In terms of the design, Lenovo has opted for a subtle look that does not look cheap thanks to the matte aluminum surfaces. The compact system is well-built and there are no uneven clearances or similar flaws. The hinge can be opened to a maximum angle of about 140 degrees and firmly holds the display in place. The speakers are located on the bottom of the slightly angled front edge of the laptop. The bottom plate can be easily removed after all of the screws have been loosened. Subsequently, users have access to the fans, SSD and the Wi-Fi module. However, swapping or upgrading the RAM is not possible.

The IdeaPad S540-13API does not offer a very wide port selection and there is, for example, no HDMI port. With an appropriate adapter, an external display can still be connected via the two USB-C ports, both of which can also be used to charge the ultra-mobile laptop. As for wireless connectivity, Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 6 with the fast 802.11ac standard are available. Despite the integrated 2x2-MIMO antenna, we only measured average transfer rates of 501 MB/s for receiving and a fairly mediocre 447 MB/s when sending data in our Wi-Fi test.

