Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 – (2022) – Essential Gaming Laptop Computer – 15.6″ FHD – 120Hz – AMD Ryzen 5 6600H – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 – 8GB DDR5 RAM – 256GB NVMe Storage – Windows 11 Home

Decent value gaming laptop. The model I received comes with a Ryzen 5 6600U, RTX 3050 4GB, 8GB of DDR5-4800 (I added another 8 gigs before doing much else so bear that in mind for performance reviews), and a 256 gig internal storage drive (I use an external 1TB SSD for games).Not a bad laptop overall. Had some issues but some were caused by Windows, not the laptop itself.If you’re upgrading the RAM or storage, be extra sure to make sure Windows doesn’t have any updates waiting. Windows 11 made the great decision to no longer tell users if their shutting down of a PC would also be applying updates. So unplugging the battery and adding more RAM unknowingly mid-update despite having shut down the laptop bricked my operating system and I had to reinstall. Downside is that you need ethernet upon a reinstall so you can download wifi drivers. Upside is it gets rid of the bloatware Lenovo tries preinstalling with the laptop.The inside is pretty simple, RAM is covered by a small metal tray with thermal pads on it for heat dissipation. A free M.2 storage slot is right in the open, ready for you to add storage as needed (you will need it). Thermals seem pretty solid, fans ramp up in gaming (I barely hear them over my headset which I don’t run very loud and is an open-back headset, meaning I can hear noises outside of the headset fairly well) but rarely get too extreme.For gaming, it’s a mixed bag. Needless to say, ray tracing will not be something you’ll use on this laptop for playable frame rates. I doubt even 30 fps is achievable without dropping to 720p or less. Rainbow Six Siege was able to handle 1080p 120 fps consistently with mixed graphics settings (90 fov, ultra LOD, Medium textures and Shadows, most else set to low) with or without DLSS enabled. Though I did experience a bug where the render scaling option said I was running at ~850p even with the render scaling set to 100… an oddity to be sure. Halo Reach struggled to achieve similar results on Forge World, with bad tearing when the fps cap was set to 120. I lowered it to 60 and all was well, though drops may not be out of the question in high-intensity situations like custom games or campaign. Minecraft Java ran mostly above 60 fps on a modded server without Optifine or any other performance enhancers. Even in a particularly-taxing area it was mostly fine when the render distance was turned down. I’m sure with the use of Optifine or Sodium it’d be a very solid gaming experience.Windows 11 is a bit of a chore. Upon first installing Steam, I realized that my default Documents folder pinned to my Quick Access in the File Explorer was labeled under OneDrive. I never gave OneDrive permission to backup anything on my PC, as the measley 5 GB it gives you isn’t enough for anything I would use a computer for. But it forces a backup, and deleting from the OneDrive cloud deletes it from your PC as well for… some insane reason. So be wary if you use Windows 11, make sure you remove the tabs from the Quick Access bar in File Explorer and replace them with the actual local file locations (Documents, Pictures, Music, etc).The keyboard is… weird. I’ve used mechanical and membrane alike in plenty of scenarios, but this one just feels weird compared to either. It’s not unusable by any means but it takes getting used to. The trackpad is fine, I prefer having mouse buttons with my trackpad but it’s not unusable even without them.The speakers are tinny. For 2W speakers it’s not bad but it’s not going to have the amazing sound quality the description would lead you to believe. Would suggest using headphones.The I/O is alright. Type-C with full DisplayPort functionality is nice to have, HDMI 2.0 is plenty for what this laptop is capable of, and the back-facing Ethernet and charging ports are quite handy in most situations. I’ve always been a fan of Lenovo’s chargers as well, for some reason the reversible square shape just feels right. My only complaint would be a lack of USB ports, and the lack of SD/MicroSD. I know the latter is getting up there in age which makes it more a personal preference, but the former can make it difficult to use with numerous external devices (keyboard, mouse, storage, controllers, etc) since you are limited to 3 max only if you have type-C connectivity, otherwise you get two ports for peripherals and nothing more. An extra USB 2 port would have been nice to have.Overall it’s a solid deal. Boot times are fast, gaming feels alright, the wifi signal is solid (though I did notice some lag while using a bluetooth Xbox Series controller with wifi, need to test and see if the lag is still present while using ethernet) and the laptop is easy to modify for basics like RAM and storage for the most part. A solid system from Lenovo.*Update 2/11/2023 – Found out that this laptop actually does support VRR via AMD Freesync. However, this is not listed anywhere the laptop can be found. I had to install AMD’s graphics software in order to enable it, despite the laptop having an Nvidia GPU inside. This helped immensely with stuttery FPS in various games, though issues with Nvidia control panel’s FPS limits caused other issues unrelated with the laptop itself.

