Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i 15-inch ZDNET's key takeaways The IdeaPad Slim 3i is on sale at Costco for $669.
It's an affordable 15-inch laptop with a full-size keyboard and nice selection of ports.
The battery isn't spectacular, and its display is lackluster. View now at Costco
Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.
Lenovo's IdeaPad Slim 3i is an affordable, versatile laptop with a competent set of hardware for students or professionals. It's got a full-size keyboard (something that's not all that common for a 15-inch), a nice selection of I/O, and a lightweight build in a dark blue colorway.
However, the $500-$999 price range is increasingly crowded with some impressive laptops, making competition fierce and forcing comparisons across manufacturers (while highlighting design or feature flaws).
Also: The best 15-inch laptops: Expert tested and reviewed
The IdeaPad Slim 3i avoids any overt flaws of this sort, but might be overshadowed by competitors with more compelling features. Still, on brand recognition alone, Lenovo's IdeaPad lineup consists of reliable, versatile machines, and the Slim 3i is no exception.
The laptop comes with an Intel Core Ultra 5 210H processor, 16GB of non-upgradable DDR5 5600 RAM, and a 1TB M.2 QLC SSD. The integrated Intel GPU is enough for everyday tasks and light gaming, but not much more than that. Overall, there's not a lot of customization here, but the hardware is sufficient for everyday work or home use.
It also has just enough ports. You get two USB-A slots, one USB-C with power delivery, an HDMI, an SD card reader, and a headphone jack. The card reader is an interesting choice here, since this laptop isn't exactly primed for working with large video files, but it does afford some additional use cases.
... continue reading