There’s no shortage of gaming laptops on the market. You can choose from a variety of options across different price points, multiple brand options and configurations. Still, it’s always nice to get a new product that does some things exceptionally well, and fits a pretty 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 this something you should buy, and if you do, what can you expect? Well, I’ve been using the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i for a while, and here’s my review of the laptop.
First off, let’s take a look at the box contents. Inside the big IdeaPad branded box, you’ll find:
There’s nothing out of the ordinary here, but including a gaming mouse is a neat touch from Lenovo, that’s for sure. I mean sure, you probably already have a mouse, but it doesn’t hurt to have another. Plus, if you don’t have a gaming mouse, Lenovo has got you covered. I think that’s quite nice.
Lenovo’s design language with the IdeaPad Gaming 3i is something I really like. It’s all black, which lends it a stealthy look. Plus, Lenovo hasn’t put any ridiculous designs anywhere so the laptop will fit right in at your work desk, or in college. Honestly, this lid here is perfect. There’s a subtle Lenovo branding on the edge, and it’s not huge so it doesn’t look ugly.
Inside, the display comes with narrow bezels on the sides, but the top bezel is slightly thicker. However, it does include the webcam here, and there’s a privacy shutter built-in. That means, if you’re like me and want to keep your webcam covered, you don’t need a sticker or a third party webcam cover with this laptop. There’s a slider right above the webcam that you can use to cover or expose the webcam depending on your requirement. It’s certainly better than the solution I use on my MacBook to keep the webcam covered.
Alright, so this placement is already better than what most laptops have, and kudos to Lenovo for placing stickers in 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 other stickers above it. It’s tilted, and it’s making me want to tear it off. This is 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 in the trash by now; and maybe the others would be too.
Anyway, let’s talk about the display. You get a big 15-inch display here. It’s a FullHD panel, with an anti-glare coating and a 60Hz refresh rate. This is the base variant of the laptop, but you can spend extra if you want better hardware and a 120Hz or 144Hz panel if you like. Obviously, the higher refresh rate screens will make for an even better gaming experience, but this 60Hz panel is no slouch either. Sure, it’s not the best display I’ve seen on a laptop, but it’s not bad by any means.
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 have here has the 10th-gen Core i5 processor, paired with 8GB RAM, and the GTX 1650 Ti GPU. All of which sounds pretty standard for a gaming laptop in this price bracket.
However, benchmarks are not great for real world performance, obviously, so I tested a couple of games on the laptop as well. In PUBG, with settings at High, the IdeaPad Gaming 3i gets a frame rate of anywhere between 50FPS to 70FPS depending on everything that’s going on around you. If you’re like me and usually play TDM, you’ll probably get somewhere around 50 to 60FPS consistently at these settings. Obviously you can lower these down to get a higher frame rate, but for a recreational gamer like me, it felt fine anyway.
On PC, I prefer playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive more than I like playing PUBG these days, so I tested that as well. Not that I had any doubt that this laptop can handle CSGO. At highest settings, you get well over 100FPS. As I said, that’s not unexpected or surprising, but well, if you’re a CSGO lover, this is what you will get with the IdeaPad Gaming 3i.
Ah, the keyboard. Lenovo has brought to this laptop its keyboard expertise from the ThinkPad line of laptops. And this keyboard is no joke. It’s easy to type on, just tactile enough to make typing feel extremely fun, and spacious, so you won’t feel cramped up. I am writing this review using the IdeaPad Gaming 3i, and it doesn’t feel like I’ve written well over a thousand words so far.
It’s also backlit, although it’s a single colour backlighting that you get here. Keeping in line with the IdeaPad Gaming branding on the hinge, the keyboard backlight is blue as well. You get two different brightness settings for the keyboard which can be toggled with Function + space bar. That’s also how you turn off the backlight if you want to.
Trackpad
I don’t have quite a lot to say about the trackpad here. It’s of a decent size, but it’s not huge. Still, I find the size good enough for all the Windows gestures that it supports. The laptop has a Windows Precision trackpad, which is nice, and using it feels fine.
Speaking of the features Lenovo Vantage brings, there are quite a lot of them. For one, you can toggle thermal modes for the laptop, you can also turn on Network Boost, which can come in handy if you’re playing a multiplayer game like PUBG, or GTA Online.
You can choose to enable rapid charge here, which allows the battery to charge faster than usual. Alternatively, you can turn on ‘conservation mode’ if you keep your laptop plugged in most of the time. With this, the battery will only charge up to 55-60%, ensuring your battery remains healthier for long.
Speakers
Speakers on the IdeaPad Gaming 3i are on the side. So they aren’t bottom firing ones, but they are side firing ones. The speakers do get fairly loud, although they are by no means the loudest speakers I’ve heard on a laptop. Also, they are totally and completely lacking in bass.
You get plenty of I/O options with the laptop which is always nice to see. 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 is a good addition. Keep in mind that this isn’t a Thunderbolt 3 port, it’s USB Type-C. There’s one more USB Type-A port on the other side of the laptop
Connectivity
For connectivity, the laptop comes with Bluetooth 5.0, which is fine and should offer stable and fast connection with your Bluetooth accessories. Plus. there’s WiFi 6 (802.11ax) supported network card on-board, so you’re pretty much future-proofed in that regard as well.
Lenovo doesn’t state the size of the battery in its spec-sheet. It does, however, claim 7 hours of battery life according to its lab testing. Now, in my usage, the battery life wasn’t 7 hours, but it gets close.
Pros and Cons
So, all things considered, let’s take a quick look at the good and the bad about the laptop.
Cons:
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i: Should You Buy It?
So, should you buy the IdeaPad Gaming 3i for your gaming needs? Well, it’s definitely a worthy contender for your money, that much is certain. I mean, the laptop offers good battery life, a nice 15-inch display, and can run games quite well for its price. In fact, it has a solid spec-sheet in this price bracket.
You can also check out the HP Omen (Rs. 74,920) that comes with the Ryzen 5, 8GB RAM, and 1650Ti. However you will get less storage on that laptop – a 512GB SSD.
