Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Chromebook 14inch FHD Laptop (Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Intel Iris Xe Graphics, Chrome OS) – Storm Grey

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All comparison systems, except the Asus VivoBook S 14 (S433), scored above 5,000 on the PCMark 10 Full Productivity Test Suite, indicating a laptop fully capable of performing standard office tasks. In fact, 4,000 is the cutoff for that, so all of these units can hold their own with productivity tasks. When you take a device with you everywhere, it makes a good first impression. You can choose a color that best suits your style with numerous options. With a 360° hinge, the IdeaPad devices can be used as a laptop or tablet. Lenovo uses 360-degree steel-encased hinges, and this design allows the user to work in four different modes at one time. Take your laptop or tablet anywhere you want to, and use it however you like. That's in addition to two intermediate configurations that make the laptop's keyboard more discrete for greater convenience while performing video and touch screen-dependent tasks. With my WiFi 6 router, I’m getting superb transfer speeds and I haven’t experienced any Bluetooth issues. Battery life is closer to that 8-hour mark that I figured, not the 10 hours that Lenovo claims. Then again, they use a standard controlled test. I simply used the device as I would daily, so your mileage may vary. The only i5 competitor here is the Asus VivoBook S14 (S433), with its 11th Generation Intel Core i5-1135G7 and 8GB of RAM—all the others have 16GB. These laptops all have Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, so you won’t be using any as a dedicated gaming laptop. The sound quality on the IdeaPad 5i Chromebook Gen 6 is decent. It’s not the greatest but does offer plenty no matter what you’re playing. Since the speakers are front-facing, you’re getting the most out of the sound quality versus what you would if the speakers were at the bottom of the laptop.

If you’re in the market for a higher-end Chromebook, want a 2-in-1 device, or desire a touchscreen, this isn’t the Chromebook for you. Anyone else on a limited budget should definitely consider the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Chromebook, although I’d recommend waiting for a sale. The newest chip is a Pentium processor but handily beats a Core i5 that’s two generations old. And it fares better against last year’s Core i3 mobile CPU as well.The two P-cores in the 1235U are capable of multi-threading and can run at a maximum turbo power of 4.4GHz. The eight E-cores are capable of a maximum 3.3GHz. The CPU’s base power is 15 watts, while the maximum turbo power is 55 watts. The Flex 5i also supports Rapid Charge Boost, regaining two hours of use from the 52.5Wh battery on just a 15-minute charge. Interestingly, both the Flex 5i and the Yoga 7i showed great variance between 100% and 50% brightness, with the Flex 5i shifting from 400.8 nits at 100% all the way down to 47.6 nits at 50%. The Yoga 7i had 324 nits at 100% and 39 nits at 50%. The Acer Spin 5 had a more expected variance, 552.8 nits at 100% brightness to 223.3 nits at 50%. Three benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs' Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better). Lenovo's IdeaPad 5 Series 11th Generation processors are powerful, combined with equally powerful hardware, making it an unmatched computing system. Starting with dynamic Soldered DDM memory for seamless computing, we've done everything possible to ensure that you have a consistent, robust experience.

For comparison purposes, I ran the same benchmarks on last year’s Flex 5 Chromebook with its 10th-generation Core i3. And mainly to see the progress Intel has made over the last few silicon iterations, I included my daily driver. That’s the Acer Chromebook Spin 13 with an 8th-generation Core i5 paired with 16 GB of memory. Whether that all-rounder approach can help the IdeaPad 5i Chromebook along with being one of the best Chromebooks we’ve tested remains to be seen, though. I’ve been doing some testing to find out. Design and Keyboard

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The speakers are way better than what you would expect from a laptop in this price range. It helps a lot that they are faced upwards, and apart from the fact that they are impressively loud, they also deliver a sound stage that is both wide and fairly balanced with okay bass response, considering their size. They can't compete with a good pair of speakers or headphones, but they will do just fine for watching YouTube videos or a TV show as long as loud and dramatic sound isn't the main focus. This is one of the best results I’ve seen from any laptop, let alone a mid-range Chromebook, and means you’ll be able to get between one and two working days out of the IdeaPad 5i Chromebook before you need to plug it in. The problem here is its 45% rated coverage of the NTSC gamut, which left colours feeling quite washed out and not necessarily as punchy as other displays I’ve seen on Chromebooks. For the most part, it’s decent enough, but not the best option if watching video is a priority. Chrome OS has grown over the years since its first release. With each update, something new is added to make a feature better or have Chrome OS in general run much smoother. At the time of this review being published, the current OS version was 93.0.4577.107. This update doesn’t compare to new features as Chrome OS 92 does, but some bug fixes and minor additions make the operating system run smoother.

Even after two weeks of using the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Chromebook, this little laptop continues to surprise me. My first impressions on it mostly discussed the design changes and high-level thoughts. Those haven’t changed. But I also made early observations about the 11th-gen Intel Pentium Gold processor, noting that it impressed me. Make sure you're one step ahead of the game. It can be difficult to keep up with the latest technological advancements when it comes to keeping up with all the latest and greatest. The immediate and long-term benefits of investing in new technology are clear. Prepare for the future with a Lenovo Ideapad 5 Series 11th Generation laptop that will last for many years to come. The webcam has a standard 720p resolution and offers enough clarity for a video call, whether via Zoom or Google Meet. Battery Life The optional digital pen support gives you a new way to record your thoughts and ideas while on the go. Get the most from your PC with the Lenovo Ideapad 5 Series laptops. It will keep up with you all day long with its long battery life of rapid charging, and low thermal design power (TDP) of 30W. All tests were run on the latest Chrome OS 92 Stable Channel, with hyper-threading enabled, and in Guest Mode on a freshly booted machine. All flags were set to the default settings, save for the hyper-threading option.From this jumping off point, the touch screen and its multiple alignment options (including tablet, laptop, and “tent” mode) offer lots of versatility. When it comes to storage performance as measured by PCMark 10's Full System Drive benchmark, the Flex's 512GB SSD easily outclasses the VivoBook's drive. Some systems, including the Pavilion x360 15, fail to complete this wide-ranging set of real-world trace-based tests, which include launching complex apps like Adobe Photoshop and booting up Windows 10. (See more about how we test laptops.) The Flex 5i case feels solid, with practically no give in the top half, since that’s held firm by the aluminum frame and the glass of the display. The bottom half is made of a combination of polycarbonate and glass fiber (for stiffening). While it feels sturdy, there is a slight flex at the center of the keyboard, if you press your thumbs there.