There’s no shortage of gaming laptops on the market. you'll choose between a spread of options across different price points, multiple brand options and configurations. Still, it’s always nice to urge a replacement product that does some things exceptionally well, and fits a reasonably solid price point. I’m talking, of course, about the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i laptop. The company’s new addition in India which comes in at Rs. 78,990 and offers pretty solid all around performance. So, is that this something you ought to buy, and if you are doing , what are you able to expect? Well, I’ve been using the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i for a short time , and here’s my review of the laptop.
What’s within the Box
First off, let’s take a glance at the box contents. Inside the large IdeaPad branded box, you’ll find:
- The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i laptop
- Power brick
- Power cable
- Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming branded RGB Mouse (neat touch, Lenovo)
- Some manuals and paperwork
There’s nothing out of the standard here, but including a gaming mouse may be a neat touch from Lenovo, that’s needless to say . I mean sure, you almost certainly have already got a mouse, but it doesn’t hurt to possess another. Plus, if you don’t have a gaming mouse, Lenovo possesses you covered. i feel that’s quite nice.
Design and Build
Lenovo’s design language with the IdeaPad Gaming 3i are some things i actually like. It’s all black, which lends it a stealthy look. Plus, Lenovo hasn’t put any ridiculous designs anywhere therefore the laptop will fit right in at your work desk, or in college. Honestly, this lid here is ideal . There’s a subtle Lenovo branding on the sting , and it’s not huge so it doesn’t look ugly.
Inside, the display comes with narrow bezels on the edges , but the highest bezel is slightly thicker. However, it does include the webcam here, and there’s a privacy shutter built-in. meaning , if you’re like me and need to stay your webcam covered, you don’t need a sticker or a 3rd party webcam cover with this laptop. There’s a slider right above the webcam that you simply can use to hide or expose the webcam counting on your requirement. It’s certainly better than the answer i exploit on my MacBook to stay the webcam covered.
Moving on, the IdeaPad Gaming branding is on the hinge, which i feel may be a good placement for it. It’s not on rock bottom bezel, so it doesn’t stare you within the face while you're employed , but it’s there, and during a dull blue colour no less, so it’s very muted.
I quite just like the design of this laptop. If there's one thing, design wise, that irritates me, it’s the stickers. Take a glance at the image below.
Alright, so this placement is already better than what most laptops have, and kudos to Lenovo for putting stickers during a neat-ish way. Now, this isn’t something that’s gonna be there on every laptop, but that QR code for eSupport? That’s not in line with the opposite stickers above it. It’s tilted, and it’s making me want to tear it off. this is often a review unit, so I definitely won’t be taking anything off of it. However, if this was a laptop I bought, this sticker would be within the trash by now; and perhaps the others would be too.
Display
Anyway, let’s mention the display. You get an enormous 15-inch display here. It’s a FullHD panel, with an anti-glare coating and a 60Hz refresh rate. this is often the bottom variant of the laptop, but you'll spend extra if you would like better hardware and a 120Hz or 144Hz panel if you wish . Obviously, the upper refresh rate screens will bring a good better gaming experience, but this 60Hz panel is not any slouch either. Sure, it’s not the simplest display I’ve seen on a laptop, but it’s great by any means.
Text is crisp, colors look pretty good, and therefore the display can get quite bright. because of the anti-glare coating, it should also handle well if you’re sitting outside within the sun.
Obviously, if you'll afford it, I’d recommend going for a variant with a better refresh rate. which will make the gaming experience on this laptop tons better.
Performance
The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i comes with up to a Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM, and Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti graphics. The model I even have here has the 10th-gen Core i5 processor, paired with 8GB RAM, and therefore the GTX 1650 Ti GPU. All of which sounds pretty standard for a gaming laptop during this bracket .
However, it’s important to notice that the laptop has two RAM slots, and within the 8GB variant just one of them is populated. meaning the laptop is in single channel configuration. If you'll , i might recommend getting another 8GB stick and adding that to the system. Bringing this up to a dual channel memory configuration will offer you a small performance boost, and 16GB RAM is certainly an honest place to be in. The laptop can support up to 32GB RAM by the way, so if you are feeling the necessity , you'll upgrade it yourself to 32GB also .
Still, with the bottom specs, the performance here is solid. I tested the laptop with some benchmarks to start with. In 3DMark Time Spy, the laptop scores 3714 points. In PCMark 10, the IdeaPad Gaming 3i scores 4,104 points.
However, benchmarks aren't great for world performance, obviously, so I tested a few of games on the laptop also . In PUBG, with settings at High, the IdeaPad Gaming 3i gets a frame rate of anywhere between 50FPS to 70FPS counting on everything that’s happening around you. If you’re like me and typically play TDM, you’ll probably get somewhere around 50 to 60FPS consistently at these settings. Obviously you'll lower these right down to get a better frame rate, except for a recreational gamer like me, it felt fine anyway.
On PC, I prefer playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive quite i prefer playing PUBG lately , so I tested that also . Not that I had any doubt that this laptop can handle CSGO. At highest settings, you recover over 100FPS. As I said, that’s not unexpected or surprising, but well, if you’re a CSGO lover, this is often what you'll get with the IdeaPad Gaming 3i.
Anyway, as i discussed before, the IdeaPad Gaming 3i’s design allows it to function as both a piece and a play laptop. We’ve already seen that the laptop handles games fairly well, and even with long hours of gaming, it doesn’t seem to heat up all that much. which will be credited to the cooling system inside the laptop.
Lenovo has put in dual fans here, both of which are placed during a way that the WASD keys don’t get hot as you play for extended . Plus, directly under the palm rest is that the battery, which suggests your palms won’t sweat thanks to the warmth either. The IdeaPad Gaming 3i’s cooling seems pretty efficient to me. The fans do get loud when under load, but not too loud either. Plus, they work well, and since you’ll presumably be twiddling with headphones on, fan noise won’t be a drag .
Keyboard
Ah, the keyboard. Lenovo has delivered to this laptop its keyboard expertise from the ThinkPad line of laptops. And this keyboard is not any joke. It’s easy to type on, just tactile enough to form typing feel extremely fun, and spacious, so you won’t feel cramped up. i'm scripting this review using the IdeaPad Gaming 3i, and it doesn’t desire I’ve written overflow thousand words thus far .
It’s also backlit, although it’s one colour backlighting that you simply get here. Keeping in line with the IdeaPad Gaming branding on the hinge, the keyboard backlight is blue also . You get two different brightness settings for the keyboard which may be toggled with Function + key . That’s also how you switch off the backlight if you would like to.
Even though i prefer the blue colour of the backlight here, there’s quite little bit of backlight bleed, and it’s especially visible within the numpad. Personally, I don’t mind it all that much, but if you get easily distracted by such things, this is often something you ought to consider.
Speaking of the numpad, it’s an honest addition especially if you discover yourself typing numbers often. the sole time i actually use it's when I’m entering the PIN to login to Windows. However, since this laptop is supposed to double as a piece laptop also , the numpad will make an honest addition for anyone who works with numbers on the regular.
Overall, the keyboard experience on this laptop is amazing. i really like typing on this, and that i would really like to stay typing on this until Lenovo decides to require this laptop off my hands (please don’t).
Trackpad
I don’t have quite lot to mention about the trackpad here. It’s of an honest size, but it’s not huge. Still, I find the dimensions ok for all the Windows gestures that it supports. The laptop features a Windows Precision trackpad, which is good , and using it feels fine.
However, since Lenovo includes a gaming mouse with the laptop, I just plugged that in and I’ve not unplugged it in the least . After all, being reception , I spend most of my work hours at my desk, so a mouse makes perfect sense to me. Plus, while gaming I doubt you’ll be employing a trackpad for love or money in the least . In fact, you'll disable the trackpad using the Lenovo Vantage software so you don’t accidentally fire or shift your aim when you’re gaming. This only works when a game is launched, so you'll just keep this setting on in the least times without fear about losing trackpad functionality when you’re working.
Lenovo Vantage
Speaking of the features Lenovo Vantage brings, there are quite lot of them. For one, you'll toggle thermal modes for the laptop, you'll also activate Network Boost, which may are available handy if you’re playing a multiplayer game like PUBG, or GTA Online.
Other than that, there are tons of features for things like power management, audio, and keyboard control.
You can prefer to enable rapid charge here, which allows the battery to charge faster than usual. Alternatively, you'll activate ‘conservation mode’ if you retain your laptop plugged in most of the time. With this, the battery will only agitate to 55-60%, ensuring your battery remains healthier for long.
This is also where you'll switch between your function row acting as F1-F12 keys, or special keys by default, enable or disable the keyboard backlight, and quickly get to trackpad and mouse settings.
You can also change settings for audio, including enabling/disabling Dolby Audio, and alter microphone settings from within the app.
Speakers
Speakers on the IdeaPad Gaming 3i are on the side. in order that they aren’t bottom firing ones, but they're side firing ones. The speakers do get fairly loud, although they're by no means the loudest speakers I’ve heard on a laptop. Also, they're totally and completely lacking in bass.
In my experience, the speakers here are fine for casually watching a YouTube video, or even even something on Netflix or Prime Video. However, they aren’t ok to enjoy music on, or for gaming, really..
Ports and I/O
You get many I/O options with the laptop which is usually nice to ascertain . You get 2x USB 3.1 Type-A ports, an HDMI port, an ethernet port, and a headphone/mic combo jack. There’s also a USB Type-C port here which may be a good addition. confine mind that this isn’t a Thunderbolt 3 port, it’s USB Type-C.
There’s another USB Type-A port on the opposite side of the laptop
I don’t think you’ll end up wanting for ports on this laptop. you've got HDMI for connecting external displays, and you even have USB Type-C for connecting Type-C devices, even dongles if you would like more ports. Plus, the USB 3.1 ports mean you'll connect your external hard disks, and a mouse easily.
Connectivity
For connectivity, the laptop comes with Bluetooth 5.0, which is ok and will offer stable and fast reference to your Bluetooth accessories. Plus. there’s WiFi 6 (802.11ax) supported network card on-board, so you’re just about future-proofed therein think of well.
Also, because of that RJ45 ethernet port i discussed above, you'll easily use a wired connection if you’re trying to find even more stable networking, or if you’re planning a LAN party together with your friends.
Battery
Lenovo doesn’t state the dimensions of the battery in its spec-sheet. It does, however, claim 7 hours of battery life consistent with its lab testing. Now, in my usage, the battery life wasn’t 7 hours, but it gets close.
With normal web browsing tasks, and a touch little bit of YouTube every now then , the IdeaPad Gaming 3i does manage somewhere around 6 hours of battery life. That’s with brightness around 50-60% and in ‘better battery’ mode. However, which will take successful if you spend most of some time streaming videos. Still 6 hours is pretty solid for a laptop with rather power hungry hardware.
Also, it doesn’t hurt that rapid charging allows you to charge the battery so quickly it doesn’t feel all that bad to plug it in after 4 or 5 hours of use. Lenovo also says that the laptop will strong-arm an hour of battery life if you’re gaming thereon without connecting the facility adapter. Now, that isn’t really something anyone would do, because the laptop doesn’t enter performance mode unless its on AC power. However, if you’re during a situation where you don’t have your charger and you absolutely need to play a game, it can last around an hour for you.
Pros and Cons
So, all things considered, let’s take a fast check out the great and therefore the bad about the laptop.
Pros:
- Great design
- Good performance
- Excellent keyboard
- Mouse included with the laptop
Cons:
- Backlight bleed
- Screen wobbles tons
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i: do you have to Buy It?
So, do you have to buy the IdeaPad Gaming 3i for your gaming needs? Well, it’s definitely a worthy contender for your money, that much is for certain . I mean, the laptop offers good battery life, a pleasant 15-inch display, and may run games quite well for its price. In fact, it's a solid spec-sheet during this bracket .
That said, you ought to inspect the Asus TUF Gaming A15. That laptop comes with a Ryzen 7 processor paired with 8GB RAM and GTX 1650Ti. Moreover, it brings a 144Hz display at Rs. 78,490.
You can also inspect the HP Omen (Rs. 74,920) that comes with the Ryzen 5, 8GB RAM, and 1650Ti. However you'll get less storage thereon laptop – a 512GB SSD.
All things considered, i feel Lenovo features a solid win on its hands with the IdeaPad Gaming 3i laptop. It offers specs that the majority other brands currently don’t offer during this price. it's great, and clearly , it's that ThinkPad-like keyboard which is simply a pleasure to use.
Buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i (Rs. 78,990)
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