Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus review: An affordable laptop disguised as a premium gem

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The Chromebook Plus line is a step above traditional Chromebooks, and the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus is superior even to its fellow Plus competitors. This laptop looks more lavish than its relatively affordable price tag would suggest, and it’s decked out with fairly powerful internals to boot. 

That’s not to say this Chromebook is perfect — it’s not. However, the Flex 5i’s smooth overall performance, crisp and full-bodied speakers, impressive battery life, and healthy port selection greatly overshadow the few tiny things I didn’t love about this laptop, like its display and webcam.

All in all, this laptop has earned a solid place as one of the best Chromebooks you can buy right now, but it does cost a little bit more than budget options you might see more often.

This laptop looks high-end.
Credit: Ian Moore/Mashable composite; Sarah Chaney

Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus price and specs 

Chromebooks have come a long way since their conception in 2011, and they’re not the wimpy, can-only-surf-the-web Chromebooks you might be more familiar with. In particular, Chromebook Plus models are guaranteed to have certain relatively powerful specs, including: 

• At least a 12th-generation Intel Core i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 7000 series processor (i.e., a CPU from 2022 or newer)

• At least 8GB of RAM

• At least 128GB of storage

• A 1080p webcam with temporal noise reduction

• An IPS display with a resolution of at least 1080p (Full HD)

The Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus goes beyond these minimum spec requirements, delivering a reliable Chrome OS-powered device wrapped up in a gorgeous package. Our review unit is available for $599 at Costco, with the following specs: 

• Intel Core i5-1334U

• Integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics

• 8GB RAM

• 256GB of SSD storage

• 14-inch, 1920 x 1200, IPS touch display

For a Chromebook Plus model, $599 is a fairly steep price, but in exchange, you get a powerful, easily portable device with great battery life and better-than-average port variety, speakers, and overall build quality.

The lid is luckily not a fingerprint magnet.
Credit: Ian Moore/Mashable composite; Sarah Chaney

I love when a laptop looks way more expensive than it is

I would’ve guessed the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus was a $1,000 laptop if I didn’t already know its price. The build quality is superb. The laptop feels solidly constructed, with practically no give when pushing on the chassis, sturdy hinges that don’t creak or stick, and a cool-to-the-touch aluminum lid that resists fingerprints well. 

The aluminum lid features a two-tone gray design, with a straight line dividing a light gray third from the darker Storm Grey shade that covers the rest of the chassis. The bottom part of the chassis that houses all the laptop’s internals and the keyboard is made with plastic, so it’s not able to keep greasy fingerprints at bay like the lid, but it still looks and feels great.

At 3.5 pounds, the Flex 5i isn’t the lightest Chromebook available, but its compact dimensions of 12.4 x 9 x 0.8 inches and its flexible 2-in-1 capabilities make it an easily portable option that’s great for remote workers and students.

A plain old, decent display

Lenovo’s Flex 5i Chromebook Plus features a 14-inch, 1920 x 1200-pixel IPS glossy display, and it’s decent. After inspecting a few movie trailers on YouTube and the colors in my personal Trello I use every day, I can confidently say the display is sharp, but its color vibrancy and contrast could both use some work.

What’s meant to be deep black comes across slightly gray, and colors that should be popping off the screen are quite muted. On top of muted colors, the display is capped at 60Hz. That said, for casually watching TV episodes and YouTube videos, this display was perfectly OK.

Then, the laptop’s touchscreen is highly responsive, but it’s not super smooth while scrolling.

A great array of ports

Most Chromebooks offer just one or two ports, but not the Flex 5i Chromebook Plus. 

The left side ports.
Credit: Ian Moore/Mashable composite; Sarah Chaney

On the left, you’ll find: 

• 3.5mm audio jack

• microSD card reader

• USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port

• USB-C 3.2 Gen 2

The right side ports
Credit: Ian Moore/Mashable composite; Sarah Chaney

And on the right: 

• USB-C 3.2 Gen 2

• Power button

• Volume rocker

• Kensington lock slot

The only port this laptop lacks is an HDMI port, but at this price, I’m certainly not docking points for that. The Flex 5i even manages double-sided USB-C ports for convenient charging, a feature that some expensive laptops refuse to include.

Refreshingly crisp, full-bodied audio

Laptop speakers aren’t great, and because Chromebooks are typically even cheaper than low-end Windows laptops, their speakers are generally worse than those on most laptops. Luckily, that’s not the case with the Flex 5i Chromebook Plus.

