Lenovo Ideapad 100S

Laptop choice made easy – Always helpful to discuss IT with a young, enthusiastic but understanding young person. Thank you Griffin, for your respectful advice and support. I’m very happy with my purchase with 16GB RAM & 512GB storage. Certainly way faster than my old DELL. Show details

Useless after a year or so – I was stupid enough to purchase of of these cheap laptops. they become very unreliable after a year. now useless as the speed is so slow on windows 10 after an hour of use. You always have to reboot to get back to a useable speed. Will never buy a Lenovo again. Show details

Lenovo ideapad – HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE I bought my year 7 son this laptop for school and had problems with it within 6 months. The charger, track pad, headphone jack and speakers weren’t working properly. I tried to send it back to lenovo to fix and was told that none of these issues were fixable under warranty and it would cost over $650 to fix - more than I spent on it. Terrible service and terrible product. Don’t waste your money! Show details

Great travelling laptop – Over 10 years ago I bought a Samsung 10" screen laptop to take overseas. It was so handy I ended up using it for more than 50% of my computing. But time caught up with it and it got slower and it was still on Windows XP so I decided to swap to a tablet as a travelling machine, On a trip to Malaysia I lost a heap of photos transferring them to the… Read more

tablet, I'm afraid that the file transfer program just didn't make sense to me,. I decided then to get another travelling laptop.

I heard about the Ideapad 100s I was a bit concerned about the only 2 gig of memory but reviews for it were pretty positive and the price was right so I bought one. I just love this machine, I have a Thinkpad with an I5 processor, solid state drive and 8 Gigs of memory, but I use the Ideapad a lot more than Thinkpad. The Ideapad is so small and handy, I use it wherever I am in the house, it tends to live on the kitchen table.

Over the last two years it has spent 5 months in Europe on holidays, transferring photos onto USB sticks, general computing and accessing Netflix. It is so small and light I generally put it in the centre of my checked luggage and it hasn't missed a beat.

What is it like to use, well it is no speed demon, but it gets there. I have a cordless mouse (I should have got a bluetooth mouse to save using one of the USB ports), the 32 Gig that comes as standard is a bit limiting, I had to strip almost everything out when Windows wanted to upgrade Windows 10 to the latest specs. I have installed a 128Gig SD card for extra storage. I generally just use it for web browsing, my email photos and wordprocessing, it has the power to do this stuff with ease. As I said before I use the machine all the time, of course I am using it to type this.

I really recommend this machine as a second PC and to take away travelling.

Mediocre performance and no data storage space – I purchased the 14" version with the 32Gb eMMC internal storage as a present for an elderly relative. The internal storage limit means that once a few applications like O365 are installed, there's not enough space left for Windows 10 to update itself, let alone store any files on it. This wouldn't be so bad if you could access all your data on a… Read more

LAN attached storage device, but the unit has no Ethernet port and the 802.11N WiFi is restricted to the old 2.4 Ghz spectrum, so network access is very slow. Having only 4Gb of RAM and an average processor just exacerbated the general lack of general responsiveness.

After a few months of driving out to my relative's house to uninstall stuff to get some storage space back, then losing it all again when the next Win 10 tried to install itself, then watching them suffer the general torpor of the unit, I just took it back off them and bought them another laptop with a decent processor and large SSD installed.

A shame really, as it has a nice screen, decent keyboard and solid construction.

In summary, this unit is really only good for very light internet browsing, email reading and maybe a bit of messaging / chatting, but not any serious home office or student usage.

Excellent Smart TV Alternative – Not really into office writing stuff, just needed a portable Smart TV alternative whenever I want to watch You Tube music videos because the combination of 3 power-hungry devices: the 60" Smart plasma Full HD LG TV, the Xbox One S game console with the You Tube app and to get full Dolby digital surround sound from the Yamaha stereo receiver… Read more

