Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 13" Laptop, FHD Touch Display, Intel Core i3-10110U, 4GB RAM, 64GB Storage, Chrome OS

I purchased this to be a "commuter" device for university. My Windows laptop is a bit too expensive and fragile for me to want to stuff it in a backpack and carry it around all day. When I purchased this, I was looking for something that could be used for video conference lectures, that I could do schoolwork on, and that I could use for light internet browsing during study breaks. I used it during the fall 2020 semester, and this met those expectations and more. Here's the "Good, Okay, Bad" breakdown.Good:The convertible screen ended up being incredibly valuable, once I finally got my hands on a USI stylus. I used it to take notes directly on PDFs of my lecture materials using Squid, and it really upped my study game.If you're already deep in the Google ecosystem, this is a really handy device to have. My Pixel paired easily and now I can see my text messages on my computer. That's really cool.Startup takes no time at all.The battery life is impressive. I can consistently get at least 8 hours of heavy use, even with my brightness turned all the way up. It charges really fast, too.The screen is clear, bright, and vibrant. I'm used to a much larger screen on my Windows laptop, and the transition to this smaller screen was easy, because the quality is so nice.It's a durable little sucker. I'm kind of hard on my electronics. Four months of daily use, and it still looks the same as it did the day I unboxed it.The keyboard is excellent and I love that it's backlit. I wish it had a 10-key numpad, but it definitely wouldn't fit one.The touchpad is also excellent and I love that it supports multi-touch.I'm just a big fan of Chrome OS. It's simple and easy to use. There's almost no learning curve. It has a lot of fun little tricks that make it really simple and efficient to use.Okay:The RAM is sufficient for my needs. It gets a little laggy when I have a lot of tabs open and apps running simultaneously. By "a lot," I mean like 20+. I currently have 12 tabs, one of which is a youtube video, and Google Hangouts open and it's running fine. It sometimes struggles to handle having multiple youtube videos open, or having a youtube video paused in the background while I do a video call. It has crashed on me a few times, almost always when I have multiple youtube tabs or streaming services running simultaneously. But as long as I'm careful about how much I have open at one time, it's fine.The touchscreen is just okay, even with the USI stylus. It's not bad exactly, but sometimes it takes a while to recognize my USI stylus. I'm not sure if that's a problem with the stylus or the Chromebook. Palm rejection, latency, and smoothness vary a lot depending on the app you're using. (I tried every handwriting app in the play store.) I've never used it to draw. I wouldn't use this as a tablet replacement. It's a little bit too big and the layout is a little bit too unwieldy.The app selection is okay. You can run most Android apps on a Chromebook. Usually they work fine. Sometimes they're a little clunky.The webcam is alright. It's nothing fancy, but it's fine for video calls. I like the privacy cover.Bad:The speakers aren't great. They're loud enough, but they're tinny with no bass. The speakers on my Pixel 3a are objectively better. I almost always use headphones, so this isn't a huge problem for me - I didn't even notice until I'd already owned this Chromebook for a few months. But if listening to music without headphones or an external speaker is important to you, this might not be the device for you.Overall, I'm very happy with the Flex 5. I would recommend it if...You already have a more powerful Windows or Mac device and want something lightweight, cheap, and sturdy to carry around.You're caught between buying a tablet and a laptop, because you want a bigger screen/better keyboard/more traditional computer-like interface than you can get with a tablet, but you don't want to spend a ton of money on a laptop or sacrifice features and durability for a low-tier laptop. (This is the perfect compromise for that, especially if you're already a Google/Android user.)You're a light computer user who basically just wants an internet machine, but you want a nice internet machine. I would highly recommend this for an older adult or a kid who doesn't need any fancy software.You already own Android or Google devices and want something that will complement them.

for the price, this laptop is good. It is easy to set up. The design is well done for the cost.

I spent a lot of time researching which Chromebook to get, and I must say I made the right choice with this device. If you are looking for something a grade above what school's pay almost nothing for but don't want to spend a fortune on an overpowered web-browser (cough cough Pixelbook), I would 100% recommend this device.I have only had the device about a week, but am thus far very impressed for the following reasons:- When I first unboxed the device, I was immediately struck by the build quality. Everything felt solid well built. There was almost no flex in the screen or chassis and the hinge is firm enough to not wobble when touched but also loose enough to flex into any position easily.- The screen is plenty bright. It's not the brightest panel out there, but it worked outdoors for me, especially in the shade. Thin top and side bezels also complement the panel nicely; the pictures don't do it justice. Aesthetically this is a nice, modern-looking device (aside for the old-school 16:9 aspect ratio, but I find putting the taskbar on the right side is a simple yet effective workaround for this; I do this on my Dell as well).- The keyboard is incredible. It's incredibly responsive and tactile. I know exactly when a key has been hit and recorded, and am left satisfied after every keystroke with no doubts and a nice clicky sound. I almost look forward to writing my first essay on this machine. Also, the backlight is very nice. It's one of those features I forgot about but was happy to find when I turned the computer on.- Performance is fantastic. The i3 and 4gb of memory have me doing whatever I want whenever I want. I've never seen any slowdowns except for using beta Linux programs (like Firefox).About what I expected was touchpad size. It's not as big as you'll find on a Macbook for instance but it's definitely no slouch. My 15" Dell Precision Workstation has a smaller trackpad. The pad works well, avoid fingerprints and smudges, and is comfortably sized for any stroke (I've never accidentally slid my finger off the pad).Battery life is also (so far) about as expected. I have never taken it close to all the way down, but as my secondary machine the device does not get nearly the usage as my Dell to test the battery. What I can say is that I have never had concern picking up the device for an hour or so regardless of if I charged it overnight or not. Plus, charging via USB C on either side makes the device easy to charge regardless of what I'm doing or where I've put the laptop down.Also on the bottom side of acceptable is the camera. It works. The color is good but sharpness and expsure are terrible. Given the compression of video calls, however, these shouldn't be a big deal. Plus, the physical shutter is nice to have for peace of mind without an ugly post it or piece of tape gunking up the lens. It's a typical crappy webcam.The only thing I expected to be nicer are the speakers. I am a bit of an audiophile (though not nearly to the degree of many self-proclaimed audiophiles), and seeing the large speaker grills in the photos prompted me to expect larger drivers than the device has. Upon testing the speakers, they sound small (even at lower volumes), and with the device in hand you can see that the speakers only exist in about the bottom quarter of the speaker grill - yikes. They get the job done.All in all, this is a very solid device. I have no regrets with my purchase. If you are looking for a good laptop to access the internet on and run some basic software (mainly android apps and PWAs), you should have no issues or complaints.