Aggiornamento breve del portatile Lenovo IdeaPad Z50-75

In contrast to the Full HD screen in the IdeaPad Z50-70, an HD screen (1366x768 pixels) is installed in the Z50-75. That is also the reason why the Z50-70 costs roughly 300 Euros (~$376) more than the Z50-75. The HD screen operates with a brightness of 223.9 cd/m². Although this is not a good rate, it is acceptable in view of the laptop's price. The screens of the Z50-70 (192.3 cd/m²) and Aspire (182.3 cd/m²) achieve lower rates. However, the Full HD screen in the Akoya (290.1 cd/m²) is pleasing.

Lenovo's IdeaPad Z50-75 is a basic all-round laptop. It not only has enough computing power for routine applications but can also smoothly render computer games to a limited degree. Our review sample is available for approximately 450 Euros (~$564) or 400 Euros (~$501) without a Windows operating system. Lenovo has multiple other models in its IdeaPad Z50 lineup.

Lenovo installs an A8-7100 APU (Kaveri) from AMD in its IdeaPad. The processor part of the APU clocks with a base speed of 1.8 GHz. It can be accelerated up to 3 GHz via Turbo. The processor is comprised of four CPU cores. The APU's TDP is 19 watts. Additional information and benchmarks relating to AMD's Kaveri APU can be found in our corresponding article.

We could not retrieve the APU's full processing power. The processor performed the single-thread tests of the Cinebench benchmarks with 2.1 to 2.5 GHz, and the multi-thread tests with 1.6 to 1.8 GHz. The APU ran both tests with a consistent 1.8 GHz in battery mode. The multi-thread scores are roughly on par with those of current Haswell Core i3 ULV processors. If the processor could retrieve its full performance, the scores would likely be on the level of the Haswell Core i5 ULV processors. The processor cannot compete with Intel's Core i3 processors in the single-core performance. It is on par with the Haswell Pentium ULV CPUs.

The system generally runs smoothly. However, we could not perform some of our benchmarks. The 3DMark05 and 06 benchmarks crashed right in the middle of testing with error messages. The programs presumably have problems with the dual-graphics. The PCMark 7 and 8 benchmarks caused the laptop to freeze. The laptop first smoothly performed PCMark 7 after we disabled the dual-graphics in the BIOS. This action did not have any effect on the behavior of the PCMark 8 benchmark.

Owners of an IdeaPad will not run out of storage space very soon. The installed hard drive from Western Digital offers a storage capacity of 1 TB. It spins with 5400 revolutions per minute. CrystalDiskMark recorded a read speed of 101.9 MB/s, and HD Tune delivered an average transfer rate of 84.3 MB/s. Thus, the drive is on par with virtually all currently available 5400 rpm hard drives.

The Radeon R6 M255DX graphics solution is installed in the IdeaPad. It is not a dedicated graphics chip, but a dual graphics solution from AMD. It is comprised of the integrated Radeon R5 (Kaveri) graphics core and the dedicated Radeon R5 M230 GPU. The GPUs operate in a so-called Crossfire array, i.e. both cores can perform the calculation of displayed images. This process is, for example, used in computer games. Only the integrated GPU is used for routine tasks and in battery mode. The user can determine whether single applications are to be performed with the dual-graphics solution in the driver menu. There is no general performance advantage over a dedicated Radeon R5 M230 GPU. The scores and frame rates clearly increase in some benchmarks and games, and in other cases there is no difference. The R6 M255DX graphics solution sometimes reaps in a lower score.

Just looking at the 3DMark 2011 benchmarks scores indicate that the performance of the installed graphics solution should roughly be on par with a dedicated Radeon HD 8750M GPU. The gaming benchmarks did not confirm this. The IdeaPad rarely, if at all, comes close to a correspondingly equipped laptop. The Z50-75 managed to render most games in a low (to sometimes medium) resolution and low (to sometimes medium) quality settings smoothly. Therefore, it is likely that something will happen in some games in the future providing the drivers are optimized accordingly. The Radeon R6 M255DX graphics solution supports AMD's Mantle interface, and we tested the game Thief with and without Mantle. The frame rates averagely climbed by 23.6% to 18.4 fps (min.), 13.1 fps (med.), 10.1 fps (high) with enabled Mantle. Battlefield 4 also supports Mantle. However, the tool fraps refused to record the frame rates when the Mantle interface was enabled. Consequently, we cannot provide any results for this game.

