IdeaPad Flex 5i 14" Chromebook Plus, Intel i3, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD

Within our household, three children are gamers alongside two adult gamers. It's getting a little expensive now tbh lol. Over Thanksgiving break we all landed on Stardew Valley as a video game we enjoy playing together as a family, but our youngest sons' 12 yr old entry-level gaming laptop is dying, even with upgrading ram and a reset on that machine it can't handle most games anymore. So he wasn't able to play with us on his own rig. We took turns, but it just wasn't as fun. Enter the Lenovo Flex 5i. I took the time to enable the Linux Beta, went through the process of getting steam set to 32-bit, and downloaded Stardew Valley. It runs smoothly, with no glitching/lag. I did make the Linux portion of the HD take more of a share than was suggested, 30 Gb vs 10 Gb to accommodate adding more demanding games. It runs Terraria and other similar titles beautifully. But this Chromebook doesn't stop there for us, we've been using it for web surfing, streaming movies, and as an extra device for homework when the school Chromebooks are slow/acting up. It's filling a niche that we truly didn't realize we needed in our home. Overall: If you are looking to play some low-demand (side scrollers, dungeon crawling 32-bit games) steam games via Linux, then this is a great option. If you just need something to watch movies/youtube/surf the web it's more than powerful enough to handle that with ease. This Chromebook is sleek, peppy, and feels expensive even though we got it for under $300. My only minor complaint so far is the matte finish is prone to showing every fingerprint on the outside of the case, but at the same time, it lets us see how often it is being used and reminds us to clean it often. But as a final note, for us, this Chromebook is a stop-gap/multi-purpose item to fill in when we need it. In late winter/early spring, our son will probably get a mini gaming PC since he isn't as big of a gamer as the rest of his siblings but may want to play more robust games. This Chromebook gives us some breathing room over the winter to research & shop for his future rig while allowing us all to play games together as a family.

At $300, this is a steal. It's not fancy like a Mac nor small and slim like the Dell XPS. But it's lightweight and a very comfortable keyboard. Yes, it's Chromebook, so there might be limits on what you can do, so know that before going in. If all of your work is pretty much done through a browser then this is a perfect setup. Word of advice, if they still have the 256 GB version, get that instead. Larger hard drive is always appreciated if you prefer to have your files kept on the computer. Only drawback is the keyboard light is always on during bootup. There's no way to default it to off. It's minor, but it does affect battery life a little. However, this issue is with the OS and not the computer. All of my chromebooks with backlit keyboards are the same.

Within our household, three children are gamers alongside two adult gamers. It's getting a little expensive now tbh lol. Over Thanksgiving break we all landed on Stardew Valley as a video game we enjoy playing together as a family, but our youngest sons' 12 yr old entry-level gaming laptop is dying, even with upgrading ram and a reset on that machine it can't handle most games anymore. So he wasn't able to play with us on his own rig. We took turns, but it just wasn't as fun. Enter the Lenovo Flex 5i. I took the time to enable the Linux Beta, went through the process of getting steam set to 32-bit, and downloaded Stardew Valley. It runs smoothly, with no glitching/lag. I did make the Linux portion of the HD take more of a share than was suggested, 30 Gb vs 10 Gb to accommodate adding more demanding games. It runs Terraria and other similar titles beautifully. But this Chromebook doesn't stop there for us, we've been using it for web surfing, streaming movies, and as an extra device for homework when the school Chromebooks are slow/acting up. It's filling a niche that we truly didn't realize we needed in our home. Overall: If you are looking to play some low-demand (side scrollers, dungeon crawling 32-bit games) steam games via Linux, then this is a great option. If you just need something to watch movies/youtube/surf the web it's more than powerful enough to handle that with ease. This Chromebook is sleek, peppy, and feels expensive even though we got it for under $300. My only minor complaint so far is the matte finish is prone to showing every fingerprint on the outside of the case, but at the same time, it lets us see how often it is being used and reminds us to clean it often. But as a final note, for us, this Chromebook is a stop-gap/multi-purpose item to fill in when we need it. In late winter/early spring, our son will probably get a mini gaming PC since he isn't as big of a gamer as the rest of his siblings but may want to play more robust games. This Chromebook gives us some breathing room over the winter to research & shop for his future rig while allowing us all to play games together as a family.

You don't expect much from a $300 chromebook in terms of quality, but this things is very impressive. The all metal build feels very sturdy, as do the hinges. The keyboard is higher quality than most $1000 laptops, and the screen and speakers are much higher quality than I would expect from this price range (you can hear actual bass and get pretty good contrast of dark colors!). The battery lasts for like 8 straight hours of streaming, and the fan noise is usually quiet enough that it isn't noticeable. The only real problems I've had with it is that it for some reason disagrees with some streaming services, notably Hulu and HBOMax. It behaves weirdly on those sites and playback will fail every few days, forcing a restart. This hasn't happened on any of my other devices, but the same behavior happened on two of these laptops (I got a replacement to check). Don't know what's going on there, but otherwise it's great.

