Lenovo™ IdeaPad™ S145 Laptop, 15.6" Screen, Ryzen 5 3500U, 8GB Memory, 256GB Solid State Drive $299

[DAPUNISHER]

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4c/8t with a 1080p screen for 3 bills. Good ultra budget gamer.

 

[killster1]

looks good and tempted to purchase for a gift, i wonder how much better the deals will get in a month.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's a big fat NO. I added on to cart, it showed my local store, but was sold out for pickup, I clicked the Paypal button, they wanted me to agree to "Auto Payments" to OD/OM. Not sure what they're trying to pull here, but no thanks. Shades of tigerDirect.

Edit: Yeah, no. I don't want an "automatic payment method when shopping at OfficeDepot". Sorry. It was bad enough when Steam tried that, when I wanted to purchase ONE game, via Paypal. I don't want to give someone that might hack my Steam account, unlimited Paypal payment authorizations.

Sorry, OfficeDepot, you just lost a sale.

Edit: Ok, Ok, I broke down and ordered one anyways. Looked on ebay, they were going for $450-600+.

 

[killster1]

That's a big fat NO. I added on to cart, it showed my local store, but was sold out for pickup, I clicked the Paypal button, they wanted me to agree to "Auto Payments" to OD/OM. Not sure what they're trying to pull here, but no thanks. Shades of tigerDirect.

Edit: Yeah, no. I don't want an "automatic payment method when shopping at OfficeDepot". Sorry. It was bad enough when Steam tried that, when I wanted to purchase ONE game, via Paypal. I don't want to give someone that might hack my Steam account, unlimited Paypal payment authorizations.

Sorry, OfficeDepot, you just lost a sale.

no credit card? HUH?

 

[SamirD]

That's a big fat NO. I added on to cart, it showed my local store, but was sold out for pickup, I clicked the Paypal button, they wanted me to agree to "Auto Payments" to OD/OM. Not sure what they're trying to pull here, but no thanks. Shades of tigerDirect.

Edit: Yeah, no. I don't want an "automatic payment method when shopping at OfficeDepot". Sorry. It was bad enough when Steam tried that, when I wanted to purchase ONE game, via Paypal. I don't want to give someone that might hack my Steam account, unlimited Paypal payment authorizations.

Sorry, OfficeDepot, you just lost a sale.

I'm right there with you. I don't like all these 'give us your credit card so we can charge anything we want anytime we want so that you can waste your time to get your money back when we mess up' schemes, and the crazy thing is EVERYONE is going this way. I don't like amazon, uber, and any of these companies doing this. You might as well have their hand in your pocket everywhere you go...

 

[killster1]

The first youtube review I saw the 3500u doing great in games then I checked mx150 vs 3500u and it was not great in same games. I guess u need to set it to 25w for decent gameplay. Wonder if this laptop will do 25w gameplay with the 3500u. Also no amazon or uber ? U sound to paranoid I loved using uber in europe for quick late night trips. Really good peice never used in America tho except once to get a jump start when the battery pack backup failed

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The first youtube review I saw the 3500u doing great in games then I checked mx150 vs 3500u and it was not great in same games. I guess u need to set it to 25w for decent gameplay. Wonder if this laptop will do 25w gameplay with the 3500u. Also no amazon or uber ? U sound to paranoid I loved using uber in europe for quick late night trips. Really good peice never used in America tho except once to get a jump start when the battery pack backup failed

Power and heat are definitely considerations with any laptop used to game. If it is throttling it makes no difference how good the hardware is. I have seen the mobile i9 stuck in a laptop where it barely outperforms my i7 because it throttles during extended heavy use. For $300 bills it is still going to be a good deal, as long as you set a custom advanced power profile that may take some testing to get tweaked properly.

 

[VirtualLarry]

as long as you set a custom advanced power profile that may take some testing to get tweaked properly.

Is that needed for daily usage / web browsing, or just gaming usage? What about the Custom "AMD Ryzen (tm) Power Plan", that you get with the chipset drivers? Not good enough?

