Lenovo IdeaPad S405 Review

Lenovo IdeaPad S405 Review

INTRODUCTION

I picked this laptop up on a whim, looking for something cheap but with decent GPU performance. I knew Trinity was a bit weak with CPU performance, but it is supposed to do basic tasks just fine. The GPU is supposed to be gaming worthy, and since that's a hobby of mine, I opted for this Trinity notebook that I got for a steal for not much more than $400, although it's about $500-$550 usually.

AMD hit a home run in my opinion when they released the Llano APU's nearly two years ago. They weren't necessarily the fastest CPU, but they did offer a very potent integrated GPU on die. The CPU was also very easy to overclock with lots of TDP headroom. The HP DV6z models were quite popular which sported most of the Llano line of APU's in addition to a decently powerful dedicated GPU and 1080p screen option. It could compete with mid-range laptops with Intel CPU's and dedicated GPU's, and also the integrated GPU was powerful enough to power games, including Battlefield 3, at 720p resolution.

Trinity is the successor to Llano and is supposed to be a marked improvement in the GPU arena although not much advantage in the CPU performance arena. The idea of having a Windows machine using a single chip to be powerful enough for daily tasks in addition to gaming is they holy grail of light and portable laptops. AMD offers several Trinity APU options, both low voltage 17W, 19W and regular voltage 35W CPU's. The Lenovo S405 here contains the 19W A8-4555m quad core 1.6GHz CPU with Radeon HD 7600G integrated graphics at 320MHz (384 shaders, with boost to 424MHz). It supports maximum 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, and this system comes with a single stick of 4GB DDR3 running at 1333MHz.

It is a 14" thin and light laptop with a 1366x768 screen resolution. It weighs 4lbs, has a 4-cell 33WHr battery, and has all your basic features, wi-fi N, 1 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, HDMI, headphone, gigabit LAN, card reader. Stock system also comes with 4GB RAM and 500GB 5400RPM hard drive.


SPECS

The Lenovo S405 unit being reviewed here came stock with the following specs:

CPU/GPU: A8-4555m CPU @ 1.6GHz (2.4GHz Turbo, 4MB L2 Cache)
with integrated 7600G Radeon GPU @ 320MHz (424MHz Turbo) with 384 shader units.
RAM: 4GB DDR3 1600MHz (clock at max 1333 due to CPU) single stick
Screen: 14.0" 1366x768 LED backlit screen (glossy)
Storage: 500GB 5400RPM HDD 7mm (swapped for 120GB Intel X25-M SSD)
OS: Windows 8 64-bit

A few notes on the specifications. For one there is a single stick of 4GB DDR3 RAM. I took liberties to open the machine, which voids the warranty by the way, to take a peek and there is only a single slot for a single stick of DDR3 RAM. So no hopes on upgrading to dual channel RAM for improved GPU performance, more on that later.

Also, the hard drive is the slim 7.0mm form factor not the standard 9.5mm form factor. So if you are looking to swap out your HDD for an SSD or other hard drive, make sure it is 7.0mm. I replaced the stock 500GB with an Intel X25-M 120GB SSD. I actually took the SSD out of it's housing and it's just an exposed PCB slipped into the slot.

There is the option to add an mSATA drive, which is at SATA III speeds. Keep in mind that updating ANYTHING inside this laptop voids the warranty.


OVERVIEW and FEATURES

Overall the Lenovo S405 is a solid build for a $400 machine, albeit there are no bells and whistles, just your most basic features. The entire construction is plastic, with the lid a brushed silver color and the rest a mixture of matte and glossy black. Some of the features that stand out however are the touchpad, which is huge and a multi-touch Synaptics. Additionally the keyboard is quite nice, quiet and so far no noticeable missed keystrokes. The keyboard is not backlit however.

Around the laptop, on the left is the system exhaust, gigabit LAN, HDMI port, and a single USB 3.0 port. Along the front there is the battery and power indicator lights. On to the right there is a card reader, headphone jack, 2 USB 2.0 ports, and the power connector. Only the battery resides on the back of the unit. I think it is important to note that other than the power and battery LED indicators there are no other indicators like hard drive status, wi-fi, caps lock, etc.

