Chromebook Plus In 2024? - Lenovo Flex 5i Review!

[@jonasolofsson4128]

I don't game on my computer, and I have a separate computer for work at my office. And after trying so many PCs for a couple of years and finding them to be quite a hassle every time. So I took a chance and bought a medium priced Chromebook instead. And wow, what a difference in using experience. Especially if you use it for surfing, small administrative stuff and media consumption... I would never by a PC again. A macbook is better of course, but that's a really hard sell condensing the price difference for such tasks.

[@GodUchihaTempest]

I got this over the over laptop i was looking at as it was much cheaper and did what i needed it too i do not regret it great laptop 😀 only thing that urcks me is the speakers

[@FCisThePunisher]

Moved from Windows to Pixelbook Go and never looked back. If you want a fast, secure laptop that fully integrates with your android phone (the way MacBook does with iPhones) do not even think about it, get one now. Only problem is related to a very small number of specialised software that you cannot currently get in ChromeOS. So do a quick check before you buy. Other than that you will thank me.

[@jordanintheknow]

Debating picking up a pixelbook go to try some google-made hardware. I know it's a few years old but has 4 years left of support I believe I might try it!

[@richardhughes4655]

Bought a second hand Pixelbook Go for £200 with i5 processor and 16gb. Does everything I need it to. Well worth a punt as your fist Chromebook especially coupled to a pixel phone.

[@leviandhiro3596]

Hello brother I've had my pixelbook go since 2019 still a beauty

[@HigherQualityUploads]

Exactly my issue. I cannot seriously video edit or SVG edit with web apps. Also missing a competent FFmpeg GUI.

[@jkibble98]

The Go is a great machine but the processor was 2 years old when it came out and mine is really showing it's age 4 years later. Not to mention the hinge issue some people have. But damn if they made a new version I'd still buy it in a New York minute

[@alluringming]

I dont have this particular chromebook as one i have is 2 years old and was hesitant myself getting into the chromebook commuity. But after some coworkers suggesting it to me i got myself one and i love that i bring it to my bed without having to worry about heating up or the fan overworking itself. I do some light office work, web browsing, chatting, and watching videos. I do wish the one i have had more memory but overall it gets job done. Another thing i dont like about mine is the sound while nice can be too loud for some videos and some messengers apps tend to lag. Aside from few nitpicks it still good machine.

[@thomasraukamp]

It's 2024 - and those "Are Chromebooks good for anything?" posts still are a thing? Sorry, I'm getting sick of it. This reminds me of articles like: "I've been vegan for a week - did I survive?" Chromebooks have long been a serious alternative for people who deliberately don't want to use Windows or macOS. You can buy models from 200 dollars to 1000 dollars. I've been working exclusively with Chromebooks for four years now, and I don't miss a thing. And I understand that this may be different for some - but it just works for me. And that's the best thing you can say about a piece of technology. Chromebooks are here to stay - get over it. Fair review nonetheless.

[@Silver01Son]

I agree chromebooks are great.

[@andyH_England]

For the right person, they are great. But...having used the Pixelbook Go for a couple of years, I realised that buying an MB Air and using that as if it was a Chromebook gave me far more usability and pleasure. From performance to battery life to always-on, to speakers, display, quality, trackpad, etc. I made the right decision but that is in the premium pricing category, get the best, an MB Air. For this market, circa $500 Chromebooks are great value.

[@winchester9432]

It is a great value for what it does. Thanks for the thorough review.

[@zakugodofwar1005]

windows office laptops at the same or better spec could be cheaper on sale. Chrome OS is just barebones

[@AndrewTSq]

@@zakugodofwar1005 I would say, ChromeOS is not bloated :) I use lots of Linux apps on my Chromebook. I code (microsoft visual code + go + c++) , I do game engine stuff (godot), I do rendering (blender) on my Chromebook. I hardly ever start my windows computer these days. When I compare my chromebook plus against my desktop Ryzen 5600x (windows 10) in browserbenchmark, it beats the Ryzen.

[@sankaranarayanan616]

Chromebooks should slowly become more powerful machines and have more synergy with the android mobile devices. With Google's push into horizontal devices, pixel fold, tablet, and chromebooks, I think there will now be reasonable competition for Windows to get more serious in their offering.

[@zakugodofwar1005]

😂

[@benedictuswinner3995]

hope they made their own laptop with their own processor

[@estiennetaylor1260]

ChromeOS is a joke compare to Windows. Nothing more than a browser inside a laptop from day 1 to this day.

[@FCisThePunisher]

@@estiennetaylor1260 enjoy next time you get a nice blue screen on your windows laptop or you have to wait for an update to be installed or you cannot access automatically all your android files.

