In the lowest price range for Windows laptops, people often don’t have high hopes. The $299 Lenovo IdeaPad 1 14 goes against them: It has a full HD screen, a comfortable keyboard, and a solid build, which you don’t usually find in a $300 Windows 10 computer. This 14-inch laptop is also easy to carry and has a fast SSD that lets apps load quickly. You might miss having a modern USB-C port or two (the chassis doesn’t have any), and you might not like how dim the screen backlight is, but other than that, this laptop is one of the better choices for the cheapest laptops.
Specifications
- Processor: AMD RYZEN 3 7320U
- Screen: 14.0FHD TN, 16:9, up to 85% AAR, 4-side narrow bezel
- Memory: 8GB Soldered LPDDR5-5500
- Battery: 42Wh battery, up to 10hr battery life, rapid charge
- Storage: 256GB / 512GB SSD M.2 2242 PCIe 4.0×4 NVMe
- Camera: HD 720p with privacy shutter
Where to buy Lenovo IdeaPad 1?
The IdeaPad 1 14 doesn’t look as good as the MSI Modern 14. It’s also a bit bigger, even though the screen size is the same. The IdeaPad is 0.78 inches tall, 12.9 inches wide, and 9.25 inches deep, and it weighs 3.1 pounds. The MSI is 0.7 inches tall, 12.6 inches wide, and weighs 2.8 pounds. Display bezels are a good place to see the difference in size. The IdeaPad 1 14’s bezels are thick strips of black plastic, while the Modern 14’s thinner bezels help it look more like its name.
The power button on the laptop is on the top row of function keys, which also has a button to turn off the webcam. Since the camera doesn’t have face recognition and there isn’t a fingerprint reader, the IdeaPad 1 14 can’t be used to sign in to Windows Hello without a password. But we don’t think it will at this price. The touchpad on the IdeaPad 1 14 is comfortable. It has a large, clickable surface that is a little stiff at the top but moves around pretty well.
AMD says that the IdeaPad Slim 1’s Ryzen 3 7320U processor is made for daily use, with a good balance of performance and battery life. We found that the device worked well for things like running office programmes, browsing the web, and video conferencing.
Now, we run the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, the screen brightness set to 120 nits, and all programmes except the one we’re using to test the notebook turned off. A 42Wh battery pack is included with this machine. It can be used to browse the Internet for 9 hours and 23 minutes, or to watch videos for 8 hours and 51 minutes.