Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 15.6 Inch Full HD Laptop

When purchasing a new laptop I spent a long time trying to get the best bang for my buck, knowing I need it for work but that it would be nice to game on it too.

I won’t pretend to be LinusTechTips so I’ll bullet point a few of my main takeaways after a year of use –

• Overall very happy with this Lenovo Ideapad 3. A good, no-nonsense brand without the (expensive) bells and whistles of actual gaming laptops.
• Build quality is respectable. Overall it feels solid, although the trackpad feels a little hollow, for lack of a better term, and the screen hinge can wobble at a certain angle (could do with a bit more resistance). No other complaints however – the laptop is sturdy with no flex to the body and plenty of airflow and ventilation when the fans kick in.
• The screen is vivid and crucially has a 120hz refresh rate.
• The dedicated graphics card packs a surprising punch. My last PC build was a desktop with a Nvidia 1070 which stills plays most modern games perfectly well, even if not at ultra settings. Despite the 4050 being a few notches down compared to the equivilent 4070 today, it still manages to easily beat my old 1070 setup in terms of FPS in games. This surprised me – I was hoping a gaming laptop could hold its own but didnt expect it to beat a dedicated gaming tower.
• Sound quality through the speakers is average to good. No complaints really. I’ve used other laptops where the speakers are tinny or worse, are outright distorted (HP Elitebook I’m looking at you). That being said the speakers wont replace any dedicated outputs although they’ll suffice in a pinch.
• Thermal management, as already alluded to, is very good. Plenty of airflow from bottom vents expelled out the back to the left and right of the I/O ports. Under low/normal load the fans aren’t needed, but under heavy gaming  the fans kick in audibly as would be expected. The power management profiles are a nice touch to shortcut between quiet/normal/gaming.
• Battery duration is ok but not great. Under light load I can get a decent 5 hours use or so, but gaming will drop that down to just an hour or so. Definitely need to keep on charge if planning to use for gaming.
• Weight – unusually heavy at 2.4KG – for a laptop this is noticably heavy compared to most non-gaming/light use builds. Be prepared if travelling.
• Keyboard is backlit with adustable brightness settings. Very handy when working in a dark room.

Overall very happy with this particular model Lenova Ideapad 3. I would recommend to anyone looking for a non-flashy but solid gaming laptop, where weight and loudness under load aren’t top considerations.

Product Link – https://amzn.to/4dXs68S