Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-In-1 Review

The Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 delivers premium looks, a powerful AMD processor, and a versatile convertible form factor at a reasonable price. There are obvious cost savings throughout the device, but the full package is solid, and this IdeaPad is a tremendous value.

Design

The IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 delivers a familiar Lenovo look and feel in a less expensive package than the typical IdeaPad or Yoga. It can pass for a more premium laptop with its iconic Lenovo badges and communication bar, familiar scalloped keyboard, and what feels like a solid aluminum body.

And the review unit came in a fun Cosmic Blue color that looks great and contrasts nicely with the medium-gray keys on the keyboard. A more staid Storm Grey is there for those who want something less flashy.

I’m also impressed that the IdeaPad 5 is a convertible laptop and not a more basic clamshell design. That gives you the multiple use cases–tablet, tent mode, and so on–and Lenovo even bundles a basic smart pen for those that wish to take notes by hand.

But the cost savings are there. That body is actually a mix of plastic and glass fiber, and it feels heavy and dense in transit. It also picks up skin oil smudges a bit too easily. The keyboard and touchpad, as noted below, both sound hollow, clacky, and cheap. And in the right light, you can see that the touchpad isn’t the same blue color as the body.

I don’t feel any of that matters. At its low price point, the IdeaPad 5 delivers tremendous value, and Lenovo had to make concessions somewhere. As discussed throughout the review, those concessions each seem reasonable. And the overall experience of using the IdeaPad is quite good, assuming you can make do with a few compromises. Looks isn’t one of them: It’s a handsome laptop, and no one would suspect it costs about half as much as its looks suggest. Unless they hear you typing, that is.

Display

The Lenovo IdeaPad 5 offers just a single display configuration. It’s a 14-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) IPS panel with a 60Hz refresh rate and a16:10 aspect ratio that throws off 300 nits of brightness. And it’s OK. The display doesn’t get very bright, and while it’s fine indoors, it’s unusable outside in any conditions.

The display covers less than 50 percent of the sRGB color gamut, so it’s inadequate for accurate color work. But it does support TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light capabilities and, in keeping with the laptop’s convertible form factor, multi-touch and smart pens.

I pretty much just used it as a traditional laptop, and the display size and resolution worked well for the productivity tasks I usually engage it. I also found it suitable for playing video games, as noted below. There’s nothing exceptional here, thanks to the price point Lenovo achieved. But it gets the job done.

The display bezels are thin, especially on the sides. And you can lay the display flat or spin it around on the 360-degree hinge, which seems solid and was rock-steady.

One final nit: You’ll need two hands to open the display lid. If you try to open it normally, with one hand–the raised communications bar presents the obvious place to do so–the bottom of the laptop will lift off the table. You need to brace it with one hand and open it with the other.

Internal components

You can configure an IdeaPad 5 with an AMD Ryzen 5 8645HS or Ryzen 7 8845HS processor, with integrated AMD Radeon 760M or 780M graphics, respectively. These are powerful and power-hungry 45-watt parts that are less efficient than comparable Intel Core Ultra “Meteor Lake” processors. You’ll see that in the battery life and fan noise, which is near constant when using this laptop.

I don’t see that as an issue: Not only is the IdeaPad 5 inexpensive, thanks in large part to its AMD processors and some understandable concessions noted throughout this review, but it’s also incredibly powerful. Indeed, I was excited to test this PC specifically because of its AMD innards. And I wasn’t disappointed: This mighty mite delivers entry-level gaming PC-class performance on a budget, and it rifled through my standard productivity tasks–Brave, Typora, Notion, Affinity Photo 2, Slack, and so on–and my Visual Studio 2022 Preview-based software development work, with no issues at all.

That wasn’t surprising, though I wish I could have upgraded the 16 GB of soldered 6400MHz LPDDR5X RAM. That’s not possible, though Lenovo does give customers their choice of 512 GB or 1 TB of M.2-based PCIe Gen4 TLC SSD storage. The review unit was configured with the upgraded processor and storage choices, and that’s what I’d pick if I were spending my own money.

And for good reason: The IdeaPad 5 is a surprisingly competent portable gaming PC. I wrote a bit about this in A Few Thoughts on Portable PC Gaming (Premium) back in July. But since then, I’ve spent a lot more time gaming on the IdeaPad, using various titles from Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Steam, and the Epic Game Store. And I’m quite impressed.

As noted previously, the IdeaPad can handle Doom (2016) at native Full HD+ resolution, with V-sync enabled and most graphics settings on Ultra, at 60 frames per second (FPS). Ditto for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which, as of this writing, is still the latest entry in that popular shooter series.

