Lenovo IdeaPad 720s Review
Lenovo IdeaPad 720s is one of the best laptops on the market. It’s slim, has a premium design, and offers outstanding processing capabilities.
It’s also among a new breed of laptops that have real (if modest) gaming abilities. Its Nvidia GPU is capable of running modern games at higher frame rates than most similar-style laptops.
Design & Ports
Lenovo’s made a pretty impressive laptop with the IdeaPad 720s. It’s thin, and light, has an excellent display, and has a premium feel. The laptop’s also more powerful than virtually every other 14-inch style machine at this price point.
The slim and light aluminum case is very well-made, though you might notice tiny slivers of bright unanodised metal around the edges and ports. It’s a minor quibble, and it doesn’t take away from the overall look of the machine.
On the right edge are a power port, full-size USB 3.0, an HDMI port, and a memory card reader. There’s also a Thunderbolt 3 port, which is a welcome feature for a laptop this thin and light. Many other laptops this size have eschewed this connector in favor of a single USB-C that can do both power and data, but Lenovo has retained it.
The 14-inch screen can reach a good brightness and has an anti-glare coating. It’s also able to show a decently wide range of colors, covering 80.9 percent of the sRGB color standard and 57.6 percent of Adobe RGB. Its contrast is very good at 1023:1, too, making it an excellent choice for working or gaming in most lighting conditions.
Screen
Lenovo has designed this machine with premium metal surfaces and revolutionary connectivity like Thunderbolt 3 to create a stylish powerhouse. The 14” display and processing capabilities make this laptop ideal for everyday tasks and more advanced entertainment.
The IdeaPad 720s features an IPS panel that has almost no bezel and a full HD resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. The display delivers bright and accurate colors and offers great viewing angles. You won’t have any issues browsing the web, editing documents, and creating videos with this machine. However, you won’t have the best gaming experience with this laptop. The NVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics card only has 2GB of video RAM, so it can’t run more demanding games at high settings.
The battery in this machine can last for up to 12 hours and 5 minutes when watching a 720p video on loop with the screen at 79% brightness. This is a decent result for a laptop in this price range. The delivery only includes the notebook, USB Type-C charger, and a power cord. You will need to purchase a docking station or similar accessory if you want to expand the available connections. Lenovo also offers a one-year warranty for the IdeaPad 720s, which covers manufacturing defects.
Graphics Card
The IdeaPad 720s is among a new generation of laptops with real if modest, gaming capabilities. Its Core i5 processor has an Nvidia GT940MX GPU with 2GB RAM, which allows it to play modern games at more than double the frame rates of a laptop that uses the integrated Intel graphics card. That makes it a good choice for casual gamers, although the screen’s maximum resolution limits how demanding you can be.
The laptop’s 14-inch IPS screen has a Full HD resolution and a maximum brightness of 390 cd/m2. It covers 80.9 percent of the sRGB color standard, 57.6 percent of Adobe RGB, and 60.3 percent of DCI P3. The contrast is a respectable 1023:1 and it has excellent viewing angles.
The laptop has all the connectors you need for daily computing, including a USB-C port that supports Thunderbolt 3, two full-size USB 3.0 ports, and an HDMI connection. It also has a headset jack, which is becoming increasingly rare in thin and light laptops. The beveled cut-outs for the connections are a nice touch, which shows attention to detail. Lenovo also includes a one-year warranty, which is a welcome change from the collect-and-return policies of many other manufacturers.
Storage
Lenovo’s IdeaPad 720s includes 7th generation Intel Core processors, plenty of RAM, and fast storage to handle daily tasks and media. The system also supports a Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port that lets you connect high-res displays and data devices at speeds up to 40 Gbps—eight times faster than USB 3.0.
The system can run up to 15 Chrome tabs open without any noticeable slowdown, and it can easily play 1080p YouTube videos in the background while doing other work. It can even do a decent job editing photos and videos in Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Movie Maker. However, expect it to struggle in games that demand a lot of CPU and graphics power, as the notebook’s Nvidia GeForce 940MX graphics chip only has 2GB of video RAM.
In the PCMark 8 benchmark test, this laptop’s memory scored a respectable 3,644 points, which is an excellent score for a mid-range notebook. It outperformed some of its competitors, including the ASUS ZenBook UX331UA which scored 3,357 points. The 1 TB PCIe SSD storage is enough space for all your files and should keep you going for a long time before you need to upgrade.
Processor/CPU Keyboard and touchpad
Lenovo’s IdeaPad 720s packs plenty of power into this thin and light chassis. Its performance is well above average for the price range and will easily satisfy most users. Its CPU throttling is well-controlled, and the laptop is quiet when running.
The keyboard deck is comfortable to type on, and its dark gray keys have a nice texture. They also have sufficient space between them to prevent typing mistakes. The trackpad is vast, and its premium glass surface is a pleasure to use. It also features a touch panel sensor that can increase its performance density by 27%.
Its battery life is excellent. During our WLAN test, it lasted more than 10 hours. Its temperature control is very good as well. The bottom fuselage reaches only 28 degrees Celsius when the laptop is idle, and it doesn’t get too hot on the palm rests either.
Lenovo includes a USB-C port on the right edge of this laptop, which isn’t always available in this price range. There is also a full-sized HDMI port, a headphone jack, and an SD card reader.
Sound/Speaker
Lenovo has packed a lot of functionality into the IdeaPad 720s. It may not be the slimmest or lightest laptop out there, but a good screen, a solid keyboard, and discrete graphics make it one of the best values for gaming/personal use.
It comes with the latest Intel 7th generation Core processors, generous 8 or 16 Gigabytes of RAM, and fast solid state storage in 256 or 512 GB capacity. You can also upgrade the graphics to a dedicated Nvidia 940MX GDDR5 chip that improves performance considerably.
You get JBL branded speakers and Dolby Audio that renders a rich soundscape with full-bodied vocals. If you want to take things even further, you can activate the Dolby Atmos feature for a truly immersive experience.
AIDA64 system stability tests show that temperatures are well-controlled on this laptop. Unlike many other competitors in the same price range, it doesn’t heat up excessively during heavy use or while playing games.
Motherboard
The IdeaPad 720s‘s standard configuration, which is available for $900 in the US, has an Intel Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD. Other configurations have up to a quad-core Core i7 processor and larger SSDs.
The laptop’s memory performed well in our PCMark 8 benchmark test, which simulates everyday tasks such as videoconferencing, web browsing, and e-mail. Switching between 15 Google Chrome tabs was easy, and performance was stable even while streaming YouTube videos.
The laptop’s internal storage also showed excellent performance, recording a sequential write speed of 1674 MBps in our CrystalDiskMark test. This is a fast read/write speed, and it’s more than enough to keep up with your everyday file needs.