This laptop’s top-firing stereo speakers are optimized with Waves MaxxAudio, and honestly, they don’t sound much worse than my daily driver, the Yoga 9i’s high-quality rotating soundbar. 

I listened to MGK’s new album “Lost Americana” on repeat and forgot I wasn’t using my dedicated Bluetooth speaker multiple times. His vocals were velvety and crisp, bass notes came through to fill out each song, and I felt like I could hear every instrument and subtle musical element.

My only complaint with the Flex 5i’s speakers is that at 30 percent volume or below, they’re laughably quiet. The speakers do get quite loud at full volume, but 40 percent volume sounds like it should be 20 percent. 

A well-spaced, comfortable keyboard

I’m in like with the Flex 5i’s keyboard. There’s a decent amount of travel, the keys are comfortably spaced, and typing overall is a pleasantly bouncy experience. As a freelance writer, I type quite a bit every day, and I enjoyed the way my fingers lightly bounced from key to key and generated minimal errors on this keyboard. My only minor complaint is that I wish the keys were slightly clackier for a better sound. 

The Chromebook features a comfortable, usable keyboard.
Credit: Ian Moore/Mashable composite; Sarah Chaney

I can’t express the same fondness for this laptop’s trackpad. It’s a mylar trackpad, which is second-rate compared to glass trackpads, but makes complete sense in this Chromebook from a price perspective. Unless I was using the trackpad with a super light touch, my finger would stutter and skip when trying to navigate. I’d recommend pairing a good wireless mouse with the Flex 5i instead of using the built-in trackpad.

The Flex 5i’s webcam is just like most laptop webcams 

After this laptop surprised me with fantastic speaker quality and a pleasantly bouncy keyboard, I hoped it’d have an above-average webcam, too. But, alas, the Flex 5i Chromebook Plus has a plain old 1080p webcam that delivers the same disappointingly grainy picture so many other laptop webcams do.

Nothing special about the webcam.
Credit: Sarah Chaney/Mashable

In its favor, this webcam is fairly sharp and color-accurate in the right lighting, at least compared to other laptop webcams. Plus, it has a slidable privacy shutter, which I consider a nice bonus feature at its affordable $599 price.

Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus benchmarks and performance

There’s no denying the Flex 5i Chromebook Plus isn’t a top-performer among all laptops — MacBooks and gaming laptops would blow this little machine out of the water. However, for a Chromebook, it delivered an impressive Geekbench 6 score and real-world testing results. 

The Flex 5i Chromebook Plus earned a multi-core Geekbench 6 score of 7,024. At the time of testing, there was only one Chromebook that earned a higher Geekbench 6 score: the Acer Chromebook 516 GE, which earned a score of 7,660. 

I used the Flex 5i as my daily driver for a few days, and it had no issues handling my typical workload, which usually includes a photo-editing program in Chrome, multiple other Chrome tabs open for research, the Clock app to run a timer, and the Spotify app to play music. With multiple tabs open, there was no lag when working in Google Docs or loading new pages.

The Flex 5i’s fans do a great job keeping the laptop cool while working, but they are constantly running. The noise is mild (and not noticeable at all with music playing), so it didn’t bother me while testing, but the fan noise is constant, whether the laptop is plugged in or not.

Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus battery life

The Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus lasted 12 hours and 13 minutes in our battery test, which involves looping a 1080p version of Tears of Steel at 50 percent brightness until the laptop’s out of juice. This result may pale in comparison to MacBooks and modern Windows laptops, but compared to our median Chromebook battery life at the time of writing, the Flex 5i performed admirably, lasting roughly 30 percent longer than the median.

Is the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus worth it?

The Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus is definitely worth it for anyone looking for a budget-friendly laptop with excellent battery life, a sleek, easily portable 2-in-1 design, and the ability to carry out simple productivity tasks seamlessly. On top of those must-have features many people look to tick off a list when shopping, the Flex 5i also has a few extra perks, like a wonderful array of ports, a bouncy keyboard, and great speakers.

Chromebooks used to be fairly limited in what they could do with ChromeOS, but now, multiple apps have native options, cloud gaming is more accessible, and Plus variants like the Flex 5i offer increased RAM and storage that boost its longevity. 

That said, the Flex 5i Chromebook Plus won’t be the perfect choice for everyone. I’d steer clear of the Flex 5i if you plan to use your laptop’s trackpad a lot or if you’re looking for a Chromebook to play games on frequently, as this laptop’s display is capped at 60Hz. Instead, I’d recommend the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE, a gaming-forward laptop featuring a large 16-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate.