Lenovo IdeaPad 510-15ISK Notebook Review

The casing seems to be made mainly of plastic. However, the base's matte silver upper side feels and looks like metal (aluminum?). The display's back and base are white, while the display bezel also shimmers in silver. All surfaces resist fingerprints well. Apart from the rather unusual color, plain elegance is on the schedule. The five rubber spacers on the display bezel's outer edge look a bit strange at first.

It doesn't take much effort to twist the base to some extent. However, it does not produce unhealthy noises. As so often, the optical drive installed into the right rear is also a reason for some instability. Nevertheless, the base still makes a fairly solid impression in total. Although the gaps and transitions are not always perfectly even, we did not find any significant manufacturing flaws. The relatively stiff but not pressure resistant lid can be opened easily with one hand. However, it rocks for quite some time after jerky movements. The lid continues to open when the device is picked up and shook lightly.

Among the 15-inchers in the test, the IdeaPad 510 is the lightest and slimmest model. Acer's laptop is roughly 200 grams heavier and Asus' device is 300 grams heavier, and both are marginally wider. The Asus is no longer just a trivial 7 millimeters taller, while the difference to the Acer is approximately 5.5 millimeters. The much more compact and thinner HP is quite a bit more mobile than its three opponents.

As is common for slim and light laptops, the interface configuration hardly goes beyond the minimum standard. We just did not expect the outdated VGA port that is occasionally needed for connecting antique projectors or monitors. A fold-out Gigabit Ethernet port is present for stationary use. 4K resolutions can only be rendered at 30 Hz externally for the lack of HDMI 2.0. Of the three USB ports, only the right rear USB port supports the old 2.0 standard.

While the manufacturer has managed to place all left-sided ports around the center, both right-sided USB ports (right-handed users) are far front, where inserted cables or flash drives could interfere with using an external mouse. The optical drive behind these ports likely made this less than ideal positioning necessary.

We test the card reader's transfer speed with our Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II reference card. The outcomes are sobering. We measured a very slow 16.7 MB/s in the JPG copy test. Copying a 1 GB file on the laptop is faster although the speed is on the lowest USB 2.0 level. Not many laptops from this price range that do an equally bad job likely exist today. The rivals in the test are much faster without achieving top performances.

Qualcomm's Atheros QCA9377 (MIMO 1x1) module is responsible for wireless connections. It offers a maximum gross data rate of 433 Mbit/s and exclusively supports the ac standard, i.e. the less busy and not as interference-prone 5 GHz band. At a distance of one meter and ideal conditions, the review sample achieved a transmission speed of 262 Mbit/s and a reception speed of 263 Mbit/s. It is thus approximately 35 Mbit/s above the average of all tested laptops in our database to date.

The only security feature that Lenovo's 510-15ISIK has to offer is a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0.

Besides the power supply and the just as compulsory user's manual and warranty conditions, the box does not contain any accessories. Lenovo apparently does not have any specific accessories for the IdeaPad 510 in its portfolio, either.

Lenovo ships the IdeaPad 510-15ISK with a 24-month warranty. Additional warranty packages can be purchased optionally in many online shops.

Processor

We will not go into detail about the much discussed and very widely distributed Intel Core i5-6200U Skylake CPU (2x 2.3-2.8 GHz, Hyper-Threading, TDP: 15 W) here and would refer to our page concerning the processor instead. The efficient CPU is also suitable for very compact laptops. It can cope with more demanding software as long as it is not too highly parallelized, i.e. the software requires four or more physical cores like is often the case in current games. The Turbo limit is 2.7 GHz when both cores are loaded, and this is also maintained stably.

In the single-core benchmark, the i5-6200U in the review sample lags behind the identical CPUs in the comparison devices and also calculates marginally slower than the 6200U average. This is different in the multi-core benchmark, where our Lenovo places itself among the faster laptops. The expected performance can be awaited in practice. The scores do not change in battery mode.

Despite its stronger graphics card, Acer's Aspire also with an i5-6200U and HDD is best suitable for a comparison of the PCMark 8 scores. As expected, Acer always has a slight lead. Our HP is weaker despite the same processor, GeForce 940MX, and SSD, and it cannot outperform the review sample.