I consider myself an experienced (but not especially advanced) chromebook user. I've owned chromebooks from Toshiba, HP, Asus, Acer, and now this Lenovo Flex 5i. My family uses our chromebooks mostly for general web browsing and video streaming (youtube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.). We usually take at least one chromebook on vacations. I've owned the 5i for a several days, and my initial impressions are all good. It feels solid, audio, backlit keyboard, screen, and touchpad are fine, and there is nothing that stands out as a flaw. Battery life seems ok so far. Web pages load fast enough, and speedtest.net shows it maxing out our 500Mb/sec internet connection. Weight is 3lb 1oz as measured on our kitchen scale. I like the dark-blue color. Overall I'd say the Flex 5i is on a par with our Acer spin 713 (CP713-3W), altho I do slightly prefer the Acer's 3x2 screen. On the other hand, the Flex 5i is slightly smaller, which is a bit more convenient. Both have a quality feel, and the 5i was significantly less expensive. I paid $375 for the 5i. As mentioned, this review is about initial impressions, and if my opinion changes, I'll update this review.

It looks great, it feels great, its well priced. I was so excited when I first unbox this device. After 7 months of use - I can say almost each work + entertainment session has been frustrating on this chromebook. The app store is completely broken. It doesn't upon EVER and is stuck in a spinning circle. I have to restart my laptop 1-2x every single time I want to open the playstore. Even more - this same issue is present on EVERY SINGLE app I have used on this chromebook. I click Spotify, amazon video, netflix - the app doesn't open and spins incessantly unless I hard restart my chromebook once or twice. The netflix app maxes out at 480p standard definition - HD is not compatible with this chromebook. I try viewing Netflix, amazon, HBO shows from the browser because the apps are so broken - i receive "playback" error messages in the middle of tv shows, movies every 15-20 minutes that also requires a hard restart to fix. Literally nothing on this chromebook functions as it should and when it does - I'm extremely surprised. I can't even return this junk at this point and instead gifted it to a 11 year old niece for her school activities since she is not allowed to watch shows anyways. If you're looking for a work/play hybrid laptop - this one ABSOLUTELY STINKS AND FAILS MISERABLY FOR PLAYING MUSIC, TV SHOWS, and MOVIES. Its dysfunctional video/app functionablity is so bad I won't even complain about the horrible battery life, the super low speakers, and cheap feeling plastic base compared to the heavy, metallic screen. Normally I would be complacent as "you get what you pay for" but my 200$ lenovo laptop functions 10x better than this garbage and is 10x as reliable. Using this laptop to watch my favorite show or movie feels like using a 1998 Windows laptop to run complex video games - you don't know when it will/wont work, and the few times it does work feels like a blessing. But over time, you just give up after how many times this laptop has given up on you.

I purchased this for my son back in 2023, I’ve used it a few times and can genuinely say that it is probably one of the best Chrome books/laptops I have ever used. The touchscreen is very responsive and this system itself is pretty fast. My son has only used it for light schoolwork but three years later and it’s still works just as it did when he first got it. I’m on the market for something similar and was hoping that since it is now an older model the price would have dropped but surprisingly it actually went up I paid $350 with tax back in 2023. For now I’ll just keep using in his 😌

After having it for 2 yrs I can say that it is well built and its made me trust Lenovo a lot more. This has been my main laptop for school work since Jan 2023 and its still kicking. I love that it has a medium size which makes it easy to fit in any backpack. I'd like to point out that this is so similar to the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 and a better substitute. I had bought that one first for almost $700 and the touch screen stopped working immediately which made me return it. I'm glad since I found this one with exactly the same features and a lot cheaper. Back then I got it for $350 tax included and it was totally worth it. The battery is great I think I get about 8-9 hrs right now and it def has gone down I used to get about 11-12. I mostly use it for online research (web browsing and watching videos) and taking notes on google docs and keep. I recently started using it like an iPad. You can get a pen and write on it like a notebook. You definitely can't play games on it other than Roblox and it holds quite well on it. !!This is not for a STEM major or employee since you can't use any of the coding and model analysis software!! If you are buying that get something other than Chrome OS. Everything is working well right now even after a few occasional drops. The touch screen works great with fingers and pens. You have a lightly lit keyboard which is pretty cool and still working. Hinges are still fine and can still turn all the way. It charges quite fast maybe faster than my phone, which is about 1 hr 20 mins. If you are looking for a good, reliable 2-1 laptop I'd definitely recommend it.

Great condition but one rivet is missing between the laptop body and screen

No regret getting this laptop. Sound is good and also screen is plesent to look. Will definetly get it again

arrived on time in good condition and pretty good as i’m replacing my window

Excellent product

Worth the money!