through my wired Sennheiser studio headphones - can be awkward sometimes and I wanted something with a 14" screen that is portable, is able to powerfully receive Wi Fi from the home phone-line connected D-Link modem, display video in high definition without freezing, and also display high bass and treble receiver-like sound through my studio wired Sennheiser headphones in its headphone socket - exactly what I needed and does so well with Microsoft Edge browser. I had an Acer Aspire One netbook just under $400 for about 5 years since 2012 until it broke down recently because of one or two problems: the power cord was always wrapped and placed inside a plastic container after recharging and because it has been wrapped many times throughout the years, the wiring inside the cable couldn't handle the stress of all that wrapping and unfortunately broke apart, giving me a hard time to decide quickly to get another laptop. The second problem is that I didn't update the virus protection windows program and the netbook was unable to turn on when I pressed the power button, or the battery had completely malfunctioned. The new Lenovo laptop 80R900F5AU has a 3-year guarantee and anti-virus protection program pre-installed by the Good Guys sales representative.

Display/ restart problems can occur if you use an anti-pest high-frequency plug adaptor nearby and must be switched off, or WiFi-enabled mobile phone recharging also nearby and must disable the phone's WiFi to prevent any inteference with the WiFi-sensitive notebook. Bluetooth-enabled devices like the Panasonic 500GB digital recorder I owned for a few years now must be switched off to prevent any interference with the WiFi-sensitive notebook as you browse the internet.

So far so good! – This nifty laptop for it's price does what it needs to do. Homework for the kids, very limited games(which is good), play music and videos and that's about it. Has ssd so the startup time is very fast. Like I said, so far so good! Definitely recommend it if you are looking for a basic home laptop that looks good and performs as well!  Show details

Good choice for me – I only use this for online uni classes and word, occasionally I use chrome or check email but not often. It works well, loads at start up very fast, has good color and sharp graphics. It would be perfect for watching Netflix but if I start I won't get any writing or research finished! Batterylife is alright, lasts a lot longer when I only use word… Read more

but I can still do 2 hrs of online tutorials without too much trouble. I got 4Gb RAM, dual core i5 processor and 64Gb SSD in a 14" model. I bought this because I can expand the storage easily without having to pay a techie, and it was under $500.

Good value for money but has limitations – Works fine for basic computer stuff - good battery life, well-designed keyboard and good battery life. Two minor drawbacks - it's a bit on the heavy side and the automatic updates don't always work. Although it will download Windows 10 updates without problem, the big 'Anniversary Win 10 Update' will not install - keeps coming up with 'not enough… Read more

memory'. There is no way round this even if you plug in more external memory. Presume smaller size updates are OK though. If you install the free 'Open Office' you can save a fortune on buying MS Office too (and it's very compatible).

Don't buy this, total lemon – Avoid this at all costs, the memory is too all for updates of Windows 10 even with everything deleted other than the operating system. Constant battle with lack of memory

should have being given lemon on the year award – I brought this around 15 months ago. The only thing that is good (that It is lightweight). The worse is, the mouse pad is terrible and is very slow. My Acer beats its in every field Show details

Makes a good doorstop – My Lenovo ideapad 100S has stopped powering when power cable attached. If I hold the power cable in hard with one hand (and type with one hand) the battery charges. After fully charged, I get to type with two hands as the lenovo runs off battery until the battery runs down, then I repeat the process of having to hold the cable in with one hand. … Read more

This is a known problem that lenovo cannot or will not fix.

I have run lenovo diagnostics that say my battery is fine. I made the mistake of purchasing a new power cable from lenovo. This made no difference so returned the cable but lenovo insisted on retaining 20% of cost even after I explained the whole story. I hope they enjoy the $16AUD they had to retain. The only way you can get replacement parts are online.

I will never buy another lenovo product again. I wish there was a negative star ratting. I do not even want to give them one star

Serious charging problem – We bought 2 lenovo ideapad 100s-141br at the same time. My daughter had one and within a few weeks it stopped charging. Lenova said to return it and it came back working once again. Two and a half years on, the other ideapad has stopped charging and my daughters ideapad is also temperamental when it comes to charging up. I would not recommend this product. Show details

Wouldn't recommend one – I bought one of these laptops for my daughter for school due to cost and weight and reported battery life. By about 18 months time the battery wouldn't last for a school day (over a 6 hour period, on and off) so it wasn't fit for purpose as she officially wasn't meant to charge it through the day (though a kindly teacher came to her rescue). Not… Read more

long after that the charger wasn't making contact without pressure, so she had to use a rubber band to hold it tight enough to charge. This became worse with time. Also the letter A didn't type sporadically for very early on. After two years we have replaced it.