The bottom panel is completely sealed and requires removal of many screws, some hidden, including one under a "Lenovo" sticker which more or less means warranty is void if removed. The battery removes easily though, just like most laptops, two slide switches, one for lock and one a spring switch to rotate and remove the battery.

Windows 8 comes standard with the machine, and to be honest, it boots very quickly even with the 5400RPM hard drive. Most of that thanks to the UEFI standard, not necessarily Windows 8. I will reserve any further comment about Windows 8 since this is really a review about the machine and not about the OS. There is minimal bloatware though, and can be used right out of the box without much issue.

The screen isn't the brightest I've ever seen, and viewing angles are atrocious, but it's really standard fare for most any inexpensive laptop.

The Atheros AR9285 wireless card seemed to work just fine and didn't have any issues catching my wi-fi signal in my home from about 25 feet away thorugh the floor into my basement. It isn't the fastest card, but it manages 2-3MB/s in most cases, which is enough for regular web browsing and downloads. It won't break any speed records on a local WLAN, but it has a gigabit Ethernet port if that is really needed.


BIOS AND CLEAN INSTALL

The BIOS is quite sparse and only offers the most rudimentary options, but it does support UEFI and Secure Boot. I learned the hard way that doing a clean install off a USB drive requires the USB drive be formatted in FAT32 and not NTFS because it cannot recognize NTFS. Kind of odd, but make that a note to self if you decide on doing a clean install off USB. The Function keys require pressing of the "Fn" key in addition to the function key to have them operate as your typical function keys (i.e. F1, F2, F3) and there is no way to swap that function. Getting into the BIOS requires pressing and holding Fn+F2, not just F2. This is problematic with using the computer in general if whatever you're doing requires extensive use of Fn keys and you forget to do the key combination every time. It defaults to just the multimedia keys otherwise (i.e. volume up/down, brightness up/down, touchpad on/off, etc).

Considering I replaced the HDD for an SSD, I did a clean installation of Windows 8. No activation or registration was required after I got it back up and running, and I also noticed there is no Windows key code sticker on the bottom of the laptop. All the appropriate drivers were on Lenovo's website and had no issues getting it up and running. One thing, however, is that some of the OSD and brightness controls are tied to the Lenovo GPU drivers. I had limited functionality when I went straight to a driver from AMD's site and not Lenovo, so the Lenovo drivers are definitely recommended.


BATTERY LIFE

Despite the fact that this machine can sip power at about 7W at idle, it doesn't help matters much when it only has a 33WHr battery. In any case, it still manages right around 4 hours in balanced mode with surfing at 30% brightness. I was also able to watch a 2 hour Netflix movie on battery and still had about 30% battery life left.


HEAT, NOISE, POWER

This will be short and sweet. Temps never exceeded 60C at max load whether CPU, GPU, or both, and idles at about 35-38C. Because of this the fan barely ever moves very fast and is always quite quiet. I could never hear it blowing, and feel a very slow stream of lukewarm air out the side vent.

The 40W power supply is small and compact, and makes it nice for travel. Peak power consumption was 32W from the wall, so the power supply is more than adequate for this system.


PERFORMANCE

Generally speaking this machine handles your normal daily tasks perfectly fine: web browsing, Office documents, HD Flash media, etc. Netflix, YouTube, and HULU HD (1080p) streamed and played perfectly fine too. Audio quality on this machine is about what you'd expect, nothing spectacular, but handled everything at maximum volume without any distortion or tinny sound effects.

While this is not a gaming machine, many people want to game on whatever electronic device they have their hands on. Not only that, the claim to fame of AMD is their high performance integrated graphics performance. Keep in mind that this is a 19W CPU and not standard 35W so take this into account when presented with performance results.

