Lenovo Ideapad 320s - Which of These Two Configs?

[competitor]

Basically been asked by family friend to recommend a very budget laptop for their 10 year old. Original budget was £250 but got them to consider going up to £329 but think that's the top limit.

Requirements are Windows 10 machine, very casual gaming as they have X-Box so possibly Minecraft and some older games as appreciate at this price point you cannot expect miracles.

I totally appreciate limitations regarding screen and processor but through my research have narrowed it down to these two Lenovo Ideapad 320S Models. Whilst Config 1 has, on paper, a lower spec processor and integrated GPU it does have an 128GB SSD which will make things seem a bit more snappy and a rather glowing review. Config 2 has a 6th generation Core i3 but a traditional 1TB HDD.

I am just having huge difficulty in deciding which is the better configuration of the two. What are people's thoughts and would the advantage of the SSD out weight the theoretical advantage of the Core i3 processor? Or, putting aside the SSD is it still better to go for the Core i3 processor if speed of booting up and opening Apps isn't that important?

Decisions decisions, any guidance gratefully recieved.


Config 1:
LENOVO Ideapad 320s-14IKB 14” Laptop - £329

There are some surprisingly good reviews for this model and actually it seems to represent good value for money.

https/www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/budget-laptops/lenovo-ideapad-320s-review-3663694/

https/www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-320s-14ikb-14-laptop-grey-10164431-pdt.html?awc=1599_1512577884_f667e44c309bb66e3cc9b1af728969fd&srcid=369&xtor=AL-1&cmpid=aff~PC%20Advisor~Editorial%20Content~254429&awid=254429


Config 2:
LENOVO IdeaPad 320-14ISK 14” Laptop - £279

https/www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-320-14isk-14-laptop-blue-10168563-pdt.html?awc=1599_1512580726_bb59656164316da22f57c6da3a549780&srcid=369&xtor=AL-1&cmpid=aff~PC%20Advisor~Editorial%20Content~254429&awid=254429

 

[hang-the-9]

I would forget about games on a system like this, maybe Minecraft will run OK with the optifine mode though.

For the price, I wold pick an SSD over a faster CPU. For a 10 year old I may look at used systems. Once you get into the 300 range of used computers you can get a system that is 3-4 years old that was 1,000 when new. Much better than a new budget system. You can get an i5, solid state drive, 8 GB of RAM and a better screen.

Used business class systems like the Lenovo T series, Dell Lattitude, HP ProBooks are good.

 

[competitor]

I would forget about games on a system like this, maybe Minecraft will run OK with the optifine mode though.

For the price, I wold pick an SSD over a faster CPU. For a 10 year old I may look at used systems. Once you get into the 300 range of used computers you can get a system that is 3-4 years old that was 1,000 when new. Much better than a new budget system. You can get an i5, solid state drive, 8 GB of RAM and a better screen.

Used business class systems like the Lenovo T series, Dell Lattitude, HP ProBooks are good.

Thanks hang-the-9 for your response.

The SSD option is the one I had initially recommended but suddenly had a bit of a panic if that was the correct choice. Totally agree, at the price point we are talking any gaming is optimistic, I honestly wish I hadn't agreed to research this as with such a restricted budget it really makes the choices very critical and hard - with a £400 budget it would get a little easier to make clearer choices.

Agree, the second hand option would be what I would consider but think friends are the type that would want brand new.

 

[competitor]

I would forget about games on a system like this, maybe Minecraft will run OK with the optifine mode though.

For the price, I wold pick an SSD over a faster CPU. For a 10 year old I may look at used systems. Once you get into the 300 range of used computers you can get a system that is 3-4 years old that was 1,000 when new. Much better than a new budget system. You can get an i5, solid state drive, 8 GB of RAM and a better screen.

Used business class systems like the Lenovo T series, Dell Lattitude, HP ProBooks are good.