Horrific! Battery issues right off the bat – I bought this piece of junk, new (not refurbished) I'll admit without any research. It was about the same price as my previous Acer (that lasted 10 years, I loved it!) I wasn't expecting something that impressive, I know it's rare but I was expecting it to last more than a month! out of the box it wouldn't hold a charge more than 2 hours, not… Read more

knowing better I assumed it was normal. After a month it had to be plugged in constantly or it would die immediately. At this point I was mad at myself for loosing the receipt. A few weeks later the cord would constantly quit charging while plugged it or discharge, I had to wrap the cord around the keyboard to get it to charge and even this would only work half the time...buying lenovo junk is a mistake I'll only make once. I hope someone else reads this so they don't have to learn the hard way like I did.

Waste of Money – Not worth the price of admission. This slow, unreliable, under powered, computer has been a complete waste of my money. The computer suffered from terrible battery life (about 1 hr at full screen brightness), multiple unexplained crashes, cheap and flimsy construction (which deteriorated and fell apart a few months after purchase), inability to… Read more

boot from a usb or access the boot menu, terrible CPU that makes even simple tasks such as web browsing and playing games a pain the head, will at random refuse to connect to any WiFi router or hotpot for days at a time rendering the computer little more than a paperweight. Do not purchase this computer.

Rubbish – Absolutely rubbish machine. CPU performance is so bad that even basic web page browsing is a challenge. The included eMMC drive of 32GB means that you'll have to delete material in order to update Windows, and then load it back on later. It's not really in any way a practical computer.  Show details

Disposable laptop – I’ve had this laptop not even 2 years - which for how cheap it was isn’t bad. However it’s small on space, so slow all I can use it for is Facebook. I can’t open more than 4 browsers at a time or it shuts itself down. Most annoying is the front edge is incredibly sharp across your wrists when at lap height and was terribly uncomfortable. I wouldn’t recommend this laptop, I wish I spent the $50 more and got the HP that was available at the time.  Show details

Didn’t know I was buying a throw away computer – What a piece of rubbish, worst quality and most unreliable computer I have ever purchased. Firstly the battery failed to charge (a common complaint according to a quick google search) and I lost use of my computer during a very critical time I needed it to complete my major university assignments and study for exams. Not many months later, exactly… Read more

the same problem but now it’s out of warranty! I didn’t realise I was buying a short use, throw away computer! DON’T BUY LENOVA PRODUCT

Nothing Good About This Laptop – I work in IT support. Only mentioning because I have not purchased this item myself. Just by chance, I have worked on 2 of these. The processor is the lowest rated when comparing to all others and it is so low performing that on some sites it gets a score of 0 for value for money. So even though it's cheap, the cheapness does not offset the poor… Read more

performance.

Now, my own personal experience is that people come to me with the issue that the the hard drive is so small that the computer becomes useless because it can't even install Windows updates because the drive can't even handle anything other than installing Windows.

The result for this is to purchase a special SSD Hard Drive, complete wipe the original drive of all the data and install Windows and start all over again

The additional drive will cost you about $130-$140 and it's a lot of extra work for a computer where you can't even upgrade the RAM for a bit of extra speed.

Stay away from this computer. Spend a little more. This one has been a headache for everyone I know who has purchased one.

Lenovo 110S Notebook – This contribution below is to offer some help for the contributor's problems I just read in this thread. I don't have this notebook, but I look at it hard for a simple very low cost laptop. The 100S I presume morphed into the current 110S, I guess. The memory is a chip soldered onto the board as is the CPU. The RAM memory and the main drive… Read more

are all on a chip that cannot be upgraded.

The size is for the 110S is 32GB and windows 10 to update itself has to double its size as it has to download another complete windows edition and the chip doesn't have room for 2. (around 45 GB is needed)

The windows 10 major update like this every 6 months and you cannot on the base windows 10 (S & Home) stop it automatically doing this. The install should cease once windows realises there is no enough room for this update. It may keep trying over and over, that I don't know.

