The Lenovo 500 series is available in 13in, 14in and 15in versions that are somewhat confusingly numbered 500S, 510S and 500 respectively. What’s more, it’s the 510S that's the cheapest entry-level option, with prices of the other two models starting at over £600. Also, S stands for 'Slim'. Confused? So were we.
At this price it's somewhat surprising to see that the 510S is a well-made machine with some premium details such as a metal keyboard and screen surround and a backlit keyboard. The outside, meanwhile, is made of tough, pearlescent white plastic. It’s also available in a silver or a red exterior with black interior.
The overall vibe is one of minimalism, with little adorning the inside or outside, save the shiny, embossed Lenovo logo.
This is a fairly thin and light laptop but, at 19.3mm thick and weighing from 1.7kg, it’s still a clear step up in bulk over your classic Ultrabook – the MacBook Air or Asus Zenbook, for example.
However, with that extra size comes extra features. In terms of connections you get three USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader, a headphone jack as well as a full-size HDMI output and an Ethernet network port. The latter two are particularly useful additions that mean you won’t need any adapters or dongles to get this machine hooked up to a network or monitor/projector – unlike most Ultrabooks.
Inside you'll find a fairly typical selection of features for a thin and light laptop. Depending on how much you spend you’ll get an Intel Core i3-6100U, Core i5-6267U or Core i7-6567U with either a 128GB or 256GB Sata III SSD. The latter is one area where this laptop will clearly trail its more premium sibling the 710S, which includes a faster PCI Express-based SSD.
Alongside those processors sit a range of Intel integrated graphics, with those same chips including Intel Graphics HD 520 or 550 graphics processors. That may not sound like much of a difference, but the 550 chip includes a small amount of dedicated graphics RAM that makes it surprisingly capable and thus opens up the potential for 3D gaming at low settings. That's not the case with the Ideapad 510S on here, however.
Lenovo also states on its website that there’s a version of this laptop with AMD graphics, but no such options are on sale at the time of writing.
Otherwise, the rest of the components are standard across the range. There's 8GB of RAM, 802.11ac W-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, stereo speakers, a webcam and a 14-inch 1,920 x 1,080 screen.
The 510S benefits from an excellent keyboard that features large, well-spaced keys that are arranged in an ideal fashion – there's little in the way of bunched up or squashed keys as seen on some laptops. The "\" and "#" keys are slightly wedged in, but not to the extent that it affected my ability to type at speed.
Touch-typists will appreciate the nicely defined key action, making it easy to determine when a key is pressed. Plus, the keyboard is backlit, so it’s simple to type accurately even in dark environments. The backlight can be turned off completely if you prefer – it will save a smidge of battery life – and there are two brightness levels.
The touchpad isn’t quite so impressive, but still largely gets the job done. It’s a decent size and has accurate tracking alongside a click-anywhere, single-button action. However, the pad surface is metal rather than the etched glass of the best I’ve used, and as a result it just isn’t quite as smooth and effortless to glide across.
This is a great laptop for those wanting a machine that’s reasonably thin and light but want a slightly larger screen and don’t want to compromise on key features such as a wired network connection and full-size HDMI port.
At £450, this entry-level model is an excellent choice for those just wanting enough performance for general day-to-day computing, especially since it doesn’t compromise on the screen, keyboard, trackpad quality or battery life.
If you want a more powerful machine, however, then the Core i7-6567U-equipped 80TK001BUK version is still a reasonable at £650. The 80TK001AUK model offers perhaps the best bang for buck with its still powerful Core i5-6267U processor and 256GB SSD coming in at £600.
If you think £450 is a lot for a Core i3-powered laptop, bear in mind that many of the other models you'll find online do not have SSDs and instead have 1TB hard disks. These will feel substantially slower in day-to-day use so if you have the extra cash for a laptop with an SSD, it's worth it.
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