Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 14 Inch Touch FHD Intel Pentium, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Intel UHD Graphics, Chromebook – Storm Grey Laptop

This is a great Chromebook. Not the best battery life and touch screen a little iffy but I’m not too bothered about that. It’s quick and great if you use it for watching tv / YouTube, office tasks and the internet. Good quality screen too. Boots up super quick. I’ve tried a few games and they seem to run ok too. Think the pentium gold 7505 chip is much better than some in other chromebooks. Would recommend.

CPU is plenty powerful and the machine runs really well. The keyboard is lovely, the touchpad is OK. Battery life is pretty good, not staggeringly good but good enough in practice. Case feels really solid and looks nice. Touchscreen is responsive, though I’m still not really convinced of the utility of a laptop touchscreen. The fans are the only issue I really notice with it. They do come on most of the time and are noticeable, as well are contributing to battery life not quite being where it could be. This is more an issue with the power requirements of x86_64 chips than anything else though. Linux support works well too. VSCode building a Rust project was comparable to another machine I have running an i3 from a couple of generations ago. Not bad at all. Price/performance is excellent.

Replaced my Lenovo Duet 5 that had a cracked screen and Lenovo refused to replace. This is robust and with the touch screen, just what I need.

After looking at a number of different devices, the Lenovo idea pad 5, fitted my requirements. Pros Great build quality Good battery life Nice touch screen Cons The keyboard physical touch sensitivety can be inconsistent when typing.

Pros: FHD, sensitive touchscreen, very fast WiFi 6, Android apps can be downloaded from Google Play. Cons: The battery doesn't last for 10 hours. My Chromebook LED lightbar on the front edge of this Chromebook isn't working. The battery charging indicator light on the left is always orange even if the battery is fully charged ( It should turn green) I checked the warranty of this machine. According to Lenovo, the warranty started in February 2022. Is it a customer returned Chromebook, re-sold by Amazom to me as a new machine? I paid for a new machine not for a customer returned, faulty machine. Amazon should explain why the warranty started in February 2022. Is it because a previous customer purchased this in February 2022 and because of the lightbar problem, returned it to Amazon and Amazon re-sold it in October 2022 to me, as a brand new machine?

This is my art station, graphics fabulous, fast, people play games on it. Touchscreen a godsend, would not buy another computer without a touchscreen. Now working with a Ugee U1200 graphics monitor to draw on, connected by USB C to USB C cable, spare charging point on right-hand side of Ideapad, so graphics pad won't drain the battery, battery life could be better, but I work from home so no problem, sound not the highest quality but didn't buy it for that. Would have liked a port for my camera IDcard but probably a cost issue. Ideapad and Ugee U1200 marriage made in heaven. (I am not a professional artist, so a professional would be looking higher end, but well suited for keen amateurs young or old, I'm 70+).

Unfortunately the always on fan situation is a dealbreaker for me. It is not too loud or nothing very annoying, I just think that at this computer power level it should be most of the time off. Otherwise the laptop is a really nice built and if there wasn't this fan issue I would keep it without a question. I read this is a problem with lenovo computers so doesn't seem that this one was a unique problem to my laptop. Touch works really well, the keyboard is well built, sound has not bass, but otherwise decent. No backlight on the keyboard, but I wouldn't miss it. I especially like that the webcam can be blacked out with a built in cover. On this particular laptop the chromebook Auto Update Expiration is June 2029, so it has a solid 7 and a half years lifespan. You can not get much more at time of writing this review. Not sure if the fan will last all those years though.

The 4 stars are for the Lenovo ideaPad 5 which for me is beautifully made piece of hardware. The touch screen is very responsive and bright and the construction is solid which I like. However the Chrome OS is another matter. I was under the illusion that my Pixel 6 pro would work seamlessly with the Chrome OS, it doesn't. Most of the apps that I use on my phone are either unavailable or only works with the same phone screen size on the Chrome system. There is what they call extension software which is either rubbish or they expect you to pay a monthly subscription to edit a couple of photos a month which even then the photos have to be down loaded to your download folder to then be uploaded again to be edited online which is only available when your connected to the internet. Very disappointed with the operating system but would certainly buy a Lenovo again but with a MS operating system if there is one. More research next time.