Just out of curiosity these were two other considerations, any opinion on these compared to the Lenovo's:

HP 15-bw055sa 15.6" Laptop - Grey

Not a bad all rounder

https/www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-15-bw055sa-15-6-laptop-grey-10169034-pdt.html#srcid=11026

HP 15-bs559sa 15.6" Laptop


This one similar to above HP but slightly faster processor (Another Core i3 but actually current (7th) generation compared to the Lenovo’s Core 13 which is previous generation (6th)

https/www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-15-bs559sa-15-6-laptop-silver-10169036-pdt.html

 

[jaguarskx]

Config 1:
LENOVO Ideapad 320s-14IKB 14” Laptop - £329

There are some surprisingly good reviews for this model and actually it seems to represent good value for money.

https/www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/budget-laptops/lenovo-ideapad-320s-review-3663694/

https/www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-320s-14ikb-14-laptop-grey-10164431-pdt.html?awc=1599_1512577884_f667e44c309bb66e3cc9b1af728969fd&srcid=369&xtor=AL-1&cmpid=aff~PC%20Advisor~Editorial%20Content~254429&awid=254429


Config 2:
LENOVO IdeaPad 320-14ISK 14” Laptop - £279

https/www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-320-14isk-14-laptop-blue-10168563-pdt.html?awc=1599_1512580726_bb59656164316da22f57c6da3a549780&srcid=369&xtor=AL-1&cmpid=aff~PC%20Advisor~Editorial%20Content~254429&awid=254429

Between these two I would get the Lenovo with the i3-6006u and Intel HD 520 graphics core for £279 since overall it is a more powerful laptop. Yes, it only has a hard drive, but it represents a better value overall especially for playing games. Yes, a laptop with a SSD can boot / load programs faster. But if you want to play games which situation would you prefer?

#1 - Fast boot and game loads up fast, but gaming perform worse.
#2 - Slower boot times, games load slower, but better performance in games.

You can always replace the HDD with a SSD later on when it is on sale (maybe for Christmas 2018). An example is the following 120GB SSD for £48.99

https/www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-PLUS-Sata-inch-Internal/dp/B01F9G414U/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1512662346&sr=8-2&keywords=128gb+ssd


The Pentium 4415u's Intel HD 610 graphics core is actually not too bad. Notebookcheck.net ranks it it as equal to the Intel HD 4400. I have a Dell laptop with a Core i5-4200u and the Intel HD 4400 which I used to test out some games (it has a dedicated Radeon HD 8850 GPU... a little less powerful than a nVidia 945m) and it can handle games decently well with tweaks in some case and low expectations. At the time the laptop was having overheating issues (I fixed it later) so I disabled Turbo Boost which limited the CPU to run at 1.7GHz. I tested games like Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, Fallout 3, Star Trek Online. Skyrim and Fallout 3 needed some tweaks, but those games could be played at 1600x900 resolution with Skyrim's FPS averaging over 40 FPS and Fallout 3 averaging around 35 FPS (despite being older than Skyrim). However, the Pentium 4415 does not have Hyper Threading which meant the games and Windows background processes were all using the cores.With the i5-4200u, at least Windows background process was using Hyper Threading.

The Intel HD 520 is more powerful than the Intel HD 610 so overall it should provide better gaming performance. It is roughly similar to the nVidia 820m... certainly not something to boast about, but still, it is more powerful. Plus the i3-6006u has Hyper Threading which means Windows background processes can Hyper Threading instead of the physical cores, unless it is a pretty CPU demanding process.

 

[competitor]

Config 1:
LENOVO Ideapad 320s-14IKB 14” Laptop - £329

There are some surprisingly good reviews for this model and actually it seems to represent good value for money.

https/www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/budget-laptops/lenovo-ideapad-320s-review-3663694/

https/www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-320s-14ikb-14-laptop-grey-10164431-pdt.html?awc=1599_1512577884_f667e44c309bb66e3cc9b1af728969fd&srcid=369&xtor=AL-1&cmpid=aff~PC%20Advisor~Editorial%20Content~254429&awid=254429


Config 2:
LENOVO IdeaPad 320-14ISK 14” Laptop - £279

https/www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-320-14isk-14-laptop-blue-10168563-pdt.html?awc=1599_1512580726_bb59656164316da22f57c6da3a549780&srcid=369&xtor=AL-1&cmpid=aff~PC%20Advisor~Editorial%20Content~254429&awid=254429

Between these two I would get the Lenovo with the i3-6006u and Intel HD 520 graphics core for £279 since overall it is a more powerful laptop. Yes, it only has a hard drive, but it represents a better value overall especially for playing games. Yes, a laptop with a SSD can boot / load programs faster. But if you want to play games which situation would you prefer?

