Last Updated on February 16, 2023 by Detective Dev
[Music] Foreign [Music] Hey what's going on everybody it's ETA Prime back here again today we're going To be checking out this 129 laptop that I recently picked up from Walmart this Is a 14 inch Lenovo IdeaPad 1i and I Think if you know what you're getting Into this could be a really good deal But the operating system that comes Pre-installed is a bit bloated for the Specs we have here so installing Something like tiny 11 which is a cut Down version of Windows 11 would really Help out with performance now you could Always run it with Windows 11 in S Mode That comes pre-installed but with these Machines running in S Mode you're going To be limited to stuff from the Microsoft store and some people can Definitely deal with that but personally There are other apps that I like Installing so with this I totally wiped It and I installed tiny 11. I recently Did a video on it I'll leave a link for That in the description in case you're Interested in checking it out but I'm Going to tell you right off the bat Installing tiny 11 on this 129 laptop Really does help out with performance so These are available over on Walmart's Website you might even have one in store Close to you it's the Lenovo IdeaPad i1
It's a 14 inch laptop that comes with 4 Gigabytes of non-user upgradable RAM and The Pentium n5030 CPU four cores four Threads with a clock up to three Gigahertz just taking a look at the Specs and the price you got to Understand that this is not a high-end Laptop this is something made for Browsing the web document editing email Checking you could get some light gaming Out of the way on it like some indie Games and we will test out some older 3D Games and emulation by the end of the Video so you gotta understand going into One of these cheaper laptops you're not Going to be getting AAA gaming out of The way now if you want to do some cloud Gaming it would work out really well it Actually has Wi-Fi 6 out of the box but This is really made for browsing the web Email checking document editing and even Skype calls can be done on this laptop Taking a look at the i o over here on The left hand side we've got our power Input One USB 3.0 Port full size HDMI We've also got USB type-c which is 3.0 And a 3.5 millimeter audio jack moving Over to the right hand side we've got One full-size USB 2.0 port and the Full-size SD card reader the very first Thing I was interested in with this Laptop was the upgrade ability Unfortunately we cannot upgrade the RAM It soldered to the board it comes with
Four gigs and that's very limited for Windows 11 but with a modified operating System you can definitely get by it's Passively cooled so it's totally silent And we've actually got an m.2 slot in Here so we can easily expand the storage Was really hoping that when I got in Here we could easily upgrade the RAM but Unfortunately the only thing we can add Here is more storage When it comes to the specs remember We're working with a 129 dollar laptop Here for the CPU we've got the Intel Pentium silver n5030 this is much better Than the 4105 that you'll find in a lot Of these really cheap laptops four cores Four threads we've got a base clock of 1.1 gigahertz and a turbo up to 3.1 the GPU is the Intel UHD 605 at 750 Megahertz we've got four gigabytes of Non-user upgradeable LP ddr4 soldered to The board at 2400 megahertz 128 gigabytes of emmc storage plus we've Got that m.2 slot so we can add up to a One terabyte drive if we want to it's Got Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 a 14 inch 1366 by 768 display nothing special but It'll definitely get you by and they Claim up to 10 hours of battery life now This thing at full brightness full Volume playing back video from YouTube I'd say you can get around six hours out Of it and this does come pre-installed With Windows 11 NS mode it's really easy
To get out of S Mode you can do it Directly from the Microsoft store if you Want to Or you can install a modified operating System like tiny11 which is really going To help out with performance given the Lower amount of ram that we have in this Unit Overall I've been really impressed with The performance this thing's put now Given the price paid now one of the Modifications that I did well it's not Really a modification I've got this in High performance mode out of the box You're going to be in balanced mode Definitely go to high performance mode It'll up the TDP on that CPU give you Those higher clocks for a little longer And yeah I mean if you're looking for a Secondary laptop that you don't mind Carrying around with you basically Anywhere you go this thing is going to Be a really nice little system as long As you can tweak the operating system Just a bit even Windows 11 and S Mode Does need a few tweaks to keep that RAM Usage down But since we've got Wi-Fi 6 built in Here browsing the web is actually really Snappy I'm not using Edge I'm using Firefox I would definitely go with Either Chrome or Firefox if I was you But you could always stick with Edge if You wanted to
