Lenovo Ideapad C340 (15″) review – the beginning of a new era

Lenovo seems like it is always striving to fill the gaps (that are already pretty small) between their series with new, fresh looking devices. Today’s laptop is no exclusion of this trend. Despite the low number it is bearing – the Ideapad C340 (15″) is not a budget laptop at all.

We are looking at not-Yoga branded Yoga-capable 2-in-1. Not only that it has a touchscreen layer on top of its Full HD IPS display, but it can work with styluses and pens. Additionally, Lenovo offers its Active Pen as a compliment to some Ideapad C340 (15″) devices. Performance-wise we see the Whiskey Lake processors, as well as NVIDIA’s GeForce MX230. By the way, the laptop is very reminiscent of the Lenovo Yoga 730 (15″).

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-ideapad-c340-15/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Lenovo IdeaPad C340 (15") - Specs

  • BOE NV156FHM-N48
  • Color accuracy  4.2  3.9
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD + up to 1000GB HDD
  • M.2 Slot
  • 1x 2280 M.2 NVMe slot 
  • RAM
  • up to 16GB
  • OS
  • Windows OS, Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro
  • Battery
  • 52.5Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 364 x 250 x 20.5 mm (14.33" x 9.84" x 0.81")
  • Weight
  • 2.00 kg (4.4 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • HDMI
  • Card reader
  • SD, SDHC, SDXC
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ac
  • Bluetooth
  • 4.2
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5 mm combo
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W, Dolby Audio
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Fingerprint reader, Pen (optional)

What’s in the box?

Apart from the 65Wh charger and the useless paper manuals, Lenovo was kind enough to include an “Active Pen” with the device. However, we heard that it is going to be optional, so make sure you check before you buy.


Design and construction

Ideapad C340 (15″), as a convertible 15-inch device, is probably a little on the heavier side. It starts from 2.00 kilos and its profile is 20.5 mm. However, the surface of the base is really pleasant and has some kind of rubberized texture. In terms of structural strength, the device seems robust.

There is no chance you open this lid with just a single hand, sadly. Interestingly, you can’t even lift it off the base without your two hands. This is mostly because of the strong magnets used to keep the laptop closed. Its hinge system, however, is also reminiscent of the one on the Yoga 730 laptops.

On top of the base, you’ll see a keyboard, which lacks the NumPad portion (something that we started getting used to). Its keys are decently sized, they have good tactile feedback and on top of that – they are illuminated. On the downside, however, the key travel is a little shorter than average.

Its keyboard disabling algorithm works perfectly as soon as you pass the 180-degree angle. Just beneath the keyboard, you are going to see the accurate and fast touchpad, which has its buttons embedded beneath it. Additionally, on the right of it, there is the fingerprint reader.

Hot air comes out from the back of the device, as the 360-degree hinge is lifting the screen well enough, so the air is not blocked by the display. On the bottom panel there are some ventilation grills, while the speakers are placed on the sides of the device (still firing downwards).

Ports

On the left, you can see the power plug, an HDMI 1.4b connector, a USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 1) port and an audio combo jack, while on the right, there are two USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) ports, an SD card reader, as well as the power button and the dedicated Novo button (fast recovery tool).


Display quality

Lenovo Ideapad C340 (15″) is equipped with a touchscreen IPS panel, model number BOE NV156FHM-N48 (BOE0700). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

Viewing angles are comfortable. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

The measured maximum brightness of 270 nits in the middle of the screen and 251 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 12%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6300K – slightly warmer the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K, which is not bad. The average color temperature through the grey scale before profiling is even warmer – 6100K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is fine – 1100:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Lenovo Ideapad C340 (15″)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers only50% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Lenovo Ideapad C340 (15″) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 30 ms.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

The only brightness level at which the Lenovo Ideapad C340 (15″) doesn’t use PWM is the maximum. Additionally, the flickerings have a low frequency, which is even worse.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

Lenovo Ideapad C340 (15″)’s IPS touchscreen panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, good contrast ratio, and adequate default settings. Its main drawbacks are the narrow color coverage and the flickering backlight.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Lenovo Ideapad C340 (15″) configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS BOE NV156FHM-N48 (BOE0700).

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Lenovo Ideapad C340 (15″) produces a good quality sound. Its low, mid and high tones are clear of deviations.


Drivers

You can find all of the drivers, firmware, and utilities for the Ideapad C340 (15″) here: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/bg/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/ideapad-c-series-laptops/c340-15iwl/downloads

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. Ideapad C340 (15″) is equipped with a 52.5Wh battery pack.

It was able to deliver more than 10 hours and a half of web browsing and nearly an hour longer of video playback.


CPU options

Lenovo Ideapad C340 (15″) is sold in configurations with the Intel Pentium Gold 5405U, the Core i3-8145U and the more powerful Core i5-8265U and Core i7-8565U processors. Of them, the first two have two cores and four threads, while the latter couple has double the core and thread count.


