Lenovo IdeaPad 720s- 15 review

If you want a portable, all-purpose laptop and can spend around $1000 or 1000 EUR, the Lenovo IdeaPad 720s- 15 is a good choice.

We’ve spent some time with it in the last few weeks, and we’ve written down all of our thoughts—both the good and the bad—below. By the end of the article, you’ll know if this is the right computer for you or if you should look at something else.

Plan and first glance

This laptop is made with a lot of care, and you’ll notice that as soon as you take it out of the box. It just feels strong. The lid cover doesn’t bend or give at all, and the keyboard deck barely does either. This is because it’s still not a unibody design and has a plastic inner chassis. But even so, I think the quality of construction is up there with the best.

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The whole outside is made of matte metal, which is the same finish we’ve seen on a lot of other Lenovo laptops. It feels great to touch, shows no smudges in this colour, and should hold up well over time. It also looks nice in a simple way that doesn’t stand out. The Lenovo logo on the front and the IdeaPad, JBL, and Lenovo logos on the inside are all small and blend in with the rest of the case. Aside from the status LEDs on the left side and the power key, which is part of the keyboard and always lit, there are no lights or flashy parts. Overall, though, this laptop would be a great choice for places like school and work where design rules are stricter.

The IdeaPad 720s is a laptop that opens up like a book. Its screen is held in place by a fairly stiff hinge that needs both hands to open. Other than that, it stays in place well and can lean back 180 degrees flat. This is important for those of us who don’t use our laptops at a desk very often.

The keypad and keyboard

Most people who are interest in buying a 13- or 14-inch Lenovo IdeaPad or Yoga will find the keyboard and trackpad to be quite good.

I found the keyboard to be a little soft and spongy, but after typing a few thousand words on it, I can say that the experience it gives is in the top half. I did make a few mistakes, though, because the keys don’t have enough resistance and it’s easy to press something else while moving your fingers across the keyboard. The stroke is also pretty short, but that’s pretty standard for ultraportables these days.

This keyboard is also quiet and backlit, and you can choose between two levels of brightness. You can turn on the lighting system by dragging your finger across the touchpad or by pressing a key.

Lenovo chose a large Synaptics clickpad for the mouse. It is slightly recesse into the frame and has a bevelle edge that separates it from the palm rest. It has a nice feel and is easy to move your fingers across, but it may not be as fast as some of the glass clickpads out there.

Screen:

As I said before, the Lenovo IdeaPad 720s has a glossy, non-touch screen with a pretty good 14-inch IPS panel under a layer of glass that protects it. I’m not a fan of this method because it adds unneed glare and reflections in bright places, but if you’re going to keep this mostly indoors and in darker rooms, you might actually like the stronger build and the lack of the graininess that comes with matte panels.

Aside from the fact that the colours, grey levels, and gamma are a little off out of the box, which you can mostly fix by calibrating the panel or using our calibrate colour profile, there is a lot to like about this screen.

I haven’t seen any obvious light leaking around the edges either, but I did find it strange that you have to crank up the brightness to at least 70% to get to 120 nits, which is enough for indoor use in my office. Not a problem, but I thought it was strange.

Hardware, upgrades, and how well it works

Lenovo has a lot of different versions of the IdeaPad 720S, and we got to test the most powerful one, which has an Intel Core i7-7500U processor, 16 GB of RAM, a 1 TB NVMe SSD, and Nvidia GTX 940MX graphics with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory.

When it comes to the hardware, the CPU and GPU are soldered to the motherboard, but you can open it up to get to the RAM, M.2 SSD, wireless chip, and battery if you need to. To do that, you’ll need to get past the back panel, which is easy to do because it’s only held in place by a few Torx T5 screws that are easy to see. Keep in mind that the RAM slot is under an aluminium shield that you’ll have to remove by loosening the pins that hold it in place.

Before we talk about how well this laptop handles high loads and games, I should also say that it works well for everyday tasks and stays cool and quiet. In the pictures below, you can see how fast you can browse, type, and watch multimedia content, as well as how hot it gets.

Life of the battery:

The IdeaPad 720s has a 56 Wh battery, which is a little bigger than the batteries in most 14-inch laptops with similar features. With an FHD screen, this laptop can stay charge for a long time. We set the brightness of the screen to about 120 nits, which was about 70% brightness in this case.

7.2 W (about 7 hours and 45 minutes of use) – Very light browsing and editing of text in Google Drive, Balance Mode, screen at 70%, Wi-Fi ON: 6.5 W (about 8 hours and 30 minutes of use). – 1080p full-screen video on YouTube in Internet Explorer, Balance Mode, screen at 70%, Wi-Fi ON: 5.6 W (about 10 hours of use). – Fullscreen 1080p. mkv video in the Movie app, Balance Mode, screen at 70%, Wi-Fi ON: 6.2 W (about 9 hours of use). – Full-screen 4K. mkv video in the Movie app, Balance Mode, screen at 70%, Wi-Fi ON: 13.2 W (about 4 hours and 10 minutes of use). – Heavy browsing in Edge, Balance Mode, screen at 70%, Wi-Fi ON: 34 W (about 1 hour and 30 minutes of use). – Playing games while on battery, with the screen at 70% brightness and Wi-Fi turn on.

The charger that comes with the package is small and light, but at only 45 Wh, it is also surprisingly small. At least 2 hours and 15 minutes are need to fully charge the battery. If you are playing games during this time, it will take longer.

Price and what’s available

As of August 2017, the IdeaPad 720s can be bought in most parts of the world.

Lenovo’s mid-range configuration with a Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, a 256 GB PCIe SSD, and an Nvidia 940MX graphics chip costs less than $900 in the US, which is a pretty good deal for what you get. On Lenovo’s website, you can also buy a similar set-up with a Core i7 processor for $950. Higher-end models have a Core i7 processor, up to 16 GB of RAM, and SSDs that are bigger.

Since November 2017, you can also get the IdeaPad 720s with a quad-core KabyLake-R processor and Nvidia MX150 graphics. With 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD, this configuration costs about $900 in the US.

THE GOOD

well made, fairly small, and light. Nice IPS screen, but it’s shiny. Good keyboard and trackpad.

Above average speakers with a big battery and a long battery life

price-wise

THE BAD

Glossy, non-touch screen; some problems with CPU/GPU speeds under heavy loads or while on battery; when in use, gets hot and noisy;

Summary:

With the IdeaPad 720s, Lenovo did a great job. This is one of your best options at the time this article was written if you want a laptop that is well-made and doesn’t have to make many sacrifices. It has good everyday performance and can handle games better than most thin-and-lights. Just make sure you don’t mind the glossy screen that you can’t touch and the fact that it’s a little heavier. Read on to find out all the in-depth thoughts.

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