The keyboard isn’t backlit on this configuration, unfortunately. The webcam itself is average at best, but serviceable. I liked the continued inclusion of a physical slider to disable the webcam. Putting all of those on one side should be a criminal offense, in my opinion. The new chassis material adds rigidity and having USB Type-C ports on both sides of it is fantastic. The size difference is magnified by a wide-angle lens. And Lenovo gave the 2021 5i Chromebook a brighter 300-nit backlight for the IPS panel, which is a welcome addition. The display panel is otherwise similar to the 2020 models, which is to say they’re above average. And of course, this isn’t a Flex model, so the display only folds back to around 130-degrees or so.

With the slightly larger screen, the overall footprint of the 5i is a smidge larger than last year’s Flex 5. The sound quality isn’t bad and the loudness is high for a laptop of this size and price. These house 2W speakers are tuned with Waves MaxxAudio. This time around there are larger speaker ports alongside the keyboard, for example.

In fact, this isn’t a radical redesign although moving up from a 13.3-inch display to a 14-inch panel does give a little more room in the chassis. If you’re familiar with last year’s slightly smaller model, you’ll see many familiar features. If you missed those, here are the main takeaways: I won’t spend much time discussing the design as I covered much of that in my first impressions earlier this month. Slight design improvements from last year’s model This is surely a contender for “Chromebook of the year” in 2021 based on what you get. The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Chromebook is shockingly fast for its configuration and $439.99 price tag on Lenovo’s site. Using the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Chromebook these last 14 days has only reinforced those thoughts. But I also made early observations about the 11th-gen Intel Pentium Gold processor, noting that it impressed me. My first impressions on it mostly discussed the design changes and high-level thoughts.

Even after two weeks of using the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Chromebook, this little laptop continues to surprise me.

Lenovo ideapad brightness issue