Specs at a Glance
CPU: Ryzen 5500u | GPU: Radeon RX Vega 7 RAM: 8GB DDR4 RAM | Display: 14” 1920×1080 60Hz | Storage: 256GB SSD | Battery: 45Wh | OS: Windows 11
Usually, when shopping on a budget, performance is something that you have to cut down on. Manufacturers usually cheap by including a weak processor, or they install insufficient RAM, making the laptop unusable in the long term. But, the Lenovo Ideapad 3 14” is a big exception here,
We aren’t saying that the Lenovo Ideapad 3 doesn’t cut corners. It does, and we are going to dive deeper later on, to discuss it more, but it does it in a way that it doesn’t make your overall experience of using this laptop worse.
Chassis Build Quality and Design
Our Lenovo Ideapad 3 14” has a very minimal and muted dark blue color that Lenovo calls Blue Abyss. The color and overall design language of the laptop doesn’t really “get in your face” like some laptops do by using bright colors. Instead, it has a very subtle and clean look.
The Ideapad 3 14” is mostly made of plastic, giving off the look of a metal chassis. The keyboard deck and the entire body of the Ideapad 3 are fairly solid, but there was noticeable flex on the screen. So that is something to keep in mind.
The Ideapad 3 hasn’t really changed when compared to its last year’s model in terms of weight and dimensions. The Ideapad 3 14” is fairly light, weighing around 1.7 kg, allowing you to move around with this in your home easily or go to a different class at college. It is 0.3 kg heavier, however, compared to something like the HP 14” 2021, which weighs around 1.4kg.
And when it comes to dimensions, the Ideapad 3 14” is 14.14” in length, 9.31” in width, and 0.78” in height, which is a bit bigger compared to something like the HP 14” inch 12.76” in length, 8.86” in width and 0.71” in height, which makes the HP 14 inch a better option if you want something that is as small and slim as possible.
I/O Ports
The ports on the Lenovo Ideapad 14” are pretty standard. On the left side, it has one USB 3.2 Type-A port, one Type C port, HDMI 1.4 port, and a combo audio jack along with the charging port. It has a USB 2.0 port and an SD card reader on the right side.
The selection of I/O on the Ideapad 14” is what you would come to expect from a budget laptop. Do keep in mind that the USB C included in the Ideapad 14” does not have the ability to charge the laptop or use it to connect to an external display.
You can connect an external display via the HDMI 1.4b port, which maxes out at 4K 30fps. So we recommend you to connect a 1080p display if you feel like you need more screen real estate.
Keyboard and Trackpad
Keyboard
Lenovo is famous for its Thinkpad lineup, which has an excellent keyboard that provides tactile feedback and quicker actuation. The Ideapad 3 14” is not that, but it doesn’t mean it’s bad, either. The keys are well spaced out on the Ideapad 3, and they support 2-stage backlight brightness control so you can adjust it yourself, though something that kinda sucks about the backlight is that it only illuminates the sides of a key, not the legend itself.
As for the typing experience, it’s overall pretty good. The keys have short travel and allow for quicker actuation, allowing you to type considerably faster without fatigue. We can safely recommend this laptop to college students or writers who can comfortably write with this keyboard for hours.
Also, on the top right the power button also has a built-in fingerprint sensor that allows for biometric verification on the Ideapad 3 14”.
Touchpad
The touchpad is responsive and tracks properly without issues. It supports all the usual pinch and zoom and scrolling gestures. However, it’s a bit small, which makes an action like dragging a file hard. Also, the surface isn’t that smooth so moving your finger around is a bit weird. However, it will eventually get smooth as it gets covered with your hand oils.
Also the Touchpad is located a bit to the left so it can be aligned with the keyboard, this might bother you if you are not used to this placement.
Speakers and Webcam
Speakers
The Speakers are just okay. They are located on the front beneath the laptop and are downward facing. They are positioned in such a way that they reflect the sound of the laptop’s surface. This can be fine if you place the laptop on a hard surface like a table.
The sound gets weaker and muffled when you keep it on a soft surface like a bed or your lap. This weakens the already average speakers of the Ideapad 3 14” that only produce mids and have no bass, and highs are weak.
In this price range, HP does a great job with speakers on their laptops by including front-firing speakers that are usually located on the top of the keyboard. This allows them to be clear and loud. You can find similar speakers in the HP 14-inch that is priced similarly to the Lenovo Ideapad 3 14”.
Webcam
The Ideapad 3 14” includes a 720p camera that produces a clear picture provided you give it enough life. It also comes with a physical privacy camera cover. The cover does not have a software link to the laptop as it doesn’t disable the camera hardware, and the laptop can still take audio input while the camera is covered.
