Life recently seemed like a dating adventure. After my laptop broke down last June, I started hopping from one laptop to another. In search of a potential GadgetMatch, I started exploring options and allowed myself to try new laptops so I can find the one.

In my quest, I stumbled upon the Lenovo IdeaPad S340.

Humongous, but also head-turner

The IdeaPad S340 is huge, despite being called “ultrathin.” It has a plastic build and an aluminum finish on the lid, which looks smooth and sleek. Despite the classy approach, this laptop is a magnet for smudge — something I really hate in every smartphone and laptop of 2019.

The unit I got came in Sand Pink. This color is a definite head-turner, especially if you’re a guy. However, there’s an adage that real men wear pink so don’t let this color halt you from flaunting it in cafes and in meetings.

If this doesn’t match your personality, the IdeaPad S340 is available in three more colors: Onyx Black, Abyss Blue, and Platinum Grey.

This laptop has a 14″ Full HD display. Despite the big screen, it has a wide bezel on its chin which is annoying to look at, unless you make your toolbar dark.

It uses an IPS panel that doesn’t present the colors accurately. I tried to fix the display settings in hopes that maybe there’s a solution to its color balance problem. After several attempts, I gave up and accepted the fact that my screen is either be bluish or orange-y.

Lots of ports to insert your cables to

Moving on to the ports and slots, the IdeaPad S340 provides what I need as an old-school guy. Unlike the Dell XPS 13 (2019) I reviewed which didn’t come with any USB 3.1 Ports, this laptop has what I’m looking for.

On the left side, it has a port for USB-C and HDMI, as well as a power connector input and a headphone jack. Sweet, right?

On the right side, you can find the two USB-A ports which made my life easy, and a 4-in-1 SD card reader, too! As a designer, my life depended on my external hard drive and a trusty, wired mouse I bought back in 2013 which comes in USB Type-A connectors.

People kept telling me to get a dongle, buy a wireless mouse, and get a new cable. However, I’m that type of person who doesn’t buy things he doesn’t need, especially when his stuff is still working. This is why this laptop is such a blessing for a slotty person like me.

Joyful to use for work

Some people don’t realize but your experience with the keyboard and a touchpad can make or break your experience.

The IdeaPad S340’s keyboard is evenly placed. It’s soft and responsive, which I find delightful to type at. For someone with little fingers, it’s joyful to type and write in big keys since I don’t encounter typos a lot. There’s also an option for a backlit keyboard, in case you need to type in dimly lit places.

When it comes to its trackpad, I’m not sure I have something good to say about it as it’s unresponsive AF. My fingers had a hard time sliding especially when it creates that cringey sound caused by friction, most likely because of its plastic build. It’s one of the reasons why I opt to use my trusty mouse, especially when I need to edit and design.

A big performer

The IdeaPad S340 presents itself as a laptop for work and productivity. Fair enough, it’s packed with an 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, and 128GB SSD storage. Additionally, it runs the latest 8th-gen Intel i7 processor.

As a designer, I was able to run Adobe Photoshop (to an extent, Adobe Premiere Pro) hiccup-free. The only thing that bugged me is its bluish tint interfering with my work. But its performance is really sweet.

For instance, while I was resizing photos, I was streaming music on Spotify, and I’m running Google Chrome as my browser with six tabs open mainly for Slack, GadgetMatch.com, Gmail, Google Drive, Facebook, and Twitter. Despite multitasking, the laptop didn’t lag one bit.

However, my usage seems to be the limit for this laptop. Anything beyond what I did made the laptop heat up and I had to cool it down. On several occasions, there’s a delay especially when I run multiple tabs (like, fifteen?) on Google Chrome (which we know takes a lot of RAM).

Even in my line of work, it can’t handle heavy editing for graphics and video so I’m not suggesting to push this laptop beyond its limits. If you want to go for a multimedia laptop, this is just not it.

Get entertained wherever you go

Of course, it’s not all work and no play. The IdeaPad S340 doubles as a mini TV with its humongous screen. It may only run an IPS panel, but it’s capable of producing a theatre-like sound with Dolby Audio speakers.

The experience was immersive. I watched the trailer for Weathering With You by Makoto Shinkai and I got even more excited to see it. Anyhow, it’s not as great as any other laptop with calibrated screens meant for entertainment. But for its price, the IdeaPad S340 suffices.

It has all the juice you need

What I love about the IdeaPad S340 is its long battery life. It lets you work throughout the day without worry especially if you only do basic tasks such as browsing, emails, chats, and video calls. Add some entertainment and multimedia work, then you’re gonna have to bring the charger wherever you go. Fret not, it’s equipped with rapid charging technology so you can get the juice back up if it runs out.

True to its advertisement, the IdeaPad S340 can really last up to 10 hours, albeit my usage made the laptop lasts for only six to seven hours. Nonetheless, it has all the juice that I need. If this heavy and huge laptop lasts only for a short time, I’d be pretty disappointed.

Is this your GadgetMatch?

The IdeaPad S340 is an all-around laptop that gets the work done. It’s capable of running creative software and doing basic multimedia editing, providing theatre-like entertainment, and allowing its users to multitask.

For PhP 52,995, the price isn’t bad and if you’re looking for a speedy, work laptop then this might be your GadgetMatch. However, for me, this laptop is not the one. Due to my issues — and high standards — I can totally say that I need to find another one. Time to hop to another laptop — and dating — adventure.

SEE ALSO: Lenovo Philippines Laptop Price List