Lenovo IdeaPad L340 15 Budget Laptop (15.6″, Intel or AMD CPU)

The Lenovo IdeaPad L340 15 is among the cheapest 2019 notebook models by Lenovo. It features a 15.6-inch display, lower-to-mid range Intel’s or AMD’s processors, and a starting price of around $450 in the US.

Optionally, the IdeaPad L340 15 can feature touch-screen. It’s available in combination with the basic HD 720p resolution. The sharper Full HD 1080p display variant doesn’t support touch. In both cases, the displays are based on TN technology, meaning narrower viewing angles than on pricier IPS screens.

Inside the 0.9″ thick plastic chassis, the L340 carries the dual-core Intel Core i3-8145U, dual-core AMD Ryzen 3 3200U, or the quad-core AMD Ryzen 5 3500U. Although the Core i3-8145U has two cores versus four of the Ryzen 5 3500U, both chips provide similar mid-range performance. The Ryzen 3 3200U lags behind them in benchmarks, but it is nevertheless perfectly suitable for the daily computing tasks. The Core i3 or Ryzen 5 is recommended if you occasionally do heavier stuff like video editing. But for running these heavy tasks regularly, when it comes to the mainstream laptop category recommended are the popular Core i5 and i7 U series, or even better i5 and i7 H-series you can find in high-end laptops. Among the aforementioned trio of the CPUs offered in the Lenovo IdeaPad L340, the Ryzen 5 with its Vega 8 integrated is the best choice when it comes to games, although neither of them provide full-blown gaming performance you can find in the gaming laptop category.

All of the L340 15 configurations available on the Lenovo Store come with decently-sized 8GB RAM capacity and capacious (but slow) 1-Terabyte hard drive storage. The notebook comes with a built-in DVD writer, which isn’t a very common feature in modern laptops.

Here are the IdeaPad L340 15 configurations with prices, sold on the official Lenovo Store:

• 81LW001DUS: No touchscreen, Full HD, AMD Ryzen 3 3200U CPU, $449.99
• 81LG00AEUS: No touchscreen, Full HD, Intel Core i3-8145U CPU, $549.99
• 81LX0000US: With touchscreen, HD, AMD Ryzen 3 3200U CPU, $529.99
• 81LH0000US: With touchscreen, HD, Intel Core i3-8145U CPU, $579.99
• 81LW001CUS: No touchscreen, Full HD, AMD Ryzen 5 3500U CPU, $579.99

As already noted, all of the configurations are equipped with 8GB RAM and a 1TB HDD.

The notebook comes with a 36 WHr battery, which is a relatively low capacity for modern laptop PCs.

Besides the standard 15.6″ L340 model, Lenovo also offers a 17.3″ L340 version, as well as the L340 GAMING 15.6″ and 17.3″ with gaming-class Nvidia dedicated video card options. There’s also a thinner IdeaPad S340 15.6-incher with optional IPS screen, the Intel Core i5 processor option, faster SSD storage, larger 52.5 WHr battery, and keyboard backlight which is missing on the L340.