Laptop review : LENOVO IdeaPad 330

do you agree with my review?

  • Yes

    Votes: 1 33.3%
  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • More info is needed before a decision

    Votes: 2 66.7%
  • I am a pro-Lenovo shill

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I am an anti-Lenovo Luddite

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    3

doomgiver

Warframe
Hello again. Im back.

Quick specs :
Processor : i5-8250U
RAM : 8 GB DDR4 (see screenshot below for clocks)
HDD : 1TB 5600 rpm ST1000LM035-1RK172
GPU : integrated (UHD 620)
Windows 10 Home (or whatever its called)

TL;DR : i hate this piece of trash. but i must use it because its my work laptop

Pros :
1. sleek design
2. shiny
3. decently crisp matte screen
4. cheap. 47k INR in Delhi. it came bundled with a mouse, speaker and case thanks to an offer.

Cons :
0. literally everything else
1. fragile
2. slippery body, EXTREMELY prone to slipping out of hands.
3. not ergonomic at all
4. touchpad is THE worst i've used. lenovo engineers deserve an award for coming up with this abomination after
5. windows 10 is a nightmare to use.
6. 5600 rpm drive. lol.
7. too many to list here ffs read the post

Lets start by initial impressions :
looks good. sleek design, looks like brushed aluminium. sleek silvery design. crisp matte screen.

then you try to pick it up. slips out of your hands because there is absolutely no friction on the laptop body. you gotta grip the rubber grommets to get any kind of friction. I've almost dropped this POS a few times. im thinking of rigging up some DIY stuff so i can safely pick it up.

oh yeah, its fragile. dont press it too hard or it will bend (and prolly break)
construction is oddly flimsy.

Next, the specs :

this is one of the cheapest laptops with the configuration i was looking for (i5, 8 gb ram, 1 tb drive).

other options were a thinkpad at 56k (a fucking steal, this one), same config, but with a decent GPU and no windows at 46k, dell at 51k, acer at 45k (but acer is a lol company so why even bother). i didnt even go to HP because i KNOW i would get even more overpriced shit over there.

seriously, i should have gone for the thinkpad or dell instead of trying to save a few bucks. but then, its a work laptop, dont care (that much) yadda yadda.

there is almost no difference in specs. and if there is, it is well hidden.

laptop shopping in india is a clusterfuck of epic proportions. specs are hidden (eg, the 5600 rpm drives, they are EVERYWHERE but nobody mentions them), people go by ram and type of processor (Eg, 8 gb ram + i5 is considered "great", even if it may be ddr2 ram and 4th gen intel lol.)

Performance :
Decent. thanks to windows 10, which hogs up almost every resource, the laptop doesnt feel as fast/snappy as my aging desktop with an i3-6100.

the major offender is disk speed. 5600 is just too low. and windows 10 loves to take up every last bit of it. i spend more time waiting for disk i/o than actually, you know, doing stuff.

On that subject : fuck windows 10.
it is literal cancer. nobody should have to ever deal with this useless POS.
let me give you a quick tl;dr : windows 10 thinks it knows better than you. its basically a helicopter parent. you know how annoying and shitty they are.

Hardware :

chiclet keyboard. decently comfy to type, not a lot of feedback. not as painful to type on as my old laptop (my phalanges used to hurt if i typed for too long).

for some retarded reason, the power button is on the top RIGHT corner.

for another retarded reason, you need a lenovo software patch to enable "sane" power button behavior. you gotta press it for 5 seconds if u want to put the pc to sleep. lol. typical chink engineering.

oh yeah, did i mention the fucking travesty that is the "Fn" key? it is enabled by default in all modern keyboards, so you gotta disable it in the bios to enable "sane" function key use. more chink retard engineering.

and now we come to the PINNACLE of stupidity : location of ports and the touchpad
I DREAD the times when i have to use the touchpad. you cant use it if you're using the keyboard (so rip gaming), you cant click and drag using two fingers, the entire damn thing is one huge click button, there's no "defined" left/right click buttons.

you think this is bad? then check out the location of ports.

EVERYTHING is on the left. all. usable. ports. on the left. including status lights. what the fuck? i have to look sideways to check my power/battery status? and what happened to disk activity indicator? removed to save a few bucks?

battery is not removable. once it becomes trash, the laptop is trash. yay planned obsolescence.


goddamn i really hate this laptop.

if you have a bit more money, go for the thinkpad or dell. dont buy this POS. if possible, buy something with a 6th gen processor so you can run windows 7 on it instead of the abomination that is windows 10.
 

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Desmond

Destroy Erase Improve
Staff member
Admin
Hey doom, long time no see.

Though I must say that's a lot of words for a laptop you hate so much.
 
OP
doomgiver

doomgiver

Warframe
gotta vent somehow. ideally by introducing Lenovo to the concept of high-fiving. with a metal chair. wrapped with barbed wire.

eDIT : also, dont you hate those reviews that say "osssssmmm lappi" or "bad laptop".

i've tried to accurately write down just WHY the laptop is bad.

WHY? because of windows 10 + retarded design choices by the laptop maker.

i COULD have been satisfied with this laptop+windows 7, or even a better laptop with windows 10.

but most of them were out of budget. serves me right.
 

whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
I thought every decently tech informed person by now knows that Win 10+hdd=loooooooooooooooong wait. That's why I recommend getting even cheapest 120gb kingston a400 ssd(~1750) for anyone buying a laptop nowadays.

As for non-removable battery that is a common thing nowadays.All it means is that you will have to go to a laptop repair shop to change battery unless you can do it yourself at home by watching youtube videos. Replacement battery should be available at service centres(of course at a bit inflated price) or cheaper compatible batteries on online sites.

You can run win 7/8.1 on latest hardware assuming your laptop manufacturer/device manufacturer has compatible drivers,you just need to use this:
zeffy/wufuc

Btw if the worst comes to the worst & you have to use win 10 only because of drivers then at least don't use home version,just get win 10 pro for free by upgrading your win 7 ultimate to win 10 pro on some older pc & then transferring the license to latest pc via ms account(google for this & as for activating win 7 ult I will leave it to your imagination ;) ).

Also use this to keep windows updates under your control:
wumt.zip
 

rdx_halo

In the zone
You could have bought a HP for 40k same specs and install windows 7.

HP 15 Core i5 8th gen 15.6-inch FHD Laptop (8GB/1TB HDD/DOS/Sparkling Black /2.04 kg), 15q-ds0009TU *www.amazon.in/dp/B07DZLCBYJ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_2KdjCbV6V2J28

I don't know why you are using sweeping statements like ' Acer is lol'. I agree their lower models are avarage. But their Swift series is excellent. I'm using old HP and Acer for last 10 + years. I'm satisfied with both.





Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk
 

whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
^^Overall build quality of laptops of all brands have gone down in last 4-5 years,any laptop older than that most likely has a better build quality than similarly priced laptop today.

Win 7 won't work on latest hardware(ryzen & 7th gen intel & later) without drivers & a patch to bypass MS processor check(see my previous post) for windows update to work.
 
OP
doomgiver

doomgiver

Warframe
You could have bought a HP for 40k same specs and install windows 7.

HP 15 Core i5 8th gen 15.6-inch FHD Laptop (8GB/1TB HDD/DOS/Sparkling Black /2.04 kg), 15q-ds0009TU *www.amazon.in/dp/B07DZLCBYJ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_2KdjCbV6V2J28

I don't know why you are using sweeping statements like ' Acer is lol'. I agree their lower models are avarage. But their Swift series is excellent. I'm using old HP and Acer for last 10 + years. I'm satisfied with both.




Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk
hp wasnt even considered by us. when i asked my procurement guys if they wanted a price quote by hp, they just straight up refused. and for good reason too. terrible quality and support.


I thought every decently tech informed person by now knows that Win 10+hdd=loooooooooooooooong wait. That's why I recommend getting even cheapest 120gb kingston a400 ssd(~1750) for anyone buying a laptop nowadays.

As for non-removable battery that is a common thing nowadays.All it means is that you will have to go to a laptop repair shop to change battery unless you can do it yourself at home by watching youtube videos. Replacement battery should be available at service centres(of course at a bit inflated price) or cheaper compatible batteries on online sites.

You can run win 7/8.1 on latest hardware assuming your laptop manufacturer/device manufacturer has compatible drivers,you just need to use this:
zeffy/wufuc

Btw if the worst comes to the worst & you have to use win 10 only because of drivers then at least don't use home version,just get win 10 pro for free by upgrading your win 7 ultimate to win 10 pro on some older pc & then transferring the license to latest pc via ms account(google for this & as for activating win 7 ult I will leave it to your imagination ;) ).

Also use this to keep windows updates under your control:
wumt.zip
good point on the battery. but why pay someone else do it when a battery can be simply slotted in, like old laptops?

the only reason im running win 10 on this laptop is because i thought win7 was not able to even RUN 7th gen and higher proccys. let me see if lenovo has 7/8 drivers. thansk for the heads up.
 
OP
doomgiver

doomgiver

Warframe
i've had to FIGHT windows every single step, simply to make the laptop usable.
if windows sends out an update that changes some settings, im quite literally fvcked. i'd probably have to re-install the whole thing.
 

Desmond

Destroy Erase Improve
Staff member
Admin
they just straight up refused
Does your company have a TAN and other necessary documents? If you don't then no one will sell you any equipment, at least not from the company itself. You will have to buy them from retail. I saw this happen in my current company, it's in the process of getting formed in India so they don't have the necessary docments. They approached Dell to sell them 6 laptops but when Dell asked for the documents, they didn't have any so they refused to sell to them. My company had to procure the laptops from retail.

So basically, companies will not sell you hardware without doing any background checks because many times, people buy in bulk and then sell it in countries which have embargos. This will attract huge fines on the company, so every company is very particular about this.

Perhaps the same happened in your case.
 
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