Also if it has a older Atom processor series, windows 10 will not update correctly and may break drivers, it has been reported recently, and the end result is a broken non upgradable notebook.

There are 4 Atom processor's at the moment that Microsoft have declared as un-upgradable for windows 10.

If this happens to you, you can if you have access to another PC or laptop + skills, download the new windows edition from Microsoft Windows and burn that ISO file onto a memory stick, and wipe the 100 or 110S drive partition and install it that way.

Most people here will have no idea of what I am saying I guess, and those that do will know or will google it.

Your other option is to install another operating system called Linux Ubuntu (google it) in place of windows and just move on. Linux Lite is a very good replacement for windows on these very basic laptops.

Then your notebook may live IF your INTEL Atom CPU Chip is new enough.

Also these 110S have windows 10S, the S is school, the downside is that you cannot install any app that does not come via windows store. I wanted to load one app, Foxtel Go, to stream onto the TV, but it is not offered on the Store, so I spent more to buy another laptop that had windows 10 Home and could load it (or any other).

If you look at the demo's in Officeworks or the like, the notebooks may be years old and how it has Home, but the one's shipped in the last year all have School edition, so don't be caught and have to pay $100 to upgrade to Pro edition. Spend you money on a better machine first time around.

So Dissappointing Lenovo Ideadpad – My Lenovo always had problems with updates due to it's small memory capacity. THEN....... finally after a Win 10 update it crashed ... no touchpad, no keyboard! I have found out this is a known problem! Microsoft says they can't fix it and Lenovo tech support with remote access can't fix it! So Office works should have stopped selling… Read more

them a long time ago!

Many broken promises from Lenovo support and a demonstrated lack pf knowledge and lack of resolve to solve an on-going issue....... How many will throw their ideapads in the bin like I am about to?

From what I am finding out about Lenovo it seems to be another giant corporation that assumes consumers have no rights and they above consumer laws due to their size?

To say I am disappointed in Lenovo is an understatement, please spread the word,

regard

Geoff

Unreliable laptop computer – Don’t buy this model if you need a reliable device. I bought the device for university study and find that it runs out of battery power mid lecture and I live in fear that the device will stop working losing hundreds of hours of assignments and crashing in the middle of online quizzes. The damned thing has failed me now as I’m writing my… Read more

assignment that I need to submit in a few days and need to study for 3 x final exams within the next 3 weeks ——- now they tell me that I will not have my device for 2-3 weeks while it is in the repair department !!!!

To start, the claim of long battery life is completely false, the web site lists this a a common complaint. Their answer is to run ever a a minimum and set screen brightness to as low as possible and WiFi off - not very practical!

Second issue I had was the thing completely locks up occasionally, usually at the worst possible time.

Now the battery fails to charge, meaning that I can only use it when plugged into power, another common FAQ issue on the website. The device still shuts down sometimes while plugged in though.

Next issue, I registered my device on the Lenovo website when I purchased in in July 2017, it has a 1 year warranty yet the website says I only have warranty until 25 June 2017. Apparently they default the date to the machine warranty???? and I’m supposed to update the actual purchase date on their website, which I had already done! I refuse to waste more money being forced into buying an extended warranty!

I’m selling this piece of junk after it is repaired and buying a better brand.

Lenovo Ideapad 100 15.6" Laptop - Cheap Flimsy Construction – My Lenovo Ideapad 100 15.6" Laptop was purchased 2 years ago, but is only used infrequently when I go on vacation, Despite no ill treatment, the RHS hinge supporting the screen has broken due to the flimsy construction of this product. The Lenovo warranty was for 12 months so I have had to pay $185 for the repair out of my own pocket. My advice is don't even think about buying a Lenovo laptop.  Show details

Do yourself a favour, and DON'T buy this – IMO, the number 1 issue with these models is the charger port. The port is soldered internally and VERY fragile. Not IF, but WHEN the port breaks internally, forget about repairing. Port weakens over time when plugging, unplugging charger. These laptops are commonly purchased for childen, who are NOT gentle.. I've seen it far too many times with this model.  Show details

It's in the bin – 12 months old used 6 or so times unable to update windows 10 as no memory, not enough space. I have no pictures, files, music or anything stored on this as it would go into melt down! How many times ive tried to download windows updates but no luck the files are too big! Good on you Lenovo selling items that are virtually f#cking useless. I… Read more

contacted Lenovo about this but their customer service is like their products s#ithouse! Do your self a favour spend more get something better this company should even be in business!

