Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Laptop 2020 Review - Could Have Been So Much More..... By SoulOfTech

What's up YouTube: how goes it so back when I was in high school buying a budget laptop usually meant that it was going to be chunky clunky and have pretty mediocre performance at best fast-forward to today's time, and that's no longer the case today when you buy a budget mid-range or low-range laptop, you usually get a lot of value, I'm happy to say that the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 is kind of the testament as to how far budget laptops have really come. So in today's video we're actually doing a comprehensive review on the IdeaPad 3 to see what it offers who it might be for and exactly whether it's worth your cash or not. So, as always guys, if you enjoy my content, consider subscribing to my channel. I promise I do my absolute best to provide quality content for you guys so give me a chance, and you won't be disappointed. I promise with that being said: let's get started, let's get the dry stuff out of the way. First, in terms of the configuration and specifications for this particular IdeaPad 3 we're rocking a 10th gen Intel Core i3 processor.

You also have 8 gigabytes of ddr4 ram, a 256, GB, solid state drive and, of course, you have intel UHD graphics, which are of course integrated, and, of course, you also have Wi-Fi five on board with Bluetooth, and it's worth noting. You have a HD 15-inch screen with a standard 60hz refresh rate in terms of unboxing, the laptop the nova IdeaPad 3 comes in a pretty generic looking cardboard box, nothing fancy once you remove the content seal and open the lid inside you're, greeted by a few items. First and foremost, of course, you have the IdeaPad 3 laptops itself, which is neatly packed, but we'll come back to that in just a minute. Beyond that, you have your traditional instruction manuals, which of course includes quick, start best practices, warranty compliance and regulatory information. You know all the fun stuff moving past that you have a 65 watt single unit charging adapter.

So this serves as both the wall outlet plug and the charging proprietary cable that you used to charge your laptop it's worth noting. Unfortunately, the charging outlet plug does not have a foldable pin for the wall. Outlet would have been a nice touch to have that added. Let's talk about the laptop design and overall build quality, so Lenovo always does a pretty good job of making. Even their budget laptops appear neat, simple and professional.

Now this laptop weighs 4.08 pounds and that's relatively heavy for a laptop this configuration, but once again it's a testimony to the fact that it's a very slim profile, well-built laptop, despite being made of a mostly hard CPU, build starting off with the top side of the laptop itself. You can see that Lenovo keeps it nice and simple. There's no fancy textures, just a linear downwards texture, that's very soft to the touch. Also, on the lower right side, you can see that you actually have the Lenovo branding. Lenovo keeps it nice and simple, no complex stuff, no aggressive looks just plain professional.

I like that, as we make our way to the side of the laptop you'll notice. That Lenovo has a rather interesting choice of I o ports. So you have a proprietary charging port, a HDMI port, and you have three USB ports, two of which are USB 3.0 and one of which is a rather dated USB 2.0 port. On the other side, you have a dedicated SD card reader, which is pretty nice and, of course, a traditional headphone jack. It is worth noting.

However, there is no USB port on this laptop. In my opinion, I don't know why Lenovo didn't do that, considering it's 2020 to an extent it does take away from the future viability of this laptop, as we make our way to the bottom side of the laptop you'll notice right away. There is a linear array of cooling fence. This is where the cool air enters into the laptop. As always, if you are going to use this laptop, please make sure he's on a flat surface.

So there's plenty of space to absorb in cool air. Also, you'll notice there are several screws. So, yes, the bottom plate can come off if you want to tinker around with the laptop. It's also worth noting on the front side of the bottom side, you actually have two speaker grilles. So this is a stereo setup and the speakers actually sound pretty nice.

Surprisingly, we'll do a sound test later on in the video, as you open up the laptop lid right away. The first thing you'll notice, is that Lenovo does a pretty good job at keeping that almond color theme consistent throughout the laptop. It kind of reminds me of the sandstone color on the surface laptop go. It has some resemblance to it anyway. Coming back to this laptop you'll notice that the palm rest has a generous amount of space, you do have some branding on one side and of course, you have the normal branding on the other side of the palm rest.

The trackpad is what really surprised me in terms of its quality. It's really well-built. It doesn't feel like a budget trackpad at all. The clicks are nice and tactile. The trackpad is well-placed, there's lots of real estate and also when you apply pressure on one side, doesn't lift the entire body, so you can obviously tell the lower put priority on the trackpad quality, which is a great thing.

There's this old saying that goes a good keyboard keeps the typos away. I totally did not make that up with that being said, it's worth noting that the idea pad 3 has a fantastic keyboard in terms of quality. You have a nice 1.5, millimeter travel. Also, the keys feel super tactile, but they're not noisy, so it's great for a silent environment. You also have the inclusion of a 10 keypad, so for a number of countries out there that functionality is right on board.

It is worth noting, unfortunately, that there is no backlighting on the keyboard, so you are left in the dark in that regard, quite literally, but this is not uncommon for laptops in this price range. A few other worthwhile mentions the keyboard includes the fact that you do have dedicated media playback keys directly above the 10 keypad. So that's good. The rest of the function keys are mixed in with the traditional functional line. Of course, one thing worth mentioning is that Lenovo opted to actually include the power button independently of the keyboard.

