Lenovo — 2022 — IdeaPad Flex 5i — 2-in-1 Chromebook Laptop Computer — Intel Core i3-1115G4 — 13.3″ FHD Touch Display — 8GB Memory — 128GB Storage -…

After reading tons of reviews and taking ages to make a decision, I finally decided that I don’t need a full PC, and I can totally get by with a Chromebook. The costs are so much lower it’s barely a comparison, and though it’s kind of like having a really big Android phone in many ways, the value for the money is hard to beat. The cost was pretty low to start with, and I was able to use points from my credit card to carve that in half. Combined with the fact that this was top rated by Wirecutter (NYT, not trying to give them a plug but citing my source) I thought I should just make the call without more delay. Starts instantly, shuts down instantly, controls are intuitive, folds flat nicely, feels solid (though we shall see what happens if my toddler really gets her hands on it), light up keyboard is nice though not critical. I guess I’m a little surprised by the very basic keypad which does not appear to have any extra buttons like Control/Alt, but perhaps those are PC functions that don’t apply to Chromebooks? I’m not certain. Machine came shockingly quickly, maybe two days, was fully charged on arrival, and the main thing I really like is that it doesn’t constantly, incessantly and frustratingly update the Windows OS. I probably erred when buying my last Dell PC by going a bit cheap and cheerful on the computing power, but I joked that it was really just a software updating machine that didn’t really do much other than download new software (which would slow its performance to a crawl). I really hope I’ve sidestepped that whole issue with this machine.

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.