APRIL 2019 PCWorld 57what it’s trying to
accomplish. Instead of
attempting to be all things
to all people, the Lenovo
IdeaPad 730S is content
to be a solid thin-and-light
laptop with a strong
sense of style. It’s ideal for people who want
to perform office or other productivity tasks
from anywhere, and don’t aspire to use their
laptop like a tablet or turn it into a gaming rig.
As long as the Wi-Fi issue I experienced
doesn’t prove widespread—or gets patched
in the near future—this laptop succeeds at
cutting away the cruft.anything out of the ordinary for a thin-and-
light laptop. 2D indie games like Shovel
Knight and Mercenary Kings will work fine,
and you might be able to scrape by in a
Borderlands 2 session at 720p resolution and
30 frames per second, but this isn’t a gaming
machine. The 730S posts a decent score
compared to similar competition.
Battery life, on the other hand, was a
pleasant surprise. Although it has lower capacity
than many other laptops in its class, it still wound
up on the higher end of our video rundown test.
Lenovo says it’s using a more efficient display
than last year’s IdeaPad 720S, which along with
the non-touch 1080p panel likely contributed to
the respectable score. The inclusion of rapid
charging, which fills the battery up to 80
percent in an hour, is also a nice touch.
BOTTOM LINE
It’s always nice to see a laptop that knows
Lenovo IdeaPad 730S
PROS- Runs cool and quiet except under the heaviest
loads. - Super-smooth trackpad and plenty of keyboard
travel. - Slim and classy design with no garish logos or
labels.
CONS - The trackpad’s top half is harder to click than the
bottom. - The display hinge could be stiffer.
- USB-C, headphones, or bust for connectivity.
$899
Asus ZenBook 13 UX331UA
(Core i5-8250U)
M(Core i5-8250U)icrosoft Surface Laptop 2
Lenovo IdeaPad 730S-13IWL (Core i5-8265U
Dell XPS 13 9380(Core i7-8565U)
Razer Blade Stealth (2018)
(Core i7-8550U)Video rundown test
(Minutes)LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE650453627633543The Lenovo IdeaPad 730S
lasted over 10.5 hours in
our video rundown test,
a very good score for a
mainstream laptop.