Lenovo IdeaPad 15.6" for Business & Home & Student Review

The Lenovo IdeaPad is a solid, no-frills workhorse for everyday tasks. It's packing 24GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, which is a lot of memory and storage for the price.

But you're getting a 12th-gen Intel i5 CPU and integrated Iris Xe graphics. That means it's fine for spreadsheets, web browsing, and video calls, but don't expect it to handle anything heavy like video editing or gaming.

The 10-core i5-1235U lands in the 28th percentile for CPU performance, so it's on the slower side for modern chips. It'll get your office work done, but you'll feel it lag if you push it. The 24GB of RAM is the real star here, letting you keep a ton of tabs and apps open without a hitch. The integrated GPU is predictably weak, scoring in the 18th percentile. Gaming is basically off the table.

At $649, the value is a mixed bag. You're getting an exceptional amount of RAM and decent storage that you usually don't see at this price. But you're paying for that by accepting older, slower core components. If your budget is tight and you just need a machine for basic tasks with great multitasking headroom, it's a decent deal. If you need any real processing power, look elsewhere.

Compared to something like an ASUS Zenbook Duo, you lose out on portability, a better screen, and much faster performance, but you gain a ton of RAM for less money. Against a gaming laptop like the MSI Vector, there's no contest for power. The real competition is other budget laptops. This IdeaPad wins on raw memory but loses on almost every other spec, especially the aging CPU. The Apple MacBook Pro is in a completely different league and price bracket.

Buy this if you're a student or home user on a strict budget who needs a laptop for basic office work, web browsing, and having dozens of Chrome tabs open at once. The 24GB RAM is its killer feature. Avoid it if you need speed for applications, care about display quality, want to do any gaming, or plan to carry it around a lot.