Would it extend my battery life for web browsing, by setting max CPU cores at boot to "2"? Would that basically turn this into the performance equivalent of a 3200U? I want 2C/4T for browsing purposes, IFF it extends my battery life from 4-5 hours to like 6+ hours.

I was disappointed to find out that the battery life on this unit is only 4-5 hours. That's the only thing "wrong" with it.

I have a Lenovo 145S with the Intel Celeron 4205U, bought it for $199.99+tax at Wally-world, works OK. Only 768P, the 1080 on this one should improve things significantly. (I wonder if I'll be able to set 4K effective using VSR? That would really be something.)

 

[SamirD]

Also no amazon or uber ? U sound to paranoid...

If you would read the terms of service that binds you to these vultures that have your cards and what they can do without your permission, you'd be a bit more concerned. But no one but a handful of people read these legally binding agreements and know what they're really signing up for. Even this web site has a legal agreement that you're bound to--did you know that? Do you know what you've agreed to? I do because I read it before I signed up.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

Very similar, $100 more from Newegg.

Not really aware at what's different between the S145 and L340 models. this one appears to also have a DVD drive.

 

[killster1]

Is that needed for daily usage / web browsing, or just gaming usage? What about the Custom "AMD Ryzen (tm) Power Plan", that you get with the chipset drivers? Not good enough?

Would it extend my battery life for web browsing, by setting max CPU cores at boot to "2"? Would that basically turn this into the performance equivalent of a 3200U? I want 2C/4T for browsing purposes, IFF it extends my battery life from 4-5 hours to like 6+ hours.

I was disappointed to find out that the battery life on this unit is only 4-5 hours. That's the only thing "wrong" with it.

I have a Lenovo 145S with the Intel Celeron 4205U, bought it for $199.99+tax at Wally-world, works OK. Only 768P, the 1080 on this one should improve things significantly. (I wonder if I'll be able to set 4K effective using VSR? That would really be something.)

fairly sure he was referring to my question if it could handle 25w gaming since the benches are decent @ 25w but little low at 15w. for 100$ i would rather buy a bluray burner usb3.0 but taking the dvd drive out and adding a hd would be the only cool thing about the dvd drive.

 

[esquared]

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

Very similar, $100 more from Newegg.

Not really aware at what's different between the S145 and L340 models. this one appears to also have a DVD drive.

I bought this 340 with a 1 TB HDD, instead of an SSD back in June for a gift for a relative.
Paid 369 at rakuten. They really like the laptop.

 

[esquared]

Still on sale for 299.99.
I just picked one up.

 

[VirtualLarry]

For those looking for a slightly cheaper price range, Walmart has the HP 14" Ryzen 3 3200U (or did as of last night), for $219.99. (4GB / 128GB SSD, 768P screen, Win10 Home "S-Mode").

The OP's deal is a way better value, though, if you can pony up three bones. 1080P / FHD screen, 8GB / 256GB PCI-E SSD, 4C/8T Ryzen mobile.

 

[allisolm]

You guys talked me into it. And husband is thrilled that his Christmas gift to me is taken care of.

 

[esquared]

Deal is still on for 299.99

 

[VirtualLarry]

Mine's still un-opened. Someone said that the screen is crap quality, and the webcam is only 300p. Which wouldn't surprise me, my Intel Celeron-based S145 Lenovo is the same way.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Info - Ryzen 4000 Mobile Chips Unveiled at CES

Acer Swift 3 with Ryzen 7 4700U AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs AMD debuted (finally!) their Ryzen 4000 mobile chips at CES that are confusingly Ryzen 2 CPUs that are analogous with their Ryzen 3000 desktop parts. I like what I see, especially on the power front. I know many people said that 7nm...

forums.anandtech.com

So now we know why they fire-saled these...

 

[killster1]

Info - Ryzen 4000 Mobile Chips Unveiled at CES

Acer Swift 3 with Ryzen 7 4700U AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs AMD debuted (finally!) their Ryzen 4000 mobile chips at CES that are confusingly Ryzen 2 CPUs that are analogous with their Ryzen 3000 desktop parts. I like what I see, especially on the power front. I know many people said that 7nm...

forums.anandtech.com

So now we know why they fire-saled these...

well they are not IPS is why, i was super tempted to pick one up and have been eyeing other 3500u (ips touchscreen) but have ultimately been waiting for the 4000 series to see what those will be going for.

