Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i 14 (2022) Laptop Review

The Lenovo Flex 5i has a simple, business-like design. It has a slight wedge shape, meaning it's thinner at the front than at the back, relatively thin bezels, and a chiclet keyboard with speakers on each side. There's a small lip at the top of the display to give you a better grip when opening the laptop. The air vents are on the bottom and the back of the device. It's available in three color schemes: Cloud Gray, Stone Blue, and Stone Gray.

The Lenovo Flex 5i's build quality is good. The lid is aluminum, but the bottom is plastic. The construction feels sturdy, with no obvious flaws or gaps, and the finish doesn't scratch or pick up fingerprints easily. There's a little bit of flex in the keyboard deck, but almost none in the display or with the laptop closed. The feet feel solid and adhere firmly to the bottom, and the weight is evenly distributed.

The Lenovo Flex 5i has good hinges. They feel smooth when opening and closing the lid and are very stable. There's only a little bit of screen wobble, even when typing aggressively. The hinges are designed (along with the two plastic pieces beside the hinges) to lift the bottom slightly when in laptop mode, allowing for better airflow.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i and its power adapter are both compact and lightweight.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i's serviceability is okay. Accessing the internals is easy; you only need to remove nine TR5 screws and unclip the bottom panel. The nine screws are of different lengths, so it's best to keep them organized, as it'll make it easier to put them back. Once inside, all the replaceable components are easily accessible. Unfortunately, the memory isn't user-replaceable, so you need to get enough to suit your needs upfront.

You can see the maintenance manual here.

• Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i laptop
• 65W power adapter and cord
• User guide

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i is available with the following displays:

• 14" IPS 1920 x 1200
• 14" IPS 2240 x 1400 (100% sRGB)
• 14" OLED 2880 x 1800 (100% DCI P3)

The FHD (1920 x 1200) panel looks sharp and provides just enough space for split-screen multitasking. Its 16:10 aspect ratio is great for productivity, as the increased vertical means you don't need to scroll as much when reading a document or website. If the FHD panel isn't sharp enough for you, you can get one of the other panels; just remember that their increased resolutions will drain the battery faster, and OLEDs also typically use more power. The 2.2K (2240 x 1400) IPS display has a pixel density of 189 PPI, while the 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED display has a pixel density of 243 PPI. Another thing to keep in mind is that there's a risk of permanent burn-in with OLED panels.

The Lenovo Flex 5i is only available with 60Hz displays. The FHD panel has a slow response time causing noticeable ghosting, which isn't ideal for viewing fast-moving content or gaming. The 2.2K IPS panel will likely perform similarly. The 2.8K OLED panel will perform significantly better and deliver a clearer image, as OLEDs typically have a near-instantaneous response time.

The FHD panel's contrast ratio is okay and within the typical range of most IPS panels. However, it's relatively low compared to other display technologies like VA and OLED. This contrast level makes blacks look gray, especially in dim settings. The 2.2K IPS panel will perform similarly. The 2.8K OLED panel is the best option for dark room viewing, as it can turn off individual pixels to produce perfect blacks.

The FHD panel doesn't get very bright. It's enough for use in most indoor settings but not for sunny environments or outdoors in broad daylight. The 2.2K IPS panel has the same advertised brightness of 300 cd/m², while the 2.8K OLED display has an advertised brightness of 400 cd/m. The display gets very dim at the lowest brightness setting, which helps reduce eye strain when viewing content in the dark.

The reflection handling is okay. The display's glossy finish mainly struggles with direct, mirror-like reflections. It's best to avoid having bright light sources behind you, like a lamp or open window during the day, as these reflections are visible even with the screen at maximum brightness. The OLED panel has the same glossy finish.

The black uniformity is bad. There's clouding throughout the screen and backlight bleed at the bottom corners. If you often view content in a dark setting and this is something you care about, it's best to get the OLED display because OLEDs can turn off individual pixels, resulting in perfect uniformity.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i has an okay horizontal viewing angle. The image looks dimmer and more washed out from the side. The picture quality is good enough for sharing casual content or text documents with someone else but not for color-critical work.

The vertical viewing angle is okay. Like the horizontal viewing angle, the image looks dimmer and washed out from above or below. You need to look at the screen more or less straight on to see an accurate image.

The Lenovo Flex 5i's display accuracy is bad. Most colors are inaccurate due to the panel's narrow color gamut, and the white balance is also visibly off, as there's a slight green tint. The green tint is very noticeable when viewing a full white screen but less so when viewing normal content. The color temperature is only slightly warmer than the standard 6500K target, not enough to make a huge difference. The gamma doesn't follow the sRGB curve all that well; most scenes look too bright, while dark scenes are a little too dark.

The FHD display has a poor color gamut. It doesn't even have full coverage of the commonly-used sRGB color space, meaning most content looks slightly washed out. It also has poor coverage of wider color spaces like Adobe RGB and DCI P3. This panel isn't suitable for any color-critical work. The manufacturer advertises the 2.2K IPS panel to have full sRGB coverage and the 2.8K OLED panel to have full DCI P3 coverage.

