Lenovo IdeaPad 320 Review: A Low-cost Laptop with Excellent Specs

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Lenovo IdeaPad 320: At First Glance

The Lenovo IdeaPad 320 is a decent laptop using 7th gen Intel Core Processor. This Lenovo laptop is a fantastic combination of high-tech features and decent performance.

The laptop starts at $399.00 and comes with a robust build, decent tech features, and an outstanding keyboard. Unfortunately, most of these low-cost laptops come with certain trade-offs, and the IdeaPad 320 is no exception.

The IdeaPad 320 may appear expensive from afar, but closer inspection dismisses that impression. Now, let’s have a look at the design and other features of the laptop.

Lenovo IdeaPad 320: Design, Dimension & Weight

For a laptop with a low price, I would say that the IdeaPad 320 looks great. The chassis features an odd two-tone appearance with a silver lid that almost gives the impression that it’s made of aluminum.

The glossy Lenovo logo in the upper left corner of the laptop is the only thing that draws attention to the lid. When you turn the laptop upside down, you’ll discover cheap plastic colored in dark gray. 

Moving to the interior, it is finished in a silver faux-aluminum texture that covers part of the deck. Additionally, the keyboard rests flat on the deck, with no special features to draw attention to it.

The bezels are a little thick, but that’s to be expected from a budget laptop. On a positive note, the Lenovo IdeaPad 320 looks and feels better than its predecessor, the Lenovo IdeaPad 310, thanks to its design concept.

There are two display screen options available for the Lenovo IdeaPad 320. You can choose between an HD (1366 x 768) or an FHD (1920 x 1080) display for the laptop.

The display screen on the IdeaPad 320 I reviewed was an HD (1366 x 768) display. For a budget laptop, I think the display is okay and clear.

However, viewing angles from above and below the display screen isn’t really appealing. On the bright side, Lenovo does feature an anti-glare coating to the screen, which prevents reflections.

Users will be able to enjoy using the laptop in bright environments thanks to the anti-glare coating. However, the display’s average brightness was a disappointing 194 nits.

Unfortunately, this rating is not even up to the category average of 246 nits.

The nit is the standard unit of brightness used to characterize various sources of light; a higher rating indicates a brighter display. Unfortunately, the display screen of the IdeaPad 320 is somewhat dull due to the 194 nits average display brightness, which most users would not appreciate.

In comparison to some of its competitors, the Lenovo IdeaPad 320 has a lower display brightness rating. For example, the display brightness rating of Lenovo IdeaPad 320 is lower than the Acer Aspire E15 and the VivoBook Flip 14.

The VivoBook Flip 14 has a display brightness of 221 nits. Acer Aspire E15 has an even better rating of 227 nits.

Lenovo is quite popular for producing comfortable keyboards and the IdeaPad 320 was no exception. The IdeaPad 320’s new layout is nearly identical to that of its predecessor, with one notable exception.

In comparison to its predecessor, the up and down arrow keys on the keyboard have been reduced to make room for a full-size right shift key.

The shield-shaped keys on the keyboard are matte gray and comfortable to type on. Furthermore, the keys have a travel of 1.4 millimeters and need 68 grams of force, providing a comfortable typing experience.

A large touchpad sits beneath the keyboard, and the left and right clicks have been integrated into the touchpad. The touchpad, like its predecessor, supports Windows 10 gestures such as three-finger tab switching and two-finger scrolling.

However, pointer speed is a bit slow.

The IdeaPad’s touchpad surface is smooth, though not as smooth as laptops with a glass touchpad. When pressed, the left and right keys make a clicky sound and therefore do not need much force to function.

Moving on to ports, the IdeaPad 320 has a large number of them. The number of ports available in this laptop is impressive for a low-cost laptop.

On the left side, you’ll find a power jack, an HDMI port, an RJ45 port, a headphone jack, and two USB 3.0 ports.

A USB Type-C port and a 4-in-1 card reader are also located on the left side. The right side of the laptop only features a DVD-RW drive and a security lock slot.

Ideapad 320 features two Dolby-optimized speakers that sound amazing for a laptop in its price range. The speakers are quite loud when turned all the way up, and I didn’t even notice any distortion when watching a movie.

However, the speakers have the disadvantage of being situated beneath the laptop and firing down rather than up. This means that the speakers can be easily obstructed by a table surface, your lap, or anywhere flat you place the laptop on.

Ideapad 320 comes with a 720p webcam that is adequate for basic video chatting. It is, however, a little faded out and blurry for professional video conferencing and taking pictures.

In terms of weight, the IdeaPad 320 is lighter and smaller than most of its competitors. The laptop weighs 2200 g and measuring 378 x 260 x 22.9 mm. 

In comparison, Acer Aspire E15, for example, measures 381 x 259.08 x 30.48 and weighs 2268 g. 

