Lenovo IdeaPad S540 Laptop Review: AMD or Intel? Lenovo gives consumers the choice and we compare both

[NikoB]

usb-c(a)->RJ45(gigabit) costs only $10 and is sold at any electronics store.

The worst thing is that if you open AIDA64/HWInfo, you can clearly see that the RJ45 chip is visible, but not output to external socket. A very stupid decision by Lenovo!

[Mirek]

Are you sure it's possible to change to Intel AX200 card in the AMD model, can you confirm that you have done that? (or anyone else managed to change to better card?) There are some mentions on the web about whitelisting only several WiFi cards and I think these intel cards are not on that list

[Kyubi]

usb-c(a)->RJ45(gigabit) costs only $10 and is sold at any electronics store.

The worst thing is that if you open AIDA64/HWInfo, you can clearly see that the RJ45 chip is visible, but not output to external socket. A very stupid decision by Lenovo!

Yes, I don't know if I can report it here, but I had  a discussion on the Lenovo official forum and the conclusion was the same you told (for who is interested can search "Lenovo ideapad s540-14api network card replacement" on a search engine). I made tests on the wlan, comparing the results with another common laptop, and speeds on the Lenovo ideapad s540 were 3 or 4 times slower than the other laptop. Moreover, wifi range was also extremely poor, dropping down as soon as you leave your router's room. So the conclusion is wifi antennas build problem that is not an easy fix: Considering that the laptop has no other way to connect to the web (if not buying an external adapter that will keep busy forever one of your 2 usb ports, maybe both, considering they are close) I decided to return mine.
Laptop was apparently good, maybe a best buy (matte screen and frontal audio were top notch for the price and keyboard was good) but a laptop without Internet in my opinion is practically useless today.

[Kyubi]

Are you sure it's possible to change to Intel AX200 card in the AMD model, can you confirm that you have done that? (or anyone else managed to change to better card?) There are some mentions on the web about whitelisting only several WiFi cards and I think these intel cards are not on that list

You can check all the network cards compatible with the laptop at the Lenovo Ideapad s540-14API page on the lenovo website (check Parts- compatible section).
I don't know personally, but it seems as other users suggested - you can read the discussion on the Lenovo forum I told in the post before - that other cards outside of those that are listed, cannot be used as replacement for BIOS restrictions, even if they are phisically compatible.
Anyway, laptop wifi could not improve even changing network card, because of bad antennas problem as it was said.

[Mirek]

Are you sure it's possible to change to Intel AX200 card in the AMD model, can you confirm that you have done that? (or anyone else managed to change to better card?) There are some mentions on the web about whitelisting only several WiFi cards and I think these intel cards are not on that list

You can check all the network cards compatible with the laptop at the Lenovo Ideapad s540-14API page on the lenovo website (check Parts- compatible section).
I don't know personally, but it seems as other users suggested - you can read the discussion on the Lenovo forum I told in the post before - that other cards outside of those that are listed, cannot be used as replacement for BIOS restrictions, even if they are phisically compatible.
Anyway, laptop wifi could not improve even changing network card, because of bad antennas problem as it was said.

Thank you for your input Kyubi. Actually I already checked this discussion on Lenovo forum and the list you mention consists only of several variants of Realtek cards, so no luck there. In the meantime I decided to buy this computer and test myself if the issue exists. Unfortunately I have to confirm the WiFi problem. I have (in theory) 100 Mbps connection, my 5-year old Thinkpad can manage to reach 100-120 MBps, my phone (LG G6) can utilize up to 150 Mbps, and S540 reaches only about 40-45 Mbps (checking from the same distance from router which is approx 1,5m). Another thing I noticed, cooling fans are always on, doesn't matter which profile (FN+Q) I use, even if computer is idle. Maybe it's not that loud, but my old Thinkpad Yoga S1 is silent 90% of the time I use it!! And even when fans turn on, it's quieter than this S540 at idle. Other than that, screen brightness is OK for me and speakers are really nice. However because of these two flaws (WiFi and fan always on) i'll be returning this S540 and looking for something else.