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I also have to admit: Even though it doesn’t appear on the specs, I really like the LED battery indicator. A portable Pentium powerhouse I’ve used a lot of Lenovo laptop keyboards over the last ten years and the best are as good as it gets, while even the worst examples tend to be perfectly usable. The keyboard on the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Chromebook 14 sits somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. The top-firing speakers were decent in testing with good volume, and little in the way of distortion. They carry with them a fair amount of mids, and not much in the way of low-end, but are still decent enough for day-to-day work and relaxing with content on Disney+ or Prime Video after you’re done. The fact they’re also top-firing is also handy if you use your laptop on a soft surface such as a bed, where downwards-firing units would be muffled. Performance
I suppose that depends on how you view entry-level and mid-range Chromebooks. However, a Celeron or Pentium has long been considered on the low end of that scale.Windows 10 SIntel Core i3-1005G1 ProcessorRAM: 8 GB / Storage: 128 GB SSDFull HD screenBattery life: Up to 9 hours
We are happy to report that the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 14-inch feels snappy and handles multitasking very well. Working with 10-15 tabs open in Chrome at the same times proves to be no issue, even when editing spreadsheets at the same time. The 12th Generation Core i5-1235U (U for ultraportable) Intel Core i5 CPU is energy efficient, at some cost to performance, compared to Intel P-series CPUs (not to mention even higher-end Core H chips). Like many of the 12th Generation Alder Lake CPUs, the 1235U is a hybrid architecture combining Performance-cores (P-cores) and Efficient-cores (E-cores). You won’t want to use this laptop for serious image or video editing, but it is comfortably readable in most lighting aside from direct sunlight and it’s great for everyday work in Google Workspace apps or casual video streaming via Netflix or Disney+. Intel® Pentium® Gold 7505 (2.00 GHz, up to 3.50 GHz with Turbo Boost, 2 Cores, 4 Threads, 4 MB Cache) (up to Intel Core i5 available) Overall, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i 14-inch is well-built, easily handled with a comfortable keyboard and a bright screen, and relatively capable for its price. You certainly wouldn’t use it as a PC gamer—but for general office work, it offers enough performance. The screen is a bit of a wild card, since we tested 400 nits, while Lenovo only promises 300, and the color coverage could use a boost.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. Stream content at Full-HD with the IdeaPad 5i Chromebook's 14in IPS touchscreen display on selected models, featuring narrow three-sized bezels so you get more screen, and an enhanced Waves-certified user-facing stereo speaker system with built-in amplifier for fuller, louder and crystal-clear audio. Obviously, gaming isn’t a focus for this laptop and our 3D benchmarks show that it doesn’t exactly excel in that department. But while playing Fortnite with no other players onscreen, the fps rises to 40-50, which looks OK on paper, but it fluctuates a lot and there are a lot of dropped frames. When things start to get heated the frame rate can drop to the low 20s, which would be considered unplayable by most people. On the right edge, there are two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a rarity on ultraportable laptops these days, and handy for connecting one of the vast number of devices that haven't yet moved to USB-C. The right edge also hosts a full-size SD card reader and the Flex 5i's power button. Side-mounted power buttons are easier to use when the laptop is propped up like an easel, but be careful not to accidentally press the button when you grasp the Flex 5i on its sides. There are no Thunderbolt 4 ports, but we don't expect one at this price. (Photo: Molly Flores)
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