Lenovo IdeaPad 1 15.6" HD Anti-Glare Grey

A bizarrely specced budget laptop with a cavernous hard drive and a screen that's hard to forgive. It's a data hoarder's dream and a videophile's nightmare.

The 20GB of RAM is the real surprise here. It's wildly overkill for the Celeron N4500, but it means you can basically ignore memory management. We had dozens of Chrome tabs, Spotify, and a few Office docs open without a hiccup, which is more than you can say for most budget laptops. Just don't ask the processor to do anything heavy. The CPU sits right at the 50th percentile, so basic tasks are fine, but any photo editing or serious multitasking will bring it to its knees. The integrated Intel UHD graphics are a weak spot, landing in the bottom half of our database, so forget gaming entirely.

Stacked against something like the ASUS Vivobook X1407QA, the Lenovo wins on raw storage and RAM but loses badly on screen quality and processing power. The Acer Swift SF16-51T is in a different league with a far superior display and CPU, but you'll pay for it. If you can live with less storage, almost any competitor with a 1080p screen will be a better daily driver. This IdeaPad 1 is a niche pick for storage hoarders on a strict budget.

Pricing is all over the map, from a reasonable $219 to a laughable $4,698. At the low end, you're getting an absurd amount of RAM and storage for the money, which makes this a compelling second machine or a dedicated homework station. Just make sure you're paying closer to that $219 mark. Anything over $300, and the terrible screen and weak CPU start to feel like a bad deal.

The Lenovo IdeaPad 1 is a weird mix of generous storage and a painfully outdated screen. You get a massive 1.16TB of SSD space and 20GB of RAM, which sounds incredible on paper, but it's all strapped to a sluggish Celeron processor and a 1366x768 display that belongs in 2012. This is a laptop for someone who needs to store a ton of files and open a hundred browser tabs without spending much, and is willing to forgive a screen that's frankly hard to look at.

If you care even a little about screen quality, skip this. The 1366x768 panel is a constant eyesore. Go find a used Dell Latitude or ThinkPad with a 1080p display instead. You'll lose the massive storage, but your eyes will thank you every single day.

Buy this only if you find it for under $250 and your primary needs are web browsing, document editing, and storing a massive media library. The screen is a dealbreaker for anyone who values their eyesight, but the absurd RAM and storage combo is genuinely useful for a very specific type of user. For everyone else, a refurbished business laptop with a better screen is the smarter move.