Lenovo IdeaPad
Shares rank 53 of 63 laptops by recommenders
Recommended as a cheap laptop, often bought on sale, that people have repaired and upgraded for years. Critics call the build flimsy and the specs low.
Recommended as a cheap laptop, often bought on sale, that people have repaired and upgraded for years. Critics call the build flimsy and the specs low.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 43%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 3 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Low price, often on sale
“the only reason to buy is on price: I bought a new one with Pentium Silver CPU and 4Gb RAM for $150 on sale”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “ThinkPad: From IBM's Bento Box to Lenovo's AI Workstations” “I'd still often pick a Lenovo Ideapad or similar for ~$500 or so first”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poor build quality, feels flimsy
“The Ideapads I have encountered over the years are just absolute shit quality.”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “ThinkPad: From IBM's Bento Box to Lenovo's AI Workstations” “Very fragile. It has caused me to run many times to the repair shops.”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Lenovo's New ThinkPads Score 10/10 for Repairability” “My aluminium body Lenovo IdeaPad has exactly the same problem.”
Comment from 11 Apr 2026 in “Filing the Corners Off MacBooks” - Comment from 29 May 2026 in “It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12”
- Comment from 18 May 2026 in “ThinkPad: From IBM's Bento Box to Lenovo's AI Workstations”
Low specs: 4GB RAM, dim screen
“the only reason to buy is on price: I bought a new one with Pentium Silver CPU and 4Gb RAM for $150 on sale”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “ThinkPad: From IBM's Bento Box to Lenovo's AI Workstations” “The screen has 220 nits (vs 500) brightness, comes with 4GB of RAM, and weighs 30% more.”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Parallels Confirms MacBook Neo Can Run Windows in a Virtual Machine”
Other laptops people recommend
The four most recommended other laptops, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple MacBook Pro | 928 | 688 | 57% | 13 | 5 yrs248 owners | — |
| Apple MacBook Neo | 707 | 355 | 66% | 9 | 1 mo8 owners | — |
| MacBook Air | 633 | 209 | 75% | 12 | 5 yrs130 owners | Approved |
| Apple MacBook | 499 | 348 | 59% | 12 | 9 yrs77 owners | — |
| Lenovo IdeaPadThis page | 6 | 8 | 43% | 4 | 3 yrs3 owners | — |
What people said
13 of the 15 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“that lower-end IdeaPad feels like trash”
“I'd still often pick a Lenovo Ideapad or similar for ~$500 or so first”
“the only reason to buy is on price: I bought a new one with Pentium Silver CPU and 4Gb RAM for $150 on sale”
“I avoid ideapads and yogas.”
“The Ideapads I have encountered over the years are just absolute shit quality.”
“My aluminium body Lenovo IdeaPad has exactly the same problem.”
“The screen has 220 nits (vs 500) brightness, comes with 4GB of RAM, and weighs 30% more.”
“indistinguishable from a myriad of bargain bin business laptops, including Lenovo's own ideapads.”
“Very fragile. It has caused me to run many times to the repair shops.”
“recently installing Fedora 43 on my Ideapad”
“I have a lenovo from 2015 that's gotten it's wifi card, power IC, RAM - all replaced at some point for very cheap”
“it was eye-wateringly expensive”
“On the down side are soldered ram, and shorter vnme drives that have apparently had higher failure rates”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.