[@AndrewTSq]

@@estiennetaylor1260 but... windows 12 will be availble as a cloud computer.... anyway, I have used Linux apps for years on my chromebooks so I am sure you never used a chromebook.

[@AliB9429]

Can't wait when chromebooks start using oled display. Would be an amazing media machine.

[@piotrstachurski4048]

I think Lenovo duet 5 has a oled display

[@o_o6869]

chromebook comes with amoled displays @@piotrstachurski4048

[@AndrewTSq]

@@piotrstachurski4048 yes it has!. and its $399.

[@AhmazinSKM]

​@piotrstachurski4048 Yep, it does. I've had mine since it launched and I take it everywhere with me.

[@alextraynor3223]

​@AhmazinSKM Does it have a SD slot and 4k or 2k display output?

[@benjaminlee3669]

I read somewhere that they are releasing another Chromebook with that Mediatek's Kompanio chipset. Maybe in the first quarter or some time.

[@gjschillinger]

Absolutely Chromebooks have become more powerful and useful for the average user. I have not had a case where I cannot use my Chromebook for a use and I am a business owner.

[@AndrewTSq]

I have the the northern europe Flex 5i chromebook plus, and I can mention that I have noticed there is lots of different configurations of this laptop. For example, as standard my came with a Pen, and fingerprint reader, backlit keyboard, I also have a real PCIE4 nvme 256GB drive. WHere the us model, only have backlit keyboard, and a 128GB emmc drive. There are also 2 different screens availble. My (like the US one) came with NTSC screen, which do not have good colors (for color work), they look warm, so watching movies is nice, but if you do photo editing, stay away. There is also a SRGB with much better color accuracy version availble. I actually love the speakers on this one :D compared to my work laptop ( a new lenovo) the speakers is like 10 times better. good bass and treble. The keyboard is a little bit mushroomy compared to my mechanical keyboard, and the touchbad has a bit of resistance to its surface compared to my gorilla glass touchpad on other device. But I paid $399 for it, so for that price it is very good. Use a lot of Linux apps on mine, some android apps. and the rest is web apps (like office 365). I do not feel I miss anything from my normal windows desktop computer.

[@christopher5731]

Good review thanks

[@brunonichol7557]

Would be good to hear about the Google security features of Chromebooks and the Titan chip,

[@AndrewTSq]

Google ChromeOS is probably the safest operating system around right now. Everything runs in a sandbox, each browser tab runs in its own confined space and can not see the other tabs. THere is also a security layer from Chrome browser to the operating system, so even if you can escape the sandbox your stuck in the next layer... also on each startup, ChromeOS checks all the operating system files against a known secure version. If anything is a missmatch, it will automaticly revert to the known safe one. All these things takes like 3 seconds. This was before any security chip btw. If you use linux for example, and I want to use my arduino, I will get asked when I plug the arduino in, If I want to access it in linux and it will open up a port to it in the security layer.

[@brunonichol7557]

@@AndrewTSq Thanks for explaining the security behind Google Chrome OS. This definitely shows the inbuilt layered defence that puts my mind to rest and gives me the confidence to carry on using it.

[@Max86421]

🤔I don't know why some people buy a laptop for $2,000 and they only do their work online...

[@leviandhiro3596]

Exactly but if you tell them that they get mad

[@Max86421]

@@leviandhiro3596 Lol 🤣

[@AndrewTSq]

even worse is that many apps is just the online version wrapped in a executable (microsoft teams... new outlook etc)

[@josephkamara1814]

Staying online means you are able to monitor the the flow of information.

[@josephkamara1814]

Your question is vague

[@himeshshah64]

Hey Jordan! I notice you've got some dark circles going on... Do sleep well and take care of your health more than the channel!

[@kaychildofthekingdom]

Great review

[@thiostory]

Why ChromeBooks® only séll in North Amérika (mostly) ? We're hier in Asia love de téchnology of chromeBooks®.

[@badriance8407]

Chrome OS is my OS of choice. There's nothing I do it cannot do with Android and Linux. Fast, boots fast, stays fast, never had a lockup or bluescreen or peripheral that didnt work out of the box. It's the most secure mainstream OS there is. As long as it's around I'm never going back.

[@nodrama683]

i put the chrome flex OS on my asus 2 in 1 laptop a few years back and it was super fast but i didn't like how it was locked into one google account at a time. maybe i'm weird but i use at least 4 to 5 different google accounts each day for different work and personal stuff. i might reinstall it as a dual boot system and give it another go.

[@AndrewTSq]

Maybe I missunderstand you, but you can have several different accounts on a chromebook since atleast 2016.. cause then me and my daughter shared a Chromebook. Also you can lend it to someone and they can use the guest account feature. When you are at the login page, there is a add user button on the bottom left on my screen. edit: maybe you mean flex as not in lenovo flex :D but as in Chrome OS Flex.. ah not sure about that one, but in normal chrome os you can add users.

