Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i 15IRU9 review: I can forgive budget sacrifices, but I can’t forgive this
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I am spoiled with expensive laptops to review most weeks, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love a good budget laptop when one comes along. I was hoping that it would be the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i. It’s not.
At a reasonable $699, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i offers cool thermals and a lovely blue shade on its chassis. Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide a good display or good performance. I might be a little harder on it than you would be, but no one should forgive its poor battery life. If a laptop can’t last an entire workday, it doesn’t belong in your shopping cart.
Is it a terrible laptop? No.
But let’s get into why you could do so much better with the best laptops under $1,000 than you could with the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i.
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i: Specs
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i: Price and configurations
I tested the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i with an Intel Core 5 120U processor, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 display. That runs for $699 at Costco.
You can find a $549 model at Lenovo, which drops to 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, or the $474 model at Lenovo, which drops further down to an Intel Core 3 100U CPU.
If you’re looking for something a little more robust, check out our best laptops page.
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i: Design
It’s a wonder that a laptop under $1,000 sports a color other than the black-to-white gradient. The IdeaPad Slim 3i bursts through that monochromatic mold, adorned in Lenovo’s Abyss Blue color scheme.
It doesn’t look as cool as it sounds, but it’s blue — and that is refreshing. Its curved edges and Lenovo logo stamped on the top left of the lid waved hello as I lifted the lip.
The blue continues on the interior, accompanied by a gray keyboard, which doesn’t complement the color very well. There’s a vent above and an equally blue, small touchpad below. The bezels on the display are unremarkably thin, but I like the slight lip housing the webcam and privacy shutter at the top.
It doesn’t look as cool as it sounds, but it’s blue — and that is refreshing.
At 3.5 pounds and 14.15 x 9.25 x 0.7 inches, the IdeaPad Slim 3i is bigger than its competition, but don’t hold that against it. The Slim is one of the few recent notebooks in the sub-$1,000, 15-inch range we’ve tested.
Meanwhile, its 14-inch competitors are HP Chromebook Plus 14a (3.2 pounds, 12.82 x 8.48 x 0.72 inches), Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 Gen 9 (3.6 pounds, 12.51 x 8.75 x 0.66 inches), and Acer Swift Go 14 (3.1 pounds, 12.3 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches).
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i: Ports
Ironically, the more expensive a product gets, the fewer ports it offers, so rest assured that the IdeaPad Slim 3i is packing.
To the left, you’ll find the power jack, one USB Type-A port, an HDMI port, one USB Type-C port, and a headphone jack. The right has one USB Type-A port and an SD card slot.
Need more ports? Check out our best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations pages.
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i: Display
Many premium laptops can’t get displays right, so a budget laptop doesn’t stand a chance, and the IdeaPad Slim 3i lives up to that assumption. Its 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 display is relatively bright, but it looks like half the color has been drained from it.
In the Borderlands trailer, the vividly blue polyhedral artifacts in the vault look like nothing but a projection of something that should look cool. The overall visuals are notably dull, and the contrast casts a wave of white over the cloudy skies above the ragtag crew.
It's tough to be immersed when there's not enough color or contrast to highlight important elements in a scene. Don’t buy this laptop with visions of a cinematic experience dancing in your head.
According to our colorimeter, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i covers 44.4% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, that's nearly half the average mainstream laptop (81.2%). Its budget competitors didn't do much better, with the Chromebook Plus 14a at 41.7% and the Yoga 7i at 46%. However, the Swift Go 14 provided a respectable effort, covering 78%.
At 310 nits of brightness, the IdeaPad Slim isn't too dim, but it's not too bright, either. The average in its category sits at 386 nits. However, the IdeaPad surpassed the Chromebook Plus 14a (289 nits) and hovered near the Yoga 7i (314 nits). Again, the Swift Go 14 pulled through with a strong 389 nits.
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i: Keyboard and touchpad
Dancing across the IdeaPad Slim 3i’s keyboard reminded me how short key travel makes for an unsatisfying typing experience. I wanted to find a new dance partner as soon as possible.
Despite the disappointing feel, I hit 81 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which matches my current average. The keys have a bit of a bounce, but the short key travel cancels out that satisfaction.
The 4.1 x 2.7-inch touchpad is standard plastic and has a sharp click. It’s not as resistant as I expected, but it’s relatively smooth for a budget laptop.
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i: Audio
Despite rocking top-firing speakers, playing music on the IdeaPad Slim 3i sounds like I shoved a pair of earphones in a tin can.