One item to note while on this topic is the, and I hate to say it but idiotic approach Lenovo has taken with this machine. By offering only a single RAM slot, this severely gimps the performance of the GPU by an appreciable amount, likely 30-40% based on how it is tied to the system RAM bandwidth, and other IGP's like the Llano and Intel's HD 4000 show appreciable improvement in gaming performance with dual channel RAM versus single channel.

That being said, every system reporting tool I've used including HWInfo64 and CPU-Z indicate the RAM is running at CAS 5, 1333MHz. Most RAM runs at CAS 8 or 9 at 1333MHz, so that is a surprisingly fast timing. I have tested with various RAM chips and each indicated the same CAS 5, however, so I question its accuracy.

The SATA port is supposedly SATA III, but I only had a SATA II SSD to validate, but there were no bottlenecks shown using the Intel SSD in this AMD machine. The mSATA port is definitely active and supports SATA III speeds as shown by below result of a 256GB Crucial M4 SATA III mSATA SSD that was tested in that slot temporarily.


CPU BENCHMARKS

The quad core A8-4555m CPU supposedly has a stock speed of 1.6GHz with boost to 2.4GHz, but I've found it to run consistently at 1.8GHz and never boost beyond that whether just taxing it with a single thread, or two, three, or four. Voltage is 0.925 to 1.125 depending whether idle or taxed. Unlike the AMD Llano CPU's the Trinity line can not adjust clock speeds or voltages.

CPU benchmarks are a bit lackluster, but then again I doubt many users will be using this to render complex 3D scenes or encode massive amounts of video. It's not really meant for such tasks. I think the file compression and decompression results are what matter most. I threw in the Intel i7-3610QM benchmarks just for reference, because that's what I had readily available.

Benchmark	A8-4555m	i7-3610QM	Comments
Cinebench 11.5 Single	0.60	1.35	None
Cinebench 11.5 Multi	1.32	6.21	None
PCMark 7	2463	4769	http://www.3dmark.com/pcm7/526581
7-Zip Compression	2:00	0:46	935MB, 407 Files
7-Zip Extract	0:21	0:10	935MB, 407 Files
x264 Pass 1	50.1 FPS	134.7 FPS	None
x264 Pass 2	9.0 FPS	34.34 FPS	None

GAME BENCHMARKS

For benchmarks I will only be running a handful of games, not my full gamut just because I think it's clear from the handful I run what it is or isn't capable of. I will admit I did try to run Battlefield 3 and while it would play 64 player multiplayer it was consistently below 20 FPS, usually in teens to single digits at all low detail and 800x600 resolution. So that is not even a possibility. Minecraft ran great using long view distances and the other stuff maxed out.

Getting back to my earlier comment however, this machine might actually be able to handle the likes of Battlefield 3 if they enabled dual channel RAM. That is one sticking point I have a hard time letting go of.

The GPU sliders were adjustable using utilties like MSI Afterburner, which normally means the GPU can be overclocked, however it made little to no difference in benchmark or actual game FPS. So whether it actually overclocks the GPU or not remains to be seen.

The resultant benchmarks were compared with Intel's HD 4000 which is Intel's latest integrated GPU in their line of Ivy Bridge CPU's. Final results are a bit disappointing, but then again, it gets back to Lenovo gimping the GPU performance by not offering dual channel RAM configurations. Most games released in the last year or so can be played successfully at all low settings at 1280x720 resolution. Otherwise most of the 2012 AAA titles will struggle to play at all.

