Overall, I was quite impressed with the level of service Lenovo offered both via its various channels on the web and during phone calls, but as part of our tech support investigation this year, we looked across a range of laptops for each brand and there are definitely discernible differences in the service you receive based on the laptop you buy. For the most part, Lenovo’s tech support got me to a solution for any problem that I threw at it, but the speed with which I was helped and the expediency of the solution offered varied among the brands. Also, on two occasions, I was given flatly incorrect information. Here’s a closer look at all of my interactions with Lenovo tech support for our 2022 investigation.
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Lenovo tech support
Every year, we create unique brand-specific questions and a more general question to serve as a control that we all share. This year, the control question was, “How do I change the touchpad sensitivity?” I then had a separate question to ask regarding each of the laptops. For the consumer laptop, an IdeaPad 3, I asked “How do I maximize battery life?” (the Lenovo Vantage app). For the Lenovo Yoga 9i, I asked, “How do I change what the buttons on the pen do?” (the Lenovo Pen Settings). For the Lenovo Legion 5, I asked, “How do I turn off the RGB lights on the keyboard?” (the Lenovo Vantage app). And finally, for the Lenovo X1 Carbon, I asked, “How do I maximize battery life?” (the Lenovo Vantage app).
Web and social support
For those who prefer to avoid phone calls, there are many different ways to find help with your Lenovo laptop online. One option is to go straight to the source with the Lenovo PC Technical Support (opens in new tab) page. This is where you will find Lenovo drivers, updates, how-to guides, technical help and where you can download Lenovo Service Bridge. Lenovo Service Bridge automatically detects all of the details about your laptop and will give you relevant support information. It will also give you information about your warranty, how to contact the support center, and it lists your serial number, which you’ll often need if you decide to call support. You aren’t obligated to download Lenovo Service Bridge, so if you’d prefer to skip it, you’ll just need to enter either the serial number or the full model name of your laptop. Entering your serial number will add your warranty details, but otherwise, the interface is the same either way. You’ll see an image of your laptop in the upper-left corner and a variety of options to help you diagnose a problem or find an answer yourself as well as the links to contact Lenovo directly. Most basic problems are addressed on this page either through how-to guides or knowledge base, but if you run into something more unusual, you may find the answer in the Lenovo Community (opens in new tab) site. The forums are very active with specific forums for each brand. I found the search results to be hit or miss, but if you pose a question, it will typically be answered within a couple of hours. Lenovo doesn’t have a standalone mobile app, but the site performs well enough on mobile that this isn’t an issue. On your laptop, the Lenovo Vantage app (Commercial Vantage for business laptops) is a great resource for troubleshooting, accessing your settings, viewing system information, software updates and viewing your warranty information. Using the Lenovo Vantage app, I connected with tech support via online chat at 6:15 PM ET, and asked, “How do I make sure I have the best performance for gaming on my Legion 5?” This is available in the Legion Edge section of the Lenovo Vantage app. After a few minutes of back and forth clarifying what I was looking to do, they asked if they could use remote access to control my laptop. I agreed, and then connected and showed where to find the relevant section of the Lenovo Vantage app including how to set for maximum performance and setting network boost when playing online games. The entire process took about 19 minutes, and while the remote access seemed unnecessary, the agent eventually did a thorough job of answering the question and demonstrating where the settings were. On Twitter, @LenovoSupport handles tech support questions. I asked at 12:57 p.m. ET, “How to change the touchpad sensitivity on my Yoga 9i?” I received a presumably automated reply at 12:58 p.m ET stating that “In order to assist you, we will send your case to an agent.” At 1:20 p.m., they then asked for my serial number and 20 minutes after providing, I was sent a link to the relevant video on the Lenovo support site. The Lenovo Support account also handles Facebook inquiries, and my experience there was quite similar. I asked at 9:34 a.m. ET, “How do I disable the touchpad on my laptop?” I got a response at 9:35 a.m. ET, indicating that my case was being assigned to an agent and received the follow up 14 minutes later asking for my serial number. After providing it, I had a response within five minutes providing a link to the relevant page and video on the Lenovo support site that walks through a couple of different ways to get this done. My experience with Lenovo’s website was quite good. While the volume of options can be overwhelming, it does a solid job of limiting things to your laptop as soon as you either enter your serial number or pull it up via Lenovo Support Bridge. The social media and chat based support were also good, managing to answer my questions correctly in a reasonably timely manner. Finally, the Lenovo Vantage app itself is an excellent resource, housing some of the most critical settings tailored to your laptop and giving you easy access to support as well. Lenovo doesn’t have a standalone mobile app, but the site performs well enough on mobile that this isn’t an issue. On your laptop, the Lenovo Vantage app (Commercial Vantage for business laptops) is a great resource for troubleshooting, accessing your settings, viewing system information, software updates and viewing your warranty information. Using the Lenovo Vantage app, I connected with tech support via online chat at 6:15 PM ET, and asked, “How do I make sure I have the best performance for gaming on my Legion 5?” This is available in the