The FHD and 2.2K IPS displays are entirely flicker-free. The 2.8K OLED panel isn't technically flicker-free, as the brightness drops slightly at every frame change, but this brightness drop is hard to notice and unlikely to cause eye strain.

The Lenovo Flex 5i has a great keyboard. The keycaps feel high-quality, and the layout feels spacious. The keys aren't very stable, as they wobble slightly; however, they have a good amount of travel and provide relatively satisfying tactile feedback. Overall, typing on this keyboard feels light and isn't tiring. Typing noise is low and isn't bothersome, even in quiet settings. You can adjust between two backlight brightness levels or turn it off completely.

The touchpad is good. It's reasonably large and feels smooth, allowing the fingers to glide easily. It's responsive to all movements and gestures, even near the edges, although dragging and dropping over a long distance is sometimes hard, as it tends to drop the item halfway. There's no problem with palm rejection. Unfortunately, you can only click in the bottom half of the touchpad, and the click mechanism doesn't feel particularly satisfying.

The speakers deliver clear vocals; however, there's very little bass, and musical instruments sound slightly unnatural. They also don't get very loud. In other words, they're good for speech-heavy content but not for music or movies.

The Lenovo Flex 5i's webcam video quality is good. The image looks detailed and well-exposed, and the colors look natural, although there's some noise in the darker areas. Voices sound clear but slightly nasal, with very little background noise. If you want a 2-in-1 convertible with a better webcam, check out the HP ENVY x360 15 (2023).

The Lenovo Flex 5i has a great port selection. The two USB-A ports support USB 3.2 Gen 2 data transfer speed (up to 10 Gbps). The one closest to the back of the device has an Always-On function, meaning you can use it to charge a mobile device, even when the laptop is in Sleep mode. The USB-C supports Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gbps data transfer speed and video output to two 4k displays at 60Hz), DisplayPort 1.4a, and Power Delivery 3.0. Power Delivery allows for fast charging of mobile devices, up to a maximum of 15W.

The wireless adapter is an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i is available with the following CPUs:

• Intel Pentium Gold 8505 (5 cores/6 threads, up to 4.4GHz, 8MB cache)
• Intel Core i3-1215U (6 cores/8 threads, up to 4.4GHz, 10MB cache)
• Intel Core i5-1235U (10 cores/12 threads, up to 4.4GHz, 12MB cache)
• Intel Core i7-1255U (10 cores/12 threads, up to 4.7GHz, 12MB cache)

All the CPUs are low-power processors designed for general productivity tasks like text processing, web browsing, and video playback. They're also all hybrid CPUs with a mix of performance cores and efficiency cores. The Pentium Gold only has a single performance core, while the Core i3, i5, and i7 have two, with the rest being efficiency cores. Unless you have an extremely light workload, it's best to go with one of the Core processors, as the Pentium Gold is significantly slower. The Core i3 is the slowest of the Core processors but likely sufficient for most people with a workload that only involves things like Word documents and spreadsheets, but it might be worth going up to a Core i5 or i7 if you're a heavy multitasker. The i7 is only slightly faster than the i5, not enough to make a huge difference in light, general productivity tasks.

The Lenovo Flex 5i is only available with integrated graphics. The Pentium Gold and Core i3 have Intel UHD Graphics, while the Core i5 and i7 have Intel Iris Xe. There's a performance difference between the two, but ultimately, they're both integrated graphics designed for light workloads, not demanding tasks like gaming or video editing. You can play some puzzle-like games on the Core i5 and i7's Iris Xe, as well as older or extremely well-optimized titles, but you'll likely have to play at a lower resolution or with low graphical settings. The Core i7's GPU performs a little better than the Core i5's, but the difference is very minimal. If you need a similar laptop with a discrete GPU, check out the HP Pavilion Plus 14 (2023).

You can configure the Lenovo Flex 5i with 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB of memory.

You can configure this laptop with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage. The 128GB SSD is a PCIe Gen. 3 x4 drive, while the 256GB SSD supports the faster PCIe Gen. 4 x4 standard. The 512GB SSD can be either a PCIe Gen. 3 x4 or Gen. 4 x4; it's best to check the specifications if this is something you care about. The 1TB SSD is a PCIe Gen. 3 x4 drive.

