IFA 2022. Chromebooks have long since abandoned their original focus on the education segment, and for this reason, the vast majority of these Chrome OS laptops were launched as budget devices, but with low hardware and small size. In recent years, computers that competed with their Windows or macOS counterparts have come onto the market and now another one is being announced.
Lenovo’s IdeaPad 5i goes up in size by mounting a 16-inch screen. A modern form factor that seeks the display capacity of 17 laptops and the smaller real size of 15″. The Chinese firm offers two panels to choose from, up to 2.5K native resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio, 350 nits of brightness, and 120Hz refresh rate.
One example of Chromebooks’ hardware upgrade is the Core i3-1215U processor, Intel’s newest series for laptops. It is accompanied by 8 Gbytes of LPDDR4X memory and a PCIe SSD of up to 512 Gbytes.
In terms of connectivity, it is compatible with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5 and has two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C ports and two other USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports. It features an FHD webcam, Waves-powered stereo speakers with MaxxAudio, a Kensington lock, and microSD cards.
With dimensions of 356.5mm x 253mm x 19.95mm and a weight of 1.86kg, the screen can be rotated 180 degrees to facilitate content sharing and its battery should be able to provide up to 12 hours of autonomy.
With the latest version of Chrome OS pre-installed and the advantages that Google provides on all Chromebooks such as a free year in its cloud storage service, the IdeaPad 5i will be available in September 2022 for a price starting at 549 euros.