, n=10) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
| 3DMark 11 Performance | 684 points | |
| 3DMark Cloud Gate Standard Score | 2961 points | |
| 3DMark Fire Strike Score | 415 points | |
Help | ||
| low | med. | high | ultra | |
| BioShock Infinite (2013) | 26.4 | |||
| Dota 2 Reborn (2015) | 36.5 | 15.1 | 7.4 | 6.7 |
| X-Plane 11.11 (2018) | 7.15 | 5.94 | 5.27 |
Emissions & Energy
System Noise
The Lenovo IdeaPad 1 is always silent because it lacks an active cooling system. There is no coil whine.
Noise Level
| Idle |
| / / dB(A) |
| Load |
| / dB(A) |
 | ||
30 dB silent 40 dB(A) audible 50 dB(A) loud |
||
min:  , med:  , max:  Audix TM1, Arta (15 cm distance) environment noise: 30.3 dB(A) | ||
Temperature
The surface temperatures of the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 14IGL05 reach up to 45.5 °C (113.9 °F), which is well within reason. In the stress test with Prime95 and FurMark, the CPU clocks drop to 400 MHz after a while, because the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 cannot dissipate the heat generated by the processor. Continuous workloads should be avoided in day-to-day use, due to the issues with throttling.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 38.4 °C / 101 F, compared to the average of 34.2 °C / 94 F, ranging from 21.2 to 62.5 °C for the class Office.
(-) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 45.5 °C / 114 F, compared to the average of 36.7 °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 cooler than skin temperature with a maximum of 26.8 °C / 80.2 F and are therefore cool to the touch.
(±) The average temperature of the palmrest area of similar devices was 27.8 °C / 82 F (+1 °C / 1.8 F).
Speakers
The speakers offer an average sound quality for laptops, which means that they are too quiet and produce little to no bass. Buyers should use headphones, which can be connected via the audio jack, for a better listening experience.
Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 audio analysis
(-) | not very loud speakers (70.1 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 21.6% lower than median
(±) | linearity of bass is average (11.5% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(±) | higher mids - on average 5.5% higher than median
(±) | linearity of mids is average (10.6% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(+) | balanced highs - only 0.9% away from median
(+) | highs are linear (5.4% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (21.7% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 61% of all tested devices in this class were better, 10% similar, 30% worse
» The best had a delta of 6%, average was 20%, worst was 51%
Compared to all devices tested
» 63% of all tested devices were better, 7% similar, 30% worse
» The best had a delta of 3%, average was 20%, worst was 65%
Apple MacBook 12 (Early 2016) 1.1 GHz audio analysis
(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (83.6 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(±) | reduced bass - on average 11.3% lower than median
(±) | linearity of bass is average (14.2% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(+) | balanced mids - only 2.4% away from median
(+) | mids are linear (5.5% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(+) | balanced highs - only 2% away from median
(+) | highs are linear (4.5% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(+) | overall sound is linear (9.3% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 4% of all tested devices in this class were better, 1% similar, 95% worse
» The best had a delta of 5%, average was 18%, worst was 50%
Compared to all devices tested
» 3% of all tested devices were better, 1% similar, 96% worse
» The best had a delta of 3%, average was 20%, worst was 65%
Energy Consumption
The Lenovo IdeaPad 1’s low power draw can be explained by the fact that it features anaemic components. The maximum power consumption amounts to 13.2 watts; some laptops draw more power than that when idle.
| Off / Standby | 0.25 / 0.3 Watt |
| Idle | 2 / 4.3 / 4.9 Watt |
| Load |
12 / 13.2 Watt |
   
| |
Battery Life
Despite a very low battery capacity of 32 watt-hours, the IdeaPad 1 achieves a very respectable battery runtime. Nine hours is enough to last an entire day at school.
| Battery Runtime - WiFi Websurfing | |
| HP Chromebook 14 G5 | |
| Average of class Office (271 - 1715, n=108, last 2 years) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05 | |
| Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-P0K1 | |
| Chuwi HeroBook 14 | |
Pros
Cons
Verdict
If you search for the lowest-end device in Lenovo’s laptop line-up, you will find the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 14IGL05. It uses the slowest and cheapest components currently available on the market: An extremely slow Gemini Lake processor, only 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of painfully slow eMMC memory and an awful HD TN display that takes all the fun out of using the device.
However, the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 14IGL05 is not an utter failure, thanks to its usable input devices. Its keyboard is rather good. Moreover, because there is no fan, the device is completely silent during operation. The battery life is also quite good, despite a low battery capacity.
It does not get any cheaper than this. The Lenovo IdeaPad 1 14IGL05 offers a very poor level of performance, because of its very low price tag.
However, the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 is simply too slow to recommend as a secondary device for kids or as a school laptop. It is not completely unusable. However, you will have to invest more money than this if you want to get a new device that is pleasurable to use. Otherwise, you are going to be much better off getting a used laptop.
Lenovo IdeaPad 1-14IGL05
-
08/07/2020 v7
Benjamin Herzig
Pricecompare
