Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Review
It is rare to find a laptop these days that is capable of meeting your day to day task requirements as well as satisfying your gaming needs. Some common expectations for such a device include a large screen, a great processor, an awesome graphics card and a fast storage device. Fortunately the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 fits the description perfectly. It’s the perfect combination for a student at day and a gamer at night kind of person. The IdeaPad 3 offers a 15.6” Full HD display, with the AMD Ryzen 5 3500U Processor accompanied by the Integrated AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics and an uptodate 256GB SSD.
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Review Summary
PROS AND CONS
 SSD SD card slot Reasonable graphics card Full HD display Poor webcam Short battery life TN panel |  |
DESIGN
This device is delivered with a 15.6” Full HD display. The product is 12.88 x 9.49 x 0.78 inches in dimensions and weighs at 3.3 pounds, resulting in a laptop that is slim and portable. The body and design of this laptop has a great appearance and feel. It is extremely stylish and sophisticated, this laptop will definitely turn heads when you take it outside. The word Lenovo is inscribed on the top left hand side that adds beautifully to the laptop’s look. Despite the fact that the body is made out of plastic, it is excellent in quality and quite sturdy, making this model light in weight, captivating and noticeable. This model is available in a mesmerizing Abyss blue color.
WEBCAM
This model has a 300p webcam accompanied by a built-in microphone. However, it is strongly recommended to use an external webcam as the built-in webcam is not worth your time. A physical shutter is also available for the webcam (for security purposes), but given the camera quality it is rendered useless, however it is advised to keep the webcam shutter close at all times whether you are using the webcam or not.
DISPLAY
| The IdeaPad 3 comes with a Full HD display that delivers amazing color levels, which are highly attractive as the brightness levels reach 200 nits, but sadly the colors can sometimes be washed out due to the use of the TN panel. TN panels, unfortunately have limited viewing angles (which means you will have to sit front-on to enjoy the display) and regretfully the picture quality fails to compete with rival IPS and VA panel technologies. The TN panel however does help in reducing the cost as well as the weight, in addition it prolongs the battery life, by decreasing battery utilization, and enjoys the ability to reduce flicker. The display lid can be tilted back 180 degrees. The panel has Narrow bezels, which get wider at the bottom but they aren’t annoying. Moreover, It has good anti-glare capabilities, thanks to its matte finish which makes working in the outdoors much more convenient and prevents the screen from fingerprint marks and scratches. This model does not offer a touchscreen, which although disappointing helps keep the manufacturing cost low, and keeps the weight of the laptop down but most importantly it increases the battery life. |  |
KEYBOARD/MOUSEPAD
The keys are extremely soft to the point that they can be described as squishy, but nevertheless they are very comfortable to use and typing on the keyboard is fairly enjoyable. However, the keys are squeezed together rather closely for our liking which may annoy fast typers or even gamers, so it is suggested to use an external keyboard while carrying out such tasks. In addition the little space between the keys can make cleaning the keyboard a nuisance. The keyboard, unfortunately, isn’t backlit, which is disappointing.
The mousepad can leave a user disgruntled as there are no buttons, so registering a click can be hard. Furthermore the mousepad is not the most smooth and responsive, therefore it is best to use an external mouse while working or gaming.
CONNECTIVITY
This model plays home to three USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI port and a SD card slot. Furthermore this device also provides wireless connectivity to the internet through WIFI 5 (802.11ac), which is three times faster than the traditional 802.11n, in addition it also has Bluetooth 4.1, which provides improved data transfer.
SPEAKERS
The speakers are bottom firing, so it is important to keep in mind the type of surface you put your laptop on because the material would affect the sound quality (It is recommended that you keep it on a softer surface, which will absorb a little sound but a harder surface can cause the sound to boom which can get uncomfortable). The speaker performance is great overall but for the greatest experience it is recommended to use headphones or external speakers connected via the USB ports or Bluetooth 4.1.
PERFORMANCE
This particular model plays host to the AMD Ryzen 5 3500U Processor, which might not be the best processor out there but when it comes to getting the job done, it delivers. The processor is perfect when it comes to completing day to day tasks such as word processing, photo editing, browsing the internet, online socializing etc. Furthermore it can run most android apps like Instagram and Whatsapp and Windows applications such as Microsoft office for bookkeeping and day to day tasks. Unfortunately this processor is incapable of running very heavy softwares like the android studio. Although it is great for everyday productivity but to be perfectly honest, only using this device for office work or movie watching would be a waste of its true potential as it was designed to provide a complete package of gaming and day to day tasks. The graphics card used is an integrated AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics, which when paired with the processor can smoothly run games like CS: GO. Overwatch. GTA V, BTD6, Dota 2, Rocket League, Valorant, PUBG Lite etc. However it fails to run popular games like 7 Days to Die or League of Legends but the AMD RX Vega 8 (Ryzen iGPU) delivers excellent performance in changing real world conditions, so it is one great graphics card that is enough to satisfy your gaming hunger. Regretfully the processor does get hot and the fan can get rather loud and annoying when the processor is put under pressure.
BATTERY LIFE
The device comes with preinstalled 3CELL 45WH Lithium Polymer Battery, which is capable of keeping the laptop running for 6 hours, however it is not recommended for very long travelling, but if you wish to take it with you to school/college or office, the battery is perfect for such trips.
STORAGE
HDD/SSD
| This laptop comes equipped with a 256GB M.2 PCIe SSD. Despite the fact that upgrading an SSD can be very expensive, the SSD does enjoy certain advantages over the eMMc storage or a hard disk. The SSD is quicker to retrieve data than the hard disk or the eMMc, which helps in your laptop booting up quicker. Furthermore the SSD is extremely light, meaning that it doesn’t increase the weight of the laptop, in addition, given the fact that the SSD doesn‘t have any moving parts, it isn’t a factor in the heating up of the laptop. Although it is recommended, that if you wish to boost up your storage, you should look into buying an SD card or an external hard drive |  |
RAM
The Ideapad 3 comes with a pre-installed 8GB DDR4 RAM chip. Unfortunately, this model only contains a single RAM slot, so the Ram can only be upgraded upto 16 GB’s, which, however, is more than enough when it comes to browsing the internet, using light to intermediate softwares or playing games on your laptop
FEATURES AND SOFTWARES
The HP IdeaPad 3 provides 20 GB of free cloud space through the Microsoft OneDrive and the Google drive. If you wish to expand your cloud storage then there is a yearly fee associated with it. The available options include default softwares that come with Windows 10 operating system, like the Microsoft Office, along with several others that can be downloaded via the internet(although that is not recommended unless it’s a trusted website) or the Microsoft store that has thousands of apps and games.
BUY IF
If you are a student and you require a laptop to satisfy both your academic as well as your gaming needs. In addition the display being Full HD along with glare handling makes the IdeaPad 3 ideal for outside use. Furthermore the battery being as it is, may not be great for long adventures but it is perfect to accompany you to your college Moreover the weight makes movability easy and the device can easily squeeze in your backpack.
DON’T BUY IF
If you need a device for long travelling as the battery life isn’t up to the task, moreover if you are a fast typer or a serious gamer than the keyboard might be a big nuisance to you. Furthermore this isn’t a gaming laptop so it won’t be capable of running demanding games such as Valorant or Valheim. Lastly if you need a laptop for office meetings then either you buy a different model or buy an external webcam as the builtin webcam isn’t capable of getting the job done.
One thought on “Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Review”
Comments are closed.