While Lenovo is more known for their ThinkPad lineup of notebooks, the brand is slowly expanding their range of gaming laptops. Lenovo has even launched the Legion gaming brand back in 2017 to directly compete with established gaming brand such as ASUS ROG and MSI Gaming.
Like its contemporaries, the Legion gaming brand rests on the premium side of the market. Fortunately, Lenovo is offering the IdeaPad series for those who are have a tighter budget. In this review, we’ll be taking a look at one of the more gamer-focused notebooks in the IdeaPad series — the Lenovo IdeaPad L340 Gaming.
| Lenovo IdeaPad L340 Gaming | |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-9300H 2.4GHz |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 |
| OS | Windows 10 Home |
| RAM | 8GB DDR4, up to 16GB DDR4 |
| Display | 15.6-inch, IPS, 60Hz, Anti-Glare Coating, 250 nits, 45% Color Gamut |
| Storage | 1TB HDD, Up to 1TB PCIe SSD, Up to 2TB HDD |
| I/O Ports | 2x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A, 1x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C, 3.5mm Combo Jack, HDMI 2.0, RJ-45 Ethernet, Kensington Lock |
| Connection | Wired Ethernet, 1×1 WiFi 802.11ac, 2×2 WiFI 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2 |
| Weight | 2.2kg |
| Dimensions | 363 x 254.6 x 23.9mm |
| Battery | 45Whr, Rapid Charge Technology |
| Others | Illuminated Chiclet Keyboard, 2x 1.5W Speakers |
| Colors | Granite Black |
The Lenovo IdeaPad L340 Gaming’s design does not exhibit the same features found on other gaming notebooks. Instead of an aggressive, angular design, the IdeaPad L340 Gaming has rounded edges and a brushed aluminum look that’s reminiscent high-end professional notebooks.
The brushed aluminum look of the notebook encompasses the whole chassis. The monotone look of the back cover of the display is only broken by the Lenovo logo and its blue background.
When closed, the IdeaPad L340 Gaming looks like a solid slab of aluminum — one of the better minimalist designs we’ve seen around.
The notebook has a rather slim profile measuring at 363 x 254.6 x 23.9mm. Weighing in at 2.2kg, the IdeaPad L340 Gaming is one of the lighter gaming notebooks in the market.
The Lenovo IdeaPad L340 Gaming comes with a 15.6-inch 1920- x 1080 IPS display with anti-glare coating. Lenovo says that the L340 Gaming’s display can produce 250nits of brightness as well as 45% color gamut.
Although the L340 Gaming’s display only runs at 60Hz, Lenovo trades the lack of speed with better color reproduction and viewing angles. While not as good as other IPS panels in the market, the screen does an okay job of reproducing color without being oversaturated.
The 250nits brightness and the anti-glare coating on the screen also helps when operating under sunlight or bright lights. The anti-glare coating isn’t too aggressive and retains the overall screen quality.
The top bezel of the display comes with a 720P webcam with a dual-array mic. The slider at the top of the webcam is actually a physical shutter for the camera. This will allow users paranoid with security to block access to the camera.
The hinge of the display allows the notebook to lay completely flat on a surface. While not really a gaming feature, this would help professionals to show photos or their work to another person in front of them.
The keyboard shows a bit of the gaming side of the L340 Gaming. It comes in a 90% layout with the navigation keys such as Home and Page Down being integrated to the num lock. The up and down arrow keys, however, have been squished together presumably to fit the keyboard to the chassis in a symmetrical way.
Instead of having RGB lighting, the L340 Gaming’s keyboard has monochrome blue backlighting that can be controlled by pressing Fn + Spacebar. The keyboard itself is nothing too special. It’s a Chiclet-based board that isn’t too tactile but instead is somewhere near to a scratchy linear feel.
The track pad isn’t too special either. It leans nearer to the left-hand side of the notebook. It’s smooth and large while the left and right buttons are tactile enough to let you know that you’ve pressed a button.
It seems that manufacturers are now preferring to keep all the I/O ports on notebooks just on one side. Found at the left-hand side of the L340 Gaming is its charging port, an Ethernet port, an HDMI 2.0 port, two USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A connections, a USB Type-C port, a 3.5mm audio jack and its HDD activity lights.
Found at the right-hand side of the notebook is a single Kensington lock. In our opinion, it would have been better if Lenovo placed a couple more USB ports or an SD Card reader in this area to utilize the wasted space.
Inside the Lenovo IdeaPad L340 Gaming’s Granite Black chassis is a 9th Generation Intel Core i5-9300H processor and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 GPU. In addition, the notebook also comes with 8GB of DDR4 RAM that can be upgraded up to 16GB as well as a 1TB SATA HDD.
Those who like larger and faster storage options, the IdeaPad L340 Gaming can also be upgraded to up to 1TB PCie SSD and a 2TB HDD.
As customary with our reviews, we ran a couple of CPU intensive tasks as well as a few games to see what numbers the Lenovo IdeaPad L340 Gaming can pump out.
