The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook might be the battery champ of the year

What you need to know

• Lenovo announced the IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook at MWC 2023.
• This Chromebook has a 14-inch display and is powered by MediaTek’s Kompanio 520.
• There are three different configurations available in May 2023 with a starting price of $340.

You may remember that at the end of 2022 MediaTek announced the Kompanio 520 and 520 processors. Both of these chips were designed with the best cheap Chromebooks in mind, and now that the calendar has flipped to 2023, more options are emerging. It’s the latest company to announce Chromebooks and utilize MediaTek chips.

This 14-inch Chromebook follows in the footsteps of the ASUS CM14 and CM14 Flip Chromebooks with the same Kompanio 520 chip. However, the IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook isn’t Lenovo’s first with this processor, as the 100e Chromebook Gen 4 and 300e Yoga Chromebook Gen 4 were announced in his January.

The Kompanio 520 is aimed at the low-budget and entry-level market, but is more than capable of handling many everyday tasks. This doesn’t match something like the Acer Chromebook 516 GE, but it’s a bit closer to the HP Chromebook x360 13b, which uses the Kompanio 828 chip.

The IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook paired with the Kompanio 520 includes up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 64GB or 128GB of eMMC storage. The port selection is a little frustrating, as this Chromebook features one USB-C port, one USB-A port, and a 3.5mm audio combo jack.

But if portability is the name of the game, this Chromebook does wonders as it’s rated to last up to 13.5 hours on a single charge. So this is important when it comes to these MediaTek powered Chromebooks. But they’ll last forever until you don’t have to reach for a charger anymore.