Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook

           

              Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook

 The prototypical Chromebook is a smaller, cheaper alternative to your average Windows laptop. But increasingly, that doesn't describe every type of Chromebook. Manufacturers have been offering nicer, more powerful Chromebooks with advanced features for getting real work done. And Lenovo's IdeaPad 5i Chromebook is taking that even further. This is the first 16-inch Chromebook, offering a larger desktop-like experience for those who can or need to work in a Chrome OS environment. To some users, that's a no-go. But more and more individuals, and small businesses, in particular, are able to work on the platform. This 16-inch display bears a 2.5K resolution in a 16 by 10 aspect ratio for a bit more vertical screen real estate than the 16 by 9 that used to be a bit more standard. The screen size alone isn't the real surprise though. This is also the first high-refresh Chromebook with a 120-Hertz refresh rate. This, of course, isn't a gaming laptop, which is what you usually associate with high refresh rate displays because it makes your gameplay look smoother, but a high refresh rate has other advantages. It can make everyday browsing, even just on your web browser scrolling Twitter, look that much smoother, and cloud gaming will benefit as well. Outside of the display, this can be snappy for a Chromebook. It can carry up to a 12th Gen Core i3 Intel processor, eight gigabytes of memory, and a 512-gigabyte SSD or 128 gigabytes of EMMC flash storage. Many Chromebooks top out at the latter or even less storage, so a real and roomy SSD is a nice upgrade compared to lower flash storage capacities. Some other things to touch on include the look and the build. This color is called Storm Grey. That's the color you see on the chassis here. It has a nice two-tone lid. Looks nice overall, and fairly simple. It's not gonna turn any heads, but it's stylish enough. Feels nicely built, which, again, is not always a priority for cheap Chromebooks. But this is sort of, it's not one of those nicer metal-build Chromebooks, but it is sort of solidly built and will definitely do the job day-to-day. You won't worry about the build quality. It does weigh 4.1 pounds, which is not super light, but for a 16-inch display, this is a perfectly fine weight. The feature set is rounded out by a 1080p webcam, which is a boon in this day and age. Everyone's doing more video calls, and remote work is popular, so a good webcam is key. Even many Windows laptops, including expensive ones, still stick to only a 720p camera. So, this added quality is admirable and it will be noticeable. I can assure you in our testing, comparing 720p webcams to 1080p, the difference is noticeable and the added quality is really nice. Finally, this laptop also supports Wi-Fi 6E, and physical connectivity includes USB-C, MicroSD, and standard USB-A ports.  The system will be available starting at $399. You'll note that before I said it goes up to those components. So, of course, you have to pay a bit more for things like the bigger SSD, which takes the cost up and away from that $399 base model. But all told, that's a good starting price, and then you can sort of configure from there how much power, speed, or storage you need.