Review on 💻 Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Laptop: Latest Ryzen 7 4700U, 512GB Solid State Drive, 8GB Random Access Memory, 15.6-inch Full High Definition Screen by Nick Moody

The Lenovo Ideapad 3 Ryzen 7 4700U is a great laptop. You need to buy an external webcam or use a smartphone). short story. I love this laptop and am glad I made this purchase. Although you give up in some areas. Webcam quality (horrible), lack of keyboard backlighting, and inaccurate display colors (designed for privacy, so still good). Despite these compromises. I've had it for a week and am enjoying it. --- Long history - reason for purchase and product rating. Since I worked in data analysis I needed something that could handle the number crunching and multitasking tasks within a budget and it would get the job done. It was on sale and the price was spot on. --- Key FactsWith its 8-core multi-threaded processor, this notebook will perform very well in everyday use. Looking at the ports on the left (to be clear) there's a power-in, HDMI, 2 USB 3 and USB 2 ports. On the right side there is an SD card, audio, and a pinhole, which is important (It allows you to enter Bios mode by gently pressing it with a pin at the time of each power on, you don't need to use the power button for this procedure ). It installed Windows 10 Home Edition, I installed Ubuntu Mate 20.0. The funny thing is that at the time of purchase the graphics drivers were not available to install because the laptop was so new to the market! :-) I had to manually install AMD provided drivers for Linux Ubuntu 20.0. This approach will no longer be needed once developers catch up and add this driver. The Linux OS was very fast, as was Windows (both had no lag). I've also worked with Dex on my Samsung S9+ and the connection, responsiveness and visuals are great. The phone will even charge a little, although if you're using Dex for too many activities, the load can work against you and the phone can start to lose battery levels. --- Exams. I used the Performance Test 10 software and this laptop scored in the 57th percentile for overall performance, which is pretty good. It stands above the 3.7 GHz Intel Core i7-8700 with only 6 processors. Laptops with an Intel chip usually cost twice as much and tend to throttle. Games are just that. I'm not a gamer, but I know the system requirements for a good gaming experience, and it's nowhere near that level of performance. This is perfectly sufficient for a moderate game. This laptop is built for multitasking and hard number crunching. This means you can open many applications, process large datasets and watch Youtube videos and everything works fine. Graphic design should also be good. Appearance: Deep blue color. Beautiful dark bluish sheet metal look, pleasant feel. It has a nice smooth look. The screen seems hard. There is a keyboard and a keyboard (which is very nice) along with a mouse pad. The keyboard is fun to work with and the mouse pad feels great. There's no keyboard backlight, which is a sacrifice I can make. I like the location.--- Display The screen is good, although it is true to say that there is no color reproduction. I connected an external monitor and it's easy to see the difference. It's still good for everyday indoor use, but don't take it outside in the sunlight. It was designed for privacy so peripheral vision is limited. When I need color accuracy, an external monitor comes in handy. There is a webcam BUT. This is the worst thing I've ever seen. Either get an external webcam or use your smartphone as an external webcam. There is an app you can install to make this possible. --- InternalsThe 500 M.2 Nvme is good enough to get the job done (obviously), much better than a HDD or other (old) non-Nvme drives these days. I ran a Crucial system scan and found that this system configuration supports 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 only recognizes 2666, higher (e.g. 3200) makes no sense. The default value will only be 2666. I order this today. This will really increase performance. from 8GB to 20GB. -- UPDATE: I increased the RAM and the system recognized it. Small increase in performance (faster than before - it was already so fast. WOW!). --NOTE: There is a metal plate covering the removable RAM. Be very careful when removing and reinserting it. I like that the RAM sticks very well. It's easy to access the internals in my opinion (I watched Youtube and accessed this unit twice). Others who have tested the device say you can install a second SSD drive. The first. This is not possible with this model, because the battery takes up space where the drive would take up space. Secondly. It's missing a tiny cable to connect a SATA drive, although I found a connector to the motherboard and maybe you could swap out the battery for a smaller form factor of a similar model tested (hopefully Lenovo will answer this and provide a part number). Third, there's no cover to attach the drive to the device (you'll have to buy one online or remove it from another device). Again, Lenovo hopes you can read this and provide the part number for both the strap and the case. . But I'm happy with what I have and if I want I can upgrade to 1TB with 500GB. Until the laptop gets hot. I installed the Rainmeter app and downloaded some system performance widgets that track all key performance areas. The overall performance is excellent. Battery life is ok. I haven't gotten to the point where the device needs to be connected to the network. Although both Linux and Windows, the average discharge time is over 6.5 hours. A NOTICE. The processor is really good at power saving and reviewers are very good at saying that the battery life is much longer. There is a choice between performance and energy saving. Being used to connectivity, I prefer performance. That's all. I hope this helps you with your purchase decision. Have fun searching for your next laptop. :-)