Lenovo Computer Review
I’m no IT guru, so this is a total non-techy user review. I’ve owned and used this laptop computer September of 2021, and I love it! It was well past time for an upgrade, and I spent a lot of time looking at laptops, trying to decide what fit my needs and wants best. I narrowed it down to a few from Asus, Dell, Acer, and Lenovo. Even though this is marketed as a gaming laptop, it’s important to note that I am not a computer guru, nor am I a gamer. I don’t own a single game, so I can’t review it from that standpoint. I simply wanted a computer for everyday computing and web surfing, managing my music collection, editing photos, and running my telescopes (astronomy is one of my hobbies.)
For my purposes, this computer is fast! It boots up in just a few seconds. The graphics are great! Being able to change the keyboard backlighting color is a great feature for me. Astronomy is a hobby of mine, so my keyboard lighting is red, since I don’t want bright light sources ruining my dark-adapted night vision when I'm using the laptop with my telescopes at night.
No computer is perfect, and I do have a few minor nit-picks with this one, though there are none that I find unacceptable. First, this computer came with ABSOLUTELY NO DOCUMENTATION! No manual, printed or otherwise. Not even a quick-start guide. No CD with a manual or utilities. All you get in the box is the laptop and the power cord/AC adapter. In spite of the lack of documentation, it was pretty easy for me to power it up and start using it. Next, the AC adapter is very bulky, compared to the ones that come with most other laptops. It’s about 6”x 3”x 1”, it’s heavy for its size, and it’s situated in the middle of the power cord. I will say that the power cord is quite long, which is good. The power cord plugs into the back of the unit, rather than on the side. There’s only one USB port on right side of the computer, and there’s a USB-C port and a headphone jack on the left side. I would have preferred two side USB ports, but there are three more on the back of the unit, along with a HDMI port, another USB-C port, and a LAN connection. There’s plenty of connectability, if you don’t mind most of it being on the back of the unit. The speakers sound like typical laptop speakers, and I think it’s silly to expect much more than that. I use headphones, Bluetooth speakers, or I just Bluetooth my music from the laptop to my home stereo system. Last, the battery doesn’t last long as long as I’d like, but that’s to be expected from a computer with the high-end processing and graphics capability this computer has. For every day, non-gaming use, I get about two-and-a-half to three hours of use from the battery before I need to recharge it. If you need portability power, you’d do well to use all of the power saving settings, have an alternate power supply to plug into, or an extra battery, or consider another computer altogether. Again, none of these are things that cause me any real issues, but they might for others. In spite of them all, I do love this machine!
One of the things about this computer that was a big selling point for me is that it was sold directly by Amazon, rather than a third-party vendor on Amazon. I hear a lot of hard luck stories from folks who bought computers from third-party vendors who had a tough time either getting warranty service for computers with problems, or returning them for refunds. And a lot of computers offered by third-party vendors have been modified by those vendors. I read a lot of reviews from customers of a lot of those units, complaining of inferior parts being used for the mods. Luckily for me, I had no desire to return my computer, nor have I had any functionality issues with it. But when I have had to return anything to Amazon, it’s always been a no-hassle experience for me. And to top it off, the Amazon price on this computer was less than that offered directly from Lenovo.
What I like:
Looks great!
It’s fast! Boots up in only a few seconds.
Graphics are top notch.
WIFI and Bluetooth work well
Keyboard backlighting colors are changeable (red is my preference)
10-key pad on keyboard (I use this a lot!)
Sold directly by Amazon (at least it was when I bought mine)
What I don’t like:
NO documentation
The battery could last longer
Most of the connectivity ports are on the back of the computer
Bulky AC adapter
Annoying occasional sales nags from McAfee and Microsoft. Fairly easily removed.
| Standing screen display size | 15.6 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 Pixels |
| Processor | 3.2 GHz ryzen_7 |
| RAM | 16 DDR4 |
| Memory Speed | 3200 MHz |
| Hard Drive | 512 GB SSD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti |
| Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
| Card Description | Dedicated |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 32 GB |
| Wireless Type | Bluetooth |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 4 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 6 Hours |