Thank you Lenovo, for that. I hate it when company's mixing the power button in the keyboard. It just doesn't seem right to me, as we make our way to the hinge for some reason. Lenovo does a very poor job. Designing hinges for their non-business laptops across all their lineups, and the IdeaPad 3, unfortunately suffers from the same problem.

Basically, the hinge is a single piece hinge, which means that if you open the lid from either corner, you apply immense pressure on the hinge which will undoubtedly break it over time as the years go by, and this is definitely a problem they should address. Furthermore, it's worth noting that the hinge isn't exactly as sturdy as some other competing laptops. It does wobble around a little, so keep that in mind. Moving on, we come to the bezels, which are relatively thin, and they're pretty much in line with laptops of this category. Also, you do have a somewhat fat chin at the bottom, but once again, that's not uncommon for laptops in this price range.

As you move to the top side of the laptop you'll notice, you have the inclusion of a 720p webcam, which is mediocre, but that's excusable. Given the budget pricing of this laptop one cool thing that Lenovo does, is they actually include a privacy shutter for more conscious consumers, so in case you're worried that your webcam is spying on you? Yes, you can put a physical blockade without having to put tape on it. Let's talk about the weakest link on this laptop, the display. Honestly speaking, I was a little disappointed at how much lino was cheaper out on the display on this laptop. So for beginners you have a HD plus display, which in itself is not a bad thing.

Most laptops in this price range have a 720p display, so that's okay, what makes it a very poor display is, first and foremost, you only have a 51 RGB rating, which honestly is really poor. Colors feel washed out, there's no vividness to the display whatsoever when you're, watching Netflix or when you're on the web. You just feel like everything, has a permanent gray tint to it. Furthermore, you only have a peak brightness of 220 nits 220 nits. Take that in basically, if you're gonna use this in a park and there's direct sunlight, good luck, seeing your screen, it's just not gonna, show up whatsoever because it's just not bright enough.

Now with that being said, if you are planning on doing any sort of photo, editing or color accuracy, intensive tasks on this laptop do not get it. The display will not be viable unless you're planning using an external display. In those cases, there are better laptops strictly from display perspective. Alright. So let's talk about performance.

The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 is about right in line where you expect it to be. It does a great job at handling day-to-day tasks. Like word, processing web browsing watching Netflix, going on YouTube or anything of that nature. It shows little to no lag when doing such tasks, and it can handle them in a multitasking capability easily. Also having that eight gigabytes of ram is usually more than apple for performing such tasks, this laptop was primarily designed for people who are either students or have relatively basic needs.

It's also worth noting that windows comes in s mode on this laptop, which means you can only use applications from the Microsoft app store. That means you cannot install Google Chrome. However, thankfully Microsoft does let you opt out of s mode. It's a one way road. Once you opt out of s mode, you can install any x86 or 64-bit application of your choosing.

I don't know why you would say in s mode, there's really no real benefit, so I definitely say don't be worried about getting out of s mode in fact get out of it, so you can install Google Chrome and get rid of edge right away. Additionally, it is worth noting you only have a single cooling fan on this laptop, which, for the most part, is more than ample. The laptop generally runs super cool with temperatures ranging between 45 and 60 degrees on average and, if you're doing something really CPU intensive, you can hit the 70 plus mark, but, like I said, you really have to push the laptop by either doing something like gaming or having a lot of applications being run at the same time. Furthermore, it's worth noting in terms of noise levels, the fan runs super quiet. In fact, you can't even tell there is a fan on this computer until you do something CPU intensive and even then, these noise levels are a lot better than some competing brands.

You're, probably wondering how all that performance translates into battery life. You can squeeze about 7 plus hours of battery life from this laptop on light day-to-day usage. However, if you start doing more, CPU intensive tasks expect that to drop around the 5-hour mark. The final thing I want to talk about before I go to my verdict on this laptop is its sound quality. Surprisingly, this laptop has great sounding speakers.

Like I said you have a stereo setup, have a listen for yourself is so here's my final take on the IdeaPad 3 guys. I think the IdeaPad 3 is a mixed bag priced at 450 USD. It provides decent value, but I wouldn't say it's great. So for starters, you have a fantastic, build quality. Considering this is a budget laptop.

It doesn't necessarily feel cheap by any means you have a great tactile trackpad and a very nice feeling keyboard with 10 keys included, so plenty of good. You also have a decent sounding stereo speaker built right into the laptop. Unfortunately, the lackluster display really makes this hard to recommend for anyone who's doing any sort of creative tasks like photo, editing or even just designing stuff using this laptop screen. It's just not built for that. I think the laptop has plenty of room for improvement and I think Lenovo can learn from plenty of its competitors that actually sell better displays in a very similar price range.

Overall. I think if your use case is light, and you're doing stuff like web browsing, writing essays online tests or anything of that nature. This is a great laptop, and it'll do just fine for both students and consumers with a simple use case alike. However, if you are doing anything intensive or any creative tasks, there are other laptops with better displays in a similar price range from competing brands. So have a look at those all in all.

I hope you guys enjoyed this review. I hope I was able to help with your purchasing decision as always guys if you enjoy the content, hit that subscribe button. Furthermore, I promise you won't be disappointed, I'm always doing my absolute best to provide quality content for you guys I'll catch you in the next one soul of tech, logging out.

Source : SoulOfTech