Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15″, 2022) review

Lenovo is a master of affordable laptops. While the IdeaPad 1 15 might seem like a drop in the ocean of the company’s portfolio, we have a feeling it has a main role in the future sales numbers. If we look at Lenovo’s laptops as Game of Thrones characters, the IdeaPad 1 15 will be Bran Stark. It knows that it has to compete with the likes of John Snow (Legion 5), or Daenerys Targaryen (IdeaPad 3) to be the king (or queen), and occupy Sales Landing.

And despite there being similarly low-priced options like the V15 or the V155, the IdeaPad 1 15 has one major advantage – the IdeaPad name, which for better or for worse, gives the device some reputation.

You may not know, but the IdeaPad 1 15 comes in different configuration types. Some offer good hardware, while others are more on the budget side. Like the one, we have with us today. It is called the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 15IJL7 and can be found only with Celeron and Pentium processors. Other options include processors of the rank of Ryzen 7 5700U, or Core i7-1255U, but they quickly leave the low-budget category, which makes no practical sense in our view.

Naturally, one of the most efficient ways to keep the price down is to cut out on the display. This is why the IdeaPad 1 (15″, 2022) is offered with a choice of two TN panels – 768p and 1080p ones, as well as a Full HD IPS option.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-ideapad-1-15-2021/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15", 2021/22) - Specs

  • Innolux N156HGA-EA3 (CMN15F5)
  • Color accuracy  7.5  2.9
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 1000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 20GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro
  • Battery
  • 42Wh
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate
  • Dimensions
  • 360.2 x 236 x 17.9 mm (14.18" x 9.29" x 0.70")
  • Weight
  • 1.55 kg (3.4 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 2.0
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • HDMI
  • 1.4b
  • Card reader
  • MMC, SD, SDHC, SDXC
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ac
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2x 1.5W Stereo Speakers, Dolby Audio
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

All Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15″, 2021/22) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside this laptop’s packaging, you will find some paperwork, as well as a 45W charger.


Design and construction

Another way to cut costs is to use lower-quality build materials. For example, plastic is very cheap (there are a lot of different plastic substances though), but it is more prone to flex. In the case of the IdeaPad 1 15, Lenovo uses a combination of polycarbonate and ABS, which has a surprisingly good feel. In addition, it has a very smooth finish, which is the reason for the good feeling but has the unfortunate disadvantage of showing every single fingerprint.

As we said, this material is not very flex-resistant, but to be honest, Lenovo has done a not-bad job in strengthening the chassis on the inside. Both the lid and the base show some resistance before inevitably flexing when twisted. On the bright side, the laptop weighs only 1.55 kg and has a profile of 17.9mm, which makes it one of the most portable offerings for the price.

Can you open the lid with a single hand? No, unfortunately, the hinges take the base with them. On the bright side, the bezels around the matte display are not too thick, while the top one houses an HD Web camera with a privacy shutter on top – a feature rarely seen in this category.

Moving to the base, we see that the power button is separated from the rest of the keyboard, and is placed in the top right part of the device. The keyboard itself lacks a backlight but comes with a NumberPad section, decent key travel, and clicky feedback. It is generally comfortable for typing. Naturally, there is severe deck flex, when you push in the middle of the keyboard. It is especially noticeable when you put some pressure on the space between the touchpad and the keyboard

Speaking of which, the touchpad is pretty good too, as its Mylar surface offers a smooth enough gliding experience. The tracking is not bad, while the latency is almost non-existent. It has a size of 69 by 104mm.

Turn the laptop upside down, to see two speaker cutouts, as well as a ventilation grill. This model has no fan, so there is practically no heat exhaust. However, if you get an option that is actively cooled, it will dissipate the heat through a vent in between the base and the lid.

Ports

On the left side of the device, you will find the power plug, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an HDMI 1.4b connector, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port for data transfer only, and an Audio jack. Then, on the right, there is a USB Type-A 2.0 port, and an SD card reader.


Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance

To take this laptop apart, you first need to undo 10 Phillips-head screws. Then, pry the bottom panel with a plastic tool, and remove it from the chassis.

This device comes with a 42Wh battery pack. It lasts for 9 hours and 30 minutes of Web browsing, or about 9 hours of video playback. To remove it, unplug the battery connector and undo 6 Phillips-head screws.

There is only one SODIMM slot for DDR4 RAM, working at 2933 MHz. Some units will come with 4GB of memory from the same type and speed, soldered to the motherboard. Storage-wise, you get one M.2 PCIe slot for Gen 3 SSDs.

In terms of cooling, this model comes with a single heat pipe, which leads to a rather large heat spreader put in place of a fan.


