Lenovo S405 14.0-Inch Laptop

I bought this laptop for $400 I think some special pricing on Amazon. And for that price tag it is a superb buy. The laptop is very thin, lightweight, and has good specs. I use my laptop for using Word/Excel, watching movies (output to HDTV via HDMI), listening to music etc. No gaming as such

For all of these tasks its a superb laptop. No glitches outputting video to HDMi, speakers are average and if you crank up the volume, they really produce bad sound. But as I use headphones or output to a TV/Speaker System, it doesn't matter for me.

Keyboard is great light keys and you don't need to press too hard, and are very responsive. The track pad leaves a bit to be desired not as responsive as I would have liked but its not as if it frustrates you. I'm comparing it to my previous Sony Vaio and that trackpad of the latter was much better.

Battery life is good, screen is also good enough and very bright. The top marks goto the light weight and sleek build of this laptop everyone who saw it said wow!

All in all, a very very good buy for $400. I agree that anything beyond $425 may feel too much for this laptop.

There is very little information about the Lenovo S405 ultrabook on the Internet. If I had found a review, or even consistent information re: the components, I probably wouldn't have purchased this machine even though it's quite nice in some respects. I'm returning this device to Amazon, but perhaps someone else will learn from my trial-and-error.

Appearance: The S405 is a gorgeous looking machine. The exterior is a metallic gray that looks like it could be made of aluminum, but is probably plastic. The interior is a striking jet black. There is nothing glossy or plastic-y about the chassis. It looks and feels expensive, but durable as well. At 3.9 lbs it's heavier than most ultrabooks, but still lighter than most laptops. Its thickest point is 0.8". I would have no qualms about traveling with this slim and sleek machine. A shame the S405's performance doesn't match its aesthetics.

Performance: The PDF spec sheet on Amazon lists the graphics as the Radeon 7600M. In fact, it's an integrated 7600G. According to Notebookcheck, the M has a core speed of 450MHz and the G is 320MHz. That's not a huge difference, especially since both are integrated into the CPU, but it's not nothing either. Notebookcheck also says the A8-4555M processor is not a "true quad core" and they place it between the Intel Pentium and i3 chips. The clock speed is 1600GHz, although theoretically AMD turbo boosts it up to 2400. (I don't know when that's supposed to happen.) I went into the power settings and changed it from Balanced to Best Performance, demanding top CPU speed. This improved performance, but not drastically. I had hoped this ultrabook would run Guild Wars 2 on low-medium settings at a playable framerate. After reducing the resolution to 1280x768 and adjusting all the graphics settings to Low the FPS averaged 26. And this was with very little happening on screen. If I had been in a heavily populated area of the gameworld, I predict the FPS would plummet to the teens or single digits. I'm sure the S405's fake quad core processor and integrated low end graphics are fine for web browsing, word processing and video playback, but for its price I hoped this ultrabook could handle a relatively undemanding recent game, especially when its settings were at bare minimum. It can't, which is too bad. Most ultrabooks are far from gaming rigs, but some have the processors to get by with adjusted expectations. The S405 does not.

Keyboard: Lenovo bought IBM back in 2005 and their acquisition of the gold standard Thinkpad brand really shows in this terrific keyboard. Responsive keys that don't feel like hard plastic tiles beneath my fingers. I don't really know how to describe this keyboard except to say it's satisfying to use, although some of the keys (Backspace, right Shift, Enter) are undersized. That didn't bother me too much, nor did the lack of backlight. I appreciated how the keyboard didn't flex into the chassis when I typed in the center, like some laptop keyboards have been known to do. The track pad is generous and functions as well or better than most track pads. (I always use a mouse.)

Display: 14" and a resolution of 1366x768, which is typical for ultrabooks. I wish manufacturers would make (at least) 1440x900 the new standard. My archaic Dell Inspiron had a 1680x1050 display, and that was seven years ago. I don't think anyone will be terribly impressed by the S405's display, nor terribly disappointed by it. One caveat: even at its brightest setting, it still seems a tad too dim. But unless you go comparing it side-by-side with other ultrabooks, I doubt the display is going to influence you in any way. It's decidedly average.

