Lenovo Ideapad 520 Series

Processor: Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8250U, Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8550U, Intel Kaby Lake i5-7200U, Intel Kaby Lake i7-7500U
Graphics Adapter: Intel HD Graphics 620, Intel UHD Graphics 620, NVIDIA GeForce 940MX, NVIDIA GeForce MX150
Display: 15.60 inch
Weight: 2.2kg

 

Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKB-80YL005BMH

Let’s say you are on budget and looking for a new digital companion for your daily usage. It could be that you are a student or someone that deals with too much of writing. You need a large screen and since you are not too mobile, the device's weight does not affect you much. Well, you might be in luck, because this is what Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKB-80YL005BMH is. The device comes with a Intel Core i5-7200U processor and an integrated Intel Graphics 620 graphics card; nothing too powerful. It is equipped with 8 GB of DDR4 RAM and a 128 SSD as well as a conventional 1 TB HDD. As you can see, this laptop is purposely aimed at people who need a laptop for writing, editing, internet surfing. This idea is supported with a good, illuminated keyboard, which has a nice and easy layout to get used to. Also keyboard comes with a full sized numpad. Even if the specs are fine, we also need to talk about the screen. The matte 15.6-inch screen uses the IPS technology. Its contrast and brightness levels are just fine. It is still better not to work under direct sunlight. Considering multimedia usage, you only get 2 USB 3.0 and 1 USB Type-C connection as well as a simple HDMI out. In view of the price point, we might consider this is fair. But is it future proof? One Thunderbolt output would have been nice, but as said, we can’t complain. 35 Wh battery provides around 5 to 6 hours of usage. Overtime you should expect it to get shorter and the battery is not removable. But it definitely won’t happen pretty soon. The speakers are fine for daily usage, but lack bass. So, if you are into streaming, you are covered. But if you are a vivid music listeners who wants to hear even the smaller notes, well you better get an external sound card. This is not what this laptop is for. For its price you get a nice looking laptop with plenty of power inside. Processor and RAM take care of all the power you will need. But you might not be able to do graphical tasks like Corel Draw or video editing etc. since it lacks a dedicated graphic card. If you are a developer or a student in software engineering, you can also consider this device as online editor. All you need is a device that can connect to internet these days. For others, with a 128 GB of SSD and the other components you should go for Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKB-80YL005BMH unless there is a competitor with better specs at this price range. Hands-on article by Ümit Yılmaz Güneş

Specifications

Notebook: Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKB-80YL005BMH
Processor: Intel Kaby Lake i5-7200U
Graphics Adapter: Intel HD Graphics 620
Display: 15.60 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 2.2kg
Links: Lenovo homepage

Price comparison

Average Score: 100% - very good

 

Foreign Reviews

 

Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKBR-81BF004GSP

Specifications

Notebook: Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKBR-81BF004GSP
Processor: Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8550U
Graphics Adapter: Intel UHD Graphics 620
Display: 15.60 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 2.2kg
Links: Lenovo homepage

Price comparison

 

Foreign Reviews

 

Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKB-80YL00MMSP

Specifications

Notebook: Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKB-80YL00MMSP
Processor: Intel Kaby Lake i5-7200U
Graphics Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
Display: 15.60 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 2.2kg
Links: Lenovo homepage

Price comparison

 

Foreign Reviews

 

Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKB-80YL00MNSP

Specifications

Notebook: Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKB-80YL00MNSP
Processor: Intel Kaby Lake i7-7500U
Graphics Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
Display: 15.60 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 2.2kg
Links: Lenovo homepage

Price comparison

 

Foreign Reviews

 

Lenovo IdeaPad 520-15IKB-81BF00CXHV

The Lenovo IdeaPad 520-15IKB-81BF00CXHV is a laptop for office or multimedia use. Featuring top-of-the-line processing and advanced graphics options, this 15-inch laptop is designed to impress. Finished in premium metal and offering Harman speakers optimized with Dolby Audio, the Ideapad 520 is a blend of style and substance. The Lenovo Ideapad 520 has virtually no change compared to its predecessor. The machine still has a weight of 2.2 kg, so it is very portable. The house is made of aluminum, with some plastic. The design is clean and light. Its line is graceful, and this sparkling color is a pretty feminine, realistic elegance. The hinge is stable, well-maintained, and the way in which it can be realized makes the screen fold out 180 degrees. The laptop is available in three sophisticated tone-on-tone options with a soft-touch finish: Iron Grey, Champagne Gold, or Bronze. The Lenovo Ideapad 520 has a 15.6-inch IPS display. Of course, the manufacturer does not feature the most expensive solutions here, but the display has some great features: 1920 x 1080 resolution, and great viewing angles from the IPS panel, as well as realistic color rendering. It could be a bit better in brightness, but it would not be a big problem with outdoor work. As for hardware specifications, the Lenovo IdeaPad 520 is powered by an Intel Core i5-8250U processor with 4 cores and HyperThreading support for 8 threads simultaneously. The processor is supported by 4 GB 2,400 Mhz DDR4 RAM. 4 GB can often be few, but it is expandable as there are two slots on the motherboard that can hold up to 16 GB of RAM. The CPU has an integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620 video controller. Furthermore, the IdeaPad520 is also equipped with a dedicated Nvidia Geforce MX150 with 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM. The speakers' openings remain unchanged below the keyboard. On the left side, there is a Harman speaker with Dolby Audio, where quality expectations can be justified. User will experience crystal-clear audio with minimal distortion at any volume. The same Intel Wireless 3165 built-in WLAN card is located in the machine. Of course, the laptops also comes with Bluetooth 4.1 and a webcam. As for connectivity, on the left side of the laptop, user can see all the connectors and the LED feedback are here. Here's the power connector, an Ethernet port, HDMI, two type-A and one C-type USB, 3.5 mm jacks and a card reader. The right side of Ideapad 520 is almost completely empty. There is only a Kensington lock there. Hands-on article by Jagadisa Rajarathnam