“CPU-Z is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system such as processor name and number, codename, process package, cache levels, mainboard and chipset, as well as memory type, size, timings, and module specifications. It also offers real time measurement of each core’s internal frequency and memory frequency.”
“Cinebench R15 CPU test scenario uses all of your system’s processing power to render a photorealistic 3D scene. This scene makes use of various algorithms to stress all available processor cores. In fact, CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 256 processor threads.This test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor.”
“7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio for ZIP and GZIP formats, which is between 2 to 10% better than its peers, depending on the exact data tested. And 7-Zip boosts its very own 7z archive format that also offers a significantly higher compression ratio than its peers—up to 40% higher.”
“wPrime is a leading multithreaded benchmark for x86 processors that tests your processor performance by calculating square roots with a recursive call of Newton’s method for estimating functions, with f(x)=x2-k, where k is the number we’re searching, until Sgn(f(x)/f'(x)) does not equal that of the previous iteration, starting with an estimation of k/2. It then uses an iterative calling of the estimation method a set amount of times to increase the accuracy of the results. It then confirms that n(k)2=k to ensure the calculation was correct. It repeats this for all numbers from 1 to the requested maximum.”
“Designed to showcase the DirectX 11 API, the Futuremark 3DMark Firestrike became a standard in benchmarking as it not only tests the capabilities of the GPU, but also the capabilities of the whole system for a complete stress test.”
“A follow-up to the reboot of the series, Lara is now searching for a lost treasure that his father was investigating before his passing. Following the same gameplay as Tomb Raider reboot from 2013, the Rise of the Tomb Raider is a worthy title under the Tomb Raider series.”
“Now an experienced covert operative, Adam Jensen is forced to operate in a world that has grown to despise his kind. Armed with a new arsenal of state-of-the-art weapons and augmentations, he must choose the right approach, along with who to trust, in order to unravel a vast worldwide conspiracy.”
“It is the year 2034. Beneath the ruins of post-apocalyptic Moscow, in the tunnels of the Metro, the remnants of mankind are besieged by deadly threats from outside – and within. Mutants stalk the catacombs beneath the desolate surface, and hunt amidst the poisoned skies above.”
“There is a world beyond ours. Beyond nations, justice, ethics. It never sleeps. It exists everywhere. And once you enter…there is no going back. Welcome to the World of Assassination. You are Agent 47, the world’s ultimate assassin.”
Our CPU benchmarks show that the Lenovo IdeaPad L340 Gaming situating itself somewhere in the middle or the lower half of the charts depending on the load. This is expected since the Intel Core i5-9300 is mid-range processor made for gaming notebooks.
On the other hand, gaming benchmarks places the notebook within the middle of the pack. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 was made to replace the GTX 1050 GPU and that shows in the benchmarks. The L340 Gaming catches up to the GTX 1050 Ti-powered notebooks on our charts, which where the GTX 1650 is expected to reside.
Despite the decent performance of the CPU and GPU of the L340 Gaming, its overall performance is held back by its 1TB HDD. While its size is fairly standard nowadays, its speed is a bit lethargic.
Boot up times can be a bit of wait especially for those who have experienced the speed of SSDs. Frankly, it would have been better if Lenovo (or most manufacturers) bundled a 256GB SSD instead of a 1TB HDD with their gaming notebooks.
The Intel Core i5-9300H on the L340 Gaming runs surprisingly cool under light load. Without any intensive applications running, the processor only reaches 46°C. Under heavy duty, however, the processor was able to reach a rather hot 92°C.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, on the other hand, is a bit hot under minimal tasks with the GPU passing the 60°C mark. The GPU, however, only reached 78°C while gaming or running benchmarks, which is relatively cool given the workload.
The Lenovo IdeaPad L340 Gaming gets its juice from a 45Whr battery. Lenovo is promising up to 9 hours of usage, which is a pretty brave claim since the notebook is a gaming-grade device.
Surprisingly, the L340 Gaming was able to run for around 6 hours while under light load consisting of daily writing and web browsing. Gaming, on the other hand, will drain the battery in just 2 hours.
The Lenovo IdeaPad L340 Gaming walks the line between a gaming laptop and powerful work notebook. While its design closely resembles a professional notebook, its performance is of an entry-level gaming notebook.
While its screen is not as impressive or fast as other models its range, it still presents well-saturated images that can benefit both games and video and photo editing.
Both the notebook’s GPU and CPU produced serviceable numbers, CPU temperatures can be a bit hot under heavy load. This might decrease the overall longevity of the notebook. GPU temps, as our benchmarks show, isn’t a problem with this notebook.
Though the 1TB HDD ultimately pulls down its potential, its decent numbers and long battery life overshadows most of its faults. Its minimalist design might also be attractive to gamers who don’t like some of the gaudy designs found on other gaming notebooks in its price range.
Priced at PhP 49,995, the Lenovo IdeaPad L340 Gaming is a decent choice for those who like a gaming experience without hampering battery life or the design of the device. This is why we are giving the laptop our 100% Satisfying Gaming Laptop Award. This is a notebook for the professional who likes to game when they’re at home and relaxed.
