Lenovo V155 (15) review – this ultra-budget business device has some performance in its pocket

One of the latest notebooks on the budget end of the market is the Lenovo V155 (15). It is equipped with an AMD processor lineup, enhanced with the integrated Vega graphics. According to Lenovo (and ultimately, its price tag), the V155 (15) is an everyday device, which should enhance your consumption of multimedia, and possibly be your companion during your school years.

Additionally, Lenovo is bold enough to call it the “business hero”. Well, what does this hero have more than the mortlings? After all, your top tier display choice is a 1080p TN panel. Perhaps, the manufacturer is talking about the DVD optical drive, which provides you with the opportunity of being an in-depth archive detective. Let’s not take Lenovo’s words for granted and check out what does the V155 (15) has on offer.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-v155-15/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Lenovo V155 (15") - Spécifications

  • AUO B156HTN06.1 (AUO61ED)
  • Précision des couleurs  11  3.1
  • HDD/SSD
  • jusqu'à 1000GB SSD + jusqu'à 1000GB HDD
  • RAM
  • up to 16GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Home, No OS, Windows 10 Pro
  • Batterie
  • 36Wh
  • Matériau du corps
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate
  • Dimensions
  • 363 x 255 x 22.9 mm (14.29" x 10.04" x 0.90")
  • Poids
  • 2.20 kg (4.9 lbs)
  • Ports et connectivité
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • HDMI
  • Lecteur de cartes
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ac
  • Bluetooth
  • 4.1
  • Prise audio
  • 3.5 mm combo
  • Caractéristiques
  • Lecteur d'empreintes digitales
  • Caméra Web
  • HD
  • Clavier rétro-éclairé
  • Microphone
  • Intervenants
  • 2x 1.5W, Dolby Audio
  • Lecteur optique
  • optional
  • Fente de verrouillage de sécurité

Tous Lenovo V155 (15″) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the box, there is nothing too sophisticated – the laptop itself, some paper manuals and a 65W power brick, which attaches itself to the wall.


Design and construction

If you are in for premium looks and a strong body, you should step away from this notebook (and probably from this price range, whatsoever). The device features an all-plastic build with a rough finish on the lid, as well as the base. In fact, it resembles a cloth texture… left to dry in freezing temperatures. In terms of measurements, the laptop weighs 2.20 kg (4.85 lbs) and has a profile of 22.9mm.

Naturally, its lid cannot be opened with a single hand. It is also prone to bending, should you apply some force – both twisting and linear. In contrast to some competitors, this laptop has thin side bezels, and while the top and the bottom are a little thick, we are glad to see that there is a hardware shutter on top of the camera.

Now let’s move to the keyboard deck. There we see a full-layout featuring a NumberPad section. Actually, this board is probably one of the best features this laptop has on offer. As its keycaps are big, key travel – long and feedback – tactile. Despite that, the keys are quiet enough, so you are not annoying your colleagues when writing a report or an essay in the library.

Additionally, the Power On/Off switch is placed on the top right of the deck. As of the touchpad, Lenovo didn’t do a particularly good job. While it is extremely sensitive and has decent gliding capabilities, the touchpad is not comfortable for use, as it rarely detects your clicks accurately. It is also smaller than what we’re used to seeing.

On the bottom plate, you are going to find the speaker grills, as well as a ventilation grill. Hot air is exhausted towards the lid, but it is nowhere near the screen, so there is no need to worry.

Ports

On the left side, there is the power plug, an RJ-45 connector, as well as an HDMI one. Then, there are two USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) ports and an audio jack. The only thing you will find on the right is the DVD optical drive.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

So, the first thing you need to do is to remove the optical drive. There is a screw, marked on the bottom panel, that shows you which is the proprietory one. After you remove it, continue by unscrewing 12 more Phillips-head screws and then pry the bottom panel with a plastic tool.

In terms of cooling, Lenovo uses a very thin heat pipe and a rather big fan. We are going to check its efficiency later in the review.

Some of you won’t like seeing that there are 4GB of memory soldered to the motherboard. On the bright side, there is one RAM SODIMM slot, for a combined total of 16GB (according to Lenovo). Additionally, there is a protective shell that sits on top of the slot. Storage-wise, you will see a 2.5″ SATA drive slot, as well as an M.2 PCIe x4 slot.

Sadly, for a 15-inch notebook, there is only a 36Wh battery pack.


Display quality

Lenovo V155 (15) is equipped with а Full HD TN panel bearing a model number AUO B156HTN06.1 (AUO61ED). 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).

Expectedly, viewing angles are terrible. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

We measured a maximum brightness of 246 nits in the middle of the screen and 224 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 6%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6930K – slightly colder than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K. The average color temperature through the grey scale before profiling is even warmer – 12600K – very cold, bluish light, corrected by our profiles.
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 mediocre – 400:1.

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. Basically, 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 V155 (15)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers only 51% 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 V155 (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 = 12 ms – a fast reaction time.


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.

Lenovo V155 (15)’s backlight is free of flickers across all of the brightness levels. This makes it comfortable for extended periods of use in this aspect ratio.

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 V155 (15)’s display has a TN panel with a Full HD resolution. Its viewing angles are uncomfortable, contrast ratio – mediocre, and covers only 51% of the sRGB gamut. On the bright side, it has quick reaction times and doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Lenovo V155 (15) configurations with 15.6″ FHD TN AUO B156HTN06.1 (AUO61ED).

