Lenovo IdeaPad 530S is a premium thin-and-light laptop for less
But it's still not exactly cheap.
- More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.
The Lenovo IdeaPad 530S looks the part of a premium thin-and-light laptop.
Available in 14- and 15.6-inch sizes, the chassis are made from polished aluminum and their IPS displays are surrounded with ultrathin bezels that not only look good, but help keep the bodies as small as possible. The 14-inch starts at 3.3 pounds (1.5 kg) and is only 0.6-inch thick (16.4 mm), while the 15.6-inch version starts at 3.7 pounds (1.7 kg) and measures 0.7-inch (16.8 mm).
The thing is, despite the upscale design, Lenovo managed to start pricing at a reasonable $800 or roughly £590 and AU$1,070 converted. That configuration will likely feature all the base components: a 14-inch full HD display with a seventh-gen Intel Core i7 processor, integrated Intel HD Graphics 620, 4GB of memory and a 128GB PCIe SSD with 1x1 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
Other configurations will include:
- An eighth-gen Intel Core i7 processor
- 4, 8 or 16GB of memory
- 128, 256 or 512GB PCIe SSDs
- Nvidia GeForce MX130 or MX150 discrete graphics
- A WQHD-resolution display (2,560x1,440 pixels) for the 14-inch model
- 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi
Other points of interest include options for a backlit keyboard with its Windows Precision touchpad as well as a fingerprint reader. Ports include two USB 3.0 and one USB-C 3.1 (gen 1), a full-size HDMI output and an SD card reader. And while battery life is only rated at up to 8 hours, a quick charge of 15 minutes gets you 2 hours of battery.
Look for the IdeaPad 530S in May alongside the considerably more budget-friendly Ideapad 330 and 330S.