GPU options

GPU-wise, Lenovo has given the Ideapad C340 (15″) users a GeForce MX230 graphics card. It is a significant step forward from the MX130, as it now utilizes a Pascal chip, rather the older and inefficient Maxwell one.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS86 fps71 fps57 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS123 fps94 fps49 fps

GTA-V-benchmarks

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5)HD 768p, Normal (Check settings)HD 768p, High (Check settings)HD 768p, Very High (Check settings)
Average FPS110 fps70 fps47 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i5-8265U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Lenovo Ideapad C340 (15″)3.16 GHz (B+98%)@ 82°C3.12 GHz (B+95%)@ 94°C1.95 GHz (B+22%)@ 60°C
HP ProBook 450 G62.69 GHz (B+59%)@ 64°C2.53 GHz (B+60%)@ 68°C2.09 GHz (B+31%)@ 71°C
ASUS VivoBook S15 S5302.99 GHz (B+87%) @ 77°C2.99 GHz (B+87%) @ 87°C2.29 GHz (B+62%) @ 71°C
Acer Swift 3 (SF314-56G)2.67 GHz (B+67%)@ 93°C2.16 GHz (B+35%)@ 86°C1.66 GHz (B+4%)@ 71°C

Lenovo Ideapad C340 (15″) happened to be one of the best Core i5-8265U performers out there. Taking a look at the frequency/temperature table makes it a little more clear. The laptop manages to keep the clock speeds above 3.00 GHz for both the first and the second checkpoint. This is because of an aggressive thermal philosophy, which results in rather high CPU temperatures. In order to manage the temps, the notebook drops the clock speeds down to roughly 2.00 GHz (still above the base). This is effective enough since the temperature drop is huge – from 94C down to 60C at the end of the test.

Real gameplay

NVIDIA GeForce MX230GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)
Lenovo Ideapad C340 (15″)1658 MHz @ 74°C1300 MHz @ 64°C

GeForce MX230 is now based on the Pascal technology, rather than the outdated Maxwell one we saw on the MX130. This helps in achieving a lot higher frequencies at a lot lower TDP. As you can see, the frequency at the second minute of the gameplay test was 1658 MHz (some good 70MHz above the maximum Boost clock), while the temperature was a little warm – 74C. However, when we look towards the 30-minute mark, the scene is completely different. Its clock speed plummeted down by more than 350 MHz, whereas the frequency dropped by 10C.

Verdict

All-in-all we’ve got a great experience with this laptop. We love to see more and more convertible devices, as this would generally mean that the technology is improving, as there is more competition. However, we were most impressed by the performance of the laptop, as well as its looks.

Performance-wise this laptop is a pure monster – one of the fastest Core i5-8265U-equipped devices we’ve tested. It even beats most of the competition that is using the Core i7-8565U, so we will leave it to your imagination what the results are going to be when you buy the laptop with the Core i7-8565U. Additionally, there is the GeForce MX230 GPU that is going to help you with some graphically intensive tasks and can even provide some mild gaming experience.

To provide such figures in benchmarks, however, Lenovo had to make a compromise – the temperature. Ah – the archnemesis of laptops and tiny computers, destroying dreams and framerates, all across the world. But it is inevitable, isn’t it? So, what Lenovo did was to give some headroom for the laptop to extend its full potential, and after that just float around 2.00 GHz with a temperature of 60C (Don’t be surprised, all of the laptops are working like that).

So, another impressive feature of the laptop is its battery life. We got more than 10 hours and a half of web browsing, and 11 hours and a half of video playback. This is good 2-3 hours more than the 8-hours promised by Lenovo on their website.

However, we have come to the major downside of this laptop – its display (BOE NV156FHM-N48 (BOE0700)). Well, it is not great, nor terrible – somewhere around 3.6. However, despite the adequate default settings, comfortable viewing angles and good contrast ratio, it has one major issue. It uses PWM to adjust its brightness levels. On top of that – a low-frequency one, which is even more harmful. However, on the bright side, our Health-Guard profile fixes that. By the way, it also has very unamusing colors, thanks to the mediocre 50% coverage of sRGB.

Of course, it is nitpicking to say that, but the Ideapad C340 (15″) is just a little too heavy for us. While usually, 2 kilos is not that heavy for a 15-inch laptop, but when it comes to convertibles, that require a lot of gymnastics to get them in the preferred pose, 2.00 kg is too much.

Pros

  • Performance king for the hardware it packs
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Its IPS panel has comfortable viewing angles and good contrast ratio (BOE NV156FHM-N48 (BOE0700))
  • Lenovo Active Pen inside the box (optional)
  • Great battery life


Cons

  • Gets a little warm under the bonnet during short full load bursts
  • A little heavy for a convertible
  • Uses PWM to adjust its brightness up until the maximum level (our Health-Guard profile takes care of that) (BOE NV156FHM-N48 (BOE0700))
  • Covers only 50% of sRGB (BOE NV156FHM-N48 (BOE0700))

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-ideapad-c340-15/

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Nimra
Nimra
4 years ago

Hi, I bought this laptop and then bought your health guard but nothing has come up. As in, I paid for the health guard via paypal and then nothing happened? How do I get this product on my laptop?

Simeon Nikolov
Admin
4 years ago
Reply to  Nimra

Hello, Nimra! You could check your Junk folder. We also sent a new e-mail with the profile as an attached file 🙂 Have a nice day!

Nimra
Nimra
4 years ago
Reply to  Simeon Nikolov

All is sorted, I just suck at tech, thank you

Jacques
Jacques
4 years ago

The information regarding the PWM frequency is not clear. In the overview (https://laptopmedia.com/top-laptop-pwm-ranking-rated-by-negative-impact-on-eyesight/) it is specified at 21 kHz, but on this page at 350 Hz. Which one is correct?

Bastian
Bastian
4 years ago

Hi, so i bought a Lenovo Ideapad recently, and so far its been great. Its a great computer, and it really fits my needs. There is one thing though, that I hope I can get some help with. The fan makes a lot of noise. And I don’t really know why. I’ve read some of the reviews of the laptop, and it seems to me that it shouldn’t be this noisy. Is there any particular reason for this? I have a little theory of mine, but i can’t in any way for sure confirm this. The other day one of… Read more »