Lenovo IdeaPad D330 is a new 10.1-inch Windows tablet that competes directly with Microsoft Surface Go. Starting at almost $ 300 is cheaper. Key features include Intel Gemini Lake processors, up to 128 GB of storage, optional LTE and a dock with keyboard. How good is this cheap Windows tablet? I'm Andrzej for MyNextTablet.com and this is my review of the Lenovo IdeaPad D330.
As usual, the Lenovo IdeaPad D330 has an all-plastic body in this price range. Although well built, it is not as tall as Surface Go. At the top it is a bit thinner, but at the bottom thicker with 9.5 mm. It weighs 594 g heavier than most Android tablets, but it's not that bad on a Windows device.
We have two speakers below the screen and the sound quality was acceptable but not very good. He lacks a lot of bass.
Because the front camera has a small resolution of 2 megapixels, you can't take a detailed selfie. But that's enough for video calls. The 5 megapixel camera on the back works the same way. That's good for moments, but not very good. On the right side we have a power connector and a USB 3.1 Type C port, which you can also use to charge the tablet. What's more, we get a volume control and a power button. On the left is the standard headphone jack. And all the way down we have a connection for the keyboard dock. No fingerprint sensor.
Next to the keyboard connector is a microSD card slot. If you have the LTE version, your SIM card will also fit. I tested LTE with an O2 SIM card in Germany and the connection is good. Let's get to the dock with the Lenovo IdeaPad D330 keyboard. That one is made of plastic too, weighs 512g and is quite thick again with 8.5mm. I like that we are getting two additional USB 2.0 ports on the sides. So, in total, the tablet has three USB ports which are enough to connect a lot of accessories.
Because of the 10.1-inch screen, the keyboard is noticeably smaller than a standard notebook keyboard. I typed quite a lot on it though and you certainly can get used to it. My real complaint about this tablet is the long line of keyboards. Lenovo squeezed ESC a bit and erased the key in the serial numbers. As a result, numbers and special characters are not where they are normally. Well, like I said before, you'll get used to it.
Below the keyboard, the touchpad is too big for a tablet of this size. It works as it should. The Lenovo IdeaPad D330 has a 10.1-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 or 1920 x 1200 pixels - depending on the version you get. Overall, I think Full HD is good at 10 inches. And this is the case with my assessment. Texts and icons look sharp if you use them often.
If you decide to buy the HD version, you will probably notice a big difference compared to your smartphone. Usually, HD screens can look a bit blurry. Well, at least if you are used to something else.
However, in both cases, we do get IPS screens with wide viewing angles. Again, my review unit has the full HD screen and the display is great. Colors and contrast are good, and it is bright enough. I also like that it is laminated.
According to Lenovo, you can use the Lenovo Active Pen in some versions of this tablet aimed at corporate customers. As far as I know, it only works on the 81H3004GGE and 81H3004JGE versions. Like the screen, you can use the Lenovo IdeaPad D330 to choose from a variety of hardware options. You can get it with the Intel Celeron N4000 or Intel Pentium Silver N5000 chipset.
The N4000 is a dual-core dual-core chip with a clock speed of 1.1 GHz to 2.6 GHz. On the other hand, the N5000 is a quad-core quad-core chip with a clock speed of 1.1 GHz to 2.7 GHz.
Other options are 2GB or 4GB RAM and 32GB, 64GB or 128GB internal flash storage. My rating unit is Intel N5000, 4GB RAM, 128GB storage and LTE. It costs 499 euros in Europe.
Since I don't have the cheapest version of the N4000 and 2GB of RAM, I can't test its performance. However, I've used the same devices before, and it should be great for light office work and easy web browsing. However, due to the fact that it is a dual-core chip and has only 2GB of RAM, it is not very suitable for multitasking. My control unit also has an Intel N5000 with 4 GB of RAM, which is good for multitasking and even light photoshop. I even tried editing videos in Adobe Premiere Rush. Well, this tablet is not good for that. You can, but you have to be very patient. Creating a simple 20-minute 4K video takes less than 4 hours. While this works better for editing HD videos, you may need to invest more if you want to edit videos or play games here. Of course, you can play some games on the D330. I can't keep up with Fortnite, but it's a much bigger demand for this platform. However, as simple as Asphalt 9, it runs smoothly and the graphics also look nice.
Lenovo IdeaPad D330 is generally suitable for office work. And this is the case with all versions of this tablet. If you can, you should probably reach for a version with Intel N5000 and 4 GB of RAM. This is a bit better if you want to use two applications at the same time, such as Photoshop and Word, with Chrome and YouTube running in the background. On Geekbench 4, benchmark single-core performance testing is only slightly weaker than Surface Go. Very little. And surprisingly, the IdeaPad D330 is much faster in multicore testing than the competition from Microsoft. Remember that Surface Go only has a dual core chip.
On the other hand, the graphics performance of the Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y on Surface Go is better than the Cinebench benchmarks. This means that applications and games that use a graphics chip should work better on Surface Go. But again, the IdeaPad D330 CPU is faster and it also showed a Cinebench CPU test.
In addition, the performance of the N5000 is also better than tablets with the N4200 processor. We found that one of the devices like Acer Switch Battery Life Lenovo IdeaPad D330 is a welcome surprise. In fact, in my usual battery test, it took 11.5 hours of operation. For this test, I always took an HD video with a brightness of 50 percent. As you can see in my comparison, this is a good result compared to other Windows tablets and especially also compared to Surface Go.
While you can last more than 10 hours with local video, you don't have to play games, stream YouTube, or do most of your day-to-day work. I typically get a real life span of 6 to 8 hours. It always depends on what exactly you do. But especially when you consider the price, the battery life is very good. So is the Lenovo IdeaPad D330 a good Windows tablet? Due to the price, this is a very good tablet. Yes, we only got a plastic body, but it was much cheaper than Surface Go. The performance is very good, at least if you only need it for office work or easy viewing. The full HD display also looks nice, the optional LTE is great and the battery life is also good.
Again, I didn't look at the cheapest version for 299 Euro with N4000 and 2GB RAM. You have to keep in mind that with these you get a slightly weaker performance and a weaker display. I would not recommend the IdeaPad D330 as a real laptop replacement. I think it's a little too much for that. But if you're looking for a portable and inexpensive Windows tablet for office work, I think you'll love the D330. If you are looking for it, you do not have many alternatives. Let's look at a few. The direct competitor is probably Microsoft Surface Go (review). I've mentioned it twice before. This is an interesting alternative if you are willing to pay more for better build quality. Surface Go design is very good. Other applications that require a graphics chip will also run better. However, including the keyboard, it usually costs at least 50 Euros more. Even the highest-speced version of the D330 with LTE is cheaper.
If you want to spend even less, you could check out the Chuwi SurBook Mini (review). While that is a China tablet available at import shops only, you usually can get it for under 300 US Dollars including the keyboard. It features a full HD screen and a metal body. However, since it is available from China only, you probably won’t get any local warranties.Lenovo IdeaPad D330 Review: The Lenovo IdeaPad D330 is a cheaper and great alternative to the Microsoft Surface Go. While the build quality is not as good, it offers a great display, a solid performance, and the keyboard dock is included. In addition, battery life is exceptional on Windows tablets.
positive
👉Nice Full HD screen
👉Good performance
👉Dock with keyboard included
👉3 USB ports
👉Long battery life
👉Optional LTE
negative
👉Plastic body only
👉Bad speakers