Just head over here to lenovo's website I'm actually not sure if you can pick This up on their website or not the only Place that I've seen it for 129 is Walmart you might be able to find it for A little more on Amazon or Ebay but at That 130 dollar price tag I think that's Kind of a sweet spot and that's exactly Where you need to be with a system like This Checking out some video playback now the Way the CPU is set up out of the box This actually does have a boost up to 15 Watts but it's only for a few seconds You're going to be running at about 9.6 Watts and even with 1080p playback we do Get a few drop frames it's not horrible And it's totally watchable but since We're working with a little over a 720p Display I would stick with 720p 60 video Playback as you can see here no drop Frames it'll play anything you want at 720p 60 or even 1080 if you want to go Ahead and take it up that far and keep In mind I've actually only tested with Firefox you actually might get a little Better performance with Edge or Chrome Now one thing I love to use these Lowering laptops for is inhalation with This system we're not going to be able To go up to PS2 PS3 and Wii U but this Will handle GameCube and Wii emulation First up we've got some greencast using Redring doa2 not bad at all we're
Running at full speed FPS is up in the Top left-hand corner Next one I wanted to test here was PSP Using PPSSPP and even with DirectX 11 in This game here chains of Olympus at 2x I Did get some dip so it just took it down To One X I think this could be Alleviated with a different operating System something like bottocera would Work out really well on this little Laptop running it from a USB drive or Since we've got extra room for a drive In here we could set up a dedicated Little emulation system right there or You could install Linux totally on this Machine and I'm sure with opengl we Would get better performance with PSP And Linux but I gotta say one of the Most impressive things that I saw here Was the GameCube and Wii emulation Performance using the Dolphin Emulator We're using the DirectX 11 backgam and Upscaling a game like f-zero GX Especially on this track has kind of out Of the question on the 605i GPU but at The native GameCube resolution it Actually runs it at full speed If you're interested we can test out Some more emulation on this chip just Let me know in the comments below but Now I wanted to move over to some PC Gaming and of course on a lower end System like this newer AAA games are Going to be out of the question so I
Threw some old stuff at it just to see What would happen and something like Dirt 3 actually runs at full speed 720p Low settings definitely not a game a lot Of people are playing nowadays but it's Still nice to see that we can run some PC games on this low-end system and if You take a look at afterburner in the Top left hand corner with all the games That I tested we're right there under 10 Watts sometimes you'll see it jump up to Around 10.1 but unfortunately even Skyrim at 720p low settings was under 60 FPS and there's no question in my mind That this chip paired up with the 605i GPU even with just four gigs of RAM can Run this game at 60fps but what's really Holding us back here is the TDP on that CPU it's just not sending enough power To get those boost clocks up and Unfortunately even using a third party Application like throttle stop just Won't allow us to set this at 15 watts No matter what I've tried it always dips Under that 15 when we're gaming I think It's hard set from the BIOS I've tried Several different applications that up To TDP and unfortunately it just won't Take So in the end I do think this is worth It if you know what you're getting into If you don't mind doing a little bit of Tweaking and tuning with the operating System or even installing a different
Operating system altogether then I think 130 dollars would be well worth it for a Secondary little laptop here it's Definitely not a triple a gaming machine But as you saw in this video you can get Some lighter emulation out of the way on This even up to GameCube and you can Play some older PC games on this just Fine you just gotta understand that We're working with a lower end system There is a reason it's a hundred and Thirty dollars brand new but that's Gonna wrap it up for this video really Appreciate you watching if you're Interested in seeing a little more from This laptop let me know in the comments Below I wouldn't mind doing a Linux Video with uh something like Manjaro Installed on this or even a dedicated Emulation video with Botto Sarah if You're interested in picking one of These up or maybe learning a little more About it I'll leave some links in the Description and if you've got any Questions let me know down below but That's it for this one like always Thanks for watching