[@koryweaver5868]

I just bought a chromebook plus Asus 16 inch. I had an old Acer R11 so this much better. My only concern is that the hinges on my 16 Asus don't seem as strong as the R11. They seem more susceptible to breaking. Is the Lenovo 14 inch 5i more durable?

[@MoChuang343]

While this is technically a $500 Chromebook, it goes on sale like every other week for under $400 at Best Buy.

[@AndrewTSq]

yes, I bought it in sweden for $399 inc vat (256GB version with pen and fingerprint reader) and we have 25% vat in our country.

[@JasonMolter]

almost every Chromebook review "not as good as a MacBook", proceeds to use touchscreen, convert it to tablet mode, and mention the price which is one third of the MacBook that doesn't have those features.

[@sbatty65227]

I've got a mid range hp Chromebook. I've never had any issues and wouldn't go back to a laptop.

[@fran9519]

I think if you have a desktop and you want something portable without breaking the bank, chromebooks are a great idea

[@tonycollazorappo]

Senior here and getting a Chromebook or Chromebox in 2024, good bye Windows. I've had Windows since day one, It's annoying now.

[@AndrewTSq]

@vapeapetn yes! as someone who used todo music with a windows computer.. coming to windows 10, can not hardly find any of the audio features, without deepdiving into system settings now. wierd how bad it become.

[@jobiej7416]

I would rather buy a chromeos tablet than an iPad or Android tablet.

[@WarAlex16]

This is a joke. It's been more than 10 years. Google has been so lazy. Chromebooks should have able to compete with Windows 11 and Mac OS by now. Only reason I own a Samsung Galaxy Tab Ultra S9 is due to quality and integration with my Android phone.

[@mason8219ma]

You're absolutely right, Google lacks ambition.. allows itself to fall way behind the competition and wakes up too late!

[@SeeL2169]

Comparing a $2000 Macbook Pro to a $500 Laptop is not exactly fair, Is it? People who buy a MacBook Pro, don't shop for a Chromebook. Better yet, compare a Chromebook Plus to the older non plus Chromebooks.

[@o_o6869]

for me asus c434 is champ

[@jasonraymond7907]

It was a beautiful machine, solid and well built, with the best screen at the time, 👍.

[@Snarkyafterthoughts]

I've yet to like a Chromebook more than the pixelbook go. I hate that all Chromebooks look like budget Windows laptops. Chromebooks should be cheap and cheerful with playful recycled materials. Laptop design really demonstrates how completely joyless tech companies actually are.

[@szm11]

Chrome OS can be what IPad OS could have been

[@franciscoramirez2068]

I had midrange priced Chromebooks and none I ever had issues with the software.

[@MishamoGabriel]

Gostaria muito de testar o ChromeOS, me parece muito interessante essa integração com o Android. É o que eu mais queria no windows, mas nunca vou ter essa "continuidade" que o ChromeOS possibilita.

[@LeftBoot]

Can't wait for screengrab QR recognition.

[@ianoulton177]

The flex in this particular device is a known factor. And I would certainly stay away from it for that reason. Try reviewing a different make and model. Ive been using chromebooks for about 3 years and I would not go back to Windows machines.

[@Frickenchies]

Mine always got stuck in Tablet mode whenever I opened it. Had to return.

[@djs4329]

Foldable laptop

[@TomsDone]

Don't buy these in Canada. As with many other Chromebooks, they advertise a normal looking English keyboard, but when you get it you realize it has one of those awful multilingual keyboards. I think many Chromebooks are terrific products, but the buying experience stops me from buying them.

[@bozdowleder2303]

How can they even do that?! Just send it back and get the keyboard of your choice, right? Especially if you order directly from the company, it should be no hassle

[@TomsDone]

@@bozdowleder2303 You can and should send it back, but they probably don't have an English keyboard model to send you if they just carry the Canadian models. What we need are retailers who sell US models into Canada. Maybe some of the online retailers who straddle the border?

[@spectremanLIVE1]

😂🎉

[@breixo13]

First comment

[@edwardtoast8284]

Wait they're actully getting good, woah...

[@dimitriajazi8992]

My current experiences with Chromebooks are unfavorable. Unless it's a very expensive model, their keyboards are clunky and uncomfortable. Unless it's a very expensive model, their displays are poor. And unless it's a very expensive model, their audio is terrible. Then comes update trauma. As soon as there's an OS update their systems slow. If Chromebooks are supposed to be low cost alternatives to Windows and MacOS laptops they currently fail.

[@bohnec1]

You and your gaming. What are you, 12?

[@aion707]

I can see macOS bigsur 💀

[@avengersnewbie2348]

hi, buy windows (for now)

[@PerpetualPreponderer]

Stupid laptop.