The Lenovo IdeaPad 3’s matte finish means it can actually be used outdoors on a sunny day reasonably comfortably. If you like to hang on to your device as long as possible, on the other hand, Google promises that the IdeaPad 3 will receive Chrome OS software and security updates through 2026. PCMag is obsessed with culture and tech, offering smart, spirited coverage of the products and innovations that shape our connected lives and the digital trends that keep us talking.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook review: Surprisingly good Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook review: Surprisingly good

The IdeaPad 3 also has a cramped 32GB flash storage drive, so you’ll need to keep most of your large files—photos, videos, and the like—in the cloud or on an external drive.The laptop has limited RAM and storage, and the restricted software is a heads-up of who it’s meant for. There’s enough travel to let you know you’ve hit each key, but it’s all light enough to avoid tiring your hands out if you’re typing all day. There’s a bit of flex in the base and display lid of the IdeaPad 3 when you apply pressure with your hands, but it doesn’t feel flimsy. Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. The keyboard is not backlit, which may be a deal-breaker for people who need to type in low-light conditions.

Lenovo IdeaPad 3 (14-inch) Review | Trusted Reviews Lenovo IdeaPad 3 (14-inch) Review | Trusted Reviews

Watching a cached Netflix movie won’t be much fun, but text editing look OK, thanks to the very high contrast involved. Its Intel Celeron processor, 4GB of RAM, and 720p HD display are skimpy by Windows and Mac standards, but they’re adequate for the typical Chrome OS user, and their low unit costs seem to have freed Lenovo from having to skimp on the IdeaPad 3’s engineering and manufacturing.This is meant to compete with Intel's N-series CPUs, as you'd find on the IdeaPad Flex 3i Chromebook, which are for web browsing and not much else. Or at least we didn’t until we had half a dozen Chrome tabs up and running with in-line video playback, and it’s tough to complain about that. While there’s a certain hollow sound to key presses ringing through the plastic shell, if you type hard, this is actually a lovely keyboard for long-form typing. The 4GB RAM and slower eMMC storage hold this device back a bit, but I still managed to open about four tabs in Chrome at once before I felt slowdowns.

Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Chromebook 14 Inch Full HD Laptop (MediaTek

The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 won’t last through a full day of work but if you just need it to hang on through an afternoon working in a cafe, no problem.Where other ultra-budget Chromebooks stuff in dated Celeron N3350 and N4000 processors, the IdeaPad 3 has a 2019-vintage N4020 running at up to 2. It's an octa-core SoC with two Arm Cortex-A76 cores running up to 2GHz and six Arm Cortex-A55 cores running up to 2GHz. I was still able to make out the shiny Amtrak trains in the video outdoors Lenovo claims this Chromebook can hit 300 nits of brightness and cover 100% of the sRGB spectrum, and I see no reason why that's not true.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook 14 Inch FHD Laptop

By giving up a high-resolution display, you get enough computing power for basic tasks, plenty of external connectivity, excellent battery life, and a reasonably attractive, well-built chassis.The keyboard surround will flex a little under the pressure of hard typing, if not enough to ruin the experience, and the inside of the IdeaPad 3 looks a little too much of a mish-mash. You won’t find any 360-degree hinges that allow you to stand it on its head or even a detachable keyboard like on Lenovo’s own 2-in-1 Duet Chromebook. We rarely recommend laptops with screens below full HD resolution, but there are two ways to justify the IdeaPad 3’s rather lackluster screen quality. Again, it's very likely that the dim, low-resolution screen played a big part in the IdeaPad 3's strong showing here. N4020 processor to handle the thinking in this machine, which is a slight step up from the N4000 in the Acer Chromebook 314.