Lenovo IdeaPad 3 (17″, 2022) review

Last year, there was one device that stood above others, when we talk about affordable 17-inchers. It was the IdeaPad 3 (17″, 2021), and now, we have its next generation product. Unsurprisingly its name is the IdeaPad 3 (17″, 2022).

Although it might not have any changes on the outside, it comes with a redesigned hearth. To keep the price down, you won’t really get access to the latest AMD CPUs, but you still have a touch on the next best thing – the Ryzen 7 5825U.

To be completely honest, it’s not too different from the Ryzen 7 6800U, with the exception of the integrated graphics card. In addition to that, you can expect a really potent display option.

In fact, it was the display that made last year’s model so irresistible.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-ideapad-3-17-2022/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Lenovo IdeaPad 3 (17", 2022) - Specs

  • LEN173FHD (LEN9082)
  • Color accuracy  4.8  1.2
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD
  • M.2 Slot
  • 1x 2280 PCIe NVMe 4.0 x4 (limited to Gen 3 speeds)  See photo
  • RAM
  • up to 40GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Home, DOS, Windows 11, Windows 10 Pro
  • Battery
  • 45Wh, 3-cell, 38Wh, 45Wh
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate
  • Dimensions
  • 399 x 274 x 19.9 mm (15.71" x 10.79" x 0.78")
  • Weight
  • 2.04 kg (4.5 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), Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 1.4b
  • Card reader
  • SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.1
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD with Privacy Shutter, Fixed Focus
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Microphone with Noise Cancellation
  • Speakers
  • 2x 1.5W Stereo Speakers, Dolby Audio
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

What’s in the box?

This notebook’s packaging is a bit boring, but this is expected. Inside, we see some paperwork, as well as a 65W charger.


Design and construction

This notebook is very similar to what we saw last year. In fact, the only difference we can observe cannot be actually seen. It is in weight, which is now 2.04 kg, compared to 2.10 kg in 2021.

Respectively, the thickness remains at 19.9mm. Furthermore, you get an all-plastic body. It is pretty flexy, but this is normal, considering the large footprint of the device.

Unfortunately, the lid can’t be opened with a single hand. The bottom bezel of the matte display is absolutely huge, while the other three are significantly smaller. As is the case with many laptops this year, especially ones from Lenovo, the HD Web camera comes with a privacy shutter.

Moving to the base, we have a keyboard without a backlight. It features a NumberPad, though, and its power button is separated from the rest of the keyboard. Some configurations have a fingerprint reader embedded in the power button itself.

The keyboard is not super good for typing, as it has short key travel, and clicky, but nonuniform feedback. You know, having almost no change in the visuals would have been a great opportunity to upgrade the touchpad. Instead, it also remains the same small Mylar unit as last year. On the bright side, it is responsive and features accurate tracking.

On the bottom panel, we find two speaker cutouts, as well as a ventilation grill for air intake. Air exhaust, on the other hand, happens through a vent in between the base and the lid.

Ports

On the left side, there is a 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 (with DisplayPort 1.2 and Power Delivery 3.0 support), as well as an Audio jack. Then, on the right side, you get a USB Type-A 2.0 port, and an SD card reader.


Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance

To open this notebook, you need to undo 10 Phillips-head screws. Then, pry the bottom panel with a plastic tool, and remove it from the chassis.

This device’s 45Wh battery pack lasts for nearly 10 hours of Web browsing, or 7 hours of video playback. To take it out, unplug the battery connector from the motherboard, and undo all 6 Phillips-head screws that hold it in place.

Memory-wise, there are either 4 or 8GB of DDR4 RAM soldered to the motherboard. In addition, you get one SODIMM slot for further expansion. Our unit features one M.2 PCIe x4 slot, which supports Gen 4 SSDs, but runs them at Gen 3 speeds. By the way, configurations that ship with the smaller battery, get a 2.5-inch SATA drive bay.

The cooling here comprises a single heat pipe, a heat sink, and a fan. Thankfully, the VRMs have a couple of heat spreaders to manage their heat.


Display quality

Lenovo IdeaPad 3 (17″, 2022) is equipped with a Full HD IPS panel, model number LEN173FHD (LEN9082). Its diagonal is 17.3″ (43.94 cm), and the resolution is 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 127 ppi, and a pitch of 0.2 х 0.2 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 69cm (27″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

Viewing angles are comfortable. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The measured maximum brightness of 350 nits in the middle of the screen and 344 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of only 4%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 7000K – a bit colder than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

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. The contrast ratio is good – 1120:1.

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. 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 3 (17″, 2022)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 96% 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 see the scores of Lenovo IdeaPad 3 (17″, 2022) with the “Gaming and Web design” profile.

