Lenovo - IdeaPad 330S 15.6" Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive
Model: 81F500NSUS
SKU: 6291881
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Customers find value in the IdeaPad 330S laptop's fast performance, affordable price, and lightweight design. Many users appreciate its large storage capacity and excellent performance for the price. However, some users have concerns about its short battery life and noisy fan.
Pretty bad experience for my first time with Lenovo. The laptop was on sale when I made the purchase, so I thought I got myself a great deal despite all the negative reviews here. First of all, I am used to low-end tier laptops so this level of price is a huge improvement. The laptop is fast, just like what I expected from the specs. It would've been a good laptop, if not for the other minor problems which added up to become a huge deal. First, the noise. After setting up the laptop and signing in, etc. I can hear the whistling noises coming from the bottom side. I looked up online, and it could be either dirt in the fans, or a "coil whine". I brought the laptop up to Best Buy and the Geek Squad people did a quick check and they said it was dirt from the fans. Inside a new laptop? I bought a new product, so I expect the product I'm receiving to be free of defects, and this laptop already sounds like it has gone through 6 months of usage. While at the store, I checked the same model they have on display, and sure enough, that same whistling noise is there. Other laptops displayed (even other Lenovo Ideapads), plus from my past laptops, never has this problem. I visited another Best Buy store and the exact same thing; out of all the displayed laptops of all brands and even other Lenovo models, this is the only one that still has that whistling noise. I suspect this is a common issue in this model. If you don't know how this really sounds like, here is a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYIPp9Wa9o8. Note that this is NOT the actual laptop of the review, but in the video this PC makes a similar sound I heard from this laptop. Second is the WiFi adapter. It could be due to a driver problem, but that should not be the case for a new laptop. However, the WiFi speed I get on this one is super weak. Even putting the laptop next to the router, I still get 1/3 of what my iPhone gets at the same spot. The signal strength on the laptop would also waver more than normal as if I'm 10m away from the router. Third, downloading issues. For whatever reason, there are some files I cannot finish downloading. Even if the WiFi is slow because of the issue above, it shouldn't matter when I reach 100% download progress. For reproducing purpose, the file I tried to download is https://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/technology/epp/downloads/release/2018-12/R/eclipse-cpp-2018-12-R-win32-x86_64.zip. This file will always reach 100% and would scan for virus (if using Edge). It will stay that way for 30 minutes. I tried it with another browser (Vivaldi) and the same issue occurred. Not sure why this is the case. Fourth, battery. This laptop, like many new laptops nowadays, doesn't come with a removable battery. I expect that to remove it you will need technicians. So don't buy this and expect it to has removable batteries like past laptops in 2012. The capacity is pretty terrible though. From the look of it, every percentage on the battery = 1 minute. 100% = 100 minutes left. Normal browsing and you probably won't last more than two hours. Definitely not more than three. Plugging in to recharge gave an estimate of 3+ hours till full charge. Not sure if it's just my luck I got a bad battery or not. Finally, Lenovo and its software. The Lenovo Vantage program bundled in the laptop is similar to other brands and their maintenance software. Except for this Vantage program, it just looks like a huge useless ad. Can't go anywhere without it advertising itself about DashLane or some security software I don't need. The only thing I find useful in this program is their hardware and update scans, the rest look useless. Even their other small "features" that they have (WiFi security, Rapid charge, etc) look just as useless. There is nothing noticeable from using this Vantage bloatware. Attached is also a screenshot of the BIOS update prompt before I updated the BIOS on the machine. Notice all the typos. Is this what an official product of Lenovo looks like? Maybe that is the quality I should be expecting out of Lenovo. This is a new low even for bloatware. All of those really made a bad experience for this laptop, and for the brand. Not gonna buy another Lenovo product, if they can't even get their software and a laptop of this price range working properly. Even cheap 2012 laptops I bought from Walmart performed more consistently.
Posted by keyboard113
I have not had this laptop for more than 2 weeks yet and I have not had an issue with the laptop really up until now. I use the built-in camera for Youtube as it works better than my USB HD webcam. I turned the camera on to start recording and each time it stated Error code 0xA00F429D<MicrophoneMuted> However the microphone was not muted and I checked all the settings and they were fine. I spent hard earned money to invest in my future and this laptop was fine up until now. I even restarted and then shutdown and restarted the laptop and the same error appeared. I refused to spend money to get it fixed. Besides that some glitches when using my video editing software and I had to buy a separate laser mouse because this touchpad is not the best. The laptop's speed is awesome, it's great for Microsoft word and internet searching and it looks great but I am disappointed that I am already getting error messages with the camera I depended on. Also, my system just updated yesterday. I do not know what's wrong with it. I will just return it.
Posted by Gina
Good computer easy to use Light weight, touch screen is very nice Best by customer service is the best
Posted by Atul
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