An overall decent laptop to play games on and general use. The media could not be loaded.  Upside:- Appearance is nice and simple with a bit of flair add-on with the back exhaust.- CPU is quite snappy and GPU is a treat to throw at some AAA games that is recent (2023) and almost run flawless in AAA games that is a few years old (COD: Cold War Zombies).- I/O Ports are just enough for the average person to use.- 120hz display is quick and responsive!- Upgrading the Laptop limited hardware is a bit tricky but with a bit of time it’s really easy to do so.Neutral:- Screen brightness/Keyboard/Speakers are just “Meh.” It will get you by just enough to be acceptable. Small adjustments is needed right out of the box.- 256GB SSD/8GB RAM isn’t suitable for modern games at all but it come with the cost of the laptop.- 720p Camera is just there to be used for a quick call video. And the Mic too.Downsides:- Battery life isn’t great. Expect to get about 3-4 hours of basic use in “Balanced” mode and 4-5 hours in “Quite” mode if the screen brightness is 75%/Bluetooth is off and speakers is at 50% (Or headphones plugged in to bypass it). Expect the battery drain faster if you’re playing a somewhat demanding game.- The fans can get LOUD when playing a demanding game!Overall:For $650, you can’t go wrong with that deal (At that time). I wanted a laptop to kind of replaced my 8 year old desktop and my hand-me-down laptop that was 12 years old before I gave it to a friend of mine that really needed a PC for basic tasks. I had around a grand from my check and I just was looking to see if any deals at the time. And then this laptop came up and I said “Why not? It looks decent enough to have andto upgrade.” And here we are. I even added 32GB DDR5/2TB Storage upgrade ASAP that cost me nearly $300 alone, putting the cost close to the entire check I have, and do I regret it? Nah. It’s exactly what I wanted. There are some flaws with this laptop but at the price that I paid for it’s outweigh the cons, but I do recommend getting the ideapad series on a sale because it’s a hell of a deal if you are planning to keep the laptop for years on end like me. It’s been about 3 months and so far I am loving my new laptop!But sadly the model I have currently (3050, R5-6600H) is getting replace by the newer and more expensive model that have a 4050, R7-7735HS which IS a better laptop via hardware but it’s going to be a while for a good sale to happen for the 4050 version. Again, if you’re really looking to get a decent modern gaming laptop look at this laptop at least before it’s truly gone.

price cant be beat. I’ve had this laptop for about a week now. It can absolutely run some more demanding game’s easily. I played Raft and Rocket League with absolutely no issues. My only concern is the battery life, a full charge seems to only last a couple hours. If you’re a college student like me, you probably want to carry the charger with you. However, for the price, I can’t knock it.

Decent Gamble. This is the main laptop I use. Before i upgraded the memory from 8 to 16, it already ran all my games, like Dota2, Kenshi, etc just fine. I also always have tons of tabs open, usually watching TV with one monitor and browsing a few other things on the other. No problem. Runs great.I’ve had no hardware problems with this laptop, and overall I like it. The battery life is super short, and of course its heavy, but thats not a dealbreaker for me. Its not a travel laptop. I also like that you can easily slide an included cover over the built-in webcam.With that said: Opening this thing to add components is not fun. Bunch of different sized screws, some microscopic, and good luck remembering what goes where unless you write it down. In the end screws have been lost. rip.Also, only 2 USB ports. One on each side.Still, I liked this enough over the year that Ive had it, that I bought a second one for my teenager during this Prime Day, but that one gave us problems right away, including the blue screen of death! Oh nos. So it was returned and replaced with a different laptop entirely with comparable price & specs but hoping her battery life might be a bit better than mine. She also has more USB ports than I do.Overall 6/10. Id recommend it if you want something to just plug-in at home, you have the patience to make upgrades if you need to, and you dont care about the bare minimum 2 usb ports cause you have USB extender or dont use many ports anyway.Youre also taking a gamble that you could get a lemon like I did, and others report as well. But its a decent enough computer to take the risk if its on sale. If its not on sale, I think you can find something better for the same price point.