Cheap laptop with serious memory limitations – As a cheap laptop it works perfectly OK and has excellent battery life. But has one very serious drawback - the internal memory is TOO SMALL and you are unable to install any Windows 10 fixes and updates. What this means is that some webpages keep freezing because of the 'unable to stop long-running script' problem which you can do nothing about.… Read more

You can't even put in extra memory as it's been soldered ! If you don't ever connect to the internet it's fine - otherwise buy something better.

its ok – speed is low and button and keypad i dont like, mouse is ok and resolutiuon needs more improvement and i dont like the display. overall its is fine and I bought it from EU two months ago and its working fine and meeting my needs and I hope it will continue working,  Show details

Ok Lap Top – This laptop is ok but i have problem with the battery life charge, if i leave it on for any period of time the battery dies really quickly, other than that it is good for general computer staff search engines, online shopping, paying bill etc but i was a little bit disappointed overall in it, i have to say i probably liked my previous laptop, my… Read more

chrome book a bit better than this one, but this one does have a better operating system that the chrome book.

Cheap and nasty – I am disappointed in our Lenovo Ideapad. A few problems. Firstly, not very durable keys on the keyboard. They started coming off after just 3 months of use. I would never have expected this to happen and therefore would think that it was a waste of money to have purchased one. Now, 8 keys are missing and it is still under warranty. But they will… Read more

try to say it is wear and tear. It is just normal use. We also had Hard-drive trouble within 6 months and had to reinstall the Operating System as well. I have had other brands of computer where nothing goes wrong at all. So, in future I would rather spend a bit more on. Computer. Cos at least it won't be cheap and nasty, and lack quality

slow & uncertain – Bought one of these simply for writing on the go. Start up and operation is soooo slow. The touchpad is unresponsive - I took to using a mouse instead. Office Word performance is sub-standard. OK, I bought a superseded model on the cheap, but I didn't want all the bells and whistles - but I thought I might get a reasonable performance.  Show details

Great light weight laptop – We have 2 of these for our teenagers. 1 looks after their and no failure to date. The other doesn't and it has broken twice. Once was a warranty faulty. The other was a broken LCD from a minor bump. If you have a child not prepared to treat it like glass I would not recommend this. No CD drive No Microsoft office  Show details

Junk. Avoid! – This ideapad was a gift for my daughter. After only a few months of light use, the screen went blue and began flickering. I told her to switch it off and unplug it. Next time we went to use it, the screen had become 'cracked'. Customer service advised it was user induced damage. They told me many times they would pick up the ideapad to… Read more

assess it, however after many phone calls, emails and broken arrangements from this company (I waited home two full days for pick up), no resolution. It isn't acceptable quality, nor fit for purpose.

You get what you paid for ($280) – My old Lenovo W7Pro notebook I use to take to classes and trips would not upgrade to W10 as much I tried. Looking for a replacement and not wanting to spend much money, I bought the Lenovo 100S-11IBY. It does everything I need and I have had no problems of installing all my pgms: MS Office 365, Skype, Irfanview Photo Editor, NJStar (Chinese WP),… Read more

Avast AV, Malwarebytes etc. Despite the modest specs of the 100S, I do not see a great difference in response to my Dell Inspiron 13 that cost three times as much. And while 32 GB is not much, a 128GB micro SD can be had for $60 on Ebay.

Cheap and nasty – Bought one of these and it lasted ten days before dying, so didn't get to use it much. All I can really say is that it was lightweight and quiet. Was offered a replacement but declined as my faith was shot and got a refund instead. Look elsewhere for a laptop would be my recommendation.