Subjectively, the performance suffers under the lack of an SSD. It takes a moment before programs or system control is ready to use especially after rebooting the laptop. Thanks to 4 GB of DDR4 RAM in dual-channel mode, the delays are clearly relativized when programs are cached and do not have to be completely loaded when reopened. This is only conditionally true for memory-intensive games; here, sometimes considerably longer loading times have to be expected compared with laptops with an SSD as a rule.

In the ideal case, the Optimus technology automatically assigns 3D graphics calculations to Nvidia's GeForce 940MX (refreshed) mid-range graphics card. It has 2 GB of dedicated memory connected via a narrow 64-bit bus and a DDR3 RAM that clocks at 1800 MHz effectively. Versions with a faster GDDR5 memory are rarely used in other laptops, and then their core clock rates are reduced slightly. Like the virtually identical 940M predecessor, the card supports DirectX 12 feature level 11 and also operates with 385 shaders (GM108 chip). Consequently, the performance is only marginally higher than that of a 940M. When looking at the 3DMark scores, the 940MX in Lenovo's IdeaPad 510 falls roughly 10% behind the average of 940MX cards assessed to date.

The card often renders older, yet still attractive 3D games like BioShock Infinite or even Battlefield 4 with some restrictions smoothly. 1366x768 pixels and medium presets are usually at most possible in newer and/or particularly demanding games. Isometric games, such as FIFA 16, normally run smoothly also in high or maximum settings, especially since 40 FPS is not compulsory in this division.

Somewhat older and, at the same time, not very demanding 3D games like BioShock Infinite or Tomb Raider from 2013 can usually be played smoothly in resolutions up to 1366x768 pixels and high settings. Graphics-driven games, such as Crysis 3 from the same year, can only be rendered in medium presets like most newer and/or graphically more demanding 3D games. More is usually possible in isometric games like FIFA 16 and Diablo II, but not in the performance-driven Anno 2205 from 2015.

System Noise

The IdeaPad's fan is not absolutely silent even when the laptop is just standing around. A subdued noise can still be discerned from the usual ambient noise standing at a normal distance of half-a-meter from the review sample in a quiet, one-person office when the PC is running. Starting or using a program like GPU-Z is often enough for a slow, incremental speed increase. This will potentially sooner be a minor distracting factor than the still very restrained noise.

A homogeneous, non-problematic, and free of side noises sound at a low noise level is produced during high permanent load that we simulate with Prime95 and Furmark. It is hardly audible just a few meters away from the laptop. The IdeaPad would reap in a slightly better noise emission subscore than it already achieved if the fan was less sporadic.

Frequency diagram in comparison (check boxes above can be turned on/off!)

Power Consumption

When searching our database for 15-inch multimedia laptops based on the i5-6200U, we almost only find models with a GeForce 930M, 940M, 940MX, 945M or GTX 950M. Lenovo's 510-15ISK proves to be the most efficient laptop in standby, but it also consumes the most in the three other idle modes. Only Acer's Aspire F15 F5-573G-53V1 (GTX 950M) is thirstier. The mean load avg consumption is roughly average. The review sample consumes the least power out of all the above listed laptops with a dedicated graphics card, which could be due to GPU throttling. The 65-watt power supply copes with all situations and can recharge the laptop even during high load.

We did not hope for a long battery life in view of the tiny 30-Wh battery. Within the test field, we will disregard HP's smaller Pavilion at first. The comparison with Acer's Aspire F15 is easiest since it has approximately twice the capacity with 62 Wh and the same CPU but a much stronger graphics card. Proportionally, the review sample retrieves considerably more from its battery in idle seeing that Acer only manages a 51% longer runtime. Our Asus N552VX with a real octa-core and GTX 950M is depleted a bit sooner in both load scenarios despite its 44-Wh battery.

It was only enough for a middling 3.75 hours of mobility in the practical Wi-Fi test using medium brightness (our test criteria). The battery lives of all laptops in the test reflect the relations of their capacities relatively consistently taking their hardware into account. The disproportional lead of HP's laptop is owed to its smaller screen.