Tim Clarke Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 My niece has just started using CorelDRAW at school, and loves it. For her twelth birthday in a couple of weeks, her mum has bought her a new laptop, and I was going to buy her a copy of Affinity Designer (which I use) from the Windows App Store (apparently Windows 10 S will only allow software from the app store, and CorelDRAW is subscription only). I just found out which laptop she has though, and I'm a little worried it might not be fast enough. It's the Lenovo IdeaPad S130 (https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07MWDW8JJ/) with the following specs: Intel Celeron N4000 processor 4GB RAM 64GB eMMC Windows 10 S Will the specs be good enough? Please keep in mind that she's going to be twelve, and she wont (yet, at least) be doing hugely complex work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Callum Posted November 22, 2019 Staff Share Posted November 22, 2019 Hi Tim Clarke, I think the laptop should be fine If you have access to the laptop you could always try the trial on our website to be sure. Quote Please tag me using @ in your reply so I can be sure to respond ASAP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Clarke Posted November 23, 2019 Author Share Posted November 23, 2019 Thanks, Callum. We were hoping to find out before my niece's birthday, in case my sister needs to return the laptop and buy another. And as far as I understand, Windows S can only install software from the Microsoft App Store (so no chance to use a trial). I'll pass on your message though, and let my sister make the call! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarryP Posted November 23, 2019 Share Posted November 23, 2019 I don’t know much about S Mode but this article https://www.howtogeek.com/354057/what-is-windows-10-in-s-mode/ seems to say that you can move from S Mode to ‘normal’ Windows but you can’t go back (I assume because the OS can then no longer be sure what is secure). Whether S Mode is switched off would have to be your own (or your sister’s) choice as that would open up various security issues (but your niece would be no more ‘vulnerable’ than most Windows users anyway). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Clarke Posted November 23, 2019 Author Share Posted November 23, 2019 Funnily enough, I was literally just this moment reading about that! I hadn't heard about 'S' Windows until yesterday, but if it can be turned off then that would solve that problem. It's daft, but I used to work writing and designing software (embedded systems, comms, and mid-tier bank websites), so computer technical specs should be a breeze to me (used to be). But it seems by not keeping on top of things, it's as confusing to me as most people over a certain age! And they don't make it easy with the CPU names. Thanks for the message. It was good of you to post the link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarryP Posted November 23, 2019 Share Posted November 23, 2019 You’re welcome. Oh… CPU names… runs off screaming... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R C-R Posted November 23, 2019 Share Posted November 23, 2019 1 hour ago, GarryP said: Oh… CPU names… runs off screaming... It is <rolls eyes> sooooo much simpler for Apple product users because we don't have to contend with all those different Windows OS versions ... unless you count OS X vs. macOS, iPadOS vs. iOS, or which Apple devices can run which one(s) of them. walt.farrell 1 Quote All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7 Affinity Photo 1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Clarke Posted November 23, 2019 Author Share Posted November 23, 2019 Though we didn't realise it at the time, CPU names started becoming ridiculous when we went from 486 to Pentium. "We'll call them i3, i5, and i7. And that one we'll call N4000 ..." What?! Just stick an 'm' on the end, or do something which makes some kind of sense. And then there's the socket names ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarryP Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 I hope I’m not too late mentioning this but it popped into my head late last night. I’ve just checked and the product description says that it has 64 GB eMMC and a “Mechanical Hard Drive of 0 GB size”, so that’s only 64GB of local storage and I don’t think that will be large enough for much more than web browsing. A Windows Home installation is around 25 GB, and when you add things like application installs, restore points, downloads, temporary/cache folders and virtual memory pages (etc. etc.) that 64 GB is going to fill up very quickly. Saving stuff to the cloud will probably help a bit – as long as you have ‘permanent’ internet access – but I have no idea how well the Affinity apps work with cloud storage. Adding an external hard drive would probably help but that means extra expense and external drives are easier to break/lose (especially with teenagers). I could be wrong, and it could be absolutely fine, but it’s worth checking to see what’s what before purchasing. Tim Clarke 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Clarke Posted November 24, 2019 Author Share Posted November 24, 2019 No, not too late, and thanks again for taking the time to write anything at all. I noticed the lack of storage too, but specs are such a big problem at this price point. If it were up to me, I'd buy her a refurb. I chose one for my father ealier this year, and they really are as good as new, and I own a second-hand T540p (alongside a more powerful desktop) which is much more than what I could have afforded new. But my sister wants to get her shiny new for her first laptop. Her second laptop will be much easier to buy! Apart from the problem of price, we don't know what she'll do with her laptop. She's enjoying CorelDRAW at school (which is why I want to get her Designer), and apprently she has fun (!) making Power Point slides on her mum's laptop --- no backgrounds or anything fancy, just bullet-points! She'll be able to use Google or Microsoft online office tools, and I can put a micro SD card in that laptop for her to store music or whatever else. She'll have to learn not to fill the space up with junk, and to look after said micro SD card and/or flash storage devices, which is maybe not a bad thing for her to learn early. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarryP Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 Probably best to go for shiny and new as her first laptop. It's her first one after all. If nothing else, she will be able to more-easily see all the dings and scrapes it gets and that may help her to appreciate how to look after the next one better, perhaps. The current sale price seems to be quite a bargain and it looks to be a pretty decent first laptop for general computing. After a while, once your niece gets beyond what it’s capable of and needs something more (hopefully she’ll use it for more and more different things as she gets into having her own machine), it could be turned into a good little Linux machine that should be a great quick-start general-purpose ‘household browser and media device’ that can be used in situations where a more expensive machine might not be suitable, e.g. watching videos in the garden, etc. (I have an old laptop that came with Windows Vista – that’s how old it is – and it’s still fine for web browsing in places I wouldn’t dare take my current ‘production’ laptop. If it breaks then it breaks, it’s had a fair old innings.) I didn’t see the microSD card reader and for one of the questions listed on the web page, when asked “does it have sd card slot” someone has answered “No it doesn’t”. However, they may have been answering very literally and the official Lenovo specs say it’s got a microSD card reader so that’s okay. (And now I know what a “Novo button” is too, could be quite a handy thing that, although where is the recovery software stored?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZupComp Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 good day, would it be possible for someone to share a set of drivers for my Lenovo S130 laptop? After the reinstall, the touchpad does not work and there are no downloadable drivers on the touchpad and hotkeys buttons on the Internet. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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