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MagyarLenovo IdeaPad 300S-11IBR Netbook Review
For the original German review, see here.
Neither tablets nor convertibles can finish Netbooks off. They still enjoy some popularity. This is not surprising, since they are mobile, long-lasting devices for typing and surfing in the best case and do not cost very much. Our review will reveal whether this is true for the IdeaPad. Models like the Acer Aspire One Cloudbook 11 and the Asus EeeBook X205TA belong to its competitors. Moreover, the IdeaPad also rival Chromebooks like the Dell Chromebook 11-3120.
Case & Connectivity
Lenovo uses a plastic case for the IdeaPad. While lid and underside are white, the other parts are from black plastic. Apart from the bezel, all parts feature smooth surfaces. A hard rubber ring surrounds three sides of the base unit. The case can be slightly depressed beside the keyboard and in front of the touchpad. The base unit is quite rigid. The device teeters while typing (both hands on the palm rests).
The small computer lacks a maintenance hatch. Nevertheless, it is quite easy to get to the innards. The underside can be detached without problems. After removing all screws, it can be taken off with a thumbnail.
Although the available space is small, the computer delivers all ports usual today. One of its three USB ports supports the USB 3.0 standard. The interfaces sit on both sides towards the rear. Thus, the areas beside the palm rests remain free of cables.
The card reader works surprisingly fast. It achieves a maximum transfer rate of 84.3 MB/s when copying big data blocks. Moving 250 JPG files (5 MB each) is done at 30.5 MB/s. We always check card readers with our reference card (Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II).
Input Devices
Lenovo's Netbook comes with an unlit Chiclet keyboard. The flat, very slightly roughened keys feature a short travel and a clear pressure point. The keyboard does not really give in while typing. All things considered, Lenovo delivers a decent keyboard. However, keyboards in the discontinued ThinkPad Edge E145 series and predecessors prove that the manufacturer can even do much better. The multi-touch capable ClickPad is about 9 x 6 cm (~3.5 x 2.4 in). Thus, there is a good deal of space for gesture control. Its smooth surface does not make gliding difficult for the fingers. The touchpad features a short travel and a clear pressure point.
Display
The IdeaPad comes with a matte 11.6-inch display with a native resolution of 1366x768 pixels. Its contrast (483:1) is acceptable, but its brightness (219.4 cd/m²) is too low. Positive: The display never shows PWM flickering.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 77 %
Center on Battery: 188 cd/m²
Contrast: 483:1 (Black: 0.46 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 10.11 | 0.55-29.43 Ø5.1
ΔE Greyscale 11.37 | 0.57-98 Ø5.4
60% sRGB (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
28% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
41.28% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
60% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
39.96% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
Gamma: 2.13
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
| Screen flickering / PWM not detected | ||
In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 18961 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured. | ||
The display shows a DeltaE 2000 shift of 10.11 out-of-the-box, which is normal in the low price segment. The target value would be smaller than 3. In addition, the display is bluish.
Display Response Times
| ↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
|---|---|---|
| 22 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 5 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 17 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. » 39 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is similar to the average of all tested devices (22.1 ms). | ||
| ↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
| 46 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 21 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 25 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. » 74 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (34.9 ms). | ||
Lenovo has equipped the IdeaPad with a viewing-angle-unstable TN panel. Thus, it is not possible to read from the screen from every position. The device can be used outdoors, however, only on a cloudy day or in the shade. The display brightness, which is already low in mains operation, falls even more on battery.
Performance
The IdeaPad 300S-11IBR belongs to the Netbooks in 11.6-inch format. It is suitable for simple office and Internet applications. Our test model cost just under 330 Euros (~$368). We could not detect other configurations at the time of testing.
Processor
The IdeaPad sports a Celeron N3050 (Braswell) dual-core processor clocked at up to 2.16 GHz. It is one of the weakest CPUs that Intel currently has in its line-up. The Celeron is quite frugal (TDP: 6 watts) and the IdeaPad takes advantage of the option and is cooled passively. The processor cannot completely use its full potential in our CPU tests. The test results are consistently lower than other computers' with the Celeron N3050. Thus, the CPU does not work at full speed. We cannot tell the actual clock rates, since our measurements do not correspond to the results in the CPU tests.
| JetStream 1.1 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 300S-11IBR | |
| Acer Aspire One Cloudbook 11 AO1-131-C58K | |
| Acer Aspire One Cloudbook 11 AO1-131-C58K | |
* ... smaller is better
System Performance
The system works smoothly most of the times and we did not face problems. There are some delays when opening content-rich websites, since the CPU simply lags behind. In addition, the computer quickly reaches its limits due to its low RAM capacity (2 GB). The PCMark benchmark results correspond to the performance of the SoC used and are on par with comparable devices. It is possible to improve the system performance of the IdeaPad. Replacing the HDD with an SSD would seem the thing to do. It would increase the system's responsiveness and decrease loading times.
| PCMark 8 Home Score Accelerated v2 | 1511 points | |
| PCMark 8 Creative Score Accelerated v2 | 1548 points | |
| PCMark 8 Work Score Accelerated v2 | 1205 points | |
Help | ||
Storage Device
Lenovo has equipped the IdeaPad with a 2.5-inch hard drive from Seagate. It works at 5400 RPM and provides a capacity of 500 GB. Its transfer rates are not surprising and normal for 5400-RPM models.
