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General discussion

Lenovo Ideapad 320s, Vivobook 14s or...?

Apr 21, 2018 11:56AM PDT

Hey community,

I am looking for a small and portable Laptop with god battery life and good enough specs to work with, that I can take on my travels.

At the moment, it comes down to the Lenovo Ideapad 320s in 14 inch (550 US$, 4gb RAM, 1TB HDD, both upgradeable), the same laptop in 13.3 inch variation (720 US$, 8gb RAM, 256 SSD) or the Asus Vivobook 14s (780 US$, 8gb RAM, 256 SSD).

It has to be portable and light. thats why I tend to the Ideapad 320s. But I read a review that the battery and performance is not that great, so I am still thinking.

I am also open to any recommandations what else I could get in that price range.
Also, ASUS has the 2 years global warranty, whereas Lenovo just offers 1 year warranty.

Any advices? Suggestions?

Discussion is locked

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What models?
Apr 21, 2018 12:12PM PDT

I was going to check into the battery test results but with you only supplying the model series I found the two series trading places on battery results.

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models
Apr 21, 2018 1:33PM PDT

Lenovo Ideapad 320s 13IKBR (13 inch model)

Lenovo Ideapad 320s 81BN006PTA (14 inch model)

ASUS Vivobook s14 S410UN-EB121T

Thanks for your help!

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By the numbers.
Apr 21, 2018 1:52PM PDT

1. https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-IdeaPad-320S-13IKBR-i5-8250U-MX150-Laptop-Review.272208.0.html
Battery time goes from low of 1h 13m to high of 12h 16m
NBC Edge test time was: 5h 44m.

-> This is NOT A GAMING LAPTOP. I can't guess if you thought of gaming, but you will be very disappointed.
--> PWM was detected. For me, this puts it into my not going to buy. I've seen such and will pass on models that show PWM.

2. https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-IdeaPad-320s-14IKB-i5-7200U-920MX-SSD-FHD-Laptop-Review.285096.0.html
Battery time was not tested the same way but:
NBC Edge test came in at 8h 50m

-> This is NOT A GAMING LAPTOP. I can't guess if you thought of gaming, but you will be very disappointed.
--> PWM was detected. For me, this puts it into my not going to buy. I've seen such and will pass on models that show PWM.

3. The exact model does not have battery numbers so I'm using this report.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-VivoBook-S14-S406UA-i5-8250U-SSD-HD-Laptop-Review.280542.0.html

Battery time on the web surf was 476m or about 8 hours so it's not out of line in this class.

For the model with the MX150 GPU the same issues appear.
-> This is NOT A GAMING LAPTOP. I can't guess if you thought of gaming, but you will be very disappointed.
--> PWM was detected. For me, this puts it into my not going to buy. I've seen such and will pass on models that show PWM.


Frankly I don't see the attraction on these models. I mean if they were cheap, say half price of what you listed, sure but the fact they all are PWM displays and poor to middling GPUs the you have to wonder why you don't forgo this GPU since we won't be gaming in favor of the Intel graphics.

Anyhow, for me, all are no-sales.

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no gaming
Apr 21, 2018 2:05PM PDT

Thank you so much for your answer. Appreciate your help.

For me, I won't use my new laptop for gaming at all. It is just for work (internet marketing, maybe some coding, normal office work, skype calls,...) and personal use. I am not planning to use it for games. The quality of the display is not a big criteria for me. As long as I can work with it, I am fine.

So, do you have other recommendations? Or which one would you get out of those?
The battery time will be roughly the same then?

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Once you see flicker on certain colors
Apr 21, 2018 2:18PM PDT

You'll remember I called this out. My list is the usual XPS and such models. The models you listed are all trading blows but here at the office we use gamer laptops with the usual i7 and 1050 or better GPU, 16GB RAM and SSD. These hover about the 1K USD mark. Battery time is never a question as we are using them for programming (we do apps and such.)

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So how should I decide?
Apr 21, 2018 2:34PM PDT

So what model would you recommand in my price range?

Also, I am backpacking long term...therefore I don't really want to carry a high end laptop with me. I often leave my bags at a hostel and go out and smth like that...

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Why a laptop then?
Apr 21, 2018 3:29PM PDT
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not enough
Apr 21, 2018 10:58PM PDT

For my purposes, a smartphone is not enough...
I want to learn coding, make websites, internet marketing, customer services...its just impossible with just my phone.

So which one of the choices would you recommand? Or any suggestion in that price class (up to 600 US$)?

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Given the choices.
Apr 22, 2018 7:53AM PDT

The 2nd or 3rd model. I didn't see any real difference between them. I supplied the links to reviews and if I got the wrong model you can correct that.

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Best Option for You.....
Apr 22, 2018 11:03PM PDT

Lenovo Ideapad 320s in 14 inch will be best suite for your requirements.