Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Laptop: Ryzen 7 4700U, 512GB SSD, 8GB RAM, 15.6" Full HD Display

This laptop is fast and lite!

I have owned this laptop for nearly two years at the time of this review and it continues to work fine. Bought straight from Lenovo website but wanted to provide a review here to help others get a feel for it's durability.My matte blue laptop came looking profrssional with 8GB of RAM. I then took out one stick of 4GB of RAM and replaced with a 16GB ram stick for a total of 20GB of RAM. The other 4GB of RAM is soldered to the motherboard by the way. The laptop is pretty snappy with it's Ryzen 7 CPU for everyday activities. I even occasionally do gaming and recording while gaming on this computer as well as video editing. Plays The Witcher 3 okay too.Things that could be improved are the webcam quality, sound from speakers and the fact that this laptop doesn't have any USB C ports. For the price, it's a bang for your buck laptop with good specs. Would be a good choice for a high school or college student on a budget or an adult who works with computers or wants a budget laptop for occasional gaming or content creation tasks.

I got the laptop for school and light gaming when I travel. Though the screen is..... just bad, there are no redeeming qualities about the screen. I will either be replacing the screen, or the laptop entirely.I can not possibly be any clearer. The screen ruins this laptop utterly.

ES UNA ESTAFA SI TE DICEN QUE EL ARTICULO TIENE CONEXIÒN USB TIPO C Y TE DAS CUENTA QUE NO EXISTE.

The Lenovo Ideapad 3 Ryzen 7 4700U is a great laptop. You'll have to get an external webcam unit or use your smartphone). Short Story...I like this laptop and I am glad that I made this purchase. Although you are giving up in a few areas. Webcam quality (terrible), no keyboard back-light and display is not color accurate (designed for privacy so still good). despite these trade-offs. I have had this for a week and I am enjoying it.--- Long Story -Reason for purchase and product reviewWorking in data analytics I needed something that could meet the numbers crunching challenge and multi-tasking on a budget and this will do. It was on sale and the price was just right.--- Basic factsWith the 8 core multi thread CPU you will find that this laptop will perform very well in day to day use. In reviewing the ports on the left side (to be clear) there is the power input, HDMI, 2 ports that are USB 3's and a USB 2. The right side has the SD card, audio and a pin hole, which is important (It allows you to enter Bios mode when gently pressing it with a needle at the time of each power up, no need to use the power button for this procedure).It has Windows 10 home edition installed. I installed Ubuntu Mate 20.0. Funny thing is that at the time of this purchase no graphic drivers were available in the install, because the laptop was so new to the market! :-) I had to manually install the drivers provided by AMD for Linux Ubuntu 20.0. This approach will not be necessary within a short time as developers catch up and add this driver. The Linux OS was super fast and so was Windows (no lag in either) I also worked with Dex for my Samsung S9+ and the connection, responsiveness and appearance is great. The phone even charges a little, though if you use the Dex for too much activity the load may work against you and the phone could start losing in the battery level.--- Benchmarks.I used the Performance Test 10 software and this laptop came in at the 57th percentile in overall performance, that is pretty good. Ranks up there with the Intel Core i7-8700 @ 3.7Ghz with only 6 cpu's. Laptops with the intel chip generally cost twice as much and are usually throttled.Gaming is so and so. I'm not a gamer, but I know the system requirements for a good gaming experience and this falls way short of that level of performance. It is good enough for moderate gaming. This laptop was designed for multi-tasking and hard number crunching. This means you can open a lot of applications, crunching large data sets and watch Youtube videos and it will work just fine. Graphic designing should be good as well.--- AppearanceThis came in Abyss Blue. A beautiful dark bluish sheet metal appearance that feels good in the hands. It has a beautiful sleek appearance. The screen seems rigid. There is a keyboard and keypad (which is really nice) along with a mouse pad. The keyboard feels good to work with and the mouse pad behaved perfectly. No keyboard back lighting, which is a sacrifice I can make. I like the layout.--- DisplayThe screen is nice although it is true, when it is said that you give up on color reproduction. I've connected an external monitor and the difference can be readily noticed. It is still good for everyday use indoors, just don't take it outside into the sunlight. It was designed for privacy and so peripheral viewing is limited. If I want color accuracy then that is when the external monitor comes in handy.There is a webcam, BUT...It is the worst I have ever seen. Either get an external webcam or use your smartphone as an external webcam. There is an app that you can install to make this happen.--- InternalsThe 500 M.2 Nvme is good enough to do the job (of course) way superior To HDD or other (older) non-Nvme drives at this time.I did a Crucial System Scan and found that this system configuratoin will accept up to 16gb of RAM.16GB 260-Pin DDR4 SO-DIMM DDR4 2666 (PC4 21300). Costs around $60+ at the time of writing. The reviews indicate that the firmware will only recognize 2666 no use in going higher (like 3200). It will just default to 2666.I'm ordering that today. This will really amp up the performance. from 8Gb to 20gb.--UPDATE: I upgraded the RAM and the system recognized it. There is a slight improvement in performance (faster than before - It was already fast to begin with so...WOW!!).--NOTE: There is a metal plate that goes over the removable RAM. Be very careful removing this and placing it back on. I like how the RAM clips on very good.It is easy to access the internals in my opinion (I watched a Youtube and accessed this unit 2 times). Others that reviewed the unit say you can install a second SSD drive. First... On this model you cannot, because the battery takes up the area where the drive would go. Second...The tiny ribbon to connect the SATA drive is missing, though I found the connector to the mother board and perhaps you could switch out the battery for a smaller form factor from a similar model reviewed (Hopefully Lenovo will give feedback to this and provide the part number). Third...There is no drive housing to anchor the drive to the unit (you would have to buy it online or cannibalize it from another unit), again, Lenovo, Hope your reading this and can provide a part number for both the ribbon and housing. But I am good with what I have and if I want, I can upgrade to a 1tb from the 500gig.So far the laptop is Not running hot. I've installed the Rainmeter app and downloaded some system performance widgets that observe all key areas of performance. Overall performance is great.Battery life is okay. I have yet to reach a point when the unit needs to be plugged in. Though in both Linux and Windows the average amount of time to discharge is over 6 and a half hours. NOTE: The processor is really good about saving power and reviewers speak really well about the battery life going much further than that. There is an option between performance and power savings. Since I'm used to having it plugged in, I prefer performance.That's all. I Hope this helps in your buying decision.Enjoy the hunt for your next laptop. :-)

Keyboard broken on arrival