Buyers looking for an affordable, gaming-suitable laptop will find considerably better alternatives in the 400 to 500 Euro (~$501 to ~$627) price range. For example, the Aspire E1-572G (Core i5-4200U, Radeon HD 8750M). This device is now available for 470 Euros, ~$590 (or 400 Euros, ~$501, without a Windows operating system). Also, entry-level versions of the Akoya P6647 (Core i5-4200M, GeForce 825M) are available for below 500 Euros (~$627).

System Noise

The fan spins at a low speed with a quiet, consistent noise in idle mode. The fan does not get exceedingly loud during load either. We measured almost equal noise levels of 37 dB(A) during medium load via 3DMark06 and 36.2 dB(A) during full load in the stress test via Furmark and Prime95. That is not surprising since the processor was throttled during the stress test. It overall looks identical in the Aspire; the Akoya produced more noise during load.

Power Consumption

The idle power consumptions of the IdeaPad and Aspire are identical. The Akoya consumes more power because it is equipped with a standard mobile processor (no ULV). The three comparison devices basically range on a similar level during load. However, the IdeaPad consumed the least power in the stress test because the laptop's CPU is throttled strongly.

The battery in the IdeaPad lasted for 5:11 h in idle mode. The Aspire (9:02 h) achieves a considerably better runtime. Idle mode is ascertained using Battery Eater's Reader's test. The screen is set to its minimum brightness, the energy-saving profile is enabled, and the wireless modules are off. The IdeaPad shut down after 1:14 h in load. The Aspire (1:20 h) is on par with that. The load runtime is determined with Battery Eater's Classic test using maximum screen brightness, the high-performance profile, and enabled radio modules.

The IdeaPad closed the Wi-Fi test after 2:35 h. The Akoya (3:26 h) and the Aspire (4:26 h) last longer. Websites are automatically opened every 40 seconds using the energy-saving profile and a screen brightness of approximately 150 cd/m². We test the video playback time by running the short movie Big Buck Bunny (H.264 encoding, 1920x1080 pixels) in a loop. The energy-saving profile is enabled, the radio modules are disabled and the screen's brightness is set to approximately 150 cd/m². The IdeaPad lasted for 2:20 h here.

In total, the IdeaPad serves with abysmal, no longer contemporary battery runtimes. The IdeaPad Z50-70 sister model achieved twice the runtime in most of our battery tests. That is, however, not least due to the Z50-70's higher battery capacity (41 Wh) in contrast to the Z50-75's (32 Wh).

Il Lenovo IdeaPad Z50-70 è un economico portatile tuttofare da 15.6". Il processore quad-core fornisce abbastanza potenza per le applicazioni da ufficio ed Internet. Inoltre, è possibile usare qualche gioco. Le prestazioni gaming dovrebbero accontentare i giocatori occasionali. L'IdeaPad resta sempre silenzioso e difficilmente si scalda. E' semplice accedere all'hardware grazie ad una grande cover. Lo schermo non vince alcun premio ma è accettabile considerando il prezzo del portatile. La limitata autonomia è da criticare. Siamo abituati a questi risultati per i portatili multimedia che si basano su processori Core i7 e schede grafiche di prima classe. A nostro parere lo Z50-75 avrà difficoltà a trovare clienti in quanto ci sono portatili migliori in questa fascia di prezzo. Dobbiamo citare l'Aspire E1-572G. Questo offre più prestazioni CPU, più potenza per il gaming, maggiore autonomia e schermo matto.

Nota: si tratta di una recensione breve, con alcune sezioni non tradotte, per la versione integrale in inglese, guardate qui.