Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i (2024) review: A tough value proposition

In today’s environment, price is quickly becoming the determining factor when purchasing a laptop. As budgets get tighter and tighter, it can be hard to know where to spend your hard-earned money to ensure you’re getting the best value. At $399 (at the time of writing), the IdeaPad Flex 5i from Lenovo sounds quite intriguing, especially considering it’s a 2-in-1 design with decent battery life, along with Lenovo’s reputation for reliable laptops.

However, digging a bit deeper, the IdeaPad Flex 5i makes quite a few compromises that make the decision more complicated. The last-generation specs, mediocre display and speakers, and a bad trackpad experience all add up to a laptop that feels every bit of its budget price tag. And considering the upgraded model (which is absolutely the one you should get if you’re at all considering buying one) starts at nearly $700, that bumps it up into a category with much stiffer competition, so it’s hard to make a good case for the IdeaPad Flex 5i.

About this review: Lenovo provided us with an IdeaPad Flex 5i for this review. It had no input in this article and did not see its contents before publishing.

Price, availability, and specs

Keep your expectations in check

The IdeaPad lineup is most certainly a lower-mid range laptop, so don’t expect anything exciting when it comes to specs. There are only two configurations available and they both feature 12th Gen Intel processors. You can choose from a Core i3-1215U or Core i5-1235U, neither of which will give you outstanding performance.

8GB of LPDDR4X RAM is on offer, and you can choose between 256 or 512 GB of storage. The base model comes with Intel UHD integrated graphics, but upgrading to the Core i5 gives you Intel Iris Xe graphics (also integrated). There’s only one display option and that’s a 14 inch WUXGA 1920 x 1200 display. It’s a touchscreen, but for some reason it feels a bit stickier when swiping on it than other touchscreen laptops I’ve used.

Luckily, Lenovo isn’t asking a whole lot for either configuration. The top-tier model is $679 at time of writing, but the base model is on sale for $399. That’s a pretty compelling price for a laptop that puts it squarely in the “budget” category and, for what you’re getting, it’s a decent value proposition. If you can, however, I would definitely recommend upgrading to the higher-end laptop.

I don’t normally talk about the software on laptops, but it’s important to note that, for some random reason, the IdeaPad Flex 5i comes with Windows 11 S installed. Unless you’re getting this laptop through school or work, and they require you to keep it in S mode, you should absolutely upgrade to the full Windows 11 the second you power it on.

Design and ports

Nothing exciting

As you might expect, Lenovo plays it safe with the design. It’s gray, which helps it stand out a little bit from the slew of black, but again, it’s a price-conscious laptop, so don’t expect too much. It is a 2-in-1 though (hence the Flex name), which is helpful, and it supports Lenovo’s pen if you need that. Aside from the Lenovo branding on the lid, the only other common design element is the slight camera protrusion at top of the lid that Lenovo pioneered a few years ago.

It’s plastic all around, which is to be expected, but it’s still well-built without much give or flex anywhere. The hinge is nice and sturdy, but it’s just a tad to stiff to open one-handed.

Being entirely plastic, it’s a bit heavier than I expected, starting at 3.52 pounds, so it’s certainly not an ultrabook. It’s not so heavy that I don’t like carrying it in my bag, but considering the 16 inch ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 starts at only 4 pounds, I was a bit surprised. That also makes it hard to use as a tablet for more than about 10 minutes or so, which kind of defeats the purpose of a 2-in-1.

On the left side is the power port for the included barrel charger, full size HDMI, and Thunderbolt 4 port. The included charger is only 65W, and since the Thunderbolt 4 port supports power delivery, it’s a bit annoying that Lenovo added the extra charging port. I’d much rather them replace it with another useful port instead of giving me one that’s arguably useless. The HDMI port also only supports HDMI 1.4b, but at least you still get 4K support, so that’s a plus I guess.

On the right side you’ve got two USB-A ports, an SD card reader, and the power button.

Display, webcam, and audio

Gets the job done, but that’s about it

It’s really refreshing to see more laptops adopting the 16:10 aspect ratio on their displays, as it’s so much more useful for getting things done. But sadly, that’s probably the best thing about this display.

It’s a 1920×1200 WUXGA display that is definitely not meant to impress. It’s hard to say it’s bad, considering the price point and target market, but it’s not great. Colors are washed out and the 60Hz response rate is quite noticeable. Plus, for some reason, it feels stickier to stroke than other touch displays and I’m not sure why.

