Lenovo IdeaPad 3i Gen 6 (15″) review – efficient and affordable laptop for everybody

If you are here, you are probably in the search of an affordable everyday notebook. This means your expectations won’t be high, but you can definitely make use of some power, decent battery life, and a good display. Right?

Well, surely, you can rely on the first of the aforementioned features. Indeed, this notebook can be purchased with up to the Core i7-1165G7 and a GeForce MX450 graphics card. Of course, this will bring the price to a not-really-affordable state. Therefore, the Core i5-1135G7 with an integrated GPU can be a good middle ground.

Something you definitely should not make compromises on, however, is the display. Since this unit is sold with either IPS and TN panels, we strongly suggest going for the former, due to its superior contrast ratio and viewing angles. If this is indeed what you look for, then, you will be happy to hear that the unit we have with us has exactly these specifications.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-ideapad-3i-15-2021/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Lenovo IdeaPad 3i (15", 2021) - Specs

  • LG LP156WFH-SPP1 (LGD069A)
  • Color accuracy  5.9  4.0
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 4000GB SSD + up to 1000GB HDD
  • RAM
  • up to 40GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Home, Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Pro
  • Battery
  • 38Wh , 38Wh, 45Wh, 3-cell, 45Wh
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate
  • Dimensions
  • 359.2 x 236.5 x 19.9 mm (14.14" x 9.31" x 0.78")
  • Weight
  • 1.65 kg (3.6 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 2.0
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • HDMI
  • 1.4b
  • Card reader
  • MMC, SD, SDHC, SDXC
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.1
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2x 1.5W, Dolby Audio
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • NOVO button hole

All Lenovo IdeaPad 3i (15″, 2021) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, you have some paper manuals and a 65W power brick.


Design and construction

To get some insight into just how portable this laptop is, we have to take a peek at its measurements. Here, we see a weight of 1.65 kg, and a profile of 19.9mm. Indeed that makes it super comfortable to carry, even at 15-inches in diameter. Unfortunately, the build quality is not great. As the laptop is made entirely out of plastic, we see that the base is super bendy. Definitely refrain from flexing it.

Expectedly, the lid cannot be opened with a single hand. Moreover, the hinges are pretty poor, and make the screen wobble, as soon as you touch the notebook. At least on the bright side, you get slim bezels, an HD Web camera, and a privacy shutter.

When we look at the base, we see a power button, which features an optional embedded fingerprint reader. Quite a rare feature at this price point. Then, there is the keyboard. First and foremost – it has a NumberPad, and an optional backlight, which is great. Also, the keystrokes are decently long, while the feedback is clicky. However, it is a bit inconsistent, plus, we noticed a nasty deck flex.

In fact, the flex is so severe, that the entire base bends when you even click the top portion of the touchpad. Other than that, the touchpad is fine, as it has a Mylar surface, which offers a smooth gliding experience.

Now, let’s take a quick look at the bottom panel. First, you can see that it is made from easily scratchable rough plastic material. Also, there are the speaker cutouts, which hide both 1.5W speakers. In addition to that, you can find the ventilation grill. Hot air, respectively, is being blown away from a vent in between the base and the lid.

Ports

The majority of the I/O is located on the left side. There, you will find the power plug, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an HDMI 1.4b connector, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, and an audio jack. Then, on the right, there’s a USB Type-A 2.0 port, and an SD card slot.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

To take this laptop apart, you need to undo 10 Phillips-head screws. After that, pry the bottom panel with a plastic tool, and remove it from the chassis.

The battery here is a bit underwhelming with a capacity of only 38Wh.

First, let’s talk about the soldered memory. There is either 4GB or 8GB of RAM that is nonremovable. Additionally, you get one SODIMM slot, that works together with the soldered memory in dual-channel mode. Storage-wise, you get one M.2 PCIe x4 slot, as well as a 2.5-inch SATA drive bay.

Looking at the cooling solution, we see a rather thin heat pipe and a fan that looks quite big.


Display quality

Lenovo IdeaPad 3i Gen 6 (15″) comes with a Full HD IPS panel, model number LG LP156WFH-SPP1 (LGD069A). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 142 ppi, their pitch – 0.18 x 0.18 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 60 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

The viewing angles are good. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality.

The maximum measured brightness is 312 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 288 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 15%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6200K (average) – slightly warmer than the 6500K optimum for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 82% Brightness (White level = 140 cd/m2, Black level = 0.14 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is decent – 1000:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Lenovo IdeaPad 3i Gen 6 (15″)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display is limited just to 51% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Lenovo IdeaPad 3i Gen 6 (15″) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 26 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Lenovo IdeaPad 3i Gen 6 (15″)’s backlight does not use PWM at any brightness level. This ensures comfort to the eyes in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusions

Lenovo IdeaPad 3i Gen 6 (15″)’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a good contrast ratio. Thankfully, it doesn’t utilize PWM for brightness adjustment, which makes it safe. Of course, since this is a budget panel, it covers only half of the sRGB color gamut. Moreover, the color representation is not accurate, whatsoever.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Lenovo IdeaPad 3i Gen 6 (15″) configurations with 15.6″ LG LP156WFH-SPP1 (LGD069A) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Lenovo IdeaPad 3i Gen 6 (15″)’s speakers are not great, but they are not terrible either. Thankfully, the low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be downloaded from here: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/3-series/ideapad-3-15itl6/downloads/driver-list

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This laptop’s 38Wh battery pack lasts for 7 hours and 44 minutes of Web browsing, 7 hours of video playback, and one hour and 27 minutes of gameplay.


CPU options

This device is sold with the Celeron 6305 (2c/2t), Pentium Gold 7505 (2c/4t), Core i3-1115G4 (2c/4t), Core i5-1135G7 (4c/8t), and Core i7-1165G7 (4c/8t).

