Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 CB 14M868 review - The MediaTek Kompanio 520 introductory Chromebook

Visually, the MediaTek Chromebook's plastic case feels better quality than its price would make you think. As it is also used for much more expensive devices, you will greatly benefit from this. The design is clearly inspired by Apple's MacBook Air and looks great thanks to its sleek shape. Because of its tapered edges, the case appears slimmer than it actually is. Unfortunately, the plastic used for this device is quite prone to attracting scratches. Despite being very careful, we already noticed a few visible scratches on the top part of our test device's case. Compared to Apple's aluminum cases, the IdeaPad may not be able to keep up in terms of haptics or stability, but especially when taking into account its low price, we are very happy with our test sample's case. One small weakness is that you can hear a clicking noise when picking the laptop up by one of its corners, as well as when using the touchpad (although it doesn't seem to make use of an actual button click). Moreover, our test device doesn't sit totally evenly on its two feet.

Compared to its visual inspiration, the Apple MacBook Air, the IdeaPad Slim 3 is considerably thicker and its dimensions sit between the 13 and 15 inch models. In comparison to the similarly inexpensive Asus Chromebook CM14, the IP Slim 3 is a little smaller.

Apart from a Kensington port on the right side of the device, all its other ports are situated on the left—practical for right-handed people. The USB-C port is also used to supply the laptop with power, meaning you may be reliant on a docking station at times to use it. However, like the other USB-A port, the Chromebook only supports USB 3.2 Gen 1 (previously USB 3.0 and therefore 5 Gbps = 400 MB/s). With its headset port and microSD slot, you are actually only missing an HDMI port. As the MediaTek chip's video output is limited to Full HD, the same restrictions apply to external monitors, should you wish to connect one.

The installed microSD card reader achieved below-average results in our benchmarks. Compared to Asus' introductory model, Lenovo has pulled the short straw—however, its performance is fine for occasionally transferring photos and files. When used as a fixed storage medium, its data rates are quite limiting.

The integrated WiFi 6 modem (plugged-in M.2 2230 2x2 module Lenovo 5W11H85391) worked perfectly in our test, but it also didn't achieve any record speeds.

The IP Slim 3 Chrome 14M868 is covered by Lenovo's limited warranty. This can be looked up for individual products using their serial numbers via Lenovo's website. Warranty upgrades are available.

The installed clickpad is quite big (12 cm diagonally) and despite its plastic surface, it feels nice and smooth. Furthermore, the touchpad can be pressed down by 0.7 mm on the bottom 4/5 of its surface, which results in a satisfying and visually-noticeable click effect.

As is usual for ChromeOS, there are no options to control the CPU/GPU performance. Details about the SoC are also barely available. As Android and Linux run using a virtual machine, these also don't make many details available.

The processor part within the MediaTek Kompanio 520 consists of two clusters and a total of eight ARM-based CPU cores. The performance cluster houses two bigger ARM Cortex-A76 cores known from older smartphone processors such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855. There are six small ARM Cortex-A55 cores within the efficiency cluster. All cores have a maximum clock rate of 2 GHz.

When it comes to CPU performance, the small ARM cores can only keep up with the old Intel Pentium N5030 (Gemini Lake Quad-Core at max 3.1 GHz). The new Alder Lake N processors, such as the Intel N100, are considerably faster. Our comparisons were unfortunately restricted to the old Geekbench 5.5, as the newer 6.2 resulted in reproducible crashes.

The MediaTek system's system performance is also limited to absolute introductory levels. The Kompanio 520's total CrossMark score could only keep up with the slow Celeron J4125, remaining far behind newer CPUs. The Celeron N4020, often used in older introductory-level laptops, was left in the dust. Its CrXPRT 2 performance paints a similar picture. The Kompanio came just behind a Celeron N4500, but ahead of an AMD 3015Ce.

These weak benchmark results can also be felt in everyday use. Loading websites is a bit laggy and pages load quite a bit slower than on faster systems. In addition, watching YouTube videos at over 1080p leads to dropped frames and lagging playback. However, as the Chromebook doesn't support output at over 1080p, this negative point shouldn't be too important.

As a storage device, the Lenovo Chromebook relies on slow eMMC 5.1 chips that are soldered on. The introductory model has 64 GB, of which only 46 GB are free to use. A further 10 GB will be needed for Crostini, which really doesn't leave much space for Android and Linux apps or for your own photos and videos.

The weak graphics unit is only suitable for a handful of simple Android games. PUBG, for example, didn't run smoothly at all during our test—even at the lowest detail setting—while Asphalt 8 could be played well. Roblox achieved between 20 and 40fps, depending on the game. The latest version of Steam wasn't available on our test device.

As the small MediaTek processor is cooled passively, the Lenovo Chromebook remains silent even under full load.

Despite the SoC's passive cooling, the laptop's surface temperatures remain very low. We measured a hotspot of only 33°C on the bottom of the device after longer 3D graphics load.