On the photography front, I've owned a host of 35mm cameras, both film and digital, as well as a Mamiya 645 medium format, a Toyo 4x5, and a Graflex 6x7cm. The last I modified to provide full swings and tilts (allowing you to avoid converging parallel lines, as when you photograph a tall building from ground level). I'm proud of this project, which I wrote about in View Camera magazine. The new chassis material adds rigidity and having USB Type-C ports on both sides of it is fantastic. Putting all of those on one side should be a criminal offense, in my opinion. I liked the continued inclusion of a physical slider to disable the webcam. The webcam itself is average at best, but serviceable.

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 As for charging, it comes with a 45W AC adapter that can recharge the battery from low battery to full in about two and a half hours. It’s not the longest wait time, but if you’re near an outlet doing work, you won’t even notice a thing. 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. In PCMark 10 we get a score of 4811, which is way more than the score Intel Core i7-1065G7 is listed with (3179), and the latter is a chip that is commonly used in laptops in the same price range as Lenovo IdeaPad 5 14”. There is really no doubt that you are getting a lot of performance for your money here.

HDMI Port Included\u00a0

Color options vary by retailer, too. Our review unit takes an uncontroversial approach, clad in dark Graphite Gray. I find it darker and moodier-looking than the bright silver tones of competitors like the HP Pavilion x360 15. There's also a lighter Platinum Gray option, as well as a more striking Abyss Blue scheme if you're fancying a pop of color. Whichever hue you choose, the chassis is clad in the same sturdy materials—anodized stamped aluminum for the top cover and a combination of polycarbonate and glass fiber for the base. It's reassuringly sturdy to hold. (Photo: Molly Flores) 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. 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 Despite growing acceptance for 2-in-1 convertibles, the key choice is whether you actually need tablet mode or a touch screen. Since the pen is an optional extra, Lenovo is hedging its bets somewhat. However, that’s also true with Dell’s Inspiron 2-in-1 series and others that don’t include their supported stylus pens, either.

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. The IdeaPad 5 Series laptops are equipped with Intel's 11th generation processors or even the Ryzen 4000/5000 series with up to 8 Cores. Compared to their predecessors, these have improved performance and battery life. The 11th Generation Intel® CoreTM i5-1135G7 processor in the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Series combines careful design, and quality touches with more than adequate hardware. Impressive display with four-mode convertible laptops 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. An Intel Pentium processor and 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM should be enough for students at school or used in the workplace. If you’re not looking to do some high-end tasks, you’ll be more than happy with the results on performance. If you are, you can also configure this Chromebook with up to an Intel Core i5 processor. Sound 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.These devices, powered by the latest 11th Generation Intel® CoreTM processors, provide long-term reliability and high performance in various designs. Whether you're working from home or in a large office, we have everything you need. This is definitely more of a mid-range performer, even with the 4 GB of RAM, that should suit most Chromebook user’s needs. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a definite contender for “Chromebook of the year” based on the price and performance. 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.

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 IdeaPad Flex 5i preinstalls 30-day trial versions of McAfee antivirus software and Microsoft Office 365. Likewise, the Flex 5i comes with Lenovo Vantage, basically an interface to let you tune your system’s performance, update drivers, personalize audio and display settings, and request remote support. From this jumping off point, the touch screen and its multiple alignment options (including tablet, laptop, and “tent” mode) offer lots of versatility.If you’re familiar with last year’s slightly smaller model, you’ll see many familiar features. In fact, this isn’t a radical redesign although moving up from a 13.3-inch display to a 14-inch panel does give a little more room in the chassis. This time around there are larger speaker ports alongside the keyboard, for example. These house 2W speakers are tuned with Waves MaxxAudio. The sound quality isn’t bad and the loudness is high for a laptop of this size and price. The Flex 5i 14 isn't designed for more CPU-intensive tasks like 3D rendering in Maxon's Cinebench, manipulating images in Adobe Photoshop, or transcoding 4K video using the open-source HandBrake app. The last trial represented a particular challenge, with the Flex finishing in last place, though it was more competitive in the image editing and 3D rendering trials. To give you an idea of how the 11th-generation Pentium Gold inside the IdeaPad 5i Chromebook, I ran a suite of benchmarks.