If you are here, you are probably in the search of an affordable everyday notebook. This means your expectations won’t be high, but you can definitely make use of some power, decent battery life, and a good display. Right? Something you definitely should not make compromises on, however, is the display. Since this unit is sold with either IPS and TN panels, we strongly suggest going for the former, due to its superior contrast ratio and viewing angles. If this is indeed what you look for, then, you will be happy to hear that the unit we have with us has exactly these specifications. The Lenovo Ideapad 3i comes with an Intel Core i3-1005G1 dual-core processor (two cores/four threads, 1.20GHz, up to 3.40GHz with Turbo Boost, 4MB Cache). You get Integrated Intel UHD graphics, 4GB of RAM and 128GB SSD storage. All this means the laptop can handle most computing tasks, although we wouldn’t recommend it for resource-heavy tasks like photo masking, video filtering, 3D modelling, HD gaming, or demanding business software. Take on any task with the IdeaPad 3i Gen 6 (15″ Intel) laptop and enjoy the unmatched speed and intelligence of 11th Gen Intel Core processors, while you take in the views of integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics. Strong enough to run the most demanding apps and AAA-title games, and smarter than ever to keep your laptop running optimally, these cutting-edge processors blaze the trail for in-home entertainment and productivity. Officially listed as model 15IAU7 and product number 82RK0017US, our test unit combines a 12th Generation Core i5-1235U processor (two Performance cores, eight Efficient cores, 12 threads) with 8GB of DDR4 memory and a 512GB PCIe SSD. Interestingly, it comes with Windows 11 Pro instead of most consumer machines' Win 11 Home. Wi-Fi 6 (not Wi-Fi 6E) and Bluetooth handle wireless connections.

On the other hand, we were pleased with the performance it provides. Its cooling solution is capable of handling the ULV CPUs without a hassle, and the upgrade options are on point. Thankfully, its soldered memory can work in dual-channel mode, when paired with a SODIMM RAM module. Also, there is an M.2 PCIe x4 slot, and a 2.5-inch SATA slot for storage upgrades. Limits:Limit 5 per customer. Offers valid from Lenovo in the US only. Lenovo may increase or decrease these limits, from time to time, for certain offerings.Battery: These systems do not support batteries that are not genuine Lenovo-made or authorised. Systems will continue to boot, but may not charge unauthorised batteries. Lenovo has no responsibility for the performance or safety of unauthorised batteries, and provides no warranties for failures or damage arising out of their use. **Battery life is based on the MobileMark® 2014 methodology and is an estimated maximum. Actual battery life may vary based on many factors, including screen brightness, active applications, features, power management settings, battery age and conditioning, and other customer preferences. We test Windows PCs' graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark, Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light. Conclusions

The IdeaPad 3 is priced as an everyday-use laptop—but engineered as something much more. 10th Gen Intel® Core™ processing—as well as powerful memory and storage options—means this PC delivers beyond expectations. Bonus: The numeric keypad will speed up your productivity, whether you’re working on the family budget or preparing a spreadsheet. In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering. Lenovo IdeaPad 3i Gen 6 (15″)’s IPS panel (LG LP156WFH-SPP1 (LGD069A)) has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a good contrast ratio. Thankfully, it doesn’t utilize PWM for brightness adjustment, which makes it safe. Of course, since this is a budget panel, it covers only half of the sRGB color gamut. Moreover, the color representation is not accurate, whatsoever. Lenovo's IdeaPad 3i easily clears a 4,000-point score in PCMark 10, indicating smooth sailing for basic productivity office apps, like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. The laptop also does pretty well in our CPU tests, though no one will mistake it for a video-editing or dataset-crunching workstation. While this IdeaPad is also the fastest of the three entrants to complete our Photoshop exercise, it's clearly built more for everyday productivity than digital content creation. Graphics TestsBattery:These systems do not support batteries that are not genuine Lenovo-made or authorized. Systems will continue to boot, but may not charge unauthorized batteries. Attention: Lenovo has no responsibility for the performance or safety of unauthorized batteries, and provides no warranties for failures or damage arising out of their use. Battery life (and recharge times) will vary based on many factors, including system settings and usage. The maximum measured brightness is 312 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 288 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 15%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6200K (average) – slightly warmer than the 6500K optimum for sRGB. The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light. We have to say that despite the budget nature of this notebook, Lenovo didn’t spare any resources and efforts in designing its cooling solution. As you can see, even under extreme workloads, the device can maintain a frequency higher than the 2.40 GHz base one for this processor. Comfort during full load