Benchmarks were run at 1280x720 resolution

Benchmark	A8-4555m/7600G	i7-3610QM/HD 4000	Comments
AllBenchmark Catzilla Kitty	802	1791	Kitty 1024x576
3DMark11 P Score	P677	P735	http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4975596
3DMark11 Graphics	627	626	None
3DMark Vanatage P Score	P1968	3878	http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/4406742
3DMark Vantage GPU	1682	3045	None
3DMark06 Score	3737	6278	http://www.3dmark.com/3dm06/16992161
Batman Arkham City	19 FPS	45 FPS	High Settings No AA
Crysis Demo	21 FPS	19.1 FPS	All Medium DX10
Dirt 2 Demo	17.6 FPS	28.1 FPS	Medium settings No AA
HAWX 2	26 FPS	49 FPS	High Settings no AA
Just Cause 2 - Dark Tower	17.6 FPS	26.6 FPS	Medium
Just Cause 2 - Desert Sunrise	24.5 FPS	37.9 FPS	Medium
Just Cause 2 - Concrete Jungle	13.4 FPS	22.9 FPS	Medium
Minecraft	40 FPS	80 FPS	Medium
Skyrim	17 FPS	32 FPS	Medium
STALKER Pripyat - Day	18.5 FPS	34.1 FPS	Medium DX10
STALKER Pripyat - Night	18.3 FPS	34.8 FPS	Medium DX10
STALKER Pripyat - Rain	20.7 FPS	39.45 FPS	Medium DX10
STALKER Pripyat - SunShafts	10.7 FPS	24.2 FPS	Medium DX10
Starcraft 2	24 FPS	35 FPS	Medium 2x2 AI Skirmish
Trackmania	25.6 FPS	68.9 FPS	Medium Settings No AA 16xAF

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Lenovo S405 is a well built machine that will manage your daily basic tasks with ease. There is nothing really special about this machine except possibly the price point. It can be found for about $500-$550 with the reviewed configuration, but I feel there are better options for same money or if you can fork over up to $100 more. Heck, the same configuration with dual channel RAM would have made this machine well worth the $500, but without it, it's nothing more than another netbook. It's a shame, really, considering AMD's IGP is their claim to fame these days, and it would be if Lenovo allowed it to be properly configured.

I give props to the keyboard and large touchpad. It is more or less what a keyboard and touchpad SHOULD be, so it's hard to give any bonus points for offering just an average keyboard and touchpad, but considering the competition in the $500-$600 price range, which is usually much worse, it deserves mention.

Every laptop should offer easy access to the hard drive/SSD and RAM for user upgradability, but this machine requires a lot of screws removed and risk breaking tabs to access anything inside. But worse yet it voids the warranty in doing so. The stock 500GB 5400RPM HDD actually performed better than I expected, although any users wishing for a larger HDD cannot upgrade even if they void the warranty due to use of the 7mm form factor. On the other hand a dual SSD configuration is possible, if you use an mSATA and regular SATA connections.

Can I recommend this laptop to anyone? I'd say for less than $450 it's a good bargain for someone looking for a daily use laptop, that wants something better than the previous gen ULV CPU's like the AMD E-350 or E-450 or Intel's Atom or Celeron line. It kind of falls between those CPU's and Intel's i3/i5 as far as CPU and GPU performance. But if you find this for any more than $450, I'd pass on it and look for something better.

 

Reserved for future comments/updates.

 

I was really looking forward to this laptop, but gimping the RAM really killed the notebook for me. If they would've put dual channel capabilities in there, I would have bought this in a second. It seems like no manufacturer can get the Trinity equation quite right. (HP, please make a Sleekbook 4z next gen!)

 

Yeah, it's like their marketing or engineering are complete morons or there's something else going on behind closed doors. I was excited when I found a good deal, but it doesn't even compete with Intel's HD 4000. Now I'm stuck with a lemon, at least what my intentions were for it. It barely performs better than the Asus Eee with E-350 that my 5 year old is using now, lol. It'll likely go to one of my kids though, because I have no other use for it at at the moment.

 

hm .. rather weak performance.

I think for now only HP has 14" laptop with 35W trinity, i.e. the A10-4600.

 

Which laptop is that? I thought the 14z only came with the E1 or E2 CPU's which are less powerful than Trinity, basically Brazos 2.0?

 

Thanks for the test, unfortunately the performance is poor as we expected from Single Channel memory. I hope in the future other manufacturers won't follow this bad example, because laptops have to have Dual-channel.
At least the mSata port is good point for this laptop, if OS can run from it and the whole 500GB HDD is available for storage.

miro_gt probably means the HP Pavilion G4, which is a 14" laptop with A6-4400M and manually up gradable to A10-4600M.

