IdeaPad Gaming 3 - Essential Gaming Laptop - 15.6" FHD - 120Hz - AMD Ryzen 5 6600H - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 - 8GB DDR5 RAM - 256GB NVMe Storage - Windows 11 Home

I just picked this laptop up on an awesome sale for $600. What an unbelievable deal. BUT there are a few catches.If you get this laptop on sale, you should consider it an ABSOLUTE necessity to pick yourself up an additional 8gb stick of ddr5 ram and at least a 500gb nvme ssd. Both are extremely easy to install, cost me about $80 total, and took this laptop to a level that is u fathomable for under $700.The screen brightness is probably the biggest let down but gaming in a darker room it is plenty bright. Probably couldn’t be using this thing right next to the window during peak sunlight though.Everything else is rock solid. It’s a simple design that doesn’t scream “I’m a gaming computer” which I like. Solid build, fans are reasonably quiet, temps stay below 70C even when pushing things to the limit, I mean it’s just awesome.Having a 3000 series gpu, even just a 3050, is such a massive upgrade from something like a 1660ti because DLSS is unbelievable. I’m running the newest call of duty (mw2) on basically ultra settings with DLSS set to quality mode and averaging 103fps in the benchmark. And that is making the game look way better than it needs to to be playable.Keep in mind, though, those numbers are only after the RAM upgrade. Before the upgrade I was average ~70fps under the same conditions, which is respectable, but for a cheap $30 ram stick it’s totally worth the 30+% boost to fps.For anyone wondering, yes you can just add a RAM stick and it works, you don’t need to replace the original ram that’s installed. I just got DDR5 4800mhz 1.1V CL40 ram and it worked just fine when I popped it into the systemAnd the extra storage is a must-have as well. The 258gb drive it comes with only has like 160gb usable space after windows takes up all its space so if you want more than like 1 game on your laptop then get a 500gb or 1tb nvme drive. I went with 500gb for ~$50With those upgrades, this thing is performing like a $1000+ laptop and I put it all together for under $700.If you’re on the fence, it’s time to jump off the fence and get this laptop.Last thing to note, this laptop isn’t on sale and it costs like $899 or whatever it usually costs, then it probably isn’t the best value. If you can get it for less than $700 I’d say it’s worth it, otherwise look for options that don’t require you to buy your own ram and storage.

**update: this laptop can at times, be powered on, but have a black screen. No matter how many times it's reset, it will not work. I had to take it apart and remove the ram and reinstall it then it would boot up.I believe I figured out the cause, using hibernation mode! So I changed hibernation mode to sleep mode and haven't had it happen again.That's the only problem I've had, it still works perfectly.****This laptop came perfect, new and not damaged. On its own it was a nice laptop but I upgraded the laptop ram with teamelite group ddr5 4800 2x16gb = 32 gbThen I upgraded the ssd to crucial p5 plus 500gb, used the cloning software to clone existing ssd then switched boot order and formatted the old drive. Everything is super fast and works great.One thing about the backlit keyboard, it does have it but it needs to be turned on in the lenovo software that comes installed.Also great feature if the ethernet port which would be great for gaming I imagine, tho I don't game with this laptop