Best overall
If you're looking for a modern laptop that won't break the bank, we cannot recommend the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus enough. That's a mouthful, so I suggest it is a lot of work. But here it is, in all of its Intel Core i3 glory. Slap on 8GB of RAM and a 1080p display, and you have quite a decent laptop for just under $500.
While you might expect poor performance from a Chromebook, the IdeaPad Flex 5 averaged a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 5,384, just above the 5,259 Chromebook average. It's also far above the performance of the Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook's average of 1,727 and the Lenovo Flex 5 14 (Intel)'s average of 3,841.
To make that performance even more valuable, this is a Chromebook. That means you won't run into intensive tasks as often as you would with a Windows laptop. On top of that amazing AI-backed performance, it also offers close to 10 hours of battery life. That'll take you into overtime (paid, or else call me).
One of my favorite features about the IdeaPad Flex 5i is its design. You won’t get stuck with a clunky laptop that looks like it came straight out of battling Windows 95. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this was a premium laptop by the looks of it. It comes in at 12.4 x 9.0 x 0.8 inches and 3.6 pounds. It’s not the lightest or the thinnest, but it makes up for it by being a sturdy shoulder to lean on.
Yeah, its 14-inch, 1080p display isn't colorful, but its 16:10 aspect ratio gives you more vertical space to work with.
See our full Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus review.