Display quality

Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15″, 2022) is equipped with a Full HD TN panel with a model number Innolux N156HGA-EA3 (CMN15F5). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution is 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

As expected from a TN panel – the viewing angles are terrible. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The measured maximum brightness of 246 nits in the middle of the screen and 224 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 12%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6050K – slightly warmer than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K, which is not bad.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is low – 350:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15″, 2022)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 54% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15″, 2022) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 11 ms.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15″, 2022) doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment. This makes it comfortable for long periods of work in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Gloss level measurement

Glossy-coated displays are sometimes inconvenient in high ambient light conditions. We show the level of reflection on the screen for the respective laptop when the display is turned off and the measurement angle is 60° (in this case, the result is 51.6 GU).


Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15″, 2022) configurations with 15.6″ FHD TN Innolux N156HGA-EA3 (CMN15F5).

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15″, 2022)’s speaker setup consists of two 1.5W drivers, which produce a sound of not bad quality. Although the loudness is a bit low, the entire frequency range is free of deviations.


Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/1-series/1-15ijl7/downloads/driver-list

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This machine comes with a 42Wh battery pack. It lasts for 9 hours and 23 minutes of Web browsing, or 8 hours and 51 minutes of video playback.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.


CPU options

Since we are reviewing the IdeaPad 1 15IJL version of the laptop, we are going to tell you about its processors of choice. It is arguably the most affordable option, and you can buy it with the two-core Intel Celeron N4500, or the quad-core Celeron N5100. There is also a third option – the Pentium Silver N6000, which can boost all the way up to 3.30 GHz.

Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15", 2021/22) CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15", 2021/22) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15", 2021/22) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.


GPU options

Unsurprisingly, there is no dedicated graphics card option. So, you have to rely on the integrated UHD Graphics inside one of the aforementioned processors.

Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15", 2021/22) GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15", 2021/22) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15", 2021/22) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS29 fps15 fps– fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS38 fps22 fps– fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Pentium Silver N6000 (6W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15″, 2022)3.03 GHz (B+175%) @ 66°C @ 15W2.00 GHz (B+82%) @ 55°C @ 7W2.04 GHz (B+85%) @ 59°C @ 7W
Acer Aspire 3 (A317-33)2.98 GHz (B+171%) @ 63°C @ 16W2.02 GHz (B+84%) @ 52°C @ 7W2.13 GHz (B+94%) @ 52°C @ 7W

Apparently, this chip doesn’t like high wattages. It quickly settles at 7W, which is no problem for IdeaPad 1 (15″, 2022)’s passive cooler.

Comfort during full load

Since there is no fan to move the heat away, most of it absorbs into the keyboard through convection. On the bright side, the temperature is not too high, and the noise levels are basically zero.


Verdict

One might find it difficult to navigate through this laptop’s specs sheet. This is because it comes in all kinds of iterations, featuring CPUs from both Intel and AMD, different RAM speeds, and so on. What we want to eliminate right now is that high-tier Intel and AMD configurations are not very good deals.

Despite the great deal of performance they offer, we feel that the price is too high to justify the added benefit. Especially given the fact that nowadays you can easily find a gaming laptop that will do the job starting as low as $700.

You should also keep in mind that the build quality of the IdeaPad 1 (15″, 2022) is not fantastic. The plastic body panels flex, but to be frank, we expected the situation to be worse than that.

Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (15″, 2022)’s TN panel has a Full HD resolution, quick pixel response times, and a non-flickering backlight. This makes the screen safe for long periods of use in this aspect. However, the viewing angles are uncomfortable, which is an inherent issue with TN panels. Also, it covers only 54% of the sRGB color gamut.

If you can afford it, go for the IPS option – it will be worth it. By the way, this laptop features one SODIMM slot. Our configuration is called the IdeaPad 1-15IJL7, and it supports DDR4 RAM. Some models may come with 4GB soldered to the motherboard. Interestingly, our device was equipped with 3200MHz memory, which works at 2933MHz because of limitations with the chipset.

Another feature you are deprived of is keyboard illumination. On the bright side, the keyboard is pretty comfortable to use, and you get an HD Web camera with a privacy shutter.

Probably the best thing about this device is its battery life. It will get you through 9 hours and 30 minutes of Web browsing, or about 9 hours of video playback on a single charge. Moreover, the battery has a capacity of 42Wh, which means it is going to charge up pretty quickly.

And no – this unit does not have a fan, which means that it is going to be completely silent all the time. We were impressed by the way Lenovo utilized the space cut for the fan assembly, by creating a heat spreader of the same shape and size.

If you are in desperate need of a laptop, and you cannot afford to spend a lot of money on it, the IdeaPad 1 (15″, 2022) might be a sensible choice. You can also check out the Lenovo V15 Gen 2, which is a pretty good machine, which also comes at a low price.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-ideapad-1-15-2021/

Pros

  • Comfortable keyboard
  • Cool during extreme load
  • SD card reader
  • No PWM (Innolux N156HGA-EA3 (CMN15F5))
  • Silent
  • Good battery life


Cons

  • Uncomfortable viewing angles and poor contrast ratio (Innolux N156HGA-EA3 (CMN15F5))
  • It covers only 54% of the sRGB gamut (Innolux N156HGA-EA3 (CMN15F5))
  • Not a great performer
  • Questionable build quality

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