I am taking the 2 best selling budget gaming laptops on Amazon, and pitting them against each other. On one side we have Lenovo Ideapad L340 and on the other side is Asus TUF FX505DT gaming laptop. These two laptops will battle it out in a 10 round match, and a champion will be crowned at the end of this video. Who will come out on the top and deserve your hard earned dollars? Let's find out!
So how does all this translate to real world performance? Let's look at some CPU benchmarks. In CPU Single Thread Rating, Core-i5 scores 2,354 points vs Ryzen 5 which scores 1,878. So that's a solid 25.3% performance lead by Intel in single thread workload. This is not really surprising because Intel chip has both higher base clock and turbo clock frequency.
But what about multi-threaded workloads? In overall CPU mark rating, Intel scores 9,857 points while Ryzen scores 8,429 point. That's a 16.9% performance lead by Intel over AMD. So, even though AMD managed to narrow the gap in multi-threaded benchmark, it still came behind Intel. So that's a clear knockout win by Intel CPU over Ryzen. Which means Lenovo Ideapad L340 takes the 2nd round, and now the match is tied at 1-ALL after two rounds
Ideapad L340 on the other hand has a got a super sleek and polished look. Its design language borrows more from thin and light laptops than traditional gaming laptops. There are no aggressive RGB lightings or weird logos. The body is all black with no major design flair. This understated design language of IdeaPad compliments any workplace and doesn't look gaudy in public. The workmanship on this laptop is really good. It has smooth even edges with a blue color theme, extending from logo on the front lid to the keyboards and grills underneath. I especially appreciate the lack of a garish logos which plague other gaming machines. With a weight of 4.6 pounds this is a fairly light and portable gaming laptop.
So, which of these two laptops has got a better build quality? It's a tough choice. Both are quite good, but I will give this round to IdeaPad L340 because of its more refined and polished look. So that means after 5 gruelling rounds of intense fight, both Asus and Ideadpad are tied at 2-ALL
Asus TUF laptop also comes with 8 GIG of system RAM. But unlike Ideapad, it has 2 DIMM slots available for memory upgrade. The 8GIG RAM occupies the first DIMM slot while 2nd slot is empty. You can add another 8 GIG RAM in the 2nd slot, thereby doubling the system RAM to 16GIG. This will also enable the dual channel configuration which is about 10-15% faster than a single channel. If you want to go crazy, you can add 16GIG RAM in each slot for a grand total of 32 GIG. More RAM will not only help with game play, but it will also make applications like photoshop, video editing and productivity software run smoothly. So Asus knocks out Lenovo in round 6 and now lead by 3-2.
Ideapad L340 on the other hand has double the storage sporting a 512 GIG of PCIe NVMe SSD. But as far as upgrading the SSD is concerned, there is only one m.2 slot & no SATA3 slot. Since m.2 slot is already occupied by the 512 GIG SSD, upgrading SSD would mean discarding this existing drive, and that sucks. So in my opinion this round ends in a tie because Ideapad offers double the SSD storage, but Asus offers better SSD upgrade options. So after 7 rounds, Asus is still holding on to a narrow lead of 3-2 over ideapad. BTW, I will throw a link in the description of compatible SATA3 and m.2 SSDs that will work with these laptops.
Lenovo Ideapad L340 Gaming Laptop
16GB RAM upgrade for Ideapad
16GB Kit (8GBx2) RAM upgrade for Asus Tuf
32GB Kit (16GBx2) RAM upgrade for Asus Tuf
8GB RAM upgrade for Asus Tuf
500GB SATA SSD
1TB SATA SSD
2TB SATA SSD
500GB M.2 SSD
1TB M.2 SSD
2TB M.2 SSD
Disclosure: Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
10 key features
We will focus on 10 key features to decide the eventual winner. Now, people have different requirements when it comes to choosing their gaming laptop. So, some of these features may be more important to you than others. But I think these 10 features are a perfect way to grade the two laptops and declare a legitimate winner.Round1: Price
The price has gotta be right. Unlike other rich YouTubers, I don't have thousands of dollars lying around in my house. So if a gaming laptop is crazy expensive, I ain't buying it. Doesn't matter how awesome the performance is, and how insane the specs are. At the time of making this video, Asus TUF Gaming Laptop was cheaper than Lenovo Ideapad L340 and that makes it the winner of round 1Round 2: CPU
Asus Tuf comes with Ryzen 5 3550H processor while Ideapad L340 comes with Intel Core-i5-9300H. So here is a chart comparing these 2 CPUs. Both CPUs have 4 cores and 8 threads but Ryzen 5 is built on the newer 7nm process technology while Intel core-i5 is still using the old 14nm process node. Intel CPU has a higher base clock frequency of 2.4GHz and higher turbo clock frequency of 4.1GHz. It also has double the amount of cache and it supports faster DDR4 memory speed of 2666Mhz.
