Lenovo Ideapad 110S - Review 2022

At that place's no manner to buy a upkeep laptop without making some compromises: If you become with a chromebook, y'all'll accept to become along without Windows; settling on a Windows laptop ways getting underwhelming performance and a famine of features. Lenovo goes the latter route with its $199.99 Ideapad 110S: It runs Microsoft's ubiquitous Bone, only looks, feels, and performs, well, cheap. If you lot can live with that, it makes an adequate second organization for home or travel, or maybe a knockaround laptop for the kids. Merely don't await much more than.

Design and Features

Clearly designed with portability in heed, the 110S measures 0.7 past eleven.5 by 8 inches (HWD) and weighs a mere 2.43 pounds, but a brief glance volition tell yous where information technology falls on the ultraportable toll spectrum. Its matte white plastic chassis, adorned but by a dull silver Lenovo logo in the upper-left corner of the lid, makes information technology await similar a toy, or peradventure a prop from a mid-1970s sci-fi flick. The color extends to every corner the laptop, from the thick bezel around the 11.half-dozen-inch display to the keyboard deck and even the keys themselves. (For what it'south worth, this blueprint treatment is far from unheard of in this price range—it'due south also present on the Editors' Pick Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series (3162), though there it'southward a shocking blue.) The chapeau and the deck are tacky to the bear on, and the bezel is somewhat rougher, but in no case does the plastic experience shine or wait elegant.

Unsurprisingly, the keyboard isn't bad—this is what Lenovo is known for, later on all. If information technology lacks a bit of travel compared with their usual designs and flexes heavily in the middle, the keys themselves move well and are of decent size. Only the one-half-height function row (which doubles as controls for media, brightness, and other functions), the arrow keys (in a cluster at the lower correct, along with PgUp and PgDn), and the Fn, Window, right Alt, Card, and tilde keys are appreciably smaller, and as y'all'll probably use these less often, that's okay. The touchpad is tiny, merely it feels good, and its buttons are clicky and responsive.

Lenovo Ideapad 110S

With a resolution of only one,366 by 768, the 11.6-inch screen offers limited real manor, whether for tiling windows or playing videos. That's not unreasonable at a laptop of this price, and it means you're unlikely to accept difficulty reading text or Windows interface elements. But the brandish quality is, at best, average, and looks cloudy and indistinct when viewed from any bending other than directly on. (You do, though, have the option of folding the screen back to a full 180 degrees, then you should exist able to arrange it to a workable position no affair how or where yous're sitting.) The speakers are predictably weak, offer piddling bass response and not getting particularly loud at max book (the sound might be enough to fill a small room, but not much more than that).

You won't find any next-generation ports on the 110S, just one USB three.0, one HDMI, and a microSD carte reader along with the power jack on the left border, and two USB ii.0 ports and a headset jack on the correct. Components are unremarkable as well, with a 1.6GHz Intel Celeron N3060 processor, only 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of flash storage. Lenovo protects the Ideapad 110S with a ane-year warranty.

Performance

Budget computers are non typically attractive for their blazing speed, and that's certainly truthful of the Ideapad 110S. Its score of 1,657 on our PCMark 8 Work Conventional examination, which measures overall productivity prowess, is on the low side, as is its CineBench rendering score of 73. On our two multimedia tests, HandBrake (for video encoding) and Photoshop (for applying filters to a big paradigm), it struggled noticeably, finishing them in 10 minutes, 32 seconds, and 15:31, respectively.

Lenovo Ideadpad 110S - Processor Tests

Equally for 3D gaming, forget it. The 110S'south frame rates in our Sky and Valley gaming tests were unplayable (almost all in the low single digits). And its scores in our 3DMark graphics tests (one,232 for the entry-level Deject Strike, a paltry 223 for the more demanding Burn Strike Extreme) further demonstrated the futility.

Lenovo Ideadpad 110S - Graphics Tests

Bombardment life is also only so-so. Its fourth dimension of 7 hours, 36 minutes on our rundown test doesn't quite reach the eight-hr threshold for all-day calculating, but that's more than enough time for the limited scenarios in which you or your family are likely to use the arrangement. You tin can become better battery life from a Windows laptop in this toll range, though. The Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series (3162) lasts x:05 on the same examination.

Conclusion

Chances are, you already know whether the Lenovo Ideapad 110S is for y'all: Yous're on the lookout for something affordable you won't worry about the kids or grandkids ruining, yous want to exist able to do some quick typing or spider web piece of work while y'all're out and nigh, or you lot need something to tide yous over until you lot have the time or the upkeep to buy something more powerful. If any of these situations applies, you should exist pleased with the Ideapad 110S

Just there are ways to go beyond the bargain-basement nuts. The Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series (3162) costs fifty-fifty less, but gives you a nearly identical hardware layout, a sturdier build, and has considerably longer battery life. That'due south why it remains our Editors' Pick for budget ultraportables. And if y'all tin cope with a chromebook, there any number of excellent alternatives that will nevertheless run you less than $500, from Lenovo's own N22-20 Affect Chromebook and the Acer Chromebook R xiii (CB5-312T-K5X4) to the more audacious (and more expensive) Asus Chromebook Flip (C302CA-DHM4).