 

[tamz_msc]

Getting this for $520 at my place with 8GB(4+4) RAM and 512GB PCI-e SSD. FOr those who've got it, how is it for general use? Should I pull the trigger?

 

[killster1]

Getting this for $520 at my place with 8GB(4+4) RAM and 512GB PCI-e SSD. FOr those who've got it, how is it for general use? Should I pull the trigger?

pretty bad time to buy a laptop imo. unless you see a killer deal with everything you could possibly want id wait for ryzen 4000 or the new intel cpu. 3500u is OK but 520 seems super high with out touchscreen ips or dedicated gfx or some great feature. 512gb nvme well thats worth 60 bux.

I foolishly bought a 4k touchscreen dell with mx150 8265u 512gb nvme+1tb hdd +16gb ram with ips / fingerprint reader (offered 380$ and they accepted the offer) im almost regretting it seeing the new intel chips (i7 10th gen outperforms 3500u), but i was planning on just using it a few months and giving it away so the 380$ drew me in but it is a power hog with 4k monitor and 8th gen intel.

 

[tamz_msc]

pretty bad time to buy a laptop imo. unless you see a killer deal with everything you could possibly want id wait for ryzen 4000 or the new intel cpu. 3500u is OK but 520 seems super high with out touchscreen ips or dedicated gfx or some great feature. 512gb nvme well thats worth 60 bux.

I foolishly bought a 4k touchscreen dell with mx150 8265u 512gb nvme+1tb hdd +16gb ram with ips / fingerprint reader (offered 380$ and they accepted the offer) im almost regretting it seeing the new intel chips (i7 10th gen outperforms 3500u), but i was planning on just using it a few months and giving it away so the 380$ drew me in but it is a power hog with 4k monitor and 8th gen intel.

Well in my country Ryzen 4000 laptops are 6-9 months away and prices are high all around whether its AMD or Intel. I've got the same model but with an i5 8265U and 256GB PCI-e+1TB HDD going for $620. The HDD in my current laptop is failing and its too old to replace with an SSD(I think) so I'll have to buy something pretty soon.

 

[killster1]

Well in my country Ryzen 4000 laptops are 6-9 months away and prices are high all around whether its AMD or Intel. I've got the same model but with an i5 8265U and 256GB PCI-e+1TB HDD going for $620. The HDD in my current laptop is failing and its too old to replace with an SSD(I think) so I'll have to buy something pretty soon.

im 99% sure you can replace your hd with ssd unless it is a IDE laptop, they always make adapters too ide/sata not 100% sure on using it in a laptop, which laptop do you own currently? yea i kinda figured you lived somewhere else if 520 was a good price. SOrry i know usa is such a good place to buy electronics because we like to change them out every other month. biggest gripe with the laptop s145 is the screen is not bright. (Screen: 15.6-inch 1,366 x 768-resolution TN anti-glare) tough to get a good screen on a 200$ laptop but if you are paying 520.. ;(

 

[tamz_msc]

im 99% sure you can replace your hd with ssd unless it is a IDE laptop, they always make adapters too ide/sata not 100% sure on using it in a laptop, which laptop do you own currently? yea i kinda figured you lived somewhere else if 520 was a good price. SOrry i know usa is such a good place to buy electronics because we like to change them out every other month. biggest gripe with the laptop s145 is the screen is not bright. (Screen: 15.6-inch 1,366 x 768-resolution TN anti-glare) tough to get a good screen on a 200$ laptop but if you are paying 520.. ;(

Yeah I know the screen is not bright but I'm getting the 1080p version and its going to be used indoors anyway so I think it'll be alright. If you're interested this is how my present laptop performs in Geekbench 5. The 3500U provides 2x ST and 3x MT performance. Oh and I forgot to mention that its battery is dead as well; I have to use it with the charger plugged in.