Lenovo IdeaPad 100-15IBD Notebook Review

The entire casing is made of matte, black plastic. The base unit's upper side is roughened and the lid's back is textured. The build is in need of improvement: The gaps are not always even, and the lid does not close flush with the base unit. The stability is not at its best, either. The base unit is very easy to twist, and thus the laptop should have a stationary place and not be carried around constantly.

The IdeaPad does not have a variety of interfaces. Two USB ports are installed in the laptop. One port operates in the USB 3.0 standard. Unfortunately, Lenovo has installed only a Fast Ethernet port in this device. Gigabit Ethernet is the standard even in the low-cost sector.

Apparently, no one at Lenovo has put any thought into the positioning of the interfaces. The power socket is situated between the vent and the interfaces. The power supply has an angled connector so that the power cable runs either in front of the vent or the interfaces. Only placing the laptop at the edge of a table can help here. Furthermore, the power button is also on the left. It is difficult to reach, and it does not provide much feedback.

Lenovo laptops often feature the so-called One Key Recovery button. Pressing it starts the laptop and displays a menu for opening the BIOS, boot menu or recovery system. The IdeaPad also features this button. However, it is difficult to find, located on the laptop's left between the power socket and the vent. It cannot be pressed with a finger. A thin wire (paperclip) has to be inserted in the opening to trigger the button.

The IdeaPad comes without a Windows operating system. Installing Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 is not a problem. We could set up all three operating systems; the necessary drivers can be found on Lenovo's website. Note: An unidentified device is found in the Device Manager after installing all drivers. The corresponding driver is part of "Lenovo Utility", which can also be found in the driver section on the website.

Lenovo offers basic, 15.6-inch office laptops within the IdeaPad 100-15IBD lineup. Configurations with GeForce 920M graphics cores exist. These models have limited gaming ability. Our review sample is sold for approximately 350 Euros (~$390). Buyers who are satisfied with a 500 GB hard drive will only have to pony up 300 Euros (~$335).

A Core i3-5005U (Broadwell) dual-core processor clocks inside the IdeaPad. The CPU operates at a speed of 2 GHz. It does not feature a Turbo. However, this processor supports Hyperthreading (two threads per core can be executed). The CPU can unfold its full performance in both AC and battery mode. It clearly defeats its nominal Haswell predecessor, Core i5-4005U in the benchmark tests we performed. This is due to the higher speeds (1.7 vs. 2 GHz) and the improved Broadwell architecture. AMD cannot really compete with the processor; the processors from the A6 and A8 APU lineups all have a weaker performance.

The system runs smoothly; we did not experience any difficulties. The PCMark benchmark scores are good to very good. A look at our comparison chart confirms that the IdeaPad has a clear edge on comparable opponents. The installed Core i3 processor is much stronger than most AMD APUs and Intel Braswell/Bay Trail CPUs. The total performance of Lenovo's laptop can be increased by replacing the HDD with an SSD. The system then runs faster. It is not possible to increase the graphics performance by enabling dual-channel mode since the IdeaPad has only one working memory bank.

A conventional 2.5-inch hard drive by Seagate serves as the system drive. It spins at 5400 revolutions per minute, and has a capacity of 1 TB. The drive's transfer rates are on par for 5400 RPM models.

The graphics core in the IdeaPad Intel HD Graphics 5500. The GPU supports DirectX 11.2, and clocks at speeds of up to 850 MHz. The 3DMark benchmark scores are on par for this GPU. The core features a decoder that unloads the processor when rendering standard video formats. The CPU's capacity remained below 10% while playing our test video (H.264, 4 K, 60 FPS).

The IdeaPad manages to render some games smoothly. However, the user will have to be happy with low resolutions and low quality settings. Only games with a moderate hardware requirement achieve playable frame rates. Examples are "Dirt Rally" and "Sims 4". Games like "Batman: Arkham Knight" will never be playable.

System Noise

The IdeaPad does not make much noise. The fan runs at a low speed while idling. The hard drive's noise and the accessing noises are primarily heard. Installing an SSD would ensure even more silence. The fan does not speed up excessively in our stress test where the noise level reaches 35.5 dB(A). The throttling of CPU/GPU becomes evident here.

It does not look very good in terms of audio playback. The IdeaPad has only one speaker that is situated behind a perforated cover above the keyboard. Its sound is one of the worst that we have ever had to listen to. It produces a very thin, tinny sound that is on the level of speakers we are familiar with from cheap tablets. Furthermore, the speaker is very quiet, even at full volume.

We measured a maximum idle power consumption of 12.6 watts. This rate is too high for a 15.6-inch ULV laptop. We expect rates below 10 watts here. The power consumption climbs to 29 watts in the stress test, which is the same as that we measured during medium load. The reduced CPU and GPU speeds during the stress test are noticed here. The power supply has a nominal output of 45 watts.

Our real world Wi-Fi test simulates the load needed for opening websites. The "Balanced" profile is enabled, and the screen's brightness is set to approximately 150 cd/m². The IdeaPad achieves a runtime of 4:15 hours. This rate is not extraordinary, but it is acceptable in view of the price range.