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 = 32 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.


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.

The backlight of the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 (17″, 2022) doesn’t use PWM to adjust its levels of brightness. This means the display is comfortable for use, without presenting any excessive eye strain 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.

Gloss level measurement

Glossy-coated displays are sometimes inconvenient in high ambient light conditions. We show the level of reflection on the screen for the respective laptop when the display is turned off and the measurement angle is 60° (in this case, the result is 66.5 GU).


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 3 (17″, 2022) configurations with 17.3″ FHD IPS LEN173FHD (LEN9082).

*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 3 (17″, 2022)’s speakers produce a sound of pretty good quality. Its low, mid, and high tones are all clear of deviations.


Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/3-series/ideapad-3-17aba7/downloads/driver-list

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with the 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. Here, the 45Wh battery pack lasts for 9 hours and 45 minutes of Web browsing, or 7 hours and 16 minutes of video playback.

Brightness: 180 nits; Display Mode: SDR
Time to Full Discharge: Higher is Better

HP 470 G9 41Wh, 3-cell

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.


CPU options

This laptop features either the Ryzen 3 5425U, Ryzen 5 5625U, or Ryzen 7 5825U.


GPU options

Here, there is no dedicated graphics option. This is why you only get the integrated solutions, which are pretty powerful, but you need dual-channel RAM to get the most out of them.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS138 fps87 fps60 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS125 fps79 fps45 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.

AMD Ryzen 7 5825U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 (17″, 2022)2.85 GHz @ 66°C @ 32W2.83 GHz @ 78°C @ 32W2.68 GHz @ 77°C @ 26W
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 (15″, 2022)2.83 GHz @ 71°C @ 32W2.83 GHz @ 77°C @ 32W2.64 GHz @ 80°C @ 26W
HP ProBook 455 G92.59 GHz @ 64°C @ 27W2.48 GHz @ 75°C @ 25W1.84 GHz @ 65°C @ 15W
ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED (UM3402)3.09 GHz @ 79°C @ 44W2.82 GHz @ 90°C @ 35W2.73 GHz @ 86°C @ 30W

Here, we see a decent short, medium, and long-run performance. In this case, you can’t really make a difference between the 15 and 17-inch versions of the IdeaPad 3.

Comfort during full load

This device gets quite warm during extreme workloads, but it’s far away from being uncomfortable. Also, the noise levels are pretty good.


Verdict

Once again, IdeaPad 3 (17″, 2022) defies expectations. Indeed, it is just a minor upgrade over last year. However, this doesn’t make the laptop any less terrific. It’s got a great performance, courtesy of the Ryzen 5x25U processors.

In addition, you get a pretty good battery life. Perhaps, the 2-hour decrease in video playback, compared to last year is not great, but still, 10 hours of Web browsing and 7 hours of video playback is okay for 17-inch notebooks.

Lenovo IdeaPad 3 (17″, 2022)’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, good contrast ratio, and comfortable viewing angles. This is what makes the average IPS display good. However, this one offers more.

You get 96% sRGB coverage and pretty accurate color representation with our Gaming and Web design profile. Furthermore, it doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment. We can’t think of a reason not to use this display for professional color-related work.

Here is the moment to say that this device is also sold with a 1600×900 TN panel. It should not really be considered. Also, we have to mention that the keyboard isn’t very comfortable for long typing sessions, mainly because of the uneven feedback. Plus, there is no backlight.

We would also love to see a larger touchpad, although the one provided does a good job with its responsive touch sampling. What we like, on the other hand, is that the power button features an optional fingerprint reader, while the camera has a privacy shutter on top of it.

Unfortunately, the body shows too much flex when twisted. This is a common flaw between IdeaPad 3 (17″, 2021) and IdeaPad 3 (17″, 2022). Thankfully, Lenovo has given us something to be excited about – the USB Type-C port now supports Power Delivery and DisplayPort 1.2 output.

An SD card reader is another port that provides some excitement. This laptop is lowkey a great machine for photographers on a budget. You can expand its soldered memory, and you can put fast storage in it. Yes, the right USB Type-A port runs at 2.0 speeds, but the general feeling of this laptop is good. Moreover, it is a significantly better option than the HP 470 G9.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-ideapad-3-17-2022/

Pros

  • 1x SODIMM, 1x M.2 PCIe x4, 1x 2.5-inch SATA (optional)
  • Optional fingerprint reader
  • 96% sRGB coverage and accurate color representation with our Gaming and Web design profile (LEN173FHD (LEN9082))
  • No PWM (LEN173FHD (LEN9082))
  • SD card slot
  • Surprisingly good performance
  • Decent battery life


Cons

  • Plastic build with mediocre quality
  • The keyboard is not great

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