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The Flex 5i 14 isn't sleek, though. It measures 0.8 by 12.7 by 8.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.3 pounds, which just barely qualifies it as an ultraportable. The stylish, ultrapremium Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 measures just 0.56 by 11.7 by 8.2 inches and weighs 2.9 pounds, though it does have a smaller display. Another important factor to consider is longevity. When you buy a high-quality LENOVO IdeaPad Slim 5i 14″ Laptop, you’re making an investment that is likely to last longer. Cheaper products may seem like a good deal at the time, but they are often made with lower-quality materials and are not designed to last as long. This means that you may end up having to replace your device sooner, which can end up costing you more in the long run. All comparison systems, except the Asus VivoBook S 14 (S433), scored above 5,000 on the PCMark 10 Full Productivity Test Suite, indicating a laptop fully capable of performing standard office tasks. In fact, 4,000 is the cutoff for that, so all of these units can hold their own with productivity tasks. Three benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs' Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).
The laptop reviewed here belongs to a sensible middle ground of Lenovo 2-in-1s that bear the Flex moniker. They're available in multiple screen sizes from 11 to 15 inches, but the 14-inch IdeaPad Flex 5i is arguably the sweetest spot. It's not bulky, which means you can hold the laptop in one hand and rotate the screen or tap on it with your other hand. But it has enough screen real estate to make movie watching and spreadsheet editing possible on a cramped airplane tray table. (Photo: Molly Flores) A convertible PC is often used for media — the stand or tent modes make it quite easy — so the speakers need to be able to keep up. There is a single 2W speaker on either side of the keyboard for unmuffled sound when the PC is on your lap. It's going to face away from you if you're using the Flex 5i as a tablet, but the sound is good enough that it shouldn't matter. The speakers get loud, they remain clear, and there's no buzzing. I listened to music and watched TV without issue.
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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. Another important factor to consider is longevity. When you buy a high-quality LENOVO IdeaPad 5i Pro 14″ Laptop, you’re making an investment that is likely to last longer. Cheaper products may seem like a good deal at the time, but they are often made with lower-quality materials and are not designed to last as long. This means that you may end up having to replace your device sooner, which can end up costing you more in the long run. The Flex 5i 14 measures a compact 0.7 by 12.3 by 8.9 inches, matching the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 (0.7 by 12.4 by 8.9 inches) and a fraction deeper than the Lenovo Yoga 7i 14 (0.68 by 12.5 by 8.7 inches). It also equals the Inspiron's weight at 3.5 pounds, a tad heavier than the 3.2-pound Yoga 7i 14 or the last IdeaPad Flex 5i we tested, which was 3.3 pounds. When it comes to buying gadgets and technology products, particularly in the Laptops category it’s important to invest in good quality products. LENOVO IdeaPad Slim 5i 14″ Laptop is no exception. There are a number of reasons why quality is so important when it comes to these types of products. There’s also a fingerprint reader and a pair of stereo 2-watt speakers with Dolby audio. Audio quality is adequate for general use, and certainly for webcam sessions. However, when listening to music at volume, you’ll get some distortion, as with many budget portables.
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 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). This year's soft refresh for the IdeaPad Flex 5i 14 brings 11th Gen Intel Core CPUs, new case material, and not a whole lot else. That means that most of the issues I had with last year's model are still present. The display, while completely usable for anything but specialized work, doesn't have great color reproduction, and the glossy finish combined with maximum 280 nits will cause some glare issues under the right conditions. Still, an active pen is included, and it offers a solid inking experience.
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High-resolution QHD displays produce images with crisp and clear colors that look accurate and realistic. Thanks to the device's ultra-narrow four-corner bezels, the screen is kept in sharp focus. 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. As noted, the IdeaPad Flex 5i and the Inspiron 14 were best on the PCMark 10 storage test. The Yoga 7i did not complete the test, and the VivoBook S14 came in last. While the Inspiron 14 far exceeded the others on HandBrake, not surprisingly, the Acer Spin 5 pulled the highest scores on Cinebench, Geekbench, and Adobe/PudgetBench. Graphics Tests
We run the same general productivity benchmarks across both mobile and desktop systems. Our first test is UL's PCMark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall system performance and also includes a storage subtest for the primary drive. We tested the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i (model 82R70007US) equipped with a 1080p IPS display, an Intel Core i5-1235U CPU, integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, 8GB of memory, and 512GB of storage. The display, CPU, memory, and storage are configurable; you can see the available options in the table below. This review applies to all models with a model number starting with '82R7'. Screen 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. We test Windows PCs' graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark: Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics), and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs).
Testing the IdeaPad: Everyday Computing Is a Cinch
The main benchmark of UL's PCMark 10 simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also run PCMark 10's Full System Drive test to assess the load time and throughput of a laptop's storage. Performance from the 11th Gen Core i5 CPU is perfectly adequate for performing basic productivity tasks or streaming web videos. I never experienced even a hint of sluggishness while browsing with multiple tabs open or installing apps over the course of several days of testing. The generous 16GB of memory likely helps significantly in this regard; it's the same capacity we typically see in 2-in-1 laptops that cost twice as much. We estimate Windows 11 support will end in October 2031. However, this laptop may be compatible with a future version of Windows that gets support beyond this date The optional digital pen support gives you a new way to record your thoughts and ideas while on the go. Get the most from your PC with the Lenovo Ideapad 5 Series laptops. It will keep up with you all day long with its long battery life of rapid charging, and low thermal design power (TDP) of 30W. A pair of 2-watt speakers produce typically tinny laptop audio. They have enough muscle to fill a small room, but that room will be devoid of bass. Movies and shows sound passable, but you'll want headphones or an external Bluetooth speaker for listening to music.
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