PC World (2019-04)

56 PCWorld APRIL 2019

REVIEWS LENOVO IDEAPAD 730S

loads, it ran cool and

quiet most of the time.

We can certainly see

the benefits of Whiskey

Lake—and, perhaps, that

thermal design—in the PCMark 8 Work

benchmark. The IdeaPad 730S edged out

every other thin-and-light laptop we’ve tested

in the last six months, including some Intel

Core-i7 U-Series notebooks and Dell’s rival

XPS 13 (which has the same Intel Core

i5-8265U processor).

That said, the XPS 13 pulled ahead in

CPU-intensive tests,

including Cinebench,

which tests how the CPU

renders 3D graphics, and

HandBrake, which

encodes a lengthy video

file for Android tablet use.

It’s possible that Lenovo is dialing down

the IdeaPad 730S’s CPU performance under

heavy workloads to maintain the laptop’s slim

profile and cool, quiet operation. If your goal

is to get work done, that seems like a

reasonable trade-off.

As for GPU performance, don’t expect

Dell XPS 13 9380

(Core i7-8565U)

M(Core i5-8250U)icrosoft Surface Laptop 2

Razer Blade Stealth (2018)(Core i7-8550U

Lenovo IdeaPad 730S-13IWL (Core i5-8265U)

Asus ZenBook 13 UX331UA

(Core i5-8250U)

Handbrake Encode 0.99.0

(Seconds)

SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

3,459

5,136

4,080

3,874

4,611

Dell XPS 13 9380

(Core i7-8565U)

Asus ZenBook 13 UX331UA

(Core i5-8250U)

M(Core i5-8250U)icrosoft Surface Laptop 2

Lenovo IdeaPad 730S-13IWL (Core i5-8265U)

Razer Blade Stealth (2018)(Core i7-8550U)

3DMark Sky Diver 1.0

(Demo mode off)

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

4,963

4,249

4,658

4,764

The Lenovo IdeaPad 730S has integrated graphics, 4,646

so its 3DMark Sky Diver

score is modest—and right

in line with that of similarly

configured competition.

HandBrake stresses the CPU

over a long period, often

causing laptops to keep

things cool by throttling

performance. The Lenovo

IdeaPad 730S erred on the

side of thermals, posting a

slower time as a result.