 

Hmmm, can't seem to find the G4 anywhere. I still like that Samsung. But at this point, I'm set with what I've got. I just blew a bunch of money no a new home server, so any new toys will have to wait until I recover from that. This S405 as a general construction and feel is nice. Just not sure what they were thinking. Makes me wonder sometimes. I'd like to sit in some of these product decision meetings sometimes.

 

HP ProBook 6475b

you can load that thing with A10-4600 and also can have 1600x900 14" mate display

only down side is that it's not as cheap

 

I don't know how you define cheap. But in the US there is multiple places where you can get it configured with 500gb 7200rpm drive, 1600x900 display and 8gb (2x4 DDR3 1600) for around $800 which isn't too bad for the configuration. Also it has TPM, not really a selling point but is a requirement for where I work and in other places for security features enforced by group policy which adds a little more to the cost of the laptop.

HP ProBook 6475b C6Z45UT

Newegg.com - HP ProBook 6475b C6Z45UT 14" LED Notebook - AMD - A-Series A10-4600M 2.3GHz - Tungsten
HP ProBook 6475b Notebook PC (ENERGY STAR) (C6Z45UT) specifications - HP Small & Medium Business products

 

The 14" g4 is currently unavailable from BB. there's the 2235dx and the 2237dx, which, as far as I could tell from the spec sheets when they were available, are identical.

I've got the g4-2235dx that I upgraded to the A10.
$350 for the laptop itself, $40 for 8GB, and $120 for the A10.

 

Good review! Thanks, there were some interesting tidbits about the keyboard and touchpad I liked. Too bad Lenovo skimpped on the dual channel memory and crappy display.

 

that's a OK price. Last time I checked those were selling for more, because I looked into getting one of these as well. I define "cheap" as a comparison of what a person can get from other manufacturers with similar components and overall quality.

- but yes, huge down side for the s405 for not having dual channel memory, we all know how that affects integrated graphics.

 

The Samsung Series 5 has been as low as $650 with A10-4655m except 14" 1366x768. $800 just seems steep to me when you can find pretty much any decent 15" laptop not much bigger or heavier with a dedicated GPU.

 

I bought a an Idea pad S405 and am happy with the performance boost when compared to a E-350 also I caught the last few min of an online 1 day sale and got it for 429.

I primarily use it for Netflix and Hulu and over the last 4 to 6 months rich media content has upped their recommended requirements and weren't doing so well on that platform.

Where I agree its gimped with single channel and no A10 option but I did find that AMD's OverDrive utility partially works and I can over clock the igpu to 700 but 650 to 670 and makes skyrim playable windowed at 1024x640 on medium presets (I use a gamepad) which leaves me enough space on the side of the screen to have windows 8 app running "minimized" or what ever they would call it.

 

I tried overclocking and it made zero improvement for any game.

 

What happened to my review? It just went bye bye! :cry:

edit: whoa, weird... I googled and found it here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ideapad-essential/702248-lenovo-ideapad-s405-review.html

 

I merged the two threads. Not sure how they got separated in the first place though.

 

i have a question. you stated that the s405 supports a ssd via the sata hd port but when i tried to boot up the pc with a crucial m4 120gb it wouldnt start, im guessing it was too much power. whats your conclusion? and would i be able to use a 64gb crucial m4 msata for the os and the 500gb hd for files and upgrade to 8gb ram or would that hinder the power?

 

Check to see that if Secure Boot is enabled. Disabling it allows booting from an external USB device. Sometimes changing the BIOS from UEFI to Legacy permits booting from USB too.

The s405 supports one 2.5" drive AND mSATA drives. Both at SATA III.

As for the RAM, i believe 2 GB are soldered onto the board and there is an sodimm slot for adding say an 8 GB module.

Sent from my XT557 using Tapatalk 2

 

Nope, only a single RAM slot nothing soldered. I would have been fine if 2GB was soldered as it would have offered near dual channel iGPU performance.