Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 strikes the balance between budget and power

Budget gaming with a healthy dose of power.

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What you need to know

Lenovo’s latest gaming laptops are all about bringing on the newest processors from Intel, and that extends all the way to the bottom of its lineup. The new IdeaPad Gaming 3 brings the chips on board, while rounding things out with some modest specs that should still manage to bring respectable framerates to most modern games.

On board, you’ll find Core i5 an Core i7 chips from Intel’s new H-series mobile processors, along with NVIDIA GTX 1650 graphics. There’s also 8GB of DDR4 RAM and up to 512GB of M.2 PCIe SSD storage. The display is a 1080p FHD panel at 15.6 inches and available in either 60Hz or 120Hz.

Because of its lower price tag, you’ll miss out on a few things that made it to Lenovo’s other gaming refreshes. While there’s a new design with an angled back, Lenovo’s TrueStrike keyboard isn’t included here. However, the trackpad is now 30 percent larger, giving you much more space to work with.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 is expected to go on sale in May alongside its Legion siblings, with prices starting at $730.

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Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter@DthorpLand Instagram@heyitsdtl.