#1 - Fast boot and game loads up fast, but gaming perform worse.
#2 - Slower boot times, games load slower, but better performance in games.

You can always replace the HDD with a SSD later on when it is on sale (maybe for Christmas 2018). An example is the following 120GB SSD for £48.99

https/www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-PLUS-Sata-inch-Internal/dp/B01F9G414U/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1512662346&sr=8-2&keywords=128gb+ssd


The Pentium 4415u's Intel HD 610 graphics core is actually not too bad. Notebookcheck.net ranks it it as equal to the Intel HD 4400. I have a Dell laptop with a Core i5-4200u and the Intel HD 4400 which I used to test out some games (it has a dedicated Radeon HD 8850 GPU... a little less powerful than a nVidia 945m) and it can handle games decently well with tweaks in some case and low expectations. At the time the laptop was having overheating issues (I fixed it later) so I disabled Turbo Boost which limited the CPU to run at 1.7GHz. I tested games like Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, Fallout 3, Star Trek Online. Skyrim and Fallout 3 needed some tweaks, but those games could be played at 1600x900 resolution with Skyrim's FPS averaging over 40 FPS and Fallout 3 averaging around 35 FPS (despite being older than Skyrim). However, the Pentium 4415 does not have Hyper Threading which meant the games and Windows background processes were all using the cores.With the i5-4200u, at least Windows background process was using Hyper Threading.

The Intel HD 520 is more powerful than the Intel HD 610 so overall it should provide better gaming performance. It is roughly similar to the nVidia 820m... certainly not something to boast about, but still, it is more powerful. Plus the i3-6006u has Hyper Threading which means Windows background processes can Hyper Threading instead of the physical cores, unless it is a pretty CPU demanding process.

Thanks for this perspective as well - this is exactly the reason I've been switching back-and-forth between both configurations, there are gains and losses which ever choice. I had checked out the graphics performance and you've confirmed my understanding that the Intel HD 520 is the better of the two and, looking at the cost of cpu's the i3 represents better value. I guess the thing to bear in mind, you can always upgrade the HDD to SSD but you can't upgrade the cpu. I'm not familiar with the Lenovo's but I assume you would just need to swap out the HDD with an SSD? Now leaning back more towards the i3 configuration.

 

[jaguarskx]

Just out of curiosity these were two other considerations, any opinion on these compared to the Lenovo's:

HP 15-bw055sa 15.6" Laptop - Grey

Not a bad all rounder

https/www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-15-bw055sa-15-6-laptop-grey-10169034-pdt.html#srcid=11026

HP 15-bs559sa 15.6" Laptop


This one similar to above HP but slightly faster processor (Another Core i3 but actually current (7th) generation compared to the Lenovo’s Core 13 which is previous generation (6th)

https/www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-15-bs559sa-15-6-laptop-silver-10169036-pdt.html

Ignore the 1st HP laptop with the A6-9220 APU. It is the least powerful processor and it has least powerful integrated graphics core. The Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge) integrated GPU is a little less powerful than the Intel HD 4000 found in 3rd generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7 CPUs.


If you can convince your friend to increase the budget to £349, then the 2nd HP laptop is definitely the laptop to buy since it will offer the best gaming performance. LoL can be played at 1080p with ultra settings without any issue. I believe I have seen a video of Skyrim running at 1366x768 resolution using medium graphic settings with pretty decent results. I am sure with some tweaks and mods I could get Skyrim to run decently well at 1080p decently well. or at least look and player better at 1600x900 compared to the Intel HD 4400.

 

[competitor]

Just to say thanks for the help on this.

In the end my friend chose the Lenovo IdeaPad 310-15ISK Laptop, Intel Core i3, 4GB, 1TB, 15.6”:

https/www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-ideapad-310-15isk-laptop-intel-core-i3-4gb-1tb-15-6-silver/p3356842

Basically they have around £300 of John Lewis vouchers so were tied to making the purchase from there. Looking over this computer it looks to basically have the same innards as the Ideapad 320 I was recommending but with a 15.6" screen as opposed to 14" screen but lacking a USB C port. Technically it's previous generation compared to 320 but seems to be technically the same in terms of CPU and HDD.

Very tricky at this low price point to recommend anything but hopefully they'll be happy with this.