Display
Apart from the speakers, the display is where Lenovo decides to cut corners. The Ideapad 3 14” has a 1920 x 1080 IPS 14-inch display. Though the display gets fairly bright at around 353nits and has decent contrast, it fails to produce accurate colors. The Ideapad 3 14” covers only 62% of sRGB and 43% of DCI-P3 color gamut. This leads to the display appearing quite washed out and bland.
Considering this, if you were planning to buy the Ideapad 3 14” to do some creative work, like video editing on Premiere Pro or using Photoshop, then we strongly don’t recommend you do so.
Instead, we recommend that you bump your budget by $150 to $200 and get the Acer Swift 3, which has an optimal display for content creation, covering 99% of sRGB while also having a slightly stronger processor.
As for average content consumption, like watching youtube videos, lectures, and occasional Netflix binging, it should be fine. But it’s obvious that it won’t be the best experience ever.
Performance
Let’s talk specs. Our Lenovo Ideapad 3 comes with Ryzen 5 5500u that packs in 6 cores and 12 threads. This CPU has a base clock of 2.6Ghz that can boost up to 4Ghz with ease. This is the most powerful processor you can get for under $500. Other options in the market offer 11th gen i5 or the i3 11th-gen, which the Ryzen 5500u shreds away in multi-threaded workloads with ease.
And the benchmarks speak for themselves. For the sake of fairness, we would compare the benchmarks of the Lenovo Ideapad 3 Ryzen 5500u variant with the Ideapad 3 Core i5 11th gen. So that other factors remain the same.
Benchmarks
In Geekbench 5, the Ryzen 5500u shreds the Core i5 11th gen regarding multi-core score. It achieves 5080 points which are 12% faster than the i5 11th gen. However, the i5 11th gen beats the Ryzen 5500u in single core score by achieving 1288, which is 12% faster than the Ryzen 5500u.
And a similar pattern can be seen in Cinebench R23 benchmarks. The Core i5 11th gen beats the Ryzen 5500u by 10% in single core by achieving 1332. But the Ryzen 5500u rips away the Core i5 11th gen by 44% by getting a score of 7129.
It’s quite clear that Ryzen 5 5500u excels at the multi-threaded workload. If you plan to use Ideapad 3 14” for rendering videos or compiling code, then the Lenovo Ideapad 3 won’t disappoint you, and you will be quite happy.
Gaming
The Lenovo Ideapad 3 14” is not intended for gaming, which is made evident by the lack of a dedicated GPU. However, the integrated Radeon RX Vega 7 is no slouch, either. Though it’s not as powerful as something like RTX 3050, it’s still quite capable.
On medium to slow settings, you can play certain games like GTA V, Valorant, Fortnite, and CS GO at 50-70FPS, making it great if you plan to play a little after a day of work. It won’t be the prettiest, but it gets the job done.
Battery Life
The Ideapad 3 14” comes in two variants. One with a 45Wh battery and the other with a 35Wh battery. Our variant is the 45Wh one, and considering that the Ryzen 5500u chip is a power-hungry chip, it prevents a good battery backup.
This leads the Ideapad 3 to last around 6 hours during casual use, which means that if you are on the go with this laptop, you should consider carrying the charger with you as this laptop would surely start running out of battery as you approach the end of your day.
Considering the 45Wh variant lasts around 6 hours, we can only imagine how worse the battery life would be on the 35Wh variant, though there is one reason where you might consider the 35Wh version.
Expandability and Upgradability
The Ideapad 3 14” comes with 8 GB of RAM, of which 4GB is soldered onto the board. Whereas the other half is installed in the RAM slot. So if you plan to upgrade it to something like 12 or 16GB, you can easily.
On the storage side of things, it comes with a 256GB SSD that depending on your usage, might fill up fairly quickly. Luckily, you can replace that too. And on the 35Wh variant of the Ideapad 3 14”, you get a 2.5-inch drive bay where you could install a Hard drive for bulk storage on the cheap.
So if you want a bigger battery, get the 45Wh battery variant however, if you prefer the ability to expand your storage, then I suggest going with the 45Wh variant.
Conclusion: Should I buy the Lenovo IdeaPad 3?
The Lenovo Ideapad 3 is a budget performance beast that is perfect for someone that wants a laptop that can perform well in multi-threaded workloads. So if you are a programmer who wants to compile code or a casual gamer who plays games every now and then, then this laptop is for you.
However, this performance comes at a cost of poor battery life. weak display and awful speakers. And if you prioritize these factors, you should look at the HP 14″ laptop with front-firing speakers and a relatively better battery life. But overall, the Lenovo Ideapad 3 14” is a solid budget laptop that simply won’t disappoint.
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