Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus Review: A Cheap Touchscreen Chromebook Leave a comment

At 22 millimeters thick and three.1 kilos, the Flex 5i received’t win any portability awards, but it surely’s hardly overweight. The plastic all-gray design additionally feels fundamental to a fault, regardless of the inclusion of an accent stripe in barely darker gray on the left facet of the lid. The identical no-nonsense keyboard and trackpad discovered on most Chromebooks are accounted for right here as effectively.

Quick as well and quick to get up, I discovered the Flex 5i to be constantly speedier than the Acer 515—however solely marginally, besting it on benchmarks by lower than 10 % throughout the board. Battery energy nonetheless suffered by an analogous proportion, maybe a necessity to accommodate the modest velocity increase. I eked seven hours and 20 minutes of life out of the Flex 5i on a full-frame YouTube video playback take a look at, in comparison with nearly eight-and-a-half hours on the Acer. Given the Flex 5i’s smaller show, that’s maybe an even bigger delta than you may initially suppose.

I’ve written beforehand concerning the new apps and options obtainable throughout the Chromebook Plus platform, reminiscent of animated wallpapers, Google’s Magic Eraser from its Pixel phones, and video options that clear up your webcam photographs and movies. Google says lots extra artificial-intelligence-driven extras are coming in 2024. Prepared for an on-demand, AI-generated background on your subsequent Google Meet? It’s on the best way.

For now, the machine is able to rumble straight out of the field, totally configured inside minutes of powering it on. I encountered no issues with stability or dragging efficiency all through my testing. The machine was additionally nearly silent even below load, aided by upward-firing audio system that pumped out loads of sound.

Is all of this value that additional hundred bucks over an entry-level Chromebook Plus mannequin? The actual get right here is the touchscreen, and arguably the addition of the microSD card slot, however each of these objects could have area of interest enchantment that not everybody wants. In case you can reside with out them, go for the cheaper Acer 515 Chromebook Plus. But when they sound helpful, that is an excellent little laptop computer that checks off all of the Chromebook Plus containers at a nonetheless very cheap value.