81LK00HDUS Lenovo Ideapad L340 gaming laptop with NVIDIA GTX 1650 review.
This gaming notebook is sold for under 750 bucks, but can it perform your games? Let’s check this out in this review.
First off, the laptop’s design is very sleek. It’s a subtle looking laptop, that you can take to school, college, or even office. None would even know that this is even a gaming laptop with powerful specs inside. Unless they read its specs sheet.
There aren’t any angles that look exaggerated, no noticeable flexes. There are also no colorful lighting logos on the chassis, all just looks subtle and professional.
This is the device you would not mind using in your classroom or your office.
81LK00HDUS Build Quality
Besides the incredible appearance, the Lenovo Ideapad L340 81LK00HDUS is mostly made from brushed plastic. However, the plastic body looks and feels sturdy.
Who needs heavy aluminum cover when the plastic construction can look this solid and nice.
Lenovo Ideapad L340 81LK00HDUS Specs
The Lenovo Ideapad L340 1650 model has decent specs.
The i5-9300H, 8GB RAM, GTX 1650, and 512GB SSD won’t blow you away, but these features are more than enough to deliver the result.
And, it is also a VR Ready device to play e.g Oculus Rift S!
| Product | Lenovo Ideapad L340 Gaming Laptop, 15.6 Inch FHD (1920 X 1080) IPS Display, Intel Core i5-9300H Processor, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB Nvme SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, Windows 10, 81LK00HDUS, Black |
| Preview |
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| Weight | 4.8 lbs (2.2 kg) |
| Screen | An anti-glare 15.6″ Full-HD IPS display with 1920 x 1080p screen resolution and 250 nits screen brightness. |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-9300H (4-cores/8-threads) |
| Memory | 8GB RAM (Upgradable) |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 |
| Storage (SSD) | 512GB |
| Strength & Weakness | VIEW |
4-Cores i5-9300H
This 15″ IdeaPad gaming laptop comes with the 9th generation of Intel Core i5, actually the i5-9300H CPU chip. It’s a 4-Cores/8-Threads mobile processor that starts to clock at 2.4GHz and is capable to boost up to 4.1GHz using its 8 Threads with its Turbo Boost technology when required.
If you don’t look for a gaming laptop, check out this HP natural silver for daily computing machine as it has the 10th gen of Ice Lake CPU.
The processor of this IdeaPad L340 also has 8MB of L3 Cache, with other features such as Turbo Boost 2.0, Hyper-Threading, Optane Memory Support, and activated Virtualization.
With these features, this CPU can run modern gaming titles at 60fps easily on the compatible resolution without major bottleneck.
It also beats the 7th gen of the i7 series (Intel-Core-i7-7700HQ) and 10th gen of several i7 CPU series.
2400MHz 8GB of RAM
Together with the 9th generation of i5 CPU, there is one slot of 8GB of 2400MHz RAM installed. However, the memory is upgradeable up to 16GB.
If you want to upgrade, you will need to replace the manufacturer’s memory stick with your own 16GB DDR4 stick.
The compatible 16GB memory stick;
81LK00HDUS Storage; 512GB SSD
At this price point, Lenovo is generous enough to install sufficient 512GB of SSD rather than 256GB.
With this amount of storage, you shouldn’t have any problems with storage space, unless you are saving the movie and mp3 files on your laptop.
But who saves those files these days when there are affordable streaming services, and external HDD is becoming more affordable?
GTX 1650 Graphics
The dedicated NVIDIA GTX 1650 Graphics combined with the 8GB of RAM, and 9th gen of Intel i5 CPU can run school and business work as well as casual gaming without any problem. On top of that, this GPU can also handle several VR games.
It is not the most powerful gaming laptop out there, you can’t get one for this price, but the performance of this machine is above average.
81LK00HDUS Screen
This Lenovo Ideapad L340 GTX 1650 model is rocking a 15.6″ Full-HD 1920×1080 anti-glare IPS screen.
Furthermore, the IPS screen has a 45% color gamut, 250 nits, and a 60Hz screen refresh rate.
Due to its anti-glare display (matte), the screen is more gentle to our eyes, and more usable if you are using it under the sun.
It’s not a touchscreen device, so if you prefer a touch notebook from Lenovo, we recommend their best seller in 2020 when this review was written or its predecessor (81SS000DUS).
Peripherals
We will be seeing adequate ports with this Ideapad gaming laptop. Let’s dig into them.
Webcam & Its Privacy Shutter
Above the IPS screen, there is an integrated Dual-Array microphone and an HD 720p webcam with its Privacy Shutter.
This Privacy Shutter is a simple yet an appreciated feature. It’s basically a plastic physical shutter that can cover your webcam. Just slide this piece in, and you’ll have no gimmicks.
81LK00HDUS’s I/O
For the I/O ports, on the left side, there is the power connector, a Gigabit LAN (RJ45), 1x HDMI 2.0, 2x USB 3.1 Gen 1, a 3.mm Headphone/Mic Combo, and a USB-C port.
The USB-C does not support DisplayPort nor USB-C power charging but it supports fast data transfer for your computing activities.
Recommended docking station if you need one;
On the left side, you will see the Kensington lock for the anti-theft security feature.
Backlit Keyboard
You will really love the keyboard of this notebook, they are nice to use, and won’t give you any issues while typing.
The backlit lighting is teal sky blue-ish color which is nice, and not too colorful and not being harsh to your eyes.
The keyboard’s backlit feature has two brightness settings to adjust to your liking, and also has a number pad on the right side on the deck.
Battery Life
The Lenovo Ideapad L340 81LK00HDUS has a great battery life for a gaming laptop. It can remain cool as well, thanks to a couple of fans and the heat pipes that run inside the chassis.
For battery usage, you can get 3-6 hours depends on your activity. Things like watching full-HD videos continuously and gaming will shorten the battery life. But if you use it for browsing the web and editing documents, you can get up to 6 hours.
If you need an extra AC charger;
It Costs Hundreds Less
If you are now looking for a gaming laptop that you can also use for school or business meetings, I recommend this “Amazon Choice” notebook.
Sure, it is not an absolute top-of-the-line gaming laptop that has i7 or i9 CPUs, 16GB of RAM, and more refresh rates or more powerful GPU, but you won’t pay hundreds or thousands more either for this laptop.
The mid-range GPU, backlit keyboard, business-oriented appearance, and fast SSD as well as adequate 8GB of RAM for under 750 bucks (price fluctuates) this Lenovo IdeaPad L340 is an amazing machine.
This 81LK00HDUS laptop is the best gaming machine you can find for this price point!
