What if the term “entry-level” served as the basis for an entire laptop? That is, to supply the cheapest possible parts, down to the chassis, from the display to the hardware. First off, you would have a very affordable budget laptop. Second, it would resemble the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 15 quite a little. The $329.99 price of this IdeaPad is really enticing if you’re want to save as much money as you can, and Best Buy’s early Black Friday 2022 sale has seen it fall as low as $179. It’s tough to suggest the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 15 as a cheap laptop for anything other than simple web browsing, spreadsheets, and document drafting due to its constrained performance and features.
Predictably the LCD is Dim and Flat.
The most noticeable feature of this IdeaPad is its 15.6-inch display, which is notable because the laptop employs an outdated TN screen and a rather dreary 1,366 by 768 pixel resolution. The level of sharpness and brightness expectations we have for current Windows computers are not met by this combo.
With no touch capabilities, poor color reproduction, and a low contrast level, this barely HD display has flaws that may be seen without the aid of test tools. It’s a step down in quality but has a larger display than its award-winning cousin, the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14, which has a full HD IPS panel.
The 15-inch Lenovo chassis fits a full keyboard and a small numeric pad with keys that are half the width. The configuration of the arrow keys squeezes four buttons onto three keys, with the up and down arrows receiving their own buttons but sharing a single key effectively. Everything there is standard for a 15-inch system.
An Acceptable Port Presentation
There is one of every connection available on the IdeaPad 1 15’s port choices, which is a respectable but not overly large number. One HDMI output, one SD card slot, one USB 2.0, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type-A), and one USB-C 3.2 Gen 1. You also get an audio headset jack and a power connector.
Alert the buyer: Microsoft S Mode
One unanticipated risk of purchasing items at a discount is that you can come across non-standard software versions. As an illustration, consider Windows 11 S Mode, a constrained version of Windows designed for schools and other users who require more protection from unauthorized programs. S Mode limits users to only those apps that are available in the Windows App store.
It’s a blessing that switching from S-Mode to regular Windows 11 is free and simple to do (Microsoft even includes instructions(Opens in a new window)), but it’s an odd hoop to jump through on a device sold at retail.
Display quality
The Full HD TN panel of the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15-inch, 2022) has the product number Innolux N156HGA-EA3 (CMN15F5). It has a diagonal measurement of 15.6′′ (39.62 cm) with a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. We are looking at a screen ratio of 16:9, a pixel density of -142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 0.18 mm. When viewed from a distance of 60 cm (24 inches), or more, the screen becomes Retina (at this distance, the eye ceases being able to distinguish individual pixels, which is typical while using a laptop).
With a maximum variance of 12%, the maximum brightness of 246 nits was measured in the center of the screen and 224 nits on average for the entire area. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6050K, which is not too bad but a little warmer than the ideal for the sRGB standard of 6500K.
You can see how the display works from a uniformity perspective in the example below. Alternatively put, the light source’s light leakage.
If you intend to utilize the laptop for work that requires color sensitivity, values of dE2000 over 4.0 shouldn’t happen, making this one of the first parameters you should check. Low contrast ratio (350:1 PWM) (Screen flickering)
Monitor brightness can be easily adjusted using pulse-width modulation (PWM). The backlight’s light output is not reduced when the brightness is reduced; instead, the electronics turn the backlight on and off at a frequency that is undetectable to the human eye. These light impulses hurt your eyes because the brightness doesn’t fluctuate while the light/no-light duration ratio does. Our specialized article on PWM has further information about that.
The 15-inch Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (model 2022) doesn’t use PWM to control brightness. This makes it cozy for prolonged labor in this regard.
Battery For now, we run the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting activated, the screen brightness set to 120 nits, and all other apps closed other than the one we’re using to test the notebook. The battery pack for this device has a 42Wh capacity. It can be used for 8 hours, 51 minutes of movie playback or 9 hours, 23 minutes of web browsing.
CPU load maximum
In this test, we employ 100% of the CPU cores while keeping an eye on the chip’s temperature and frequency. The first column displays a computer’s response to a brief load (2–10 seconds), the second column mimics a demanding activity (15–30 seconds), and the third column provides a useful indication of how well the laptop performs under prolonged loads, such as those required for video rendering.
Conclusion
We believe that the price is too costly to balance the increased benefit with the high level of performance they provide. Particularly considering how simple it is to buy a functional gaming laptop today that costs as little as $700.
Furthermore keep in mind that the IdeaPad 1 (15″) 2022’s build quality isn’t the best. To be completely honest, we anticipated the problem to be worse than the plastic body panels flexing.
The TN panel of the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15″) has a Full HD resolution, rapid pixel response rates, and a flicker-free lighting. As a result, the screen is secure for continuous use. Yet TN screens have an inherent problem with awkward viewing angles. Moreover, it only supports 54% of the sRGB color spectrum.
