Lenovo IdeaPad S540: A Powerful Ultrathin Laptop

At IFA 2019, the Lenovo IdeaPad series is getting a new powerful member in the form of the IdeaPad S540 Laptop, an ultrathin design that competes in the ~$1000 consumer laptop space.

Of of the things that sets it apart from other 13.3” laptops is that it is designed to provide an excellent performance/size ratio, which makes it ideal for casual gamers, or creatives on the go (or students with a higher budget). These users are often frustrated to have to choose between an ultra-mobility experience and higher performance.

At 2.62 lbs and a thickness of 0.6-inch, the IdeaPad packs a lot of muscles: Intel Core i7 10^th generation, 16GB of RAM and a discrete NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics processor. Despite its small frame, it is still able to provide one full USB 3.1 port, and two USB-C, along with the standard 3.5mm audio connector.

It is possible to opt for Intel Core i3, i5, i7 (including 6-core) processors and also an AMD Ryzen CPU that could boost the performance/price ratio.  With all these options, you can tune the configuration to match your tasks at hand, including 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage.

The GeForce MX250 graphics processor is much more potent than the intel GPUs that are the norm for this class of computers, and if you use them for video compression or artificial intelligence apps, the speed gains are enormous.

To manage the temperature, Lenovo has its software controller called Q-Control which should do a good job of keeping the temperature under control, with as little noise as possible, using machine-learning, Lenovo says.

The display is a 16:10 13.3″ QHD (2560 x 1600) 300-NITs IPS which is very nice. Even though it’s not 4K, it’s significantly sharper than 1080p/FHD. However, it can reproduce 72% of the NTSC color gamut, which is okay, but not entirely ideal for graphic design.  There’s a 3D IR camera that enables Windows Hello face unlock for increased security.

As far as connectivity goes, the IdeaPad S540 can be selected with Bluetooth 5.0, 1×1 WiFi AC, up to 2×2 WiFi AX, which is WiFi-6.

The battery capacity is 56.5 Whr, which is very good for a laptop this size and can fast-charge to 80% in 60mn. Not bad if you’re trying to get some juice right before your next meeting, or boarding your plane.

We’re looking forward to seeing the IdeaPad S540 in action, especially how the 6-core i7 CPU can work with the MX250 GPU to power games and creative apps.

Hubert Nguyen
Categories: Computers
Tags: ideapad, IFA, IFA 2019, Lenovo