Since first evaluating those games, I’ve continued playing Doom, which runs wonderfully. And I’ve started on The Callisto Protocol, a recent third-person survival horror/sci-fi title. That came up the first time with the graphics settings all on Medium. But the game’s built-in benchmark pegged it as hitting roughly 30 FPS, and so it recommended changing that to Low to compensate. Doing so raised the frame rate to 45 FPS, and the game still looks good, what I’d call an Xbox Series S level of quality. And that’s sort of the value proposition here: You’re not going to get the best quality or resolution with this system, but modern games are playable. The overall game playing experience is terrific and should meet the needs of all but the most hardcore of gamers.

Fan noise is an issue while playing games, as expected. But that’s true of dedicated gaming laptops too, and heat was never a problem as long as I kept the IdeaPad on a hard surface. The only real issue with games is that the laptop’s stereo speakers aren’t as loud as I’d like. That can be solved with a good pair of headphones–I’ve been using a pair of Beats Studio Pro headphones via a wired USB-C connection, and that works nicely–but the built-in audio capabilities are among the concessions Lenovo made to reach this price point. I can live with that.

Connectivity

There’s not much to say here: The IdeaPad provides modern but not state-of-the-art Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3, and I never experienced any issues connecting to networks or devices, at home and elsewhere.

Ports and expansion

The IdeaPad 5 is a laptop and not a thin and light Ultrabook-class device, and so there’s plenty of room for legacy ports. I don’t mind Lenovo taking advantage of that–lots of people still have compatible cables and peripherals, and those ports are less expensive–but I’m a little surprised there isn’t a single 20 or 40 Gbps USB port of any kind. Obviously, this is another cost concession.

On the left, you’ll find one full-sized HDMI 1.4b port, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports (10 Gbps, Power Delivery, and DisplayPort), and a combo microphone/headphone jack.

The right side provides two full-sized USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports (5 Gbps), one of which is always-on, plus a micro-SD card reader and the power button.

Audio/video

The IdeaPad 5 has two 2-watt upward-facing speakers on the keyboard deck. They provide Dolby Atmos spatial sound capabilities, though it’s more stereo than immersive. The sound is decent for music, videos, videogames, and work calls, and the speakers don’t distort even at full volume. They get loud enough for the most part, especially if you’re right in front of the display, though I could have used more oomph in my Doom gaming sessions.

I don’t see this as a huge issue, but because there are only two speakers, and they’re facing up on the keyboard deck, the sound isn’t as good when you convert the device into other form factors. For example, in tent mode, the sound is shooting out the back.

Hybrid work

The IdeaPad follows a familiar pattern when it comes to hybrid work functionality, which is fine. This is more a personal system than a work laptop, and it’s Full HD (1080p) webcam and dual array microphones are pretty much standard issue, and not particularly lacking or notable.

The webcam has a manual privacy switch, of course, but it doesn’t support Windows Hello facial recognition. Thanks to its basic NPU, it does support Windows Studio Effects, with automatic framing, eye contact, and background effects on hand. There’s basic support for noise cancelation on the microphones and speakers via the Lenovo Vantage app.

Keyboard and touchpad

Lenovo makes some of the very best portable keyboards for its ThinkPad, ThinkBook, and IdeaPad-branded laptops. And the IdeaPad 5 hits at the basics in this category, with a full-sized keyboard with familiar, scalloped keys, decent key throws and typing feel, and a no-nonsense layout with no superfluous or misplaced keys. The keys are backlit and even support an automatic mode, which I didn’t expect at this price point.

Also good, Lenovo didn’t place tiny, compromised PgUp and PgDn keys inside the arrow key layout, which helped me minimize mistypes. (And the Ctrl and Fn keys are in the right positions, though this has been true on IdeaPad for as long as I can remember; it’s an issue on some ThinkPads.)

But this is also a previous generation keyboard–as evidenced by the bottom row of keys being curved on the bottom–key presses are notably loud, and they sound clacky and cheap. I never had issues typing, but the sound was annoying. And not just to me: Others nearby commented on the keyboard noise a few times.

The medium-size Mylar touchpad presented no issues and feels reasonably like glass, with a smooth, drag-free surface. It was reliable and accurate, and I never needed to disable three- or four-finger gestures. But it, too, was loud in use and sounded cheap.

In keeping with the IdeaPad’s convertible design, Lenovo bundles a Lenovo Digital Pen with the device. That’s nice, but there’s no way to store it in the PC, and so I never kept it handy and didn’t really use it.

Security

The IdeaPad 5 makes further cost concessions when it comes to security by including an old-school square fingerprint reader on the wrist rest, but not a facial recognition sensor. So your only authentication choices are Windows Hello fingerprint recognition, which was fast and accurate–and, thanks to its match-on-chip design, quite secure–or a PIN.

