The Lenovo V series are workhorses. You will not find fancy features and unusual designs there. They are robust and enduring working machines that can usually be easily expanded and thus remain usable for a long time. In times of rising prices, this is a point that should not be underestimated.
You have the choice between different models. Optionally with 14″, 15″ or 17″. The predecessor surprised me in the test with its really fast SSD and its surprisingly good display. Accordingly, my expectations of the 2022 model of the V17 are high. And it can also fulfill them as far as possible. There was essentially one point with the predecessor that really bothered me: there was no USB-C port. You just don’t do that anymore. The current model has this connection and also runs DisplayPort on it. That’s the way it has to be. This really is a successful selection of connections. USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, full card reader. You can do a lot with that. Incidentally, the USB-A port on the right side is USB 2.0 and is therefore primarily intended for connecting a mouse.
Good and bright office display
In many cases, office displays are not particularly color-accurate. Nor do they have to. In Excel, it doesn’t matter whether the red of the table header is exactly the original hue. The main thing is that you recognize the red as red. The sRGB color space, which is important for everyday use, is covered 94%. This is not a matter of course for office notebooks. If you want to do image editing: the Adobe RGB color space is covered to 73%. This makes it possible to work properly, at least in the private context.
The Lenovo V17 offers you a nice bright display. I measured 363 nits at the top. The brightness drops slightly towards the sides. With 318 nits at the “darkest” point, that’s all still within limits. So you can work with the Lenovo V17 in brighter environments with peace of mind. However, you should avoid direct sunlight. It cannot outshine them. A brightness of more than 300 nits is also not a matter of course for office notebooks.
Functionality for everyday life
And the keyboard? It’s neither really good nor bad. It is a keyboard on which you can type properly after a short period of getting used to it. Like so much about the Lenovo V17, it is functional.
The design is particularly functional. As already described above: Lenovo does without flashy frills. The keyboard sits in a small indentation so that it is flush with the top. The touchpad sits in front of the space bar and does a good job. Since the V17, like every notebook of this size, comes with a number pad, the touchpad is slightly offset to the left. But this is not a problem in everyday life.
The surface is made of plastic and makes a valuable impression. With a little more pressure, it bends slightly, but I never felt like I was sitting in front of a fragile device. By the way, fingerprints don’t stand a chance on it. The same applies to the display lid. It is simple and resistant to fingerprints.
With a weight of 2.2 kilos, the Lenovo V17 is not a portable notebook. If you are looking for that, you have to take a laptop with a smaller display. The V17 is, at its core, a desktop replacement.
The predecessor was quiet and fortunately, the current V17 is also a quiet and cool notebook. The fans were of course audible in the stress test. But it was a faint hissing. I stopped noticing that pretty quickly. During normal office tasks, the fans only started up briefly in a few cases. That’s it.
Before we get to the performance, a word about the pre-installed software. Thankfully, Lenovo doesn’t preinstall too much additional software. The most prominent representative is a test version from McAfee, which wants to persuade you to buy the full version with large and frightening banners. You can uninstall it and replace it with Windows Defender. It does a good job and is free. Then there’s the Lenovo Vantage. This allows you to easily keep your system up to date and, if the worst comes to the worst, you can easily contact Lenovo support.
More power than expected
One might think that the performance is throttled to keep the notebook cool. But this is not the case. I couldn’t measure any throttling in the 30-minute stress test. The Core i5-1235U also offers you enough performance for everyday life and also tasks such as streaming and co. Even simple image editing is possible with it without any problems. With larger projects, however, the hardware reaches its limits. The notebook is therefore not suitable for professional use.
The battery life is okay for a notebook of this size. But you should always have a compact power supply with you. Because a complete working day without a socket is not possible. At 80% brightness, the V17 consumed 20-25% battery charge per hour with normal office tasks (surfing, Word, Excel, emails).
Easy upgrade
I already mentioned it above. The Lenovo V17 is easy to upgrade. You have to loosen ten small Phillips screws and you can lever off the base plate. If you need a tool, it’s best to use a small plastic lever. Attention: The screws have different lengths. The four short screws go on the front of the base plate.
8 GB of RAM is permanently soldered. The main memory can be expanded to a maximum of 16 GB, and the corresponding slot can be reached easily. The SSD can also be easily replaced. The battery is also only screwed on and can be replaced quickly if necessary.
Overall, you have enough upgrade options so that you can count on the notebook having a long service life.
Conclusion Lenovo V17: Successful further development of a good notebook
I don’t like 17″ notebooks. They’re just too big for me. But putting my personal taste aside, I have to say that it’s a really good notebook. The V17 is functionally designed and has a good keyboard and a really good display.
The SSD is so fast that there are no bottlenecks in everyday life and your data and programs are loaded quickly. In addition, there is an acceptable selection of connections and good upgrade and maintenance options.
The only thing missing is the point with the bleating. It shouldn’t all be just sunshine. 😉 So when Lenovo finally stops with the nonsense of soldering the RAM, I’ll be perfectly happy with this notebook.
The price is currently* at 739 euros. You get a really good office notebook for that.