Legion Edge section of the Lenovo Vantage app. After a few minutes of back and forth clarifying what I was looking to do, they asked if they could use remote access to control my laptop. I agreed, and then connected and showed where to find the relevant section of the Lenovo Vantage app including how to set for maximum performance and setting network boost when playing online games. The entire process took about 19 minutes, and while the remote access seemed unnecessary, the agent eventually did a thorough job of answering the question and demonstrating where the settings were. On Twitter, @LenovoSupport handles tech support questions. I asked at 12:57 p.m. ET, “How to change the touchpad sensitivity on my Yoga 9i?” I received a presumably automated reply at 12:58 p.m ET stating that “In order to assist you, we will send your case to an agent.” At 1:20 p.m., they then asked for my serial number and 20 minutes after providing, I was sent a link to the relevant video on the Lenovo support site. The Lenovo Support account also handles Facebook inquiries, and my experience there was quite similar. I asked at 9:34 a.m. ET, “How do I disable the touchpad on my laptop?” I got a response at 9:35 a.m. ET, indicating that my case was being assigned to an agent and received the follow up 14 minutes later asking for my serial number. After providing it, I had a response within five minutes providing a link to the relevant page and video on the Lenovo support site that walks through a couple of different ways to get this done. My experience with Lenovo’s website was quite good. While the volume of options can be overwhelming, it does a solid job of limiting things to your laptop as soon as you either enter your serial number or pull it up via Lenovo Support Bridge. The social media and chat based support were also good, managing to answer my questions correctly in a reasonably timely manner. Finally, the Lenovo Vantage app itself is an excellent resource, housing some of the most critical settings tailored to your laptop and giving you easy access to support as well.
Standard Consumer phone support
For the Lenovo IdeaPad 3, I called up the Standard Consumer tech support, which is 1-877-453-6686. This call center is located in the Philippines (additional staff in Mumbai, India) and is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time. My control call was at 5:28 p.m. ET, and I made my way through the automated system to talk to a tech support person. This meant passing on the chance to have someone call me back later. I was connected to a live support person after 2 minutes and 13 seconds and they confirmed my serial number. I asked, “How do I change the touchpad sensitivity on my laptop?” They then asked for my name and walked me through the settings menu to devices and then the touchpad settings. This was one of the more expedient methods to make this change and the entire call was done in 5 minutes and 3 seconds. My second call with consumer phone support was less successful. I proceeded through the automated system again and was listening to hold music while waiting to be connected with a support person. Then…someone hung up on me. That took 5 minutes and 6 seconds. Wading through the support line, I was connected to someone after 2 minutes and 21 seconds this time. I asked them “How do I maximize the battery life?” They first asked how many hours I had been able to use the laptop, but they confirmed I was over 16 and asked for my laptop’s serial number and my name. After having me hold for a couple of minutes, they instructed me that there was no way to change this setting and that the laptop only had “two cells.” The call took 9 minutes and 21 seconds. The first call was perfectly acceptable; I didn’t have to wait too long and they gave a helpful guided answer to the question. Trying to get the second question answered was a uniformly terrible experience. Being hung up on presumably wasn’t the fault of an actual person, but having that be followed by someone instructing me that there is no way to change the battery settings on a laptop was frustrating. I can accept not knowing the fastest solution, but I don’t know how it is possible to have taken the time to look that up and not come away with some answer.
Premium Care phone support
With the Lenovo Yoga 9i, I had access to the Lenovo Premium Care support line, which is 1-888-278-9707. This call center is located in the Philippines (additional staff in Mumbai, India) and is available 24/7. My control call took place at 5:28 p.m. ET, and I was greeted by an automated message with a series of options to jump through including asking if I would like to leave my number and receive a callback. I opted to hold and was connected to a support person after about 15 seconds. I asked them, “How do I change the touchpad sensitivity on my Yoga 9i?” and they had me go through the process of creating an account with them. This took about 3 to 4 minutes, requiring my name, email address, phone number and then finally the serial number for my laptop. After all of that, they addressed my question quickly, directing me to the touchpad settings via the Start Menu and Control Panel. All told, the call lasted 8 minutes and 12 seconds, which was mostly due to the one-time account setup process. My second call for the Yoga 9i was at 5:10 PM ET (different day), this time the messaging regarding delays was gone, so it only took about twenty seconds to get through the automated system. I was connected with a support person within forty seconds and this time only asked the serial number of my laptop, my name and my phone number. I asked “How do you change what the buttons on the stylus do?” They had me hold for just short of two minutes as they looked into the answer and then had me access Lenovo Pen Settings from the Start menu to make the change and confirmed that was what I had wanted. The entire call this time lasted 5 minutes and 35 seconds. Overall I was pleased with the experience, in both cases I was able to get through to a live person essentially immediately after making it through the not overly long automated portion of the call. Both were courteous and pleasant and answered my question with the most direct method.
