Lenovo IdeaPad Z50-75 Notebook (A10-7300) Review Update

No matter which screen the buyer gets, it is always a simple TN screen, and not a higher-quality, more expensive IPS model. A clear bluish cast is visible in state of delivery, but it can be corrected via an adapted color profile. Generally, the color reproduction (DeltaE 8.3) and grayscale (DeltaE 9.0) have room for improvement. However, the buyer has to accept such restrictions in this price range even in the competition.

Like with every TN screen, the user will have to sit as centered as possible in front of the screen for the ideal image quality. The slightest vertical shift leads to a loss in the contrast ratio and drastic color deviations. The elbowroom is a bit more generous to the sides, but viewing angles of over approximately 40 degrees should also be avoided here when possible.

The A10-7300 is the currently second-fastest low-voltage APU for consumer laptops following the FX-7500. Despite its four CPU cores with a clock rate of 1.9 to 3.2 GHz, the Kaveri chip built in the 28-nanometer technology has a maximum power dissipation of 19 watts (TDP). Thus, the processor is slightly above contending Intel models, such as the Core i3-4010U (TDP: 15 watts) nominally, but at the same time it also incorporates a somewhat stronger integrated graphics unit.

The one here is simply called Radeon R6 and features 384 Shader units that clock with up to 533 MHz. In the case of Lenovo's Z50-75, a dedicated Radeon R5 M230 has been installed additionally, which adds another 320 Shaders with a frequency of 855 MHz. Both graphics cards calculate one image alternately in the AFR process to achieve a higher 3D performance. The manufacturer dubs the entire Crossfire array Radeon R6 M255DX.

Unfortunately, the narrow, single-channel bus of the memory slows down the (graphics) performance of many laptops - a nuisance that AMD wants to counter with stricter specifications for the manufacturers in future. Our review sample sets an example and uses both memory channels with 2 x 4 GB DDR3 1600. Nonvolatile data is stored on a hybrid hard drive with a generous capacity of 1000 GB.

The large Turbo headroom often makes it difficult to forecast the exact performance of current CPUs. Is the maximum clock really achieved? If so, in which applications and for how long?

First we can ascertain that this review sample reaches the full 3.2 GHz in practice. However, this is limited to very short load peaks and simple single-thread benchmarks like SuperPi. In return, the A10-7300 starts the single-core test of Cinebench R11.5 with 2.9 GHz just to settle to 2.4 GHz after a few seconds. We have observed a similar behavior in other Kaveri laptops; the score of 0.68 points also matches previously ascertained values.

The clock rate drops even further in multi-threading. The initial 2.1 GHz gradually drops to 1.8 GHz, which is just below the base rate. Consequently, the A10-7300's score of 1.98 to 1.81 points is even lower than that of the nominally weaker A6-6310 Beema chip that, however, noticeably lags behind in the single-thread test. The bottom line: The A10 APU can marginally defeat a Core i3-4010U in a comparable price range. We did not ascertain differences between AC and battery modes.

Lenovo has not opted for just any 1 TB hard drive but for a so-called SSHD. These drives combine the high capacity of an HDD with the responsiveness of an SSD by integrating an additional flash storage cache. Seagate's laptop SSHD (ST1000LM014) installed here has a capacity of 8 GB, which is enough to significantly speed up booting Windows and important programs. All this happens fully automatically in the background; the user does not see the swift cache.

Classic tools like HD Tune only illustrate the advantages of the SSHD technology poorly. The average transfer rate of 87 MB/s is on par with "conventional" hard drives. That is equally true for the access time of 19.8 milliseconds.

Taken alone, both the integrated Radeon R6 and the dedicated Radeon R5 M230 are only positioned in the low-end sector. First the Crossfire array opens the way for an impressive overall performance. That at least functions exemplarily with AMD's new Catalyst Omega 14.12 in the popular 3DMark series. The gains when dual-graphics is enabled are approximately 70 to 80%, which boosts the Radeon R6 M255DX to the level of a GeForce 840M from Nvidia. This mid-range model is found in many identically priced laptops of other manufacturers.

The laptop only heats up marginally even in the vent's area when the Windows desktop is idle. Light load, such as browsing, does not increase the temperatures much so that it is quite possible to use the device on the lap without restrictions. Two spots first surpass 40 °C during full load. The wrist rest and many other surfaces remain relatively cool.

The Z50 slightly throttled both the CPU (1.5 GHz; 72 °C) and graphics card (785 MHz; 72 °C) in our stress test via Prime95 and FurMark. That is, however, not an unusual behavior for modern ULV hardware. For the sake of completeness, we have to note that FurMark could only test the dedicated Radeon R5, and thus an even higher load would be conceivable. Nevertheless, our stress test represents an even higher practical load than any real-world application, including games.

Our second test of Lenovo's Z50-75 results in an overall mixed verdict once more, which we will now analyze in summary.

We will start with the pro sides: Above all, the voluminous storage configuration stands out in view of the low price. The modern hybrid hard drive proves to be a sensible compromise between capacity and speed and ensures a very responsive overall system subjectively. The laptop also copes with multitasking and more demanding software owing to the quad-core APU and even is almost a match for the Core i3 competition.

Users who limit themselves to low graphics settings can enjoy the smooth rendering of many up-to-date games. AMD's dual-graphics technology proves to be better developed than in previous tests, though it does not yet always present a noticeable performance gain in every case. This could be due to the CPU limitation and the narrow 64-bit interface of the Radeon R5 M230 installed here. We will soon provide more exact analyses in a special article about this topic.

Again, the screen disappointed us with its outdated WXGA resolution and weak viewing angles. While this is also true for many rivals, our second major point of criticism - the short battery life - cannot be put aside as easily. The Z50-75 finds itself at the very far end of our rankings with less than 2.5 hours of Wi-Fi browsing. Though this might be acceptable for a stationary multimedia laptop, whether the IdeaPad will ultimately survive among the countless alternatives in the market is yet to be seen.