Not everyone can afford to spend thousands of dollars on a fancy new gaming laptop.
So in this video I will review a budget gaming laptop that promises to deliver
great gaming experience without breaking your wallet.
Today we are looking at the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 gaming laptop. This laptop comes in both
Intel and AMD configuration. So let's start with the pricing. The cheapest configuration of this
laptop is currently going for only $680. For this price you get an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H CPU, Nvidia GTX
1650 GPU, 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD. If you are on a very tight budget, this configuration will
deliver the best bang for bucks. But for $930, you could upgrade to the 12th generation Intel
core-i5 Alderlake CPU and nVidia RTX 3050 GPU. Here is a chart comparing the key features of
both these CPUs. Ryzen 5 5600H offers 6 cores while Intel Core i5-12500H doubles it to12,
by utilizing a hybrid micro-architecture similar to Apple’s M1 chip. It uses 4 high-performance
cores that can reach upto 4.5 Ghz and 8 power efficient cores. The end result is significant
improvements in both single and multi core performance. Here is a chart showing the Geekbench
scores of both these CPUs. As you can see, in both the single and multi core benchmark,
Intel Core i5-12500H clobbers Ryzen 5 5600H. It comes out ahead by 22% in single-core benchmark
and a whopping 64% in multi-core benchmark. Now let's talk about the graphics performance. So
the cheaper configuration of Lenovo IdeaPad 3 uses Nvidia GTX 1650 GPU. This is now a 3 year old GPU,
but it is still pretty good for playing 1080p games. Titles like fortnite will play smoothly
at default settings with zero issues. But if you want to play all the AAA titles in their
full HD glory with ray-tracing enabled, I would recommend going with the upgraded configuration
of IdeaPad 3 which uses RTX 3050 GPU. In the Passmark G3D benchmark, RTX 3050 is almost 30%
faster than GTX 1650. Added bonus is that it supports Ray Tracing and uses a newer generation
of Nvidia media encoders and decoders. So not only will it deliver a better gaming experience,
it will also act as a very competitive video editing laptop for using Adobe Premiere and
Davinci resolve. Now both these configurations have 8 GB system RAM, which is OK. But if you
plan to do any creative work on this laptop, I would recommend bumping the system RAM to 16
GB. The good news is that you can easily upgrade both the memory and SSD storage on this laptop.
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 is a budget gaming laptop and its build quality reflects that fact. So don't expect
a fancy unibody metallic construction. Instead you are getting a chassis built from polycarbonate
and ABS polymer material. IdeaPad 3 weighs under 5 pounds and is about 0.9 inches thick. In my
opinion Lenovo has gone for a simple yet visually pleasing design. The laptop surface has an IMR
coating that gives it a faux metallic look. You get a full size backlit enabled keyboard with
dedicated multimedia Function keys and a numeric keypad. The keycaps are black with white lettering
which offers a nice contrast for easy visibility in both broad daylight and in dark rooms. It's
a great keyboard not just for gaming, but also for typing long documents. This is because its
soft-landing switches deliver firm keystrokes with uniform actuation force. Let's talk about
the touchpad. So the touchpad is pretty large and has a smooth mylar coating which gives it a faux
glass feel. It works great for swiping, scrolling and executing various windows gestures. Moving
onto the laptop hinge, it feels pretty solid but it does not go all the way back 180 degrees.
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 comes with a 15.6-inch LED backlit IPS panel with an anti-glare
coating. The screen resolution is 1920 by 1080 and it supports a high refresh rate of 120 Hz.
It's decently bright, offering around 250 nits of peak brightness,
800 by 1 contrast ratio, 45% NTSC color gamut and 170° wide viewing angle.
For gaming and watching streaming video, this is a fine display as long as you are
indoors. But it falls apart in a brightly lit room. You also cannot do any kind of serious
creative work on this laptop screen because it has a low color accuracy and narrow color
gamut. But if you are willing to connect this laptop to an external monitor, it will transform
into a powerful video editing machine capable of running Adobe Premiere and Davinci Resolve. I had
no issues doing some basic 4K video editing on Davinci Resolve using 8-bit video files from my
sony camera. I was easily able to color grade my footage, apply fusion effects and perform some
green screen removal. So if you are a youtuber, twitch streamer, or someone who edits videos,
photos and dabbles in music production, Lenovo IdeaPad 3 could be a great choice.
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 comes with a 45 Wh Li-Polymer battery that supports rapid charging thanks to
the included 170W AC power brick. Lenovo claims 8 hours of battery life during continuous 1080p
video playback at 150nits brightness. Expect to get around 4 hours of battery life during moderate
day to day use. Obviously intensive gaming will quickly drain the battery, so be prepared to carry
the power brick with you. Let's talk about the thermals. IdeaPad 3 has plenty of air vents on
both its sides, and also underneath the hinge and back. There are two fans, four radiators, three
heatpipes that ensure adequate heat dissipation. Coupled with copper heatsink plates on top of the
CPU, GPU and VRMs, IdeaPad 3 runs cool even under heavy load. I stress tested the CPU by putting all
the cores and threads at full 100% load, but the CPU temperature remained under 75 degrees
celsius. It kept running at top speed even turbo boosting from time to time with throttling.
The onboard speakers on Lenovo IdeaPad 3 are decent and sound good, largely because they
are angled at 45 degrees and radiate the sound outwards. The webcam located on the top bezel is
mediocre and it only shoots in 720p resolution. It will suffice for zoom conference calls, but
you should probably upgrade to a 1080p USB webcam for anything more demanding like livestreaming.
Let's talk about ports. You get 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports and 1 USB Type-C port. But none of them
support thunderbolt protocol, all you get is 5 gbps data transfer speed. You also get an
HDMI port, an ethernet port and a headphone microphone combo jack. As far as wireless
connectivity is concerned, this laptop supports the latest wifi 6 and bluetooth 5.1 protocols.
But you won't be getting a sd-card slot or a finger-print sensor for passwordless login.
So overall, if you are in the market for a budget gaming laptop, keep Lenovo IdeaPad 3
gaming laptop in your shopping list. Its cheaper configuration is good enough for 1080p gaming.
And the upgraded version with 12th gen intel CPU and RTX 3050 GPU is perfect for playing most
AAA gaming titles. It will also double as an excellent content creation machine if
you are into video editing or photoshop. But if you are someone who is looking for
a more premium gaming experience, checkout my review of Lenovo Legion 5 gaming laptop over
here. This laptop is the big macho brother of Ideapad 3 and should be a better choice
for pro gamers. So go ahead and watch that video and I will see you guys over there!