Graphics Card
Graphics is done by Intel's HD Graphics (Braswell) GPU. It supports DirectX 12 and works at up to 600 MHz. The IdeaPad also falls a bit behind the results of comparable computers in the 3DMark benchmarks. Thanks to a new architecture, it performs significantly better than its Bay Trail predecessor. An integrated decoder allows playing all usual video formats - including the H.265 (successor of H.264). It significantly decreases the CPU load. When playing our test video (4k, H.265, 60 fps), the CPU load remained below 10 percent. The media player has to support hardware-accelerated playback. The "Movies & TV" app from Windows does so.
| 3DMark 11 Performance | 414 points | |
| 3DMark Ice Storm Standard Score | 16825 points | |
| 3DMark Cloud Gate Standard Score | 1418 points | |
| 3DMark Fire Strike Score | 214 points | |
Help | ||
Gaming Performance
Most modern 3D games do not achieve playable frame rates on the IdeaPad. Only a few titles with very low hardware requirements are able to. If you want to play games, you should stick to casual games from the Windows store.
| low | med. | high | ultra | |
| Trackmania Nations Forever (2008) | 97.6 | 21.4 |
Emissions & Energy
System Noise
The IdeaPad is passively cooled. Thus, there is no fan to produce noise. Only the noise of the hard drive is audible. A silent system is possible if the HDD is replaced with an SSD.
Noise Level
| Idle |
| 32 / 32 / 32 dB(A) |
| HDD |
| 32 dB(A) |
| Load |
| 32 / 32 dB(A) |
 | ||
30 dB silent 40 dB(A) audible 50 dB(A) loud |
||
min:  , med:  , max:  Audix TM1 Arta (15 cm distance) | ||
Temperature
The measurement of the clock rates did not work either during the stress test (Prime95 and FurMark run for at least one hour). According to the used tools, CPU and GPU work at their full speed (see screenshot). However, due to passive cooling, this is unlikely in our opinion. In addition, the energy demand would have to be higher if this was the case. Anyway, the IdeaPad does not get especially warm. We recorded temperatures below 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in all measurement segments.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 37.5 °C / 100 F, compared to the average of 33.1 °C / 92 F, ranging from 21.6 to 53.2 °C for the class Netbook.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 38.2 °C / 101 F, compared to the average of 36.6 °C / 98 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 29.2 °C / 85 F, compared to the device average of 29.8 °C / 86 F.
(+) The palmrests and touchpad are reaching skin temperature as a maximum (33.1 °C / 91.6 F) and are therefore not hot.
(-) The average temperature of the palmrest area of similar devices was 29.3 °C / 84.7 F (-3.8 °C / -6.9 F).
Speakers
The stereo speakers sit at the front edge of the underside. They produce an acceptable though tinny sound that will not knock anybody's socks off. The sound can be tuned by means of the pre-installed Dolby Digital Plus Software.
Power Consumption
While idle, the IdeaPad has a very high energy demand of up to 10.5 watts according to our measurements. The Acer One Cloudbook 11, with the same CPU, settles for 5.8 watts. The energy demand does not increase much under load. It is 14 watts during the stress test. We measured a similar value (14.6 watts) under medium load and attribute this to CPU and GPU throttling. The power adapter is rated at 45 watts.
| Off / Standby | 0.44 / 0.5 Watt |
| Idle | 8 / 10.1 / 10.5 Watt |
| Load |
14.6 / 14 Watt |
   
| |
Battery Life
In our realistic Wi-Fi test, we simulate the load during web surfing. The "balanced" profile is active and the display brightness is set to about 150 cd/m². The IdeaPad achieves a battery life of 5:15 h - which is not impressive for a 11.6-inch notebook. The competitors from Acer - the Cloudbook 11 and the Aspire ES1-131 - last two and four hours longer, respectively.
Note: The battery of our test model had a wear level of 7 percent. This means that 7 percent of the original battery capacity is no longer available. The computer would last a few minutes longer with a fresh battery.
Pros
Cons
Verdict
Lenovo's small computer delivers sufficient performance for simple office and Internet applications. The decoder integrated in the graphics core allows playback of several video formats. The computer works silently and hardly gets warm. The matte display delivers an acceptable contrast, but its brightness is too low. Thanks to a 500 GB hard drive, you will not run out of storage space very quickly. It would be easy to replace the HDD with an SSD - even though there is no maintenance hatch. The underside can be removed without problems. Unfortunately, Lenovo only includes a 1-year warranty.
The battery life performance is slightly weak. While 5:15 h in our WLAN test sounds good at first, competitors like the Acer Cloudbook 11 last two hours longer; several Chromebooks achieve as much as four hours longer battery life.
Those looking for a long-lasting alternative should consider the Aspire ES1-131. The model reviewed by us is currently priced at 230 Euros (~$257) - including Windows 10. However, we recommend buying a variant with a bigger hard drive. Such models allow replacing the HDD with an SSD, while this is not possible in our test model, since it only comes with eMMC memory and does not have a hard drive slot. The Acer Aspire One Cloudbook 11 is another alternative. It achieves a lower battery life than the ES1-131; but it includes a 1-year license of Office 365.
Lenovo IdeaPad 300S-11IBR
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02/09/2016 v4.1(old)
Sascha Mölck
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