Additional Information: All the ports are located on the sides of the machine. 2.0 USB x2, 3.0 USB x1, micro SD, headphones, HDMI out, ethernet. There's a 0.3mp/720p webcam. One way the S405 reduces its weight is by omitting an optical drive. The removable battery theoretically lasts five hours, but who can say for certain. Memory is only 4GB and hard drive is 500gb 5400rpm. A lot of ultrabooks are packing solid state drives in addition to regular drives, but the S405 lacks this.

I really really wanted to like the S405. It looks so cool with its solid black interior, and svelte build. But the processor and integrated graphics don't meet my needs. If I can't play Guild Wars 2 on it, what would I be using this machine for? Internet and word processing. I may as well get a cheaper ultrabook, or even a chromebook. The S405 doesn't merit its $540 price tag, so back to Amazon it goes.

UPDATE Nov/30/2012: I want to update this review with additional information re: this Lenovo model, but until then here is another correction to the PDF file on Amazon's page: This S405 ultrabook does not support Bluetooth.

Buy Lenovo S405 14.0-Inch Laptop Now

Trying to negate some of the information from other reviews (here and other sites; I bought from a competitor).

If you are the average user (productivity apps, internet, watching Youtube/Netflix videos, social tools), this machine in its base configuration should provide you more than enough room and performance.

In addition, it is built really well and looks great. I have seen some reviewers complain about the lid seeming flimsy. I don't think this is true. Given how ultra-book-like the machine is, you can't obviously have an inch-thick Thinkpad lid on it. It is the right size and seems solid enough to me. Not a concern, but an advantage just don't throw the machine around (this goes for any other machine as well with the size and weight advantage of this one).

Battery life under average use has been 3-3:30 hours. Could it have been better? Yes, but it would have cost more probably. Similarly, it could have had other things like bluetooth, gigabit ethernet, two RAM slots etc. again, at a higher price point.

Bottom line in my opinion: If you go in knowing what you want to use this machine for and are not looking for high-power needs such as gaming or video editing, this should be a 5-star laptop.

Read Best Reviews of Lenovo S405 14.0-Inch Laptop Here

I'll keep it short and sweet. This laptop has a great keyboard and touchpad, with basic functions for everything else. The screen has horrible viewing angles, but par for the course for cheap laptops I guess. But where this laptop really fails where it should excel is with the graphics. No, this is not a gaming laptop, but AMD's claim to fame is their integrated graphics, and they are quite nice, when the laptop is configured properly.

What's wrong? Well the graphics in this meager 19W chip *SHOULD* be able to push 30+ fps in most current games without a problem. The issue is that the only offered a SINGLE RAM SLOT for this machine. Dual Channel RAM is required for optimal performance and would improve the graphics by a significant 40-50% if they offered a dual RAM chip configuration. To make matters worse, the warranty is VOID if you open the laptop to even find out that there's a single RAM slot, and to upgrade the RAM and/or hard drive with an SSD.

Additionally, the hard drive is a 7mm form factor, so 500GB is as large as they come in that form factor. The only plus is that they have a working mSATA port running at SATA III speeds, but again, you'd have to void your warranty to even add one.

Sorry Lenovo. This could have been a great bargain laptop that could handle gaming in a pinch. But as it stands, it can barely manage Minecraft. This laptop should be selling for about $400 considering its size and performance. It does handle basic tasks just fine, but beyond that, forget it. You can find better laptops for $550 to $600 that way out perform this flop of a machine. Unfortunately I can't return the laptop because I opened it up to add another stick of RAM only to find out I can't.

Skip this one, really.

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I bought this laptop for my husband. He totally loves it. It's super lightweight. It has everything he needs. The speed is perfect. Speechless!!!! I would totally recommend this laptop. Arrived in time and as described.

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