Specifications

Notebook: Lenovo IdeaPad 520-15IKB-81BF00CXHV
Processor: Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8250U
Graphics Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce MX150
Display: 15.60 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 2.2kg
Links: Lenovo homepage

Price comparison

 

Foreign Reviews

 

Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKBR-81BF008MMH

Specifications

Notebook: Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKBR-81BF008MMH
Processor: Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8250U
Graphics Adapter: Intel UHD Graphics 620
Display: 15.60 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 2.2kg
Links: Lenovo homepage

Price comparison

Average Score: 70% - average

 

Foreign Reviews

 

Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKBR-81BF0074SP

Specifications

Notebook: Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKBR-81BF0074SP
Processor: Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8250U
Graphics Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce MX150
Display: 15.60 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 2.2kg
Links: Lenovo homepage

Price comparison

 

Foreign Reviews

 

Comment

Lenovo: Lenovo ("Le" from English legend, novo (Latin) for new) was founded in 1984 as a Chinese computer trading company. As of 2004, the company was the largest laptop manufacturer in China and, after acquiring IBM's PC division in 2005, the fourth largest in the world. In addition to desktops and notebooks, the company manufactures monitors, projectors, servers, etc, and specializes in developing, manufacturing and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, enterprise solutions and related services.

In 2016, the company ranked first in the world in computer sales. It still held it in 2023 with about 23% global market share. Important product lines are Thinkpad, Legion and Ideapad.

In 2011, it acquired a majority stake in Medion AG, a European computer hardware manufacturer. In 2014, Motorola Mobility was purchased, which gave Lenovo a boost in the smartphone market.

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Modern games should be playable with these graphics cards at low settings and resolutions. Casual gamers may be happy with these cards.

Intel HD Graphics 620: Integrated GPU (GT2) found on some Kaby-Lake CPU models (15 W ULV series).

Intel UHD Graphics 620: Integrated GPU (GT2, 24 EUs) found on some Kaby-Lake-Refresh CPU models (15 W ULV series). Technically identical to the previous Kaby-Lake GPU called HD Graphics 620.

NVIDIA GeForce 940MX: Mid-range laptop graphics card based on the Maxwell architecture. Compared to the older 940M, the MX now also supports GDDR5 graphics memory and maybe slightly faster clock speeds.

NVIDIA GeForce MX150: Pascal GP108 based laptop graphics card and mobile version of the desktop GeForce GT 1030. Offers 384 shader cores and usually 2 GB GDDR5 with a 64 Bit memory bus. Manufactured in 14nm.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.

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Intel Kaby Lake:

i5-7200U: Kaby-Lake based SoC with two CPU cores clocked at 2.5 to 3.1 GHz, HyperThreading and manufactured with an improved 14nm process.

i7-7500U: Kaby-Lake based SoC with two CPU cores clocked at 2.7 to 3.5 GHz, HyperThreading and manufactured with an improved 14nm process.

Intel Kaby Lake Refresh:

i5-8550U: Kaby-Lake-Refresh based low power quad-core processor. The four cores are clocked between 1.8 and 4 GHz (Turbo Boost) and support HyperThreading. The integrated GPU is clocked between 300 and 1,150 MHz. The SoC is manufactured in a 14nm+ FinFET process.

i5-8250U: Kaby-Lake-Refresh based low power quad-core processor. The four cores are clocked between 1.6 and 3.4 GHz (Turbo Boost) and support HyperThreading. The integrated GPU is clocked between 300 and 1,100 MHz. The SoC is manufactured in a 14nm+ FinFET process.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.

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» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.

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No weight comment found (one expected)!

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85%: This rating is slightly above average, there are somewhat more devices with worse ratings. However, clear purchase recommendations look different.

» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.

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