Under $400 15" Windows Laptop! Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Review

[@michaelcorcoran8768]

Nice to see some content on affordable laptops and hardware. Seems like some KZbin channels are reviewing $2,000 laptops almost exclusively. It's like great maybe I can afford that in three and a half years and when it's $700 on eBay

[@LonSeidman]

I am on the look out for more !

[@jothain]

Very true. It's very common to find plus 1000€ device reviews, but quite rare to see entry or mid-level device reviews that are more "realistic" for most.

[@Jstrike6608]

@@LonSeidman do you think if I had 36gb of ram it would run well

[@jacksugden8190]

Excellent review. They are £209 UK pounds at Argos here in London, £130 off until sometime in October, will invest next week, as within my price range.

[@lurkingsalt]

For ENTRY level price range, this is pretty good. Having touch screen typical does give you a better screen (IPS) so it's good you mentioned it. I say having a barrel power port is not necessarily a bad thing vs Type C ports being less robust against potential damage via pulling/stress. A capable Type C port (video out/alt mode via dongle) was not typically included in Ideapad 3, I'm surprised by that here. If you just need something that is Windows based and won't be doing heavy browser/tens of tabs work this is a good value. Want more RAM? Look at the IdeaPad Slim 5i model.

[@RidwanGosal]

Even if you have adequate ram, Lenovo has the tendency to lock in the amount of VRAM that you can allocate for the iGPU. I just wish they unlocked the feature in their bios.

[@je_suis_amor]

Im using ryzen 5 non touch version.. You can change vram from bios from 512mb to -2gb

[@StaceyAyodele]

Always appreciate your videos Lon. I hate how laptops are coming with soldered RAM in this price point now though. It's insane to me that in order to have a laptop with upgradable RAM and storage I have to hunt down a renewed enterprise system on Amazon or pay $1000+ for a Framework laptop. I guess your every day consumer doesn't care about upgradability anymore though, huh? What's your take on it?

[@NTSCuser]

I paid less for my refurbished enterprise laptop than the Windows Pro key which came with it would have cost me! That was before lockdown though, prices have gone insane since then.

[@ej_tech]

It's going to be more or a trend with DDR5

[@StaceyAyodele]

My refurbed enterprise desktop (Lenovo ThinkCentre M82) that I use as a gaming PC cost me just under $200@@NTSCuser. I then added an RX 6400 SFF GPU and maxed out the RAM at 32GB and run Linux Mint 21.2 XFCE on it. For my laptop, it's a refurbished DELL Latitude E7450 that I bought at a local PC shop for under $400 after selling them my MacBook Air for roughly the same price. The Latitude might be older than the M1, but I can upgrade the RAM and storage and if the internal SSD dies the computer will still turn on...unlike the M1 MacBook Air I replaced it with. So yeah...refurb is the way to go if you want cheap good computers that can still be upgraded.

[@StaceyAyodele]

I hope not @@ej_tech. If it is...I'll just pray that older computers will be cheaper and that Framework will be able to come down in price to be affordable to us poors.

[@deadskull888]

If the hardware is not upgradeable, basically we are buying future ewaste. 😅

[@publicmail2]

Good prices but Windows having problems with drivers and Microsoft makes it hard to update locking 3rd party drivers on some.

[@kumaraanil-k1e]

How to tern on keyboard light on this laptop

[@publicmail2]

I had a Lenovo that had case turn brittle and had to transfer insides to new case, at least it was only about $40 for case.

[@bizzfo]

Friends don’t let friends or family members buy cheap Windows PC’s

[@thommysides4616]

They don't give a hoot! They won't be paying towards it anyways....

[@binarymirror8534]

It looked interesting until you said it could only hold 8 gig of ram - what a shame.

[@thommysides4616]

I found one with 12 gb of ram and they will upgrade to 20 if I want.

[@ericB3444]

I like a porky laptop for me pig.

[@MyCatFooed]

Always appreciate your work @ Lon!! I enjoy Lenovo laptops..

