Lenovo Chromebook flex 5 2022

Intro this year at mwc 2022 lenovo brought a handful of chromebooks with them to the show and included in that group is this the follow-up to the lenovo chromebook flex 5i it's been one of our favorite chromebooks over the last couple years with each iteration and this year brings the most changes we've seen yet to the flex five [Music] History if you remember back in 2020 lenovo debuted the chromebook flex for the first time it was a 10th gen device that had a lot of the upscale stuff that you would expect at the same time you know they were debuting samsung was the the galaxy chromebook and so we're looking at that device going 10th gen processors nice displays blah blah blah all that kind of stuff wi-fi 6 bluetooth five and the flex five showed up with all that stuff in a much lower price tag like it was a surprise device that debuted kind of unintentionally at ces 2020 alongside the lenovo chromebook duet which we just did a video about the duet 3 which is the follow-up to that device that lenovo has put out at mwc as well we'll link that in the description but if you remember that device like we when we saw it we knew there's like something special about this for like 400 and change it was gonna have most of the higher-end stuff you looked for in a chromebook and it it delivered on those things despite the pandemic and despite you know chip shortages and all that stuff when it came out it stayed down in price people bought it left and right i bought it for a handful of family members it was an awesome chromebook well lenovo followed up the next year and made the same thing again the flex they called the flex 5i last year and you know updated the processors but largely didn't change anything it still had a 250 nit screen plastic lower chassis but you know most of the higher end stuff that you would want in a Specs high-end chromebook fast forward to this year and lenovo has decided to up the ante just a little bit without blowing the price out of the water so the flex 5i this year this time around comes with 12th gen alder lake intel chips so pentium i3 or i5 you get your choice of four or eight gigs of ram and anywhere from 64 to 512 gigs of internal storage but it didn't just change there they are also offering a better screen much better screen this time around a fingerprint scanner a different aspect ratio and all the bells and whistles you kind of would expect in a higher end chromebook and all this stuff is starting out at 4.99 starting in june of 2022. so let's take Design a look at some of these things that have changed because this does not feel like the flex fives that have come before first up you get the all aluminum exterior and they're doing that kind of cool new lenovo two-tone thing that they do which i really like i love the the top portions of these i think it's classy looking but it sets this device apart from other chromebooks around the bottom it is plastic again this thing starts at 4.99 so let's not get crazy here we got some fan ports across the bottom obviously and some fan ports across the back but the bottom is largely plastic around the sides we've got a small array of ports here so usb type a usb type c micro uh sd card slot headphone microphone jack then around the other side we've also got power volume rocker and another usb type c and a kensington lock so nothing really out of the ordinary when it comes to that stuff where lenovo really changed this device is when it comes to the display and a couple of the other niceties and right away you probably see hopefully pick it up on this camera it's kind of got that like lifted i think ergo lift belongs to maybe asus or somebody i don't know uh same idea here though like as you open the device fully up it lifts the bottom up a little bit it's going to help ventilation so it's going to help keep the processor cooler and it's going to give you a little bit of an angle to type on does it make that much of a difference for typing for me not really but if it's going to help ventilate it when it's on a table then yeah that's great it's cool that it lifts up like that as we move to Internals the inside the big changes here right here that you can see so instead of a 13.3 inch device that they've always had as the flex 5 this is now a 14 inch device at a 16 by 10 aspect ratio so it's still full hd plus so it's still 1920 but now it's by 1200 this way and so you get a little bit taller of a screen display and i can tell you that just moving to 16 by 10 you're a mac user you've had a 16 by 10 device in your hands for a long long time apple has used this display resolution a lot it really takes a 14 inch display makes it feel a whole lot more like something like uh in the realm of a 15.6 inch device and so while it's still compact and and you know not a massive chromebook the screen resolution in the screen aspect ratio really gives it i don't know this this broader more usable space to work in down below you've got backlit keys and you know the traditionally good lenovo keyboard i think they make better keyboards on some of their other devices but this one's nice and quiet we put it next to the flex 5i from last year because i was like i think this is a different keyframe i think the keyframes the same but they've made it quieter so it's got a nice feel same nice click that we've got with the previous flex fives uh but this one is a tad bit quieter it's flanked on left and right by speakers just like every other lenovo flex chromebook flex has been and we tested the speakers but these again are pre-production units so uh the the stereo separation is good but the overall sound quality was not the best i mean it was okay but honestly speakers are one of the last things to get tuned in these chromebooks so i don't really want to judge this just yet beneath that you get a couple again new additions in the flex 5 in the form of a massive track pad and again part of that's because you've got a taller display so you've got more room on the chassis here so you've just got a larger trackpad i don't think it's glass it feels like one of those plastics that's kind of made from like recycled stuff or something i'm not really sure but it's super smooth and it's very clicky and responsive and nice and quiet so very nice trackpad surface from what little i've used it i've really enjoyed that but then they've added the fingerprint scanner on here as well and i just can't say it enough i mean i love seeing fingerprint scanners on chromebooks it's just nicer to log into your device when you've got one of these and to see it come to a device that's that's mid-range like this one is this is pretty awesome to see and it just makes the whole experience of using your chromebook much easier when you flip the lid open touch your finger on there and you're ready to go the last thing i'll say about this particular device is the bottom is still all plastic so that means this chassis part up here even though it looks like aluminum it almost kind of feels like it it is definitely plastic so that means there's a little bit of flex in it it's not bad and when it's closed for sure and paired up with this aluminum lid there's no flex in it whatsoever but you know certain corners have to be cut when you're going to make a chromebook like this and bring the price down and that's kind of what the flex 5's main selling point has been throughout the years is it's a good chromebook that gets most of the high-end stuff and you get more of it now it's 1080p webcam also by the way that has the nice privacy shutter there uh to get a chromebook that has all of these types of things with the 12th gen alder like chips and better ram options and backlit keys and a 16 by 10 300 or 400 nit display you know to get all of this stuff in one package usually just keeps bumping the price up and up and up and so you got to decide in certain places where you're going to cut some of the fat and clearly the bottom portion of this thing being plastic is one of the ways lenovo did that but the flux 5 has always been cheaper than it should be and this one feels like it's going to be in that same boat where you're going to get a lot of the big stuff from the higher end chromebooks in a s and a smaller price point and if that's the case if if the ones with the i3 and the i5 and more ram can stay down in price and compete with some of the ones that you know get up there in the 700 or 800 range this is once again going to be one of those easy chromebooks to go and recommend especially since this time around with this screen they've solved one of the big pain points of the flex 5 before which was a 250 nit 13.3 inch 16x9 screen that was always so boring and so just kind of mid-range feeling this doesn't feel mid-range at all it feels special and unique and bright and vibrant to look at and so lenovo's done a good job with both of these chromebooks that they've brought to mwc 2022 these are pre-production we can't wait to get our hands on full production units and do full reviews and really talk about all the internals and all the way things are built and put together but this is a really good start again this is available in june for 499 dollars and we're looking very forward to getting our hands on those full production units but guys that's it for this one if you enjoyed this video give us a thumbs up head down there and hit that subscribe button and be sure and click the notification icon as well if you'd like to be alerted when we make future videos just like this one until next time we'll see [Music] [Music] bye