The Lenovo Flex 5i has an excellent overall score in Geekbench 5. The Intel Core i5-1235U has no problems handling general productivity tasks like text processing, spreadsheets, presentations, web browsing, and video playback. It can handle more demanding tasks, but know that the CPU throttles under load, and most of the U-series CPU cores are efficiency cores, which are slower than performance cores. If you need to perform demanding tasks like video editing or 3D graphics, it's best to get a laptop with an H-series processor and a better cooling system. The Core i7 will only be slightly faster, while the Pentium Gold and Core i3 will be slower. The Intel Iris Xe graphics perform poorly and aren't suitable for heavy compute tasks.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i with an Intel Core i5-1235U performs exceptionally well in the Cinebench R23 benchmark. However, if you need to render images professionally or perform other heavy, sustained tasks, there are better options. You can see that while the Core i5-1235U can match some H-series CPUs in Geekbench 5—a relatively short benchmark—it tends to fall behind in longer benchmark tests due to thermal throttling and the lower number of performance cores.

The Lenovo Flex 5i's performance in Blender is mediocre. The intel Core i5-1235U takes a long time to render the simple bmw27 scene, which isn't ideal for professionals with more complex material and strict deadlines. Blender doesn't support the integrated GPU, although it'll likely take longer. None of the configurations are suitable for 3D rendering.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i performs poorly in the Basemark GPU benchmark. The Core i5's Iris Xe graphics can only handle simple, puzzle-like games, as well as older or extremely well-optimized titles, and even then, you may have to play at a lower resolution or with low graphical settings. The Core i7 is only slightly faster; you'll likely get a couple more frames than an i5 at most. The Pentium Gold and Core i3's Intel UHD graphics are much slower, so don't expect to play anything more demanding than something like Solitaire.

The 512GB PCIe Gen. 3 x4 NVMe SSD's performance is outstanding. The sequential write speed is a little slow for a PCIe Gen.3 SSD but still more than adequate for a general productivity laptop. You can get faster speeds if you get a configuration with a PCIe Gen.4 x4 SSD. The speed of the SSD may vary depending on the size, as larger SSDs tend to perform better.

The Lenovo Flex 5i 14's battery life is decent. It lasts just long enough to get through a typical 8-hour workday, but that's assuming you start with a full charge, and even then, you might still have to plug it in for a short time to finish the day. Also, these numbers are only representative of a model with a Core i5 and an FHD display. The battery life will be shorter if you get a model with a Core i7 and/or a higher-resolution display.

Borderlands 3 isn't playable on the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i. Even at the lowest graphical settings, the game is extremely choppy and freezes completely at times. It also crashes when running on DirectX 12. None of the configurations can handle this or other similarly demanding games.

Civilization VI runs poorly at 1080p with high settings. The frame rates are fairly consistent, just a little too low. That said, it gets a lot better if you turn down some graphical settings. You can even play at 30 fps since it's a strategy game that doesn't require fast reaction time or precise aiming. The Pentium Gold and Core i3's Intel UHD Graphics will have a harder time running this game smoothly, even at the lowest settings. The average turn time is decent and a very minor improvement over similar Intel 11th Gen. processors. The Core i7 will perform similarly, but the Pentium Gold and Core i3 will be much slower.

CS:GO runs poorly. Although the average frame rate is decent, the game stutters a lot due to frame drops. The Core i7 will only perform slightly better, while the Pentium Gold and Core i3 will perform worse.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider isn't playable. The gameplay is too choppy and even freezes at times. It also keeps crashing on DirectX 12. None of the configurations can run this game or other similarly demanding AAA titles smoothly.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i has good thermal and noise handling. The keyboard is cool when idle, and the fans are completely silent. Under load, the keyboard only gets mildly warm, and the fan is audible but not annoying or distracting.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i's performance over time is decent. Neither the CPU nor the GPU gets very hot under load. The GPU doesn't throttle, but the CPU does. The performance loss is typical for ultraportable laptops, as light tasks like text processing, web browsing, and video playback only require the CPU to work in bursts, not continuously over a long period at near maximum capacity.

The Lenovo Flex 5i has many pre-installed software applications, including:

• Clipchamp Video Editor: Video editing software.
• Dolby Audio: Adds Dolby audio support and allows you to change the sound profile.
• Lenovo Hotkeys: Adds an on-screen overlay that shows the current hotkey status.
• Lenovo Pen Settings: Lets you change pen input settings.
• Lenovo Smart Appearance: Enhances camera effects and improves your appearance during video calls.
• Lenovo Vantage: Checks for driver and BIOS updates and keeps track of your system status and warranty.
• Lenovo Voice: Lets you control the laptop by voice and translate speech to another language in real-time. It also has a voice-to-text feature.
• Lenovo Welcome: App that provides basic information to new users.
• McAfee LiveSafe: Commonly pre-installed anti-virus software.
• Smart Noise Cancelation: Reduces background noise on video calls.
• Smart Note: Note-taking app.
• Solitaire: Solitaire and other casual games.
• Spotify: App for the music streaming service.

There's a fingerprint sensor on the right side of the keyboard deck, below the arrow keys. You can use it to log into Windows, authorize purchases in the Windows Store, and auto-fill saved passwords on supported websites. The Lenovo Flex 5i supports pen input; however, not all models include the stylus (Lenovo Digital Pen), so you may have to buy it separately. Any Wacom AES stylus will work as well.