I was on the search for a new laptop for quite some time now. After all these years since I got my last one, I had no idea about the specs available and what to look for. I went to learn about the AMD Ryzen and Intel i3-i5 series, the
I set my budget to €400 and realized that the new norm was for this price range is 8GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage and a group of CPUs ranging from i3-1005G1 to R7-3700U – and various others in between. I always wanted a 14-inch laptop for improved portability (and storage when not used) but decided to go for a 15,6-inch model, reducing the stress to my eyes.
These new CPUs seemed pretty efficient but would they last in the long term? Would 256GB of storage be sufficient for a constantly bloating OS like Windows?
I wanted something for pretty basic use but at the same time to last for quite a long time – I always see a new laptop as an investment and not a quick purchase. I started increasing my budget and looking for new alternatives -and then I found it: At €500 max, I realized that the Ryzen 3 3500u – powered laptops were the best and fastest option available, beating all Intel i3s (and several older i5s) in this price range!
In the end, I found a Windows 11-ready Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15ALC6, with the following specs:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 5300u at 2.60 GHz, 4 cores, 8 threads
- RAM: 8GB DDR4
- Storage: 256 GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
- Ports: 1x USB 2.0 Type-A, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C
- Screen: 1920 x 1080, IPS panel
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), Bluetooth 5.0, HDMI,
- Other: Card Reader
- Webcam: 720p
The laptop came with a gift: a Samsung Portable SSD T5 USB 3.1 / USB-C 500GB 2.5″ in Earth Blue so this would increase the pretty limited native storage, at no additional cost.
Would I miss the LAN port or the optical disk drive? I doubted it.
Setting up the laptop
Setting up the machine was dead simple. Shortly I was able to enjoy my new laptop and adding my details here and there. On the second day, I got a notification for updating to Windows 11, which I happily accepted.
I did not find major differences compared to Windows 10, apart from the revamped Start menu, the redesigned taskbar and the notification panel, to name a few.
Lenovo has a couple of useful apps preinstalled, like the Vantage software, which provides a wealth of system-related info via an eye-cathing user interface. Nothing close to the bloatware of other laptop manufacturers.
First impressions
I have been using the Ideapad for a week now and I am amazed by its responsiveness! It boots in a couple of seconds and opening apps and tabs is blazing fast. No lags, no waiting times for booting or opening Skype (it took ages with my previous laptop), no issues with multitasking.
Even after upgrading to Windows 11 I have plenty of storage left. I still have to install a small number of apps, but there won’t be any issue.
Battery life: Excellent! As in all laptops, you need to tweak the battery setting a bit, according to the usage type, but after that the battery life extends to about 8 hr, even for web conferences / video calls! I have the model with the larger battery (45Wh compared to the typical 38Wh), and this will be really handy during trips, when on the go, or when a power outlet is not within reach.
Backlit keyboard is a great feature. It really helps a lot when typing under dim light or even in complete darkness! In fact there are three levels – off, low and high – and switching between them is just a matter of pressing two keys!
Fingerprint sensor (the power button) is also nice. Sometimes it takes two or three tries to login, but it is a handy feature. For the time being, I am sticking to the traditional pin.
Dimensions: The Lenovo is more compact and much lighter compared to my Acer Aspire E-15. Build quality is good but not perfect (you can hear some noises while pushing the laptop at some points) but it seems it will last.
Any glitches so far? In fact, there are some.
Microphone level
The integrated microphone levels seem to bee pretty low. Things got pretty worse after I installed some AMD-related apps and drivers, to the point that there was no sound recorded by the mic! For example, Skype could not detect my microphone in the end and I could not use my Softphone app for communication with colleagues.
I started uninstalling these apps and drivers (even uninstalled the microphone as a device from the Device Manager), tried restarting some related services and fine-tuning all related apps, making use of related Lenovo support pages and workaround posted by other Lenovo users. In the end I just gave up and reset the laptop, practically re-installing Windows 11. Things are pretty better now, the mic works but the sound levels still seem to be pretty low.
Screen
After getting updated to new laptop specs, I understood that I had to avoid TN panels and opt for IPS ones. This was one of my basic criteria before selecting my laptop.
When I put my old Acer Aspire E15 next to my new Lenovo, I saw the higher brightness of the former and the smaller fonts of the latter, due to the higher resolution. Plus, the viewing angles of the Lenovo screens did not impress me. Since I am always sitting right in front of the laptop this is not an issue at all; however, it makes me think how worse would the TN panels be
USB-C:
The USB-C ports of all the laptops I found under €500 were crippled. None of them supported power nor image delivery. Practically this means that you can’t use these handy USB ports for charging the laptop nor for passing images through them – just for data transfer. I don’t know how much would it cost for Lenovo to put a fully operational USB-C port in this laptop, but this definitely sucks!
Since I already have a nice and tiny 45W GaN USB-C charger, I could use that to charge my laptop while on the go (e.g. a trip) instead of carrying around and using the huge charging brick provided by Lenovo. This sucks.
Webcam:
The official spec sheet of Lenovo mentions an IR Webcam that could be used for Windows Hello Face log-in. When I tried to set it up, Windows informs me that the existing camera is not compatible with Windows Hello, so this is not an option. It would be nice to have but it doesn’t actually work. Shame on you Lenovo!
Conclusions
I wanted a budget-friendly laptop for basic home and office use (web browsing, social media, managing MS Office documents, spreadsheets and slides), and not for gaming. Starting with a budget of €400, I realized that my choices would be limited to the lower-end of specific processors and TN panel screens.
Increasing my budget to €500, allowed me to access a number of laptops with the Ryzen R3-5300u CPU, which was the best bang for the buck I could get, being more efficient than various i5 processors (and some Ryzen R5 ones).
I ended up to the IdeaPad 3 15ALC6, which met almost all the criteria I set for my ideal candidate laptop, apart from storage – but the offer I got with the free Samsung Portable SSD T5 USB 3.1 / USB-C 500GB in the package helped me address this as well.
So far the Ideapad 3 is blazing fast, helping me to do more in less time, be more efficient and responsive while working from home. It takes less space on my desk compared to the Acer I had, it is much lighter and its battery life is amazing.