[@Abirejan_mapping]

chrome os wallpaper

[@peterzimmermann4841]

Always love to watch your videos ! But here is a thing I dont get. I have 2 Lenovos 1) 14 " Flex 5 with 4 GB RAM and a Ryzen 3 5.Gen and 2) 15.6 " Ideapad 5 with 16 GB RAM and an Ryzen 7 5. Gen. For everything I do with those 2 Computers like watching media content, doing office work or web browsing with > 10 active tabs, I dont see ANY performance differences. So whats the thing with those 8 GB of RAM not being enough when I dont feel a difference between 4 and 16 ??

[@LonSeidman]

You're not gaming :). The greater RAM amount helps split the load between system and graphics memory.

[@DeGuoTaiKe]

Wow! Didnt expect a section on Linux installation! Thanks so much!

[@jcpinoy3878]

Im planning to buy this with i5 1250h and 16 ram ddr5. I just need it for work from home, worth it? see

[@charliepea]

I am eager for this laptop but 8gb non upgradable ram is a turn off. Photoshop work is heavy I can't handle that... 😢

[@chrismv102]

The link to B&H you provided states that that unit for sale doesn NOT have a touch screen.

[@LonSeidman]

Yes that is why I said you need to check the specs carefully. When these go on sale different retailers have different configurations. Right now B&H is the least expensive.

[@dumbcatz4193]

Would you say the lenovo ideapad 3i (i5 1155g7, 16gb ram, 512gb ssd) is better or worse than the lenovo v15 g3 (i5 1235u, 16gb ram, 512gb ssd) Ive been looking at both fir general usage and maybe minimal applications in light gaming and usage in 3d softwares

[@thommysides4616]

12th gen is much better than 11th gen. Go for that one....

[@dumbcatz4193]

@@thommysides4616 i ended up getting an ideapad slim i5 with an i7 13620h Its great, would reccomend

[@dhericasoy]

Can the laptop do coding for students?

[@sativagirl1885]

Children with the latest high tech gadgets tend to be unimaginative dull worthless eaters --Len Ovo, alphamale dad

[@duarte9058]

Back lit how do I turn it on

[@thommysides4616]

Good review.....thanks!

[@IraQNid]

Why don't you talk about the core count and speed of the CPU? What kind of GPU does it have? What are the specs of the GPU? I mean if you're going to review it you should talk about these things. Saying it sucks at gaming because it only has 8 GBs RAM isn't that useful when you don't even bother to the whole specs into perspective. Also how fast are the two Type A USB ports? We don't know because you're not willing to talk about that.

[@LonSeidman]

Because those things are irrelevant to the average consumer who are the target of the review. This doesn't have a discrete GPU, just the intel processor that was noted in the specs portion.

[@thommysides4616]

You can google all that extra info yourself..... I do!

[@WindomRettes]

Down goes the power barrel connector!

[@christhompson6010]

bought this unit at local BestBuy was on sale for 399$ used the ram expansion slot to bump it up from 8 to 16gb,s and now it smokes.

[@dayzB-D187]

Does it run the total war games?

[@christhompson6010]

@@dayzB-D187 not sure I got if for work not to play video games. might want to go with a gaming laptop for that

[@chilimonday_2.071]

2 minutes in and I'm stopping watching. Not because it's not an interesting subject but because the laptop charges with a barrel plug instead of USB C. 😂

[@LonSeidman]

It’ll charge with both!

[@agr-tech]

You made it further than me. I stopped at the 8GB of non upgradeable RAM.

[@peterzimmermann4841]

I have some barrel plugs from prior generation Lenovos at home. So I use those around the house and charge via USB-C when on the road. Suits me

[@aamirqz]

@@LonSeidman Are you sure about that? Did you actually try to charge this laptop with a USB-C charger? Usually you'd need a Thunderbolt port on a laptop with an Intel CPU in order to be able to charge it via USB-C.

[@alfonsjones5798]

@@aamirqz no you don't. You can also charge with AMD CPUs. Where did you get that Info?

[@ericB3444]

LonBall YOUS poor frame rate was jarring to me cow, Esmeralda.

[@LonSeidman]

I always appreciate your insights :)