First impressions of the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Chromebook

Over the weekend a package arrived and I just opened it. This is the 14-inch Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Chromebook, which this year succeeds the popular 5-series Chromebooks of 2020. It is not a “Flex” model, so it does not have a 360-degree hinge or touch screen. . And while I’m not the target audience for this, I’m glad Lenovo loaned me the base $ 439 model because I want to see how the 11th Gen Intel Pentium Gold 7505 processor performs.

Since I have to update the device to Chrome OS 92 and wait a few minutes, here’s a spec rundown:

CPU	Intel Pentium Gold 7505 Dual Core (Quad Thread) (2.0 GHz / 3.5 GHz)
GPU	Integrated Intel UHD graphics card
Pin up	14 inch IPS 1920 x 1080 screen, matte finish, 16: 9 aspect ratio, 300 nits brightness
Memory	4 GB DDR4x-3733 MHz memory
Storage	128 GB M.2 PCIe 3.0 × 4 NVMe SSD, MicroSD card slot for expansion
Connectivity	802.11ax (2 × 2) Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1
To input	Spill-resistant keyboard, Mylar trackpad 720p webcam with physical privacy shutter
Ports	1 USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen 1), 2 USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen 1) supporting PD 3.0, data and DisplayPort 1.4, combined headphone / microphone jack
Drums	51 WHr, expected autonomy up to 10 hours
Weight	3.1 lbs
Software	Chrome OS automatic updates until June 2029

These specifications are interesting for several reasons. This is considered one of Lenovo’s student Chromebooks and yet it has some cool features that you won’t find on competing devices for this audience.

And yet, it’s “less” hardware package than last year’s Flex 5 which started at $ 409, or $ 30 less. This model has for example an Intel Core i3, and the keyboard is backlit. Bad luck on this keyboard, although the contrast between the white labeling and the Storm Gray keys is good.

Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Chromebook Design

If you’re familiar with last year’s slightly smaller model, you’ll see a lot of familiar features. In fact, it’s not a drastic redesign, although the move from a 13.3-inch display to a 14-inch panel leaves a bit more room in the chassis.

This time around, there are larger speaker ports next to the keyboard, for example. These 2W speakers are tuned with Waves MaxxAudio. The sound quality is not bad and the volume is high for a laptop of this size and price.

In addition, the hinge mechanism is much more robust as it spans most of the width of the frame. This is essential, as some owners of Chromebooks Flex 5 from last year have reported that one of the two hinges on their device has broken. Well, goodbye to double hinges. Hello, simple long hinge. This reduces the risk of breakage and makes the screen much more stable.

In fact, the whole chassis seems more robust to me. This could be due to a change of materials. The two-color display stand is made of anodized aluminum, while the frame is a blend of polycarbonate and ABS plastic.

It might sound “cheap”, but it makes it a nice device and helps to relieve the heat. (Didn’t know that!) There’s a bit more chassis flex than I’d like to see, but that’s only trying to flex it. I don’t feel it in general use.

Overall, while the design isn’t groundbreaking, it is thoughtful.

The right side has one of the two USB-C ports, while all the other ports are on the left. So you can charge the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Chromebook from either side with the included 45W charger. Lenovo says the tested battery life is around 10 hours, but I’ll be checking that out this week as I’m using it as my primary Chromebook.

If I can have 7-8 hours I would say that’s about okay. More would be a bonus. There aren’t any power or volume buttons on the left or right – you use the Chromebook keyboard to adjust them.

Oh before I forget, this model has a built-in light bar on the front of the chassis. When you open the Chromebook, the light bar shows you how much juice is in the battery, depending on the color.

This model also has some of the handy features of last year’s device with a privacy shutter for the 720p webcam. And while there is no touch support on the screen, this 14-inch IPS panel is quite good.

As mentioned earlier, it has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and the brightness is 300 nits. That’s above average brightness for a device in this segment. The viewing angles are okay and the colors look good on all four of my eyes.

First thoughts on performance

Using the device for a short time to do my basic web browsing tasks was surprisingly fast. Like, “I have a bit of a catchy eyebrow raised in wonder.”

Web pages open quickly, interaction with sites has been fairly smooth so far, and switching from full screen video playback and vice versa is also quick.

So I did a quick benchmark Octane test, just out of curiosity. And regular readers know that I don’t watch landmarks for myself. I use them as general performance guidelines.

Despite this, I was amazed to see about twenty nearly 47,000.

It’s way above my Acer Chromebook Spin 13 with its 8th gen Intel Core i5 processor. So far, the new 11th generation Tiger Lake chips have impressed me.

Of course, when using a Chromebook with 4GB of memory, a fast processor won’t help you keep dozens of tabs open at the same time. You will still see the background tabs reload when you return to them on this device.

Having said that, my first impressions from an overall performance standpoint are pretty good. The target audience should be happy here, but I’ll do some more in-depth testing in a full review.

Stay tuned and feel free to ask your questions in the comments below; I will try to answer as many as possible in the review.