Lenovo IdeaCentre 310S Review A Basic Budget Desktop
Lenovo IdeaCentre 310S Review: A Basic Budget Desktop Menu Lifewire Tech for Humans Newsletter! Search Close GO Best Products > Computer & Laptops
The 310S has a retro look. It actually looks a little bit like an older DVD player turned on its side. The CD slot for the ODD (optical disk drive) sits in the upper lefthand corner, while a power button, four USB ports (two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0), a microphone jack, a headphone jack, and a multimedia card reader sit in the upper right. On the back, you’ll find an HDMI port, VGA port, Ethernet port, and analog audio ports. You’ll also find two additional USB 2.0 ports, as the IdeaCentre has six USB ports in total.
The computer is easy to open up. The side panel is held in place by two small screws on the back of the 310S. Once you remove those screws, you just slide the side panel off to access the internals. On the inside, the components look and feel basic, and there appears to be a lack of attention to detail in the placement of the components. There’s a tiny CPU fan crookedly installed, but it doesn’t do much to help keep the system cool. The 310S has a small amount of ventilation on the back and on the side panel, but it lacks sufficient ventilation overall. It runs slightly warm, especially after a long period of use. Lifewire / Erika Rawes
Although the 310S runs reliably overall, it received mediocre scores in benchmark testing. On PCMark10, it earned an unimpressive score of 1,790. It scored higher in essentials (3,530) and productivity (3,332), and lower in digital content creation (1,324) and other graphics related areas like photos (1,579) and videos (1,665). On GFXBench, the graphics benchmarks weren’t much better. The Lenovo scored 24.95 FPS on Car Chase, and 27.63 FPS on Manhattan 3.1. Lifewire / Erika Rawes
Lenovo IdeaCentre 310S Review
Affordable price, mediocre performance
By Erika Rawes Erika Rawes Writer University of Maryland Erika Rawes has written for Digital Trends, USA Today, and Cheatsheet.com and has tested dozens of consumer technology products for multiple tech sites. lifewire's editorial guidelines Published on May 11, 2020 Tweet Share Email We independently research, test, review, and recommend the best products—learn more about our process. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission. 2.7Lenovo IdeaCentre 310S (2019 Model)
Lifewire / Erika Rawes What We Like Slim profile Lightweight Affordable Includes on optical disk drive What We Don't Like Cheap peripherals Low build quality Mediocre processing speeds Minimal RAM The Lenovo IdeaCentre 310S may be a suitable PC for light use, but it lacks the build quality and processing power to serve a heavy user over the long term. View On Lenovo 2.7Lenovo IdeaCentre 310S (2019 Model)
Lifewire / Erika Rawes View On Lenovo in this article Expand Design Display Performance Productivity Audio Networ Camer Software Price Competition Final Verdict Specs We purchased Lenovo's IdeaCentre 310S so our expert reviewer could thoroughly test and assess it. Keep reading for our full product review. The Lenovo IdeaCentre 310S is a compact and affordable desktop computer designed for family, school, or work use. It includes almost everything you need to get started—you just need to bring your own monitor. I tested the Lenovo IdeaCentre 310s for a week to see how it performs compared to similar options on the market.Design Looks like a sideways DVD player
The Lenovo IdeaCentre 310S has a much slimmer profile than a traditional desktop PC, clocking in at only 3.5 inches wide, 13.5 inches tall, and 11.7 inches from front to back. It’s not nearly as compact as a mini computer like a ChromeBox or Mac Mini, but it will tuck nicely away under a desk or table. You could even sit the 310S on top of your desk, and its unassuming appearance and monotone color scheme blend in well with other peripherals.The 310S has a retro look. It actually looks a little bit like an older DVD player turned on its side. The CD slot for the ODD (optical disk drive) sits in the upper lefthand corner, while a power button, four USB ports (two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0), a microphone jack, a headphone jack, and a multimedia card reader sit in the upper right. On the back, you’ll find an HDMI port, VGA port, Ethernet port, and analog audio ports. You’ll also find two additional USB 2.0 ports, as the IdeaCentre has six USB ports in total.
The computer is easy to open up. The side panel is held in place by two small screws on the back of the 310S. Once you remove those screws, you just slide the side panel off to access the internals. On the inside, the components look and feel basic, and there appears to be a lack of attention to detail in the placement of the components. There’s a tiny CPU fan crookedly installed, but it doesn’t do much to help keep the system cool. The 310S has a small amount of ventilation on the back and on the side panel, but it lacks sufficient ventilation overall. It runs slightly warm, especially after a long period of use. Lifewire / Erika Rawes
Display An integrated graphics card
The Lenovo IdeaCenter 310S does not have a dedicated graphics card, but rather an AMD Radeon 5 integrated GPU. You’ll be able to play very basic games, edit photos, and watch HD videos, but you cannot use this for any sort of high-level gaming or graphic design. It has HDMI and VGA ports for video.Performance On the slow side
The 310S runs on a 3.1GHz AMD A9 processor, and it has a 1TB SATA HDD that spins at 7,200 rpms. It only has 4GB of RAM out of the box, which is on the lower end of the spectrum for a desktop, but you can expand the RAM to 8GB since there’s a second RAM slot inside. Although the 310S runs reliably overall, it received mediocre scores in benchmark testing. The IdeaCentre 310S doesn’t have a problem running several applications at once, and it seamlessly navigates back and forth between different open windows. You can watch a video, check your email, write up a word doc, and jump over to a work program without experiencing any major delays. However, the boot-up time is on the slower side, and some programs take a bit longer than you’d expect to open up.Although the 310S runs reliably overall, it received mediocre scores in benchmark testing. On PCMark10, it earned an unimpressive score of 1,790. It scored higher in essentials (3,530) and productivity (3,332), and lower in digital content creation (1,324) and other graphics related areas like photos (1,579) and videos (1,665). On GFXBench, the graphics benchmarks weren’t much better. The Lenovo scored 24.95 FPS on Car Chase, and 27.63 FPS on Manhattan 3.1. Lifewire / Erika Rawes