Upcoming Lenovo Ideapad 720S brings narrow bezels to a 13-inch form factor

It's common in the consumer market to see high-end features on flagship models slowly trickle down to mainstream and budget alternatives over time. The new Ideapad 720S has liberally taken the thin bezels of last year's popular Yoga 910 and applied it to a new, sleeker chassis that feels more luxurious than what the "Ideapad" name may otherwise suggest.

Unlike the less expensive Ideapad 320/320S series, the 720S utilizes magnesium and aluminum surfaces and is over 3 mm thinner and about 150 g lighter than its 14-inch 320s counterpart as a result. Perhaps more notably, its native support for Thunderbolt 3 should give it longer legs for wider compatibility with external displays and docking stations. Core specifications include:

• 14-inch FHD IPS display
• Up to Intel Core i7 U-class CPU
• GeForce 940MX
• Up to 16 GB DDR4 RAM
• Up to 512 GB PCIe SSD
• 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB Type-C w/ Thunderbolt 3, 1x HDMI
• 802.11ac, Bluetooth
• 56 Wh battery
• JBL speakers
• 320.7 x 222.8 x 15.9 mm
• 1.55 kg

From our short time with the all-matte device, we can already see that the base is more rigid than the carbon fiber chassis of the Yoga 910 series and is easily one of the denser and more solid Ideapad notebooks available to date. The lid is more flexible than we would like especially when compared to the thin-bezel XPS 13 or XPS 15 due in part to having no glass protection over its non-touch glossy display. So far, however, the notebook feels like the perfect alternative for those who want a modern mainstream Windows notebook without paying hundreds more for the XPS 15, Zenbook UX3410, or Spectre x360 13.

The 14-inch Ideapad 720S launches this June for a starting price of $969 USD. See our existing review on the older Ideapad 710S to get more details on what the series has to offer.

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