Also, the IdeaPad 320 has the same size and weight as its predecessor, the IdeaPad 310.

Finally, the IdeaPad 320 has a nice design and a comfortable keyboard, but its display quality and brightness aren’t great. As a result, I’ll rate the laptop an eight in terms of its overall design.

Lenovo IdeaPad 320: Processor (CPU) Performance

The IdeaPad 320 comes with an Intel Core i5-7200U processor. This is one of the most popular processors you get at its price.

This processor has a base frequency of 2.70 GHz and a maximum frequency of 3.50 GHz, as well as a 4 MB cache.

It’s also worth noting that this Intel Core i5-7200U is a Kaby Lake processor. Intel’s seventh-generation Core CPU family, codenamed Kaby Lake, was announced on August 30, 2016.

Kaby Lake is made utilizing a 14-nanometer manufacturing method. Kaby Lake has a quicker CPU clock speed, faster clock speed changes, and higher Turbo frequencies thanks to its improved 14-nanometer manufacturing process.

This means that Kaby Lake processors will be lightning-fast at data processing while also being capable of multitasking. Not only that, but this processor also comes with Hyper-treading technology.

Intel Hyper-Threading Technology is a hardware advancement that allows each core of a processor to operate multiple threads (or computing tasks). As a result, the Intel Core i5-7200U processor will be able to handle more tasks in less time while also allowing more background tasks to run simultaneously.

I ran a Cinebench R15 test to see how well the processor performed. Cinebench R15 is a CPU-based rendering benchmark that determines how quickly your CPU can render a scene using all of its cores.

As a result, you’ll have a fantastic demonstration of what your processor is capable of. According to the Cinebench R15 test, the IdeaPad 320’s processor scored 327 points.

This benchmark test result tells us that the Intel Core i5-7200U processor is capable of handling different tasks at the same time.

In comparison, the IdeaPad 320 performed slightly better than its preceding model (IdeaPad 310). According to the same benchmark test, the IdeaPad 310’s Intel Core i7-6500U processor scored 312 points.

Therefore, I am rating the IdeaPad 320 a nine for its excellent processor performance.

Lenovo IdeaPad 320: Memory (RAM) Performance

The Lenovo IdeaPad 320 comes with two DDR4 RAM slots with a total capacity of 16 GB. You can add a max of 8 GB RAM on each RAM slot.

The model I reviewed had 8 GB RAM in a single slot.

The majority of Lenovo’s IdeaPad laptops most times come with two RAM slots. This is an advantage as it allows users to add an additional 8 GB of RAM in the second slot.

The laptop I reviewed, was amazing at multitasking with its 8GB RAM. As a result, I was able to open over 20 Chrome browser tabs and easily switch between them without lagging.

To further determine the memory performance of the laptop, I performed a PCMark 10 test. PCMark 10 is a Windows PC system benchmark that focuses on PC’s performance when performing modern office tasks.

Based on the test result, the laptop scored 2723 points. This result entails that the laptop’s memory is quite strong.

However, this score is poor compared to most of its competitors.

For instance, the Acer Aspire E15 scored 2942 points in the PCMark 10 test. However, on the bright side, the IdeaPad 320 outperformed the VivoBook Flip 14.

The VivoBook Flip 14 scored 2307 points in the same test.

In addition, when compared to its predecessor (IdeaPad 310), the IdeaPad 320 performed poorly. According to the PCMark 10 test, the IdeaPad 320 scored 2942 points.

In conclusion, the IdeaPad 320 is an excellent multitasker. However, it was outperformed by most of its competitors.

All things considered, I will rate the laptop an eight out of ten.

Lenovo IdeaPad 320: Storage Option & Performance

The Lenovo IdeaPad 320 offers multiple storage options. You can either get the laptop with a SATA HDD or a SATA SSD.

For the HDD storage, you can get a maximum storage capacity of 1 TB. On the other hand, the SSD supports maximum storage of 512 GB.

In addition, the laptop also offers a 4-in-1 (SD, SDXC, SDHC, MMC) card reader for extra storage.

The laptop I reviewed comes with a 256 GB SSD. Thanks to the SSD, booting up or shutting down the laptop is fast.

Also, apps start in seconds and transferring big amounts of data was easy.

Talking about storage capacity, the 256 GB of SSD should be enough for most users. This storage size is more than enough to store loads of images, music, videos, and games.

However, if you require additional storage, you may easily expand the SSD capacity or add an SD card storage. As I mentioned earlier, the laptop can take SSD storage up to 512 GB.

Also, as I noted earlier, you can add a SATA HDD up to 1 TB. In terms of storage size and options, the Lenovo IdeaPad 320 does not disappoint.

