Lenovo Ideapad 710S review

The Ideapad 710S is a small, powerful and stylish package

The Ideapad 710S packs a crisp 13.3in Full HD screen into an elegant frame. Lenovo's powerful ultraportable is offered in various configurations, chief among them being the i7 model that we're reviewing here. An i5 model can also be picked up. If you're considering an ultrabook investment this should be fast-tracked to the top of your list.

Design
The Ideapad 710s cuts a fine figure. Our review unit is stylish in silver but there's a gold variant too. The gold option elevates the Ideapad's already beautiful design, but we reckon it would be just a little too gaudy for the office.

The Ideapad 710S measures just 307mm at its widest point. The lid is made from aluminium and magnesium, contributing to its thin (13.9mm) and light (1.2kg) properties. That's not to say it's not sturdy because it is, at least to a point. Some flex is evident if really pushed, but not enough to cause any concern. The underside does away with the mixture and is made wholly from aluminium.

However, the lithe dimensions limit the connectivity options to 2x USB 3.0, micro HDMI output, SD card reader and an audio combination jack. Those after USB-C, full-size HDMI, Kensington lock, or legacy Ethernet will be disappointed.

The decision to make the cursor keys the same size as everything else is somewhat baffling. And, while we're used to the chiclet-style keyboard, the Ideapad's power button is in this key-based kingdom. Like Asus, Lenovo has clearly taken some inspiration from the MacBook in this regard, but the LED indicator has been relegated to the side of the chassis.

Lenovo Ideapad 710S review

The Ideapad 710S is a small, powerful and stylish package

Performance and hardware
Our demo model was fitted with a Skylake Intel Core i7-6560U running at 2.2GHz, 8GB of LPDDR3-1866 RAM and Intel Iris Graphics 540. That 540 GPU is quite a feather in the Ideapad's cap, seeing as it shares 64MB of eDRAM with the CPU.

The addition of optional Intel Iris Graphics boosts the Ideapad's strong productivity and creativity features, and gives it the power to drive 3D gaming should the need take you.

The Skylake processor uses dual cores and, when coupled with Hyper Threading, can push speeds up to 3.2GHz across a single core.

The Ideapad 710S scored 4,197 in our 3DMark Sky Diver benchmark test, while the Dell XPS 13 pushed that just over the 5,000 mark.

Our PCMark 8 Home test returned a score of 3,536. For contrast the Dell XPS 13 Series scored in the region of 3,300, while the Surface Book limped in with 2,833.

Heat is dissipated through the horizontal grille on the bottom of the device and the angled vents near the hinge mechanism. We did notice a gentle whirr when under load, but it's a long way from the whooshing we've come to expect and hardly worthy of mention. Heat too isn't a problem, and the Ideapad can be used comfortably on the lap.

Read and write times are impressive thanks to the speedy PCI-Express (NVMe) 256GB Samsung SSD (a smaller 128GB drive is also available) and there's Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165 and Bluetooth 4.0.

For once the Touchpad didn't have us scrambling to connect a mouse. The clicks are rather nicely understated, and the cursor is nippy and responsive, meaning we were able to fly it around the screen with precision.

Despite our earlier misgivings around button design, the Ideapad 710S is a pleasure to use. The keyboard has a flat design and there's an acceptable travel between the keys.

In terms of sound you'll find dual down-firing speakers nestled in the laptop's bottom corners.

They lack bass, but the combination of JBL and Dolby audio technology provides a surprisingly full soundstage and not the hollow, tinny experience you'd expect from a device with such a lightweight frame.

Lenovo Ideapad 710S review

The Ideapad 710S is a small, powerful and stylish package

Display
The Ideapad's big talking point is that 13.3in Full HD IPS panel. Lenovo has hit the sweet spot in terms of size and pixel count, as anything more than the 1,920x1,080 resolution would be lost on this display.

Our machine was set up with Windows scaling adjusted to 150 per cent. This is slightly excessive in our view, but it's testament to the Ideapad's prowess that everything remained sharp and clear.

The display is bright and visually rich, and those deep blacks and glacial whites give the Ideapad a certain film-like quality. It's certainly one of the more attractive screens we've come across in recent memory, and it remained a comfortable viewing experience even after several hours. At this resolution you're not likely to encounter any problems, even when working on large, minutely detailed spreadsheets or endlessly scrolling reports.

It also has a matte finish allowing us to use it under gaudy fluorescent lights and sunlight without excessive glare or reflections.

Lenovo likes to call it an 'Infinity Display' owing to the 5mm bezel (at the sides at least), but that ultra-thinness doesn't stretch all the way around so the effect is diminished somewhat. If you want a true edgeless display, try putting it next to something like the Dell XPS 13, and you'll immediately see the difference.

Battery and power
The four-cell battery is non-user replaceable. On average we found it lasted an average business day at between seven and eight hours.

This result is decidedly better than the Dell XPS 13, but it falls behind Microsoft's Surface Book and the Apple MacBook.

Lenovo Ideapad 710S review

The Ideapad 710S is a small, powerful and stylish package

Software
The 710S comes preloaded with Windows 10 Home and a trial version of Microsoft Office.

Windows 10 Home lacks the enterprise-hardened security features afforded by Windows 10 Professional, but you're still able to take advantage of Trusted Boot and Device Encryption features which should provide at least some peace of mind. This could be a sticking point if you were looking to upgrade a fleet, as you'd need to secure additional licences/software.

We need to pause a moment to talk about bloat. Yes, we realise it's part of the parcel, and we could easily reformat if we wanted a clean platter, but such apps should always be made optional. Still, that's an altogether wider problem that's not limited to Lenovo.

All you need to know here is that to enjoy the Ideapad at its freshest you'll need to do away with the Lenovo Companion app, REACHit Drive, SHAREit, PicsArt, Lenovo Photo Master, OneKey Recovery, McAfee LiveSafe and Candy Crush Soda Saga. To Lenovo's credit the firm has at least tried to acknowledge the problem with the Lenovo App Explorer, but it strikes us as a little perfunctory when you've already got the Microsoft Store built into Windows.

Price
We're reliably informed that different configurations will be available, but at the time of writing Lenovo offers only the Intel Core i5/8GB RAM/256GB SSD model directly. It can be picked up for £699.

A number of third parties are beginning to get the i7 model we reviewed, but obviously you're paying more for the uptick in performance so expect to lay out around £899.

Summary
The Ideapad 710S is a high value ultrabook at a low price. It's a hard laptop to fault, with a beautiful screen, powerful internals and graceful design. If you're looking for a counterpoint to the Dell XPS 13 and Acer Aspire S 13, Lenovo's effort succeeds on almost every level.