The bass got evicted from these speakers on the assembly line.
I listened to Elliot Lee’s “Weird” and immediately caught the wave of hollow claps that opened the song. It seems the Lenovo forgot to add bass from these speakers on the assembly line. The mids and highs of the vocals were too sharp, while the lower synths were barely audible against the high-treble instruments.
Lenovo offers the Dolby Access app, but it’s a limited version of the typical one, giving you access only to one custom preset and four standard presets, which include Game, Movie, Music, and Voice. (You cannot customize the established presets).
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i: Performance
This Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i features Intel’s latest affordable CPU, the Core 5 120U. It’s enough to get through a couple dozen Google Chrome tabs and a handful of YouTube videos.
On the Geekbench 6.3 overall performance test, the IdeaPad Slim 3i scored 8,549, which falls short of the average mainstream laptop (10,189) but it does overcome the Chromebook Plus 14a’s Intel Core i3-n305 (4,087). However, the Yoga 7i’s Core Ultra 5 125U (9,214) and the Swift Go 14’s Core Ultra 7 155H (12,612) easily pass it by.
The IdeaPad Slim 3i transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in a lengthy 14 minutes and 33 seconds on our HandBrake benchmark, which is nearly double the category average (8:23). The Yoga 7i (10:14) and Swift Go 14 (5:20) were both much faster.
Lenovo’s 1TB SSD featured a solid transfer rate of 1,038 megabytes per second, which is only slightly below the category average (1,193). It’s comparable to the Yoga 7i (1,002 MBps), but the Swift Go 14 (1,783 MBps) crushed them all.
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i: Graphics
Don’t expect much with standard integrated Intel Graphics.
On the 3DMark Fire Strike synthetic graphics test, the IdeaPad Slim 3i scored 4,113, which fell last against the average mainstream laptop (6,936), the Yoga 7i’s Intel Graphics (5,010), and the Swift Go 14’s Intel Arc Graphics (8,046).
On a more real-world test, the IdeaPad Slim 3i averaged 21 frames per second on the Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark (Medium, 1080p). That does not meet the 30-fps minimum for playability and doesn’t make any waves against the Yoga 7i (26) or Swift Go 14 (36 fps).
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i: Battery life
I’ll forgive the display and performance on a budget machine, but I can’t forgive terrible battery life on any laptop. The IdeaPad Slim 3i fails this standard.
On the Laptop Mag battery test, the IdeaPad Slim 3i survived a measly six hours and six minutes. The competition was present at its funeral, including the average mainstream laptop (9:37), Chromebook Plus 14a (8:50), Yoga 7i (12:57), and Swift Go 14 (8:25).
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i: Webcam
1080p webcams are bad, and the IdeaPad Slim 3i’s 720p webcam is worse.
The pink chair behind me was drained of color. My scruffy beard blended in with my face so much that I couldn’t tell if it was there. And my skin looked like it was entering rigor mortis.
All that to say, check out our best webcams page if you decide to buy the Slim 3i.
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i: Heat
Cold as ice… not really, but it is cool!
After streaming a 15-minute video, the IdeaPad Slim 3i’s underside climbed to 78 degrees Fahrenheit, which is well below our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard and touchpad reached 89 and 78 degrees, respectively.
Meanwhile, the hottest it got was 90 degrees, located directly below the Windows sticker on the underside of the chassis.
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i: Software and warranty
The IdeaPad Slim 3i has the usual assortment of Lenovo software, including the Lenovo Vantage app. It offers a suite of features, including information about the laptop itself, warranty, hardware scans, security, and additional device settings.
The IdeaPad Slim 3i comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how Lenovo performed on our Tech Support Showdown ranking.
Bottom line
Even at a steep discount, you could find something better than the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i.
Just because the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i is a budget laptop doesn’t mean it needs to be a cheap laptop. I’d be OK with the performance and the display — I wouldn’t be thrilled with it, and neither should you — but one has to make some sacrifices with an affordable laptop.
If the battery life lasted more than eight hours, that would have raised the Slim 3i to another level, but at just over 6 hours, it’s one of the shortest-lived non-gaming laptops we’ve tested in recent memory.
Do yourself a favor and opt for the Acer Swift Go 14 (2024). For $100 more, you get longer battery life, a bright and colorful display, and much more powerful performance. That’s a steal when comparing the two and worth saving up for.
Even at a steep discount, you could find something better than the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i.
