Lenovo 320-15ABR Review - Quick Verdict
The Lenovo 320-15ABR is a budget laptop in the IdeaPad series from Lenovo. This inexpensive laptop comes with hardware that is good enough for most students and home users. With impressive battery life, this laptop can even last a whole day at school. If you’re looking for a simple laptop that does everyday tasks gleefully, this could be your laptop.
- Excellent choice for people on a shoestring budget
- Superior battery life that can last a whole day with light usage
- Slow hard drive can test your patience
Author's Rating
The Lenovo 320-15ABR is a budget laptop that comes with a decent spec which can cater to light users like students, home users, second laptop for pro users, and so on. If you see the hardware inside this laptop, you can decide for yourself that this one is not for the heavy lifters.
So why is this laptop an attractive option for who people looking for a laptop? The simplest reason we could find was the price. This is a super cheap laptop that comes with all the bare necessities. If you’re on the hunt for a simple laptop for day to day activities, then this one should have already caught your attention by now.
Let’s dive into this Lenovo 320-15ABR review, and find out if this laptop is worth your time and money.
Design
When you go looking for a budget laptop, you know that the design is not going to be the strongest aspect of the laptop. In this case, we have to say that things are different. The Lenovo 320-15ABR comes in a neat platinum gray color and has a finish that’ll fool you for a premium notebook.
Once you lift the laptop, all the magic goes away and you’ll see this for the budget laptop it is. We can plastic in most places which is to be expected in this inexpensive notebook. There are no weird flexes even when you try to which shows that the plastics are of good quality.
The color Lenovo has chosen for this laptop kindles our curiosity. Don’t get us wrong, the platinum gray looks stylish. Our question is, how well is this thing going age? If you’re not taking proper care of this laptop, you’re going to get a lot of scuff marks and dirt on this machine for sure.
With dimensions of 22 x 14 x 4 inches, the laptop weighs around 5 pounds. You can slip this laptop in a backpack and go out without feeling anything extra. In terms of portability, the Lenovo 320-15ABR gets a go-ahead from us.
Keyboard and Touchpad
Once you open the laptop, we get to the keyboard (like in every laptop.. duh). We have a full keyboard here with a dedicated number which we think is a nice addition. Even some flagships don’t include them these days.
The keys on the keyboard are fine. They give out quite a bit of noise when typing. You can, however, type quickly on this keyboard, thanks to the decent key travel. There is no backlighting on this keyboard which is to be expected.
The touchpad is pretty standard. It is smooth to slide the fingers on and get an A for accuracy and precision. This is also to say that there is nothing special with this touchpad. It gets the Windows 10 gestures right, and that’s about it.
You can see that the touchpad is slightly positioned to the left. If you’re someone with OCD, this will piss you off. We didn’t think it’s that big of a deal.
Lenovo 320-15ABR Performance
The Lenovo 320-15ABR comes with a 15.6″ LED-backlit display that has a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. This is not an IPS panel but a simple TN panel. Having a TN panel has its problems. One of the main issues here is the viewing angle.
When you look at the display from an angle, you will lose a lot of information on the screen. So it is essential that you find a position that doesn’t compromise with the viewing experience.
Other than that, the display is perfect for everyday tasks. You can enjoy watching Youtube and Netflix on this display without any issues.
A thing to appreciate here is the anti-glare coating done on the display. Lenovo has taken this step even though this is a budget laptop. With an anti-glare coating in place, you will see minimum reflections on the screen. Even when you’re out in the sun, say sitting on a park bench, you can still focus on the contents as there are minimum reflections on the display.
The audio output of the laptop is not that great. The audio will fill a small room, at best. At full volume, you will notice some distortion which is a bit unpleasant to our ears. We suggest getting a pair of speakers for a better audio experience.
CPU Performance
The Lenovo 320-15ABR comes equipped with an AMD A12 9720P processor. This is a quad-core AMD chip and comes with a standard clock speed of 2.7GHz. The processor can clock up to a maximum of 3.6GHz with the help of turbo.
In all honesty, this AMD processor is an entry-level one. This processor is made with light users in mind. It gets a CPUMark benchmark score of 3990 which is not that good. On a normal day, the processor is great for running web browsers, social media applications, and maybe some office apps. Anything more will push you into the world of lag.
The processor gets a bit of support from the 8GB RAM. We are surprised that Lenovo went with 8 gigs instead of 4 gigs as this is a budget laptop. Having eight gigs of RAM does help your multitasking a bit. You can run a couple of apps (or even three) side by side without any hiccups.
Storage and Connectivity
How much storage space do you get in the Lenovo 320-15ABR?
Well, there is a 1TB hard drive disk for storage purposes. The drive gives you a lot of space to store all your movies, videos, songs, and other important stuff.
Our problem with the hard drive is that it is super slow. Even simple things like booting the operating system or copying large files take a lot of time. Yes, this is a budget laptop, but having to wait too much is a problem in our eyes. If you’re not used to SSDs, then you’ll probably be fine with this hard drive setup.
When it comes to connectivity, the Lenovo 320-15ABR gives you several options. In fact, the laptop makes up in the connectivity department for what it left in the storage department.
There is an Ethernet port, two USB 3.0 ports, a USB type C port, a 4-in-1 card reader, and an optical drive.
We’ve to appreciate Lenovo for including a USB type C connector in a budget device. We all know that type C connectors are the future and kudos to Lenovo for taking the step in the right direction. The presence of this port makes this laptop future proof which is nice.
Another nice touch is the inclusion of the optical drive. Most laptops have moved away from the optical drives calling them old. Having this option will allow users to use CDs and DVDs which is cool, I guess.
Gaming on the Lenovo 320-15ABR
The Lenovo 320-15ABR is not a gaming laptop. It comes only with an integrated graphics card and this means no dedicated GPU. Without a dedicated GPU, you can’t do a lot of gaming.
The integrated graphics card we have here is not suitable for gaming. It struggles in running even the lightest of games. If you want to play games, you should look for laptops with a dedicated graphics card. But keep in mind that it will also increase the price of the device.
Lenovo 320-15ABR Battery Life
Battery life is one of the best things about Lenovo 320-15ABR. With normal usage, the battery can last for about 8 to10 hours which is crazy. Even expensive laptops can’t guarantee a battery life that is this good.
This battery life will go down if you use the speaker a lot. It will also suffer when you run some mid-range apps like office applications and simple photo and video editors. Even playing games (whatever that runs on this machine) can bring the battery life down.
If you’re an average user, the battery will last for 8 to 10 hours which is a pretty good deal, in our opinion.
Bottomline
The Lenovo 320-15ABR is a budget laptop. Along with that tag comes a lot of mediocre specs that make this machine unattractive. But the reality is very different. If you’re on a budget and need a nice laptop for your everyday task, then the Lenovo 320-15ABR can surely be that laptop.
For students and home users, this Lenovo laptop can be a good companion. If consuming media is why you need a laptop, there is no issue here as well. Overall, the Lenovo 320-15ABR is a solid budget device that can get things done at a shoestring budget.