So how does all this translate to real world performance? Let's look at some CPU benchmarks. In CPU Single Thread Rating, Core-i5 scores 2,354 points vs Ryzen 5 which scores 1,878. So that's a solid 25.3% performance lead by Intel in single thread workload. This is not really surprising because Intel chip has both higher base clock and turbo clock frequency.
But what about multi-threaded workloads? In overall CPU mark rating, Intel scores 9,857 points while Ryzen scores 8,429 point. That's a 16.9% performance lead by Intel over AMD. So, even though AMD managed to narrow the gap in multi-threaded benchmark, it still came behind Intel. So that's a clear knockout win by Intel CPU over Ryzen. Which means Lenovo Ideapad L340 takes the 2nd round, and now the match is tied at 1-ALL after two rounds
Round 3: GPU
Ok, so now we are in the 3rd round, and this round is all about the GPU. Interestingly both these laptops are using the same identical GPU aka Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650. This GPU has 4 GIG of onboard video RAM which should be plenty to play any modern game. GTX 1650 is based on Nvidia’s Turing architecture, and its CUDA cores offer concurrent execution of both floating point and integer operations. So, in simple English this means improved performance in both gaming and compute-heavy workloads like video editing. Kudos to both Asus and Lenovo for picking this GPU. So, this round ends in a tie and the scores are still tied at 1-ALL after 3 roundsRound 4: Display
Let's talk about the display quality of screen. Both laptops have a large 15.6 Inch full HD screen with a resolution of 1920 by 1080. Both screens use high quality IPS panel, but Asus TUF supports 120 Hertz refresh rate. This high refresh rate is great for gaming, because it provides smooth gameplay with minimal motion blur. Both laptops have bright screens registering about 250 nits of brightness, and they support wide viewing angles. But I will give this round to Asus TUF gaming laptop because of its 120Hz refresh rate screen which Ideapad lacks. So with this win, Asus TUF takes the lead by 2-1 after 4 roundsRound 5: Build quality
Asus claims to have military grade durability on this laptop. It is certified to endure day-to-day use, from accidental knocks to sudden drops on desk. It is made of polycarbonate which is tough and durable but light in weight weighing around 4.8 pounds. The top lid of the laptop has a brushed metal finish with a radiating letter ‘X’ giving it a distinctive design. The underside of the chassis has hexagonal shaped reinforcement giving it additional structural strength. Overall Asus Tuf laptop sports a very rugged & macho look.
Ideapad L340 on the other hand has a got a super sleek and polished look. Its design language borrows more from thin and light laptops than traditional gaming laptops. There are no aggressive RGB lightings or weird logos. The body is all black with no major design flair. This understated design language of IdeaPad compliments any workplace and doesn't look gaudy in public. The workmanship on this laptop is really good. It has smooth even edges with a blue color theme, extending from logo on the front lid to the keyboards and grills underneath. I especially appreciate the lack of a garish logos which plague other gaming machines. With a weight of 4.6 pounds this is a fairly light and portable gaming laptop.
So, which of these two laptops has got a better build quality? It's a tough choice. Both are quite good, but I will give this round to IdeaPad L340 because of its more refined and polished look. So that means after 5 gruelling rounds of intense fight, both Asus and Ideadpad are tied at 2-ALL
Round 6: RAM
We will be looking at RAM configuration and ease of upgrade. Ideapad L340 comes with 8GIG of DDR4 RAM, which is user accessible after removing the back cover by unscrewing about a dozen screws. Unfortunately there is only one DIMM slot available for memory upgrade. This means that the RAM is installed in single channel configuration, which is a bummer. I wish Lenovo had provided 2 DIMM slots for enabling dual channel configuration. You will be able to install upto 16 GIG memory stick in this DIMM slot.Asus TUF laptop also comes with 8 GIG of system RAM. But unlike Ideapad, it has 2 DIMM slots available for memory upgrade. The 8GIG RAM occupies the first DIMM slot while 2nd slot is empty. You can add another 8 GIG RAM in the 2nd slot, thereby doubling the system RAM to 16GIG. This will also enable the dual channel configuration which is about 10-15% faster than a single channel. If you want to go crazy, you can add 16GIG RAM in each slot for a grand total of 32 GIG. More RAM will not only help with game play, but it will also make applications like photoshop, video editing and productivity software run smoothly. So Asus knocks out Lenovo in round 6 and now lead by 3-2.