Lenovo IdeaPad 3i (15", 2021) CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the Lenovo IdeaPad 3i (15", 2021) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Lenovo IdeaPad 3i (15", 2021) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.


GPU options

As for the graphics you can settle for the integrated UHD Graphics, or Iris Xe Graphics G7 with 80EUs or 96EUs. On the other hand, there are configurations with GeForce MX350 and the MX450.

Lenovo IdeaPad 3i (15", 2021) GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the Lenovo IdeaPad 3i (15", 2021) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Lenovo IdeaPad 3i (15", 2021) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS95 fps64 fps31 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS102 fps63 fps39 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i5-1135G7 (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Lenovo IdeaPad 3i Gen 6 (15″)3.42 GHz (B+43%) @ 87°C @ 45W2.99 GHz (B+25%) @ 84°C @ 34W2.55 GHz (B+6%) @ 70°C @ 24W
ASUS ZenBook Duo 14 UX4823.13 GHz (B+30%) @ 92°C @ 39W3.01 GHz (B+25%) @ 92°C @ 33W2.44 GHz (B+2%) @ 73°C @ 22W
Dell Precision 15 35603.77 GHz (B+57%) @ 95°C @ 46W3.37 GHz (B+40%) @ 99°C @ 36W2.61 GHz (B+9%) @ 85°C @ 21W
Dell Latitude 15 55203.62 GHz (B+51%) @ 98°C @ 46W3.17 GHz (B+32%) @ 97°C @ 34W2.27 GHz @ 77°C @ 17W
Lenovo ThinkBook 14 Gen 23.79 GHz (B+58%) @ 90°C @ 47W3.47 GHz (B+45%) @ 90°C @ 39W3.05 GHz (B+27%) @ 79°C @ 28W
Dell XPS 13 93103.15 GHz (B+31%) @ 100°C @ 40W2.73 GHz (B+14%) @ 100°C @ 30W1.65 GHz @ 73°C @ 15W
Dell Vostro 14 54023.02 GHz (B+26%) @ 99°C @ 29W2.61 GHz (B+9%) @ 99°C @ 25W2.00 GHz @ 76°C @ 15W
MSI Modern 15 (A11X)3.59 GHz (B+50%) @ 94°C @ 44W3.45 GHz (B+44%) @ 95°C @ 40W3.18 GHz (B+33%) @ 91°C @ 34W
Acer Aspire 5 (A514-54)3.54 GHz (B+48%) @ 87°C2.01 GHz @ 66°C2.03 GHz @ 67°C

We have to say that despite the budget nature of this notebook, Lenovo didn’t spare any resources and efforts in designing its cooling solution. As you can see, even under extreme workloads, the device can maintain a frequency higher than the 2.40 GHz base one for this processor.

Comfort during full load

The laptop is not too warm on the keyboard, neither it is too loud, which is good.


Verdict

As we said at the beginning of the review, your expectations should have been low. Unfortunately, the IdeaPad 3i Gen 6 (15″) kind of proved this with its poor build quality. Interestingly, Lenovo has shown with a lot of ThinkPads that it can make good-quality plastic devices. However, this particular laptop falls short of that, as its chassis is super bendy, and the hinges are unstable. Given the fact that the build is what provides the first impression, we feel that they could have done a better job.

On the other hand, we were pleased with the performance it provides. Its cooling solution is capable of handling the ULV CPUs without a hassle, and the upgrade options are on point. Thankfully, its soldered memory can work in dual-channel mode, when paired with a SODIMM RAM module. Also, there is an M.2 PCIe x4 slot, and a 2.5-inch SATA slot for storage upgrades.

Lenovo IdeaPad 3i Gen 6 (15″)’s IPS panel (LG LP156WFH-SPP1 (LGD069A)) has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a good contrast ratio. Thankfully, it doesn’t utilize PWM for brightness adjustment, which makes it safe. Of course, since this is a budget panel, it covers only half of the sRGB color gamut. Moreover, the color representation is not accurate, whatsoever.

We were really impressed by the battery life here. And not because it was anything spectacular. At first, we were really disappointed to see a 38Wh unit powering the laptop when it’s not plugged in. However, it lasted for 7 hours and 44 minutes of Web browsing, and 7 hours of video playback, which is quite a respectable result. This indicates great optimizations by Lenovo on the software front.

We should also not forget to mention that the I/O includes a USB Type-C port, and an SD card reader among the rest of the ports, which can be quite useful. And there are additional features, that include a privacy shutter, an optional keyboard backlight, and a fingerprint reader.

At the end of the day, we can’t really recommend this device because of the poor quality of the build. At the same time, we don’t feel that advising against a purchase is also very reasonable. So, the ball is in your court. What do you think? Do the perks outweigh the quirks?

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-ideapad-3i-15-2021/

Pros

  • 1x SODIMM, 1x M.2 PCIe x4, 1x 2.5-inch SATA
  • Optional fingerprint reader
  • No PWM (LG LP156WFH-SPP1 (LGD069A))
  • SD card slot
  • Good performance and optimization


Cons

  • Plastic build with poor quality
  • 51% sRGB coverage (LG LP156WFH-SPP1 (LGD069A))
  • Unstable hinges

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Jakob
Jakob
2 years ago

I have recently purchased this pc with the speccs: i5-1135g7, 16gb 3200mhz and mx350. I am extremely pleased with its performance. In Denmark, there is no other laptop in its price range – at all – that can match its performance. Not even if you add another 300-400$ almost. The build is much more sturdy that i find this article to conclude – yes, its plastic, however i find no issue using it for office, study or commuting – and i come from a surface pro 5 that is super well build. However, the screen yes. You can forgot any… Read more »