Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15IIL05

amazon Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15IIL05 reviews

Simple design, no color

Lenovo’s laptop design is often towards minimalism and sophistication, and the IdeaPad 5 is no exception. Although it is a laptop in the segment under $900, the lid of the IdeaPad 5 uses metal material for a firmer feel and firmer grip. The rest of the body is still plastic, with a total weight of about 1.8 kg, and a thickness of 20mm. IdeaPad 5 is not a thin and light laptop on the market, but this number can be said to be suitable for a 15.6-inch screen product, not too difficult to carry around.

Despite the plastic shell, the IdeaPad 5 does not offer a cheap experience, thanks to the new paint. When touching or placing your wrist while typing, it feels like putting your hand on a velvet coating. Combined with the silver gray color, the IdeaPad 5 limits fingerprints, and sweat, a problem that I often encounter with cheap laptops.

IdeaPad 5 still uses the old-fashioned hinge, which can only open up to about 145-150 degrees instead of 180 degrees like the higher-end ThinkBook and ThinkPad. In theory, users can flip the IdeaPad’s screen with one hand, but it’s difficult and impractical.

With the IdeaPad 5, Lenovo is still slow to respond to the trend of thin screen borders, but at least there have been certain advancements when the bottom border is half as thick as the previous generation. The thinner screen border will give a more airy user experience, shrinking the size to make the laptop more compact. Although the edge of the IdeaPad 5 still cannot compete with those of Asus, LG, and HP, where the progress is, we will note it there.

The upper border of the screen is where the 720p webcam is located, with “poor” image quality. There is also the appearance of a ThinkShutter switch for users to close the webcam when not in use, protecting privacy.

Check the parameters, IdeaPad 5 uses the AU Optronics B156HAN02.1 screen panel. Notable parameters such as IPS panel type, brightness of 290 cd/m2, color coverage of 51% sRGB and 46% NTSC, and support for HDR streaming. In actual use, the IdeaPad 5’s screen is suitable for simple office and entertainment needs (watching movies, playing games, surfing the web) but not for photo and video editing tasks due to insufficient color space. In return, the product supports HDR streaming through the Windows HD option, when viewing content on platforms, the contrast range will be improved somewhat.

IdeaPad 5 has a modest number of ports, with two standard USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, one standard USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port that supports both DisplayPort and Power Delivery output (that is, you can charge your laptop with a USB port), an HDMI port, a combined 3.5mm audio jack and an SD card reader. Not having an Ethernet network port can be an unnecessary nuisance for users who need a fast and stable network connection.

Fingerprint security, the feeling of typing is similar to MacBook

Like smartphones, fingerprint security features are becoming more and more “popular”. IdeaPad 5 is equipped with Goodix’s fingerprint sensor, integrated directly into the power key, so when powered on, you can always log in to Windows, with no need to enter a password. The sensor has a fast, accurate recognition speed, and Windows 10 is superior to Android or iOS in that you can install as many fingerprints as you want.

IdeaPad 5 has a full range of function keys and Numpad clusters, the 15.6-inch size makes the keys large and the distance is relatively spacious. The typing experience on the IdeaPad 15 is very similar to the MacBook’s butterfly keyboard with short key travel, and light force, not as compact as the ThinkPad but still comfortable, without fatigue. This keyboard has a monochrome backlight (white, although I see more purple) with two brightness options, controlled by the Fn + Space key cluster so that users can work more efficiently at night.

One point to improve on the IdeaPad 5 is that the keyboard area bounces when applying force – aka “wobble”, for a feeling of lack of certainty. Of course, the IdeaPad 5 won’t have the ThinkPad’s exclusive “divine” TrackPoint.

The IdeaPad 5’s touchpad is large, giving it a fast and smooth scrolling feel. With Microsoft Precision driver support, users can perform multi-point operations such as zooming in and out on supported applications (Edge, Word, Excel, …), quickly switching between applications, and more.

The speaker strip is located just above the keyboard, which improves the total volume compared to the bottom and shoots down-firing like some other Lenovo laptop models. With integrated Dolby Audio technology, the IdeaPad 5’s external speakers are still of average quality, the bass range is faint, if not too thorough, and it is completely usable, but it is recommended to use separate speakers for a better experience.

Performance: Core i5 is as powerful as i7, with no discrete GPU and temporary eSports gaming

In terms of configuration, IdeaPad 5 owns 10th-generation Intel Core i5-1035G1 chip Ice Lake, 8GB of DDR4 2133 MHz RAM (fixed and cannot be further upgraded because RAM is soldered to the board), 512 GB M.2 PCIe SSD by SK Hynix, without discrete graphics – GeForce MX330 and MX350 graphics cards are available.

Ice Lake, unlike Comet Lake which is also the 10th generation, is manufactured on a 10nm process with better performance and energy efficiency. The chip has 4 real cores, 8 threads, a 1GHz base clock, and Turbo to 3.6GHz, heat dissipation capacity (TDP) is still 15W.

Battery life is enough for 1 day of light work, this time with fast charging

IdeaPad 5 is equipped with a 45 Whr battery, in addition, there are two more options, 57 and 70 Whr, so you need to be careful when choosing to buy. Unlike the ThinkBook 14, the IdeaPad 5 comes with a 65W charger, a compact size for easy carrying. IdeaPad’s full charging time is also improved, about 2 hours is full.

In about a week of using IdeaPad 5 as the main machine to replace the desktop, my daily tasks such as editing articles, browsing the web, and editing photos with Photoshop and Lightroom could not cause difficulties for this laptop. Unfortunately, only 8GB of RAM for my multitasking needs is not enough, Chrome tabs occasionally reload, and there is a slight lag when RAM is full.

In actual use, IdeaPad 5 responds well to a light working day, mainly surfing the web, using Office, and occasionally watching Youtube for entertainment. From 8 am to 5 pm with about 70% brightness, this laptop still has about 10% battery left.

Summary

For example, IdeaPad 5 is like a good student with all the “subjects” such as design, performance, and price. Either way, however, there was always something that kept him from rising to excellence. It can be said that this is a good enough laptop for office use, students or students with a very reasonable price. For those with high demands on graphics, this product is not very suitable due to the limited GPU and screen color space.

where can you get a Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15IIL05 online

Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15IIL05 81YK 15.6″ Notebook, Intel i7, 16GB Memory, 512GB SSD, Windows 10 (81YK000LUS): Buy it now