Lenovo Ideapad 530S: a solidly designed and powerful ultraportable

Construction

Without deviating from its guideline, Lenovo again offers us a sober and very well constructed ultraportable, which certainly lacks fantasy, but which responds exactly to what is expected of it. The chassis of the 530S, all in metal, is thus entirely gray and benefits from a very successful matt coating. Only the frame around the screen and the hinge, entirely black, contrast slightly with the rest, but the whole remains very sober. The level of finish is impeccable and certain details are pleasing, such as the 180-degree tilt of the screen.

The keyboard is still as efficient, Lenovo has been used to integrating slightly rounded keys on the underside for a while. Thanks to a relatively long stroke for an ultraportable and, above all, a good sensation of typing feedback, it is possible to type long texts without typing errors. 2 levels of backlighting are also offered. The touchpad is particularly well integrated into the chassis, and responsive. Quite wide, it offers precise and efficient gliding.

Connectivity side, the Ideapad 530S is efficient and very complete for an ultraportable: 2 USB 3 ports, 1 USB 3.1 Type-C port, 1 HDMI output, a mini-jack combo socket, as well as a reader of multiformat cards.

On the heating and noise side, the Ideapad 530S is flawless. After one hour of heating under Unigine Heaven, there is thus a hot spot at 39.3 ° C at the front, just above the keyboard and at 43.3 ° C under the chassis. Low temperatures and moreover very localized. In addition, ventilation is always very discreet, constantly below 37 dB (A) and therefore inaudible, unless you stick your ear to the product.

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Screen

This Ideapad 530S has a 14-inch screen, displaying a Full HD definition (1,920 x 1,080 pixels). The screen here is of the IPS type and shiny and there is a good screen occupancy rate of 79%.

contrast 1091: 1 Delta E 5.6 temperature 6760 K

This screen is in any case of fairly good quality, but fishes on a few important points, which prevents it from exceeding 3 stars. Its biggest flaw is probably its too low maximum brightness, which does not exceed 243 cd / m². Added to this is a decent, but not flamboyant, contrast of 1091: 1. Readability outdoors is therefore fairly average.

On the colorimetry side, the results are generally good, with in particular a color temperature of 6,760 K, close to the expected 6,500 K. The gray gradient is therefore well balanced and does not draw too much towards the blue, nor too much towards the red. Delta E is however a little too high, at 5.6, a sign of a certain lack of fidelity in the display of colors. Remember that delta E represents the difference between the actual colors and the colors displayed, and is considered to be excellent below 3.

Finally, we note a remanence time of 20 ms, which remains very high, even for an IPS panel and a PC primarily intended for office automation.

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Performances

The Ideapad 530S has a solid configuration, consisting of an Intel Core i7-8550U processor (4 cores / 8 threads, frequencies between 1.8 and 4 GHz), 8 GB of RAM in DDR4 and an SSD 256 GB. No dedicated graphics card on this model, and you have to settle for an Intel HD Graphics 620 iGPU.

This laptop is in any case very swift and will be comfortable in a large number of tasks: advanced office, web surfing, video, a little photo editing and light video editing ... Its power index calculated from a series of benchmarks (audio and video conversion, file compression, photo editing, 3D calculation) is consistent compared to other substantially identical models.

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Mobility / Autonomy

This Ideapad 530S is not the lightest ultraportable on the market, but still remains highly transportable. It is indeed quite compact for a 14 inch (324 x 226 x 17 mm), but still weighs 1.5 kg. However, it comes with a small charger and fits easily into a medium-sized bag.

On the autonomy side, the results are quite mixed, since it is difficult to exceed 6:30 hours of use, even when playing on the energy saving options. Our autonomy test in video streaming (Netflix in Chrome, brightness at 200 cd / m², headphones plugged in and keyboard backlight off) thus ran for 6h10.

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Audio

The audio part of the Lenovo Ideapad 530S is very convincing, both for the headphone output and the speakers. The first does indeed deliver good output power, but still contains its distortion. The dynamics and crosstalk are also quite satisfactory.

The speakers, placed under the chassis to the right and left, and therefore a little muffled, deliver convincing sound. There is a good presence of mediums and high mediums, and the voices are well put forward. For extra use, they will do just fine.

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Conclusion

Without achieving excellence, the Ideapad 530S remains a good 14-inch ultraportable, which focuses above all on its sober design and impeccable build quality. Powerful for a PC of this category, it fishes on the other hand by a somewhat fair autonomy and a screen which would have deserved a little more care.

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