Legion Ultimate phone support
With the Lenovo Legion 5, I called Legion Ultimate tech support, which uses the same number as the Premium Care 1-888-278-9707 but you press 1 for gaming. This call center is located in the Philippines (additional staff in Mumbai, India) and is available 24/7. The control call took place at 9:56 a.m. ET, and I was connected to a support person within 30 seconds. I asked them, “How do I change the touchpad sensitivity?” They first confirmed that I was over 16, something only one other support person asked, then asked for my email address to look up my account, my serial number and my address. I indicated that I’d rather not provide my address and they didn’t press the issue. The method they used to get me to the touchpad controls was via the Lenovo Vantage app. While this was ultimately successful in getting me to the settings menu, it isn’t the fastest or most intuitive option. The call in total took 7 minutes and 27 seconds, which is OK but longer than necessary. My other call took place at 6:16 p.m. ET, and within 20 seconds I was connected to a representative. I asked them, “How do I turn off the RGB lighting on the keyboard?” They directed me to the Lenovo Vantage app and instructed me to scroll down to the “Lighting” section and the option I wanted was there. The entire call took 2 minutes and 6 seconds. The control call was less than ideal due to the rather convoluted solution to my problem, but they were pleasant throughout and ultimately answered the question, just not in the way that I wanted them to. The other call was flawless; they didn’t even have to ask me to wait as they looked up the solution and walked me through it in the fastest way possible without asking any extraneous questions.
Commercial Premier phone support
With the X1 Carbon, I called the Commercial Premier tech support, which is 1‐855-669-3600. This call center is based in Morrisville, North Carolina and is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time Monday through Friday, but after hours support is available seven days a week. My control call took place at 5:37 p.m. ET, and I was connected to a support person within 30 seconds. They immediately asked for my name and then confirmed whether this was a new or pre-existing case. I asked, “How do you change the sensitivity on the touchpad?” They directed me to simply type touchpad into the search bar in the lower-left corner and click on touchpad settings when it popped up. The entire call lasted for 1 minute and 49 seconds. My second call was a near carbon copy of the first. I placed the call at 10:05 ET, connected to a tech support person in 34 seconds. This time around, they asked for my name, serial number and a phone number to get back to me if the call was disconnected. I asked, “How do I maximize the battery life on my X1 Carbon?” They directed me to the battery icon in the Windows 10 tray and indicated that I should use the power slider to switch to “best battery life” and cautioned that I’d need to watch that anytime I unplugged. They then went on to explain that I could also make changes to the charging profile in the Commercial Vantage app to extend the overall lifespan of the battery. The entire call lasted 7 minutes and 10 seconds. Both calls were excellent for slightly different reasons. The first was efficient, getting me the answer I needed without a lot of extra questions. The second went through the more complete verification process, although you do still get to skip the automated system, and then took a fair amount of time, but only due to the tech support person answering the simple version of my question and then going above and beyond with a battery health answer that would help my laptop long term.
Warranty
All of Lenovo’s consumer laptops come with a minimum of a one-year warranty. Commercial laptops vary with some including a one-year and others a three-year warranty. The standard consumer warranty covers parts and labor for repairs done at a central depot, but the cost of mailing in the laptop is not included. Premium Care, Legion Ultimate and Commercial Premier add onsite support with typically next business day repairs. Accidental damage protection isn’t included as part of the base package with any of Lenovo’s plans, but you can purchase it for an additional cost. Other available upgrades include “Keep Your Drive” if you have specific data security requirements this will allow you to keep your drive even if it needs to be replaced under warranty. International Upgrade extends your coverage outside of your country. Sealed Battery Replacement is self-explanatory and Tech Install CRU will have a Lenovo Technician install user replaceable parts for you. Basic upgrades to your storage or RAM will not void your warranty, but damage you caused during the upgrade will not be repaired as part of the warranty coverage nor will damage caused by upgraded hardware. The various higher tiers of warranty coverage can be extended by up to four years depending on your model, and up to five years with Legion Ultimate Support. As addressed in the phone support section, some of the higher tiers of service also include access to different levels of phone support.
Bottom line
Lenovo’s customer service impressed me overall with only one truly bad experience across all of my interactions. It’s unsurprising, but unfortunate that this was with the tech support for the budget laptop. However, my other interaction with the standard consumer support was good, so it’s not a given that it will be a problem. Tech support is otherwise similar regardless of which tier of laptop you have; the website, forums and Vantage app do an excellent job of guiding you through most issues you might encounter and both social media and virtual chat are quick to respond if you want human help without picking up a phone. Warranty coverage varies, but upgrades are available and not terribly expensive for any tier of laptop. Phone support was Lenovo’s biggest downfall in our previous report, and while its budget consumer phone support could still use a boost, it has caught up to its otherwise stellar tech support experience at all other levels.
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