The 1080p webcam is not bad. It’s certainly better than the 720p webcam on the HP ZBook Studio G11 that costs six times as much. It’s perfectly passable for calls and such, but don’t expect it to make you look your best. If you frequently have important presentations or client calls, I would recommend an external webcam.

The 1080p webcam is not bad. It’s certainly better than the 720p webcam on the HP ZBook Studio G11 that costs six times as much.

Audio quality is another area where Lenovo compromised a bit to hit this price point. The dual, upward firing speakers work, but they’re pretty limited. They don’t get as loud as I’d like and there’s hardly any low-end support to speak of. If you’re listening to music while working or studying, or jumping on a call or lecture, they’ll suffice, but I wouldn’t get too excited about them.

Since they’re upward firing, you’re faced with that awkward scenario of them facing away from you while it’s in tent mode, which can be annoying if you’re trying to watch something that way. Also, when in what I call “reverse tent mode” (see picture), they’re literally laying flat on your lap or table so they’re even more muffled.

All this to say, don’t expect the Flex 5i to be an entertainment powerhouse. For taking breaks every now and then, it’s fine, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a primary entertainment device.

Keyboard and touchpad

One’s pretty good, the other’s pretty bad

Lenovo has been known to make some great keyboards in the past, and while the one on the Flex 5i isn’t nearly as solid as the ThinkPad’s keyboard, it’s still pretty good; better than I expected honestly. At first, I didn’t like it all, but after a few days, it grew on me. And since it’s not running an Ultra series processor, there’s thankfully no Copilot key to deal with.

The trackpad is a different story, however. It’s Mylar instead of glass and I just don’t like it. It’s not nearly as smooth as glass and while it works ok, it’s just noticeably slower to react to my finger. That may not be a big deal to everyone, but I’m not a fan. There’s also a very noticeable rattle when using tap-to-click that is just annoying and distracting. I highly recommend using an external mouse whenever possible.

Performance and battery life

Passable for light workloads

Let’s get this out of the way up front: keep your expectations in check here. For starters, it’s a two-year old processor (12th Gen Alder Lake Core i5) with only 2 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores. The base model drops down to a Core i3 with 2 performance cores and half the efficiency cores. And either spec only comes with 8 GB of DDR4 RAM so, don’t expect a lot here.

Surprisingly, the FlexPad outperformed the newer Core Ultra 5-125U in the Geekbench testing, but that probably says more about the hit-or-miss performance of the Ultra 5 than it does about the performance of the Core i5. As expected, however, the Core i5 doesn’t hold a candle to the performance of any processors in any of the other benchmarks.

As long as you don’t expect much out of a two-year-old processor, you’ll be fine.

This translated to real-world performance as well. It did not take much for the Flex 5i to stutter or lag, especially when browsing with more than 4 or 5 tabs open. Multi-tasking is technically possible, as long as you’re not in a hurry. If you’re taking notes for class or checking email and browsing the web, you’ll be alright, but if you try to do much more than that, it will get overloaded pretty quickly. And this isn’t even the base model I’m using.

Should you buy the IdeaPad Flex 5i?

For a very small group of consumers, it’s not the worst you can get

You should buy it if:

• You’re on a very limited budget
• You have very light workload requirements
• You want an affordable 2-in-1

You shouldn’t buy it if:

• You want a good trackpad
• You need to do anything more than light work
• Your budget is a bit more flexible

This is a tough question to answer, to be honest. On the one hand, it’s a decent laptop for what you’re getting. If there’s not much room in your budget, it’s a good value at $400. On the other hand, if you can, I would absolutely recommend getting the upgraded model or another laptop.

This is where it gets trickier though. When you start considering the $650-$900 range, there are many other laptops available at that price with better specs, including many from Lenovo. In fact, literally every other laptop currently on Lenovo’s website (even in the $500-$800 range) at the time I’m writing this has better specs than this laptop. Even the ones with 8GB of RAM at least have the newer DDR5 RAM vs. the slower DDR4 RAM in the Flex 5i. Plus, all the others come with the full version of Windows 11 instead of the S version.

If your budget can get you closer to the $1,000 range, a whole new slew of options become available. That being said, I absolutely understand that even $400 is a lot of money for a lot of people right now. So, if you do need something that can handle the basics and will reliably get you through the next few years, the IdeaPad Flex 5i is worth considering.