Lenovo IdeaPad L340 15 Gaming Laptop i5 9300h Review

The Lenovo IdeaPad L340 has been around for some time. Since its release in July 2019, it has collected a fair number of positive reviews, and today we’re taking a look at whether it is still worth your money. Throughout this review, we ask that you always keep two things in mind.

One, that the L340 was built as an entry-level gaming laptop, and two, it was meant to be as budget-friendly as possible. These two considerations are put in place so you can fairly evaluate how the laptop compares to today's AAA gaming titles and if the hardware holds up to your expectations.  

Design 

Gaming laptops have evolved with time, with some brands opting for futuristic designs. An excellent example of this is Alienware, a company renowned for its aggressive detailing, RGB lighting, and customization. This can come with advantages and disadvantages, but most would agree, less can be more.

If you're sitting in the library, or the workplace, do you really want everyone staring at your illuminated laptop spaceship as it prepares to take off with fans spinning at 5000 RPM? Probably not, but hey, if you're only using your laptop at home or around friends, then we're all about the pretty lights. 

So how does the L340 measure up in terms of looks? At first glance, you’ll notice that it has stood the test of time. Lenovo has opted for a minimalistic design, which entails a brushed silver finish with a small blue ‘Lenovo’ logo situated in the corner of the lid.

The interior is made of the same plastic material and is complemented by a full backlit keyboard. Lighting and effects are limited on the Lenovo L340 keyboard with only a blue backlit option. If the blue isn’t your thing, you can decrease the brightness or turn it off completely using the FN and spacebar keys. 

Build quality 

Display

Your gaming laptop or computer can have the best internal components in the world, but if it doesn't have a good display to output the generated images, then you'll never be able to enjoy the full capabilities of your device. The Lenovo IdeaPad L340 has a 15.6-inch screen, 1920 x 1080 resolution, and an IPS panel. The 15.6" screen and 1080p resolution is nothing ground-breaking and quite common in terms of today's standards.

However, an IPS panel offers superior image quality and viewing angles compared to TN and VA alternatives. The L340's panel produces rich colors and relatively deep blacks. In addition, the anti-glare coating applied reduces reflections and minimizes the effects of direct sunlight if the brightness is turned up high enough. 

If you’re able to see 144 frames per second, the image will be buttery smooth, and coincidently you’ll also be able to see the image faster and therefore improving your reactions. 

But let's take a step back and remind ourselves that the L340 is geared towards budget gaming. If you're looking for a laptop / PC that can output 144 frames a second in the first place, well, you'll need a pretty good graphics card and CPU to match. These components can be thousands of dollars, and our goal here is to get an entry-level gaming laptop.

Another point to consider is that the game you're playing doesn't need such high frame rates to be enjoyable. Many AAA titles perform great on a steady 60 fps cap @ 1080p. In the performance part of this review, we will show a few benchmarks on what you can expect with the L340, but all you need to know for now is, the display is not suited for competitive gaming. The IPS panel is detailed and crisp, and that should be enough for most of us. 

Battery life and thermals 

It is important to consider Lenovo battery life and thermals. These two factors directly contribute to how long you're going to play for and if there's any throttling that may occur while gaming. 

Lenovo advertises a 3 cell 45WH battery that can last up to 9 hours, which could be somewhat misleading. Sure, if you turn off the Wi-Fi and do a few light tasks such as typing out a document or sending emails, then you may be able to squeeze out 8 hours of battery life.

However, if you're going to surf the web and watch YouTube videos, you're looking at a more realistic uptime of 5 hours and 30 minutes. Gaming can be even more draining, and depending on the title and power draw, you can expect an hour or so of gameplay. To Lenovo's credit, however, the battery does charge incredibly fast. You should be up and running at 100% within 2 hours of charge time. 

Now, when we mention thermals, you're probably thinking about how much heat the L340 outputs. You're not wrong, but it's a little more detailed than how hot this laptop could potentially get on your lap. The cooling system on the Lenovo IdeaPad L340 is quite simple.

Air is sucked through the rear vents on the laptop's base and is exhausted upwards at the bottom of the screen. In total, the L340 has two internal fans and heat pipes situated between the CPU and GPU. 

When stressed tested in a room of 20 Degrees Celsius, the GPU had an idle value of 35, whereas the CPU averaged around 37. While gaming, the GPU increased to a maximum of 72 degrees, while the CPU went to 81. These tests were conducted over various hours of playtime, so it's impressive to see that the CPU was still within a somewhat safe range while gaming, even when pushed to its limit.

For those of you new to thermals or understanding how to keep your gaming laptop cool, a CPU should stay between 70 to 80 Degrees Celsius while gaming. Additionally, your GPU should remain under 85 degrees, so props to Lenovo for keeping the L340 sufficiently ventilated considering its size and price tag. 

The cooling does come at a cost to the battery, and that's where the 'Quick' and 'Quiet' modes come in. In short, the "Quick Mode" increases the speed of the internal fans and rapidly works at decreasing the temperatures of your rising CPU and GPU. The issue with this is that the battery life shortens, and that's why you can average only around an hour of gameplay.

Faster fans also mean more sound being produced by your laptop, and not the good kind. If you're playing in a quiet library, people will take notice. On the other hand, the "Quiet Mode" does the opposite; the fans slow down, and the L340 is silent, but this mode can only be used for non-gaming tasks.   

Connectivity and Audio

The L340 has all the standard ports you’d expect on a budget gaming laptop, which include: Ethernet; USB 3.1; USB-C; Microphone / Headset Jack; and an HDMI 2.0. 