To determine the transfer speed of the SSD on the Lenovo IdeaPad 320 laptop, I conducted a file transfer test. On the transfer test, the laptop was able to copy 4.97GB of mixed media files in 35 seconds at a transfer rate of 135.5 MBps.

In comparison, the IdeaPad 320 has a faster transfer rate than the Dell Latitude E7450. On the same transfer test, the Dell Latitude E7450 managed to achieve a transfer rate of 130.5 MBps.

When compared to its preceding model (IdeaPad 310), the IdeaPad 320 performed way better. In the file transfer test, the IdeaPad 310 managed to achieve a transfer rate of 70.8 MBps.

In conclusion, the IdeaPad 320 offers multiple storage options and also a fast SSD. Therefore, it deserves a good nine in this storage performance review.

Lenovo IdeaPad: 320 Graphic Card Performance

Just like its storage, the Lenovo IdeaPad 320 offers multiple graphics card options. You can either get the laptop with an Intel Integrated Graphics, or NVIDIA GeForce 920MX.

You can also get the laptop with an NVIDIA GeForce 940MX, or AMD Radeon 530 graphics card.

All these graphics card options feature a dedicated VRAM of 2 GB DDR3 except for the Intel Integrated Graphics card.

The Intel Integrated Graphics is integrated with the CPU. The implication is that this graphics card shares the system memory with the CPU.

In terms of graphics performance, since the Intel Integrated Graphics shares the system memory with the processor, you should not expect it to perform well at gaming or graphics-intensive applications.

Later in this section, I will be discussing the graphics performance of the laptop. Before then, though let me quickly breeze through the specs of the graphics cards, starting with Intel Integrated Graphics.

The Intel Integrated Graphics has a base GPU frequency of 300 MHz and a boost GPU frequency of 1050 MHz.

The NVIDIA GeForce 920MX has a base GPU frequency of 965 MHz and a boost GPU frequency of 993 MHz. On the other hand, the NVIDIA GeForce 940MX has a base GPU frequency of 1004 MHz and a boost GPU frequency of 1242 MHz.

Furthermore, the AMD Radeon 530 has a base GPU frequency of 730 MHz and a boost GPU frequency of 1024 MHz. The laptop I reviewed came with an NVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics card.

The laptop I reviewed came with an NVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics card.

With NVIDIA GeForce 940MX, the laptop is capable of running graphical-intensive games such as GTA V in medium and low graphical settings. While playing GTA V on a medium graphical setting, the laptop managed to deliver a frame rate of 54fps which is quite impressive.

In comparison, the IdeaPad 320 performed slightly better than its predecessor, the IdeaPad 310. The IdeaPad 310’s NVIDIA GeForce 920MX graphics card achieved a frame rate of 52fps while playing GTA V on medium graphical setting.

In conclusion, the IdeaPad 320 offers multiple graphics options and its graphics card is capable of running most games. As a result, I will rate the IdeaPad 320 a nine for its multiple graphics options and excellent graphics card performance.

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Lenovo IdeaPad 320: Battery Life & Performance

The Lenovo IdeaPad 320 comes with a 2-cell 35 Wh battery. As advertised by Lenovo, the laptop’s battery should last up to 5 hours.

We all know too well not to believe what most laptop manufacturers claims about their laptop batteries. Therefore, I conducted a battery test to verify Lenovo’s claim about its IdeaPad 320 battery.

The battery test includes surfing the internet using a WIFI connection and setting the laptop’s brightness to 100 nits. In the battery test, the IdeaPad 320 had a runtime of 4 hours and 24 minutes.

Unfortunately, this battery life is below the category average of 6 hours, 48 minutes.

Moreover, most of its competitors also had a better runtime. For instance, the VivoBook Flip 14 had a runtime of 7 hours and 23 minutes which is well above the category average.

Additionally, the Acer Aspire E15 had an impressive runtime of 8 hours and 48 minutes which is also above the category average. Unfortunately, the IdeaPad 320 also had a lesser runtime than its preceding model, the Lenovo IdeaPad 310.

The IdeaPad 310 had a runtime of 5 hours and 32 minutes.

In conclusion, the IdeaPad 320 performed poorly in terms of battery performance. Therefore, I am rating the laptop a seven out of 10.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The Lenovo IdeaPad 320 is a great laptop that provides good performance at a reasonable price. The Lenovo Ideapad 320’s Processor, a comfortable keyboard, graphics card, and multiple storage options all deserve praise.

Longer battery life and a brighter display screen would have made the laptop even better, but the good performance more than compensate. You are definitely getting an excellent laptop for a much lesser price if you can deal with such non-fundamental flaws.

Furthermore, the laptop does not feel like some cheap laptops, but rather better. This Ideapad 320 is ideal for professionals that require a laptop with high-end tech features and exceptional performance.

Additionally, it is also capable of running most games, thanks to its dedicated graphics card.

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