*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.

En plus de recevoir des profils efficaces et favorables à la santé, en achetant les produits de LaptopMedia, vous soutenez également le développement de nos laboratoires, où nous testons les appareils afin de produire les examens les plus objectifs possibles.

Travail de bureau

Le travail de bureau devrait être utilisé principalement par les utilisateurs qui passent le plus de temps à regarder des morceaux de texte, des tableaux ou simplement à surfer. Ce profil vise à offrir une meilleure distinction et une meilleure clarté en conservant une courbe gamma plate (2,20), une température de couleur native et des couleurs perceptuellement précises.

Conception et jeux

Ce profil est destiné aux designers qui travaillent avec les couleurs de manière professionnelle, et pour les jeux et les films également. Design and Gaming pousse les panneaux d'affichage à leurs limites, les rendant aussi précis que possible dans la norme sRGB IEC61966-2-1 pour le Web et la TVHD, au point blanc D65.

Santé-Guard

Santé-Guard élimine le modulation de largeur d'impulsion nocive (PWM) et réduit le lumière bleue négative qui affecte nos yeux et notre corps. Comme il est adapté à chaque panneau, il parvient à maintenir la précision perceptive des couleurs. Santé-Guard simule le papier, ce qui réduit considérablement la pression sur les yeux.

Obtenez les 3 profils avec 33% de réduction


Sound

Lenovo V155 (15)’s speakers produce a relatively quiet sound with good quality. Its low, mid and high tones are clear of deviations.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/lenovo-v-series-laptops/v155-15api/downloads/driver-list

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. Let’s see how the 36Wh battery pack performed.

During Web browsing, we were able to get 5 hours and 45 minutes, while video playback will drain the battery for five hours flat.

Afin de simuler des conditions réelles, nous avons utilisé notre propre script de navigation automatique sur plus de 70 sites web.


CPU options

This notebook comes in a variety of AMD CPUs. On the bottom end, you will find the Athlon 300U, which is slightly slower than the Ryzen 3 3200U. At the top sits the quad-core Ryzen 5 3500U.


GPU options

Depending on the processor of choice, you are going to get either the AMD Radeon Vega 3 or Vega 8 integrated GPU. The maximum resolution supported by both of them through the HDMI port is 3840×2160 at 30Hz.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS65 fps51 fps38 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS75 fps51 fps31 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.

AMD Ryzen 5 3500U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Lenovo V155 (15)3.18 GHz (B+81%) @ 63°C2.92 GHz (B+39%) @ 71°C2.73 GHz (B+30%) @ 74°C
Lenovo IdeaPad S540 (14″)3.24 GHz (B+54%) @ 60°C3.08 GHz (B+47%) @ 66°C2.95 GHz (B+40%) @ 72°C
ASUS ZenBook 14 UM4312.95 GHz (B+40%) @ 65°C2.92 GHz (B+39%) @ 68°C2.24 GHz (B+7%) @ 56°C

Once again, we proved that the Ryzen 5 3500U is an extremely efficient CPU. It can sustain high frequencies at very formidable temperatures for a long period of time.

Comfort during full load

While the fan was not the quietest out there, the maximum temperature on the keyboard was less than the average temperature for the human body.


Verdict

Ultra-budget business notebook? Okay. What exactly makes a laptop a business one? Well, the most prominent features that drive the Lenovo V155 (15) to that direction are the camera cover and the so-called industrial-looking design.

While it looks industrial, the build quality is certainly not on that level. The lid is twisty and bendy, while on the bright side, the base is a little more rigid. As of the finish on the surface, it looks interesting, and it can be used as a very efficient stress reliever by scratching your nails on it.

Sadly, the battery won’t last you through an entire workday, as we got around 5 hours and 45 minutes of Web browsing and 5 hours of video playback from it. Don’t forget your charger! Another thing that is not very comfortable is the TN display with its narrow viewing angles and poor contrast ratio.

On the verge of listing poor things, we have to mention the touchpad. It is far too sensitive, which results in a lot of misclicks. Moreover, we just can’t stress out how many times it detected a right-click, instead of a left one. However, it may or may not be because of an issue in our unit, although we highly doubt it.

Lenovo V155 (15)’s display has a TN panel (AUO B156HTN06.1) with a Full HD resolution. Its viewing angles are uncomfortable, contrast ratio – mediocre, and covers only 51% of the sRGB gamut. On the bright side, it has quick reaction times and doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment.

It also lacks a USB Type-C port and an SD card reader, but on the bright side, it features a DVD optical drive. Not only that but its keyboard is extremely comfortable to type on, has big keycaps and despite its clicky feedback, it is actually pretty quiet as well.

At the end of the day, this is a rather decent notebook but has some of its flaws are too repulsive. You can also check out the Vostro 3590 and the HP ProBook 450 G6 if you are ready to pay a little bit more.

Pros

  • Comfortable keyboard
  • Decent performance and thermals
  • Adequate pricing
  • Doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness (AUO B156HTN06.1)
  • It is equipped with a DVD optical drive


Cons

  • Not the best build quality (uses only plastic)
  • TN panel with poor viewing angles, low maximum brightness and mediocre contrast ratio (AUO B156HTN06.1)
  • Covers only 51% of sRGB (AUO B156HTN06.1)
  • Annoying touchpad
  • Lacks an SD card reader and a USB Type-C port

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-v155-15/

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