One port missing, however, is an SD card reader, but you can easily fix this by loading the SD card into a phone/camera and then connecting the device to the laptop via USB. Lastly, the L340 also includes wireless connectivity via 802.11 AC Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Version 4.2. 

Moving onto the audio capabilities, Lenovo has stated that the L340 has Dolby Audio Certification. The speakers are suitable for standard YouTube videos, but we wouldn't recommend them for bass-heavy music. The highs and mids are present, but the lows (bass) are certainly lacking.

As always, there's a quick fix for this, and that simply means using headphones. You can pick up a good pair of 50mm driver headphones, and you can experience all the bass you'll ever need in-game / musically for ultimate immersion. 

Performance

How well does the Lenovo IdeaPad L340 handle general tasks? A GPU (more on that below) is not everything, and components such as the CPU, RAM, and storage can play an essential role in how fast or responsive your laptop is. Below is a quick summary of what you can expect when using the L340, and whether there are any options to upgrade and further improve performance. 

Starting with the CPU, Lenovo has included a 9th generation i5 9300H from the Intel Coffee Lake family. It’s still a respectable CPU by today’s standards with 4 cores and 8 threads. The base speed is 2.4 GHz, and the Max Turbo Frequency can get up to 4.1 GHz.

How does this help you? Well, this will allow you to complete simple tasks quite swiftly. You should be able to effortlessly change between searching the web, creating documents, and utilizing multiple applications without the fear of freezing or stutters. 

Taking a quick glance at the memory, the L340 comes preinstalled with 8GB of DDR4 RAM. It is possible to upgrade to 16GB, but this can only be done within the single DIMM slot. 

This means that the RAM can only be installed in a single-channel configuration (i.e., exchanging the single 8GB stick for a 16GB one), which is a bit of a missed opportunity in terms of performance and potential monetary savings. 8GB should be enough for most, but those looking at content creation for YouTube should maybe consider the 16GB upgrade. 

In terms of storage, the L340 is bundled with a 512GB NVMe SSD. In-game loading times will be quick, and accessing files should be faster than an NVIDIA GPU launch sale. Depending on the games you play, 512GB might be somewhat limiting, but there is an option to upgrade.

Although the laptop only has one m.2 slot available, you can go online and order a bigger storage unit should you need it. Since there is only one m.2 slot, however, your other 512GB will need to be shelved. It is also important to note here that there are no SATA 3 slots available, therefore the L340 does not support traditional SSD’s. You may, however, still buy an external hard drive should you want to save money on a storage upgrade. 

Gaming Benchmarks 

We have now arrived at probably the most important part of the review, how well does the Lenovo IdeaPad L340 measure up when playing games? To assess this, we will briefly describe the GPU and how this all translates into the benchmarks. 

The L340 comes with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU. It has 4GB of GDDR5 memory, 896 CUDA cores, and a base clock of around 1485MHZ (the boost clock is 1665MHz). The GTX 1650 is by no means the most recent NVIDIA card, but it can get the job done for 1080p gaming.

We need to highlight here that you’re not going to be hitting 200fps in graphically-intensive AAA titles, but you can still have a very enjoyable experience. 

Since the GTX 1650 GPU was released around 2019, we have included benchmarks for popular games around that time and also newer titles that have come out this year or remain relevant in 2021. See the below tables for what you can expect when running popular games at low, medium, and high settings at a 1080p resolution. 

Earlier Game Titles

Latest Game Titles

From the above benchmarks, it’s easy to see that the L340 does a relatively good job at providing a Full HD 1080p gaming experience. If you’re getting into gaming for the first time, or you’re looking for an experience on a budget, then performance-wise, you’re getting your money’s worth here.

But if you’re a veteran gamer, and you want to remain competitive with today’s video game releases, how does the L340 perform with the latest titles? Well, we went and did the research for you. See below for how the L340 handles some of the more graphically intensive and harder-to-run videogames in 2021. 

People Also Ask (FAQs)

Is the Lenovo IdeaPad L340 touch screen? 

Yes, the IdeaPad L340 15 (the 720p variant) does have a touch-screen. However, the Full HD 1080p model we have looked at in this review does not. 

How to factory reset Lenovo IdeaPad L340? 

Start by turning off your Lenovo laptop. Locate the NOVO key (recovery key) and press it for 5 seconds. Once the NOVO Button Menu pops up, press the ‘down arrow key’ and select 'system recovery,' and then press 'Enter.'

Once you have entered the recovery environment, select 'Restore from initial backup,' and then click 'Next.' Finally, click 'Start,' and 'Yes,' to begin the restoration process. Once the system recovery process is done, follow the on-screen instructions to configure your Windows settings.  

Does the Lenovo IdeaPad L340 have a backlit keyboard? 

Yes, the Lenovo IdeaPad L340 has a blue backlit keyboard. The brightness can be adjusted to the user’s preference, or it can be turned off completely. 

How to enter bios Lenovo IdeaPad L340? 

You can enter the bios by turning the laptop on and then immediately and repeatedly clicking (FN+) F2 or F2. Alternatively, you can also restart the laptop and repeatedly press the F2 key. Accessing the BIOS may take multiple attempts if you miss the F2 prompt key. 

What games can a Lenovo IdeaPad L340 run?

The Lenovo IdeaPad L340 performs best at mid-range games that aren’t too graphically demanding. Multiplayer games can include Overwatch, DOTA 2, Fortnite, and Call of Duty Warzone. Alternatively, users can also enjoy a stable FPS in The Witcher 3, The Division 2, Age of Empires, and Assassins Creed.