- Lenovo today announced two new 2021 Lenovo Chromebooks within its 5i range.
- The vanilla Lenovo 5i offers a 14-inch clamshell design, while the Flex 5i comes with a 360-degree hinge.
- Both Chromebooks come with up to an 11th-gen Intel Core i5 processor, touchscreens, and start at $440 with June and July 2021 release windows.
The Chromebook market is filled with tons of budget-oriented options with cheap builds, low-end specs, and simple designs. There are also a good amount of premium models with terrific specs, beautiful designs, and high prices. The mid-range zone, though, is where the real fun stuff lives.
Related: The best touchscreen Chromebooks you can buy
With that in mind, we have announcements for two new 2021 Lenovo Chromebooks that fall right in that sweet spot. They offer some very nice specs and materials with most of the features Chromebook buyers want. They also won’t break the bank, with both models starting at $440.
Check out each of the new Chromebooks in more detail below.
2021 Lenovo Chromebooks: Lenovo 5i
The Lenovo 5i is a clamshell-style Chromebook. It features a 14-inch IPS LCD display with a Full HD resolution (1,920 x 1,080) in a 16:9 aspect ratio. The display supports touch, so you don’t need to feel locked to the trackpad. Flanking the keyboard are upward-facing stereo speakers.
The whole unit weighs 3.13lbs in its lightest variation, which isn’t super light, but not back-breaking, either. On the sides, you’ll find two USB-C 3.1 ports, one USB-A 3.1 port, a microSD card reader, and a 3.5mm headphone/mic jack.
See also: How to edit photos and videos on Chromebooks?
The insides of the Lenovo 5i are customizable. You can get 11th-gen Intel Core i5 or i3 processors, or go all the way down to an Intel Pentium 7505. You can also get 4 or 8GB of RAM and 128, 256, or 512GB of internal SSD storage. All models support Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1.
An interesting addition is the LED light bar up front, which changes color depending on how much battery life you have left. Lenovo says it can get up to 10 hours of battery life off one charge, but it does not disclose the capacity of the battery, so it’s likely a 10-hour session is achievable only under the most ideal of conditions.
This clamshell version of the new 2021 Lenovo Chromebooks starts at $440 and will land in stores in July.
Lenovo Flex 5i
The Lenovo Flex 5i is much like the vanilla 5i. However, as its name suggests, it has a 360-degree hinge, which gives it the useful 2-in-1 design of acting like a clamshell or a tablet, depending on your needs at the moment.
The display of the Flex 5i is notably smaller than that of the 5i, coming in at 13.3 inches. It has the same resolution and aspect ratio, though (1080p at 16:9). It does still fit in the stereo speakers on either side of the keyboard, which is definitely nice. It also has the same ports as the 5i and is a bit lighter at 2.98lbs in its lightest configuration.
See also: What is Chrome OS and who is it for?
Where the Flex 5i really differs is on the inside. It offers an additional CPU option in the Intel Celeron 6305 and eMMC storage options (32 or 64GB).
This 2-in-1 version of the new 2021 Lenovo Chromebooks starts at $440. Lenovo will start sales at some point in July.