The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) offers premium performance with a strong focus on engineering tasks, 3D and machine learning, and intense general usage. It's less portable due to its weight but compensates with superior battery life, display quality, and build. It's more expensive but boasts a high-quality screen and sound, making it excellent for multimedia. The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" is more budget-friendly and offers a larger screen, though with lower overall performance, making it suitable for everyday tasks and light engineering work. Its battery life and build quality rank lower, but it remains relatively portable and comes with a numeric keypad on the keyboard. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs and product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars and the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Advantages of the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023)
Excellent for general use
Very good for engineering and design
Good for gaming and AI
Very good for software development
Excellent for content creation
Excellent overall display quality
Best in class overall build quality
Best in class battery life
Best in class speakers
Best in class keyboard
Advantages of the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17"
The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" has no clear advantages over the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023).
Key differences
General Use
9.1/10
7.3/10
3456 x 2234
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
Mini LED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
487.0 nits
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
307.0 nits
17.5 Hours
BATTERY LIFE
9.0 Hours
9.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
6.5/10
7.6/10
PORTABILITY SCORE
7.1/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is excellent for general use, while the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" is good.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) provides exceptional general use performance due to its powerful CPU, ample RAM, superior screen quality with high brightness and color accuracy, and long battery life, though it comes at the cost of being less portable. In contrast, the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" offers good general performance with a decent processor and RAM, satisfactory screen resolution and size for everyday tasks, and adequate portability, but falls short with lower screen brightness and colors, shorter battery life, and less robust build and input device quality.
Gaming and AI
7.4/10
6.1/10
5.8/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
3.6/10
3456 x 2234
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
120Hz
REFRESH RATE
60Hz
No
SUPPORTS DLSS
No
No
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
No
8.7/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
9.5/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is good for gaming and AI, while the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" is only fair.
PerfectRec’s Gaming and AI Score strongly emphasizes graphics processing capability, while also taking into account other factors that impact suitability for gaming and AI work.
Engineering and Design
8.8/10
6.6/10
8.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
5.8/10
5.8/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
3.6/10
16.0 GB
RAM
8.0 GB
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is very good for engineering and design, while the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" is only fair.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is better suited for engineering and design because it has a more powerful CPU and GPU, more RAM, and a higher quality screen that shows colors more accurately. In contrast, the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" has a weaker CPU and GPU, less RAM, and a lower quality screen, which makes it less ideal for demanding engineering tasks and design work where precision and detail are crucial.
Content Creation
9.1/10
7.4/10
8.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
5.8/10
3456 x 2234
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
16.0 GB
RAM
8.0 GB
Mini LED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is excellent for content creation, while the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" is good.
PerfectRec’s Content Creation Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for photo editing, video editing and other content creation tasks.
Software Development
8.9/10
7.2/10
8.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
5.8/10
16.0 GB
RAM
8.0 GB
3456 x 2234
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
9.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
6.5/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is very good for software development, while the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" is good.
PerfectRec’s Software Development Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for software developers.
Screen Quality
9.3/10
6.7/10
16.2in
SIZE
17.3in
3456 x 2234
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
Mini LED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
120Hz
REFRESH RATE
60Hz
487.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
307.0 nits
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 has a better screen than the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" for general use, AI, engineering and design, software development, and content creation.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) excels in screen quality for general use and engineering due to its high-resolution display, impressive color accuracy covering extensive color gamuts, and superior brightness, making it ideal for detailed visuals and precision work. However, its screen falls short for 3D applications because it typically does not prioritize the high refresh rates required for smooth rendering of fast-paced graphics. The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" provides a decent display for general use and engineering with respectable resolution and color representation but might lack the higher-end specifications of premium models, and for gaming and 3D, its screen's lower refresh rate could impede the gaming experience.
Battery
17.5 Hours
9.0 Hours
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 has 17.5 hours of battery life. The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" has 9 hours of battery life.
Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.
Build Quality
10.0/10
6.5/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) has best in class build quality, while the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" has only fair build quality.
PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.
Cost
$2,423
$784
$0
$1,000
$2,000
$3,000
$4,000
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) has a price of $2,423 and the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" costs $784.
"The Apple MacBook Pro 16 2023: M2 Max challenges GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. The new MacBook Pro 16 2023 with the M2 Max SoC is the most powerful laptop Apple has on sale right now. While we do not get the expected performance and efficiency improvements from completely new 3 nm chips, which we expected ahead of the launch, the 2023 model is still a solid update. The CPU of the M2 Max can be up to 20 % faster than the old model and we also see an advantage of 25-30 % for the GPU with 38 cores. However, both components also consume more power, so the efficiency did not change that much under maximum load."
"The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17" defies expectations. Indeed, it is just a minor upgrade over last year. However, this doesn’t make the laptop any less terrific. It’s got a great performance, courtesy of the Ryzen 5x25U processors. In addition, you get a pretty good battery life. Perhaps, the 2-hour decrease in video playback, compared to last year is not great, but still, 10 hours of Web browsing and 7 hours of video playback is okay for 17-inch notebooks."
Get a great deal on the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) or the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 17"
About Apple
Apple, an American technology company, is one of the world’s largest company in terms of market capitalization. Their MacBook laptops feature a slim, minimalistic design, class-leading battery life, and premium display and speaker quality. In 2020 Apple switched from using Intel processors to their own silicon chips which have excellent performance and efficiency. The macOS operating system is the second most widely used OS, after Windows.
About Lenovo
Lenovo is a Chinese technology company, and one of the largest personal computer vendor. They are well known for a variety of technology products, including laptops. Their consumer series include their entry level IdeaPad and LOQ series and mid-to-high-end Yoga and Legion series. On the business-oriented side, their series include their entry-level ThinkBook series and mid-to-high-end ThinkPad series. Lenovo laptops offer strong performance for reasonable prices, and are often on sale.
This information was produced and vetted by the PerfectRec laptops team. We are a product research and recommendation organization that meticulously reviews and evaluates the latest laptop information and makes it digestible for you.
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