There are no presence sensing capabilities, another cost concession, but also less useful without Windows Hello facial recognition.

Sustainability

Perhaps in keeping with its budget pricing, sustainability is light. It’s not clear that any of the PC itself is recycled, but the power adapter was made with 90 percent post-consumer plastic, and the plastics in the packaging are 90 percent recycled.

The IdeaPad is reasonably user serviceable, though you’ll need a flat pry tool in addition to a Torx screwdriver to get the bottom panel off. The battery, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module, and M.2 storage are readily accessible. The RAM is soldered, and non-upgradeable.

Efficiency and portability

Despite its x64 innards, the IdeaPad 5 delivered reliable power management without any extra work on my part, though I did briefly examine the options in the Lenovo Vantage app. I would close the display lid at night when I went to bed, and then open it when I got up in the morning, and it almost always fired on the display immediately. As good, it only drained the battery by about 2 to 3 percent each night, on par with the Snapdragon X-based PCs I’ve reviewed this summer. Bravo, AMD. Bravo.

Not surprisingly, battery life wasn’t as positive: I averaged just 4 hours and 45 minutes of real-world battery life when using the laptop for my standard productivity and software development tasks. I didn’t test battery life while playing games, mostly because I wanted to wring as much performance out of it as possible, and so I left the power cable plugged in for that. Obviously, playing games would have a significant negative impact on battery life.

The IdeaPad supports rapid charge, and Lenovo says you can add two hours of uptime to the 57 watt-hour battery in just 15 minutes of charging when using the standard 65-watt USB-C power adapter. And you can optionally enable features that will charge the battery more efficiently at night and power on the PC when you open the display lid.

From a portability perspective, the IdeaPad 5 is a bit thick and heavy compared to most of the 14-inch laptops and convertibles I review, at 12.32 x 8.94 x 0.70 inches and 3.31 pounds, respectively. But as with the keyboard and touchpad, this is almost certainly tied to its budget pricing and it’s a perfectly acceptable compromise.

I didn’t fly with the IdeaPad 5, but I did take it on a long weekend trip to upstate New York by car. It handled the bagging and unbagging without any drama, as with the normal day-to-day usage at home.

Software

Predictably, the consumer-focused and value-priced IdeaPad 5 was configured with Windows 11 Home, though Pro is an option, and it came with a bit of crapware in the form of McAfee and Dropbox promotion, both of which I removed immediately. There are also five Lenovo utilities–Lenovo Hotkeys (a surprisingly pointless keyboard shortcut utility), Lenovo Now (services upsell crapware), Lenovo Pen Settings, and Lenovo Vantage, plus a User Guide shortcut–and Dolby Access. Nothing surprising, and the objectionable stuff can be removed for the most part. That said, Lenovo has started using Vantage to push up-sells, too, which I don’t like. You need that app for driver and system updates, and for support. It should be left to those uses.

Pricing and configurations

The IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 is astonishingly inexpensive given what you get, and it’s a terrific value. Prices start at just $600 for an entry-level model with an AMD Ryzen 5 8645HS processor with integrated AMD Radeon 760M graphics, 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage, and Windows 11 Home, in your choice of Luna Grey or Cosmic Blue. And the upgrades are likewise reasonable: You can opt for an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor with integrated AMD Radeon 780M graphics for an additional $77. A 1 TB SSD adds $32. And moving up to Windows 11 Pro costs just $52. Do the math, and you’re looking at just $730 with all those upgrades.

I do wish there were RAM and display choice, however. But you’re stuck with the 16 GB of soldered, non-upgradeable RAM and a Full HD+ IPS display.

Recommendations and conclusions

Looking over my notes and the write-up above, I see numerous negative points that suggest I’m not entirely happy with this laptop. But nothing could be further from the truth: The IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 is a terrific value with its low starting price and powerful AMD processor, and the full package delivers on all the basics one expects from any laptop. I usually review more expensive premium PCs, but the IdeaPad 5 was a delight. It was perfectly capable for my day-to-day work and my software coding projects. And it was even better when it was time to take a break, pick up an Xbox controller, and start killing demons in Doom.

The only real bummers are the lack of a RAM upgrade, which makes the IdeaPad a bit less future-proof, and the poor battery life. But this is an example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. The Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 is highly recommended.

At-a-glance

Pros

• Incredibly affordable, and an excellent value for the money
• Terrific performance
• Surprisingly decent for modern videogames
• Reliable instant-on experience
• Iconic, premium-looking IdeaPad design

Cons

• Near constant fan noise
• Keyboard and touchpad sound cheap
• Poor battery life
• No RAM upgrade