Round 7: SSD
OK, moving on to round 7 which is about SSD storage. Asus TUF laptop comes with 256 GIG of PCIe NVMe SSD storage. The SSD has fast read/write speeds, which is great for snappy performance and reduced windows 10 boot times. If you want to upgrade the storage, Asus gives a 2nd SATA3 slot. All the cables and adapter needed to add a 2nd SSD drive are already present in the motherboard. This makes it super easy to add another SSD drive to expand storage.Ideapad L340 on the other hand has double the storage sporting a 512 GIG of PCIe NVMe SSD. But as far as upgrading the SSD is concerned, there is only one m.2 slot & no SATA3 slot. Since m.2 slot is already occupied by the 512 GIG SSD, upgrading SSD would mean discarding this existing drive, and that sucks. So in my opinion this round ends in a tie because Ideapad offers double the SSD storage, but Asus offers better SSD upgrade options. So after 7 rounds, Asus is still holding on to a narrow lead of 3-2 over ideapad. BTW, I will throw a link in the description of compatible SATA3 and m.2 SSDs that will work with these laptops.
Round 8: Battery Life
IdeaPad L340 comes with a 45 Watt hour battery capacity. You can squeeze about 8 hours of battery life with wifi turned off and display set to minimum brightness. Expect about 6 hours of battery life doing typical web-surfing with WiFi turned on. With the included charger, it takes about 2 hours and 20 minutes to fully charge this battery. Asus TUF gaming laptop on the other hand, woefully falls short in the battery life category. It only gives about 3 and a half hours of battery life while doing typical web-surfing with WiFi turned on. The main culprit is the 120Hz display, which drains the battery very quickly. Asus expects that this laptop will be mostly plugged in, especially during long gaming sessions. So IdeaPad wins this round and ties the score to 3 all.Round 9: Keyboard
Moving on to , and its all about the . Ideapad L340 comes with a full-sized keyboard with ambient backlighting. The keyboard offers short key travel but good actuation force for a nice tactile feedback. It comes with full-fledged numerical keys for data entry. The backlighting is monochromatic blue with uniform illumination that can be adjusted in two stages. ASUS TUF’s keyboard on the other hand is optimized for gaming. It has a fully backlit keyboard with various zones of RGB lighting that can be controlled via software. The keyboard is large and has a desktop style layout. This makes it very ergonomic to type. I like its broader space bar, isolated arrow keys, and the large gaps between the function keys. So this round is a close one because both laptops offer good keyboard. But, I prefer the keyboard on Asus Tuf laptop, and will award this round to Asus. So with this win, Asus is back on top leading Ideapad by 4-3Final Round: Ports
OK guys, so this is the 10th and the final round. And its all about the ports. Asus Tuf has no USB type C port and no thunderbolt port. You get 3 old-school USB ports, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port and a headphone jack. There is no SD-Card slot which is also a bummer, especially if you are a content creator and want to transfer videos and pictures from your camera. The IdeaPad L340 on the other hand, provides most necessary ports which are all located exclusively on the left side of the laptop. Unfortunately there is no SD card reader or Thunderbolt port. But you do get a USB Type-C port along with the usual suspects like Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, 2 USB 3.1 ports and a 3.5 mm audio jack. I will give this round to Ideapad because it supports USB Type-C port which is missing in Asus Tuf laptop. So with a victory in the 10th round, Ideapad makes a comeback and ties the score at 4-4.Conclusion
So which laptop should you buy? I think the answer will come down to your preference. If you want a budget gaming laptop which has a fast 120Hz 1080p screen, an awesome keyboard, Dual Channel RAM and easy memory upgrade options, then go with Asus TUF laptop. On the other hand, if you want a faster CPU, sleek build quality, better battery life and more ports including USB type-C, go with Lenovo Ideapad L340. But remember Ideapad is about 50 dollars more expensive than Asus Tuf laptop. So what do you guys think? Would you prefer Asus TUF FX505DT or Lenovo Ideapad L340? Please let me know in the comment section below.Purchase Links
Asus TUF FX505DT Gaming LaptopLenovo Ideapad L340 Gaming Laptop
16GB RAM upgrade for Ideapad
16GB Kit (8GBx2) RAM upgrade for Asus Tuf
32GB Kit (16GBx2) RAM upgrade for Asus Tuf
8GB RAM upgrade for Asus Tuf
500GB SATA SSD
1TB SATA SSD
2TB SATA SSD
500GB M.2 SSD
1TB M.2 SSD
2TB M.2 SSD
Disclosure: Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases