Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Review: Budget Laptop Comes Up Short

admin

2 months ago

5.8/ 10
SCORE

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i

Pros

Acceptable performance for the price
Thin and light for a 15.6-inch laptop
Roomy 1TB SSD

Cons

Terrible battery life
Cramped, off-center keyboard
Strange speaker placement doesn’t center the sound
Low-res 720p webcam is fuzzy and outdated

The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i looks good on paper, serving up a modern Intel Core 5 CPU, an ample 16GB of memory and a full terabyte of storage for as little as $700. The design lacks excitement, however, and the CPU performance lags behind the competition. Worse, its battery life is terrible and won’t get you through a full workday without needing to recharge. Even if you plan to use this 15.6-inch laptop plugged in for most of the time, you are not going to enjoy typing on the cramped keyboard unless you are among the few who need a dedicated number pad. And the strange speaker setup makes watching movies and YouTube videos less than enjoyable.

A better option is Lenovo’s Yoga 7 14 Gen 9. Even though you might not need the tablet features that this two-in-onr Yoga brings to the party, it offers better performance and a smaller but higher-resolution 14-inch display for roughly the same price. The basic configuration of Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7 is also a decent alternative; it starts at $1,000 and offers a smaller display and less storage but with a much better design and build and outstanding battery life of nearly 20 hours. If you aren’t willing to sacrifice screen size, then we recommend the HP Envy x360 16 that can usually be found discounted to $1,000 or less, the highlight of which is its large and modern 16-inch, 16:10 OLED display.

Cyber Monday Laptop Deals

Upgrade your laptop without emptying your wallet thanks to these Cyber Monday deals.

See now

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i

Price as reviewed	$865
Display size/resolution	15.6-inch 1,920×1,080 IPS LED
CPU	Intel Core 5 120U
Memory	16GB LPDDR5-5200 (soldered)
Graphics	Intel Graphics
Storage	1TB SSD
Ports	USB-C 3.2 Gen 1, 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, HDMI 1.4, SD card reader, combo audio jack
Networking	Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2
Operating system	Windows 11 Home
Weight	3.57 lbs. (1.62 kg)

The IdeaPad Slim 3i we tested (model 83E60004US) is a fixed configuration that features an Intel Core 5 120U processor and 16GB of non-upgradable DDR5-5200 memory. For storage, you get a 1TB SSD, which is supplemented by an SD card reader on the laptop’s right side. There’s no dedicated GPU, just integrated graphics. A paltry 720p webcam sits above the 15.6-inch IPS display, which maxes out at a resolution of 1080p and a 60Hz refresh rate. It’s a touchscreen, so you can tap it to interact with your operating system, but the laptop isn’t a two-in-one convertible, limiting the usefulness of the touchscreen.

You’ll find a lower-end IdeaPad Slim 3i model on Lenovo’s site, but not our test system. The only places where we found our exact model for sale online were at Newegg for $865 and Costco for $700. Given how slow this laptop felt with its best configuration, we wouldn’t recommend pinching pennies with a slower CPU or less memory.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i performance

Given its low price, the IdeaPad Slim 3i turned in acceptable performance in labs testing, but only that. Its score on our Geekbench 6 single-core test was average, but its multicore score trailed that of competing models. Compared to the Lenovo Yoga 7 14 Gen 9, it was slower on the multicore tests by nearly 20 percent. The HP OmniBook X 14, a Copilot Plus PC contender that costs a few hundred more, was even better on this benchmark than the Yoga 7 14 Gen 9.

These three laptops were closely bunched on our single-core Cinebench 2024 test, but the IdeaPad Slim 3i slipped behind the HP OmniBook X 14, Lenovo Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 and HP Envy x360 16 when we switched to the multicore version of the test. On PCMark 10, another benchmark meant to simulate a variety of everyday tasks, the IdeaPad Slim 3i was again slower than these competing models by a good margin. (HP’s ARM-powered OmniBook X couldn’t run the benchmark.)

David Murphy/CNET

The benchmark results weren’t great for the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i, but it’s still capable for basic tasks: browsing the web, editing online documents, checking your email and so on. You’ll feel the burn, however, if you’re trying to encode videos all day long.

The IdeaPad Slim 3i’s meager application performance is compounded by its poor battery life — it’s not like it’s placing a priority on efficiency at the expense of raw power. In an era where Windows laptops are regularly topping 20 hours of runtime, the IdeaPad Slim 3i failed to run for eight hours on our online streaming battery drain test.

With integrated graphics, the IdeaPad Slim 3i is far from a gaming laptop. When we fired up Shadow of the Tomb Raider and dropped the quality settings to their very lowest, it hit only an average of 22 frames per second on the game’s built-in benchmark. We consider that unplayable, which was surprising given we were also running at the laptop’s native (and low) 1080p resolution. Casual games shouldn’t be a problem — Pico Park 2, anyone? — but this is not the laptop you’ll want if you have any aspirations of playing, say, Baldur’s Gate 3.

So-so design, cramped keyboard

At 0.7-inch in height, the IdeaPad Slim 3i is fairly thin and isn’t as bulky as you might expect for a large, 15.6-inch laptop. You’ll feel its 3.57 pounds of weight as you’re lugging it around, but that’s to be expected for a laptop of this size. Since its weight is well-distributed, you can open up the laptop and one-hand it from desk to couch and back to desk again without feeling awkward or uncomfortable.

The keyboard setup, however, feels uncomfortable because Lenovo decided to dump a number pad next to the keyboard instead of going with bigger keys, more breathing room between the keys or sandwiching the entire keyboard between two upward-firing speakers. The narrow numpad keys felt awkward to use, and it forces Lenovo to have an off-center “primary” keyboard and off-center touchpad right below it.

David Murphy/CNET

This arrangement means you’re scrunching your hands a little closer together than you would normally have to. You use the regular keyboard a lot more than the numpad, which makes this entire design feel like wasted space for those of us who don’t sit at a desk using Excel or Sheets all day long. The keys themselves feel cramped are otherwise fine for typing, with a small but reasonable amount of travel and not a lot of noise for a laptop. I’m not a huge fan, however, of the keys’ rounded-bottom design, which just looks odd.

At just a hair over 4 inches in width, and exactly 3 inches in height, the touchpad feels small. Clicks are a lot easier to register at its bottom than at its top, and you have to apply enough force that you indent the laptop’s plastic frame ever so slightly each time. That’s not an issue for longevity, but it reinforces the laptop’s cheap look and feel.

David Murphy/CNET

The laptop lacks a fingerprint reader and a Windows Hello-supported webcam, so get ready to type in a password or PIN each time you log into your computer. And with a meager 720p resolution, the webcam does not make you or your environment look good at all. It’ll do for your work calls, but your office lighting will look as blown out as your background looks grainy. Lenovo wins a few bonus points, however, for including a physical cover for the webcam to help protect your privacy.

Decent display and connections

Lenovo rates the display for 300 nits of brightness, and it tested a bit brighter. I measured a maximum of 338 nits and a minimum of 3, which is a decent but not mind-blowing range. As an IPS display and not an OLED, you’re not going to get super-deep black levels when watching your favorite subdued movies, but you’ll get good-enough visuals that fits the laptop’s budget price. We also like to see a display test brighter than its rating, but it still isn’t bright enough for outdoors use. I was able to read the news and watch YouTube videos outdoors under sunny skies, but even catching the best angle leads to a pretty washed-out screen.

David Murphy/CNET

Most modern laptops have moved to 16:10 displays, but the IdeaPad Slim 3i is still using a wider 16:9 aspect ratio. Having less vertical space is less of an issue on a 15.6-inch panel than it is on a smaller display, but it still looks a bit dated.

I appreciate that Lenovo places the laptop’s speakers directly above the keyboard as opposed to burying them on the laptop’s bottom, but this placement doesn’t make them shine. Bass is virtually nonexistent on the anemic-sounding speakers, and the overall sound field is very narrow.

David Murphy/CNET

There are only two openings on the laptop for speaker grills, even though its design suggests otherwise: the left speaker is on the laptop’s left as you’d expect, but the right speaker sits in the laptop’s center. This puts the entire sound field way too far left, which means you’ll have to sit off-center from the laptop’s display in order to have balanced sound. When seated directly in front of the laptop, movie dialogue, if not the movie’s entire soundscape, was weirdly focused on my left. It’s a bizarre design decision that doesn’t make it very fun to watch movies at all.

The laptop’s ports are adequate, but decidedly budget. You get both USB Type-C and Type-A ports, but there’s only one USB-C port and it’s a slow USB 3.2 Gen 1 connection. There’s a pair of USB-A ports when you probably only need one, and there’s an HDMI port, but it’s the outdated version 1.4. The most surprising and welcomed inclusion is an SD card reader for when you need quick storage boost or camera download.

David Murphy/CNET

Built-in Wi-Fi 6 2×2 connectivity is fine. It’s as outdated as the 16:9 display but not unexpected on a budget laptop. Most people are likely not running optimized networks at home, so it’s less of a concern that the IdeaPad Slim 3i offers Wi-Fi 6 and not the improved Wi-Fi 6E standard or the latest Wi-Fi 7. It’s plenty fast enough for its price and for everyday tasks.

Is the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i a good laptop?

It’s rare for a budget laptop to do it all. You typically have to make some kind of concession to get a low price, from accepting meager specs (8GB of memory or a 256GB SSD) and slow performance to a subpar display and bulky design. The IdeaPad Slim 3i offers an ample 16GB of RAM and a spacious 1TB of storage, but its performance is merely average and its battery life is awful. Plus, the overall design is head-scratching, from its packed-to-the-brim keyboard to its weirdly positioned speakers.

Our advice? Skip the IdeaPad Slim 3i and go with Lenovo’s Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 instead. It’s slightly heavier and provides a smaller display, but it provides a better design and better performance for the same price — and throws in two-in-one versatility if you’re inclined to use your laptop as a tablet on occasion. We also like the roomy 16-inch, 16:10 OLED on the HP Envy x360 16 that doesn’t cost much more. Dell’s Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 is another great-performing alternative with a ton of battery life, but you’ll want to triple-check that your favorite apps play nicely with its ARM-based Snapdragon X processor. And if you don’t mind cutting your storage by a lot, the base version of Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7 is also a solid choice.

Primate Labs Geekbench 6, Cinebench R23, PCMark 10 and 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra.

A more detailed description of each benchmark and how we use it can be found on our How We Test Computers page.

” imagegroup=”{}” usepricing=”true” data-key=”cross_content_listicle__f0acc2d6-22f1-4a13-83a8-9140298b03fd” cancollapse=”false” contenttype=”Review” pagelayout=”Review – Article Page” tagslugs=”windows-11,intel,lenovo,microsoft” isbestlistredesign=”true” imagecredit=”” imagealttext=”” class=”c-bestListListicle”>

The review process for laptops, desktops, tablets and other computerlike devices consists of two parts: performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use by our expert reviewers. This includes evaluating a device’s aesthetics, ergonomics and features. A final review verdict is a combination of both objective and subjective judgments.

The list of benchmarking software we use changes over time as the devices we test evolve. The most important core tests we’re currently running on every compatible computer include Primate Labs Geekbench 6, Cinebench R23, PCMark 10 and 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra.

A more detailed description of each benchmark and how we use it can be found on our How We Test Computers page.

Geekbench 6 (multicore)

HP OmniBook X 14 13,428Lenovo Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 11,212HP Envy x360 16 10,941Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 7445 10,279Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i 9,175Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 9,070