Lenovo IdeaPad 14" 5i 2-in-1 Grey 2021

The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 is a shockingly light 1kg convertible with a capable Core Ultra 5 CPU and a useful bundle price of $490. But 8GB of non-upgradeable RAM is the Achilles' heel—fine for simple tasks, but a dealbreaker for anyone who multitasks heavily. If you stick to basic web browsing and note-taking, it's a standout value; if you need more memory, look for 16GB alternatives.

Here's the thing about the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 at this price: it's a featherweight convertible that tries to balance modern silicon with a very tight budget. At just one kilogram, it's lighter than most textbooks, and the 14-inch 1920x1200 IPS panel gives you a taller 16:10 ratio for documents and web pages. Lenovo bundles a USB 3.0 hub in the box, which is a nice extra for $490. But there's a trade-off that hits you right between the eyes: 8GB of soldered DDR5 RAM. That's the spec that defines who this laptop is for and who should run the other way.

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225U under the hood is an interesting chip. It's built on Intel's Meteor Lake tile architecture, with 12 cores (2 performance, 8 efficiency, and a couple of low-power E-cores), 14 threads, and a boost up to 4.8 GHz on the P-cores. It's not a powerhouse, but it brings Intel's first-generation AI engine to a sub-$500 machine, which might matter for Windows Studio Effects or light AI-assisted tasks. On paper, that's a respectable CPU for office work, streaming, and note-taking. The integrated Intel Graphics are adequate for video playback and older titles, but you won't be doing any real gaming or 3D rendering.

The screen is a middle-of-the-road IPS touch panel. It's not the brightest or most color-accurate, landing in the average range in our database, but the 1920x1200 resolution on a 14-inch canvas is crisp enough for web browsing and word processing. The backlit keyboard is a nice touch for late-night work, and connectivity is surprisingly generous: two USB-C ports, two USB-A, HDMI, and Wi-Fi 6. You're not left wanting dongles immediately, though the bundle hub helps. The main limitation, again, is that 8GB of RAM, which sits near the bottom of our charts for this class. If you're the type who keeps 20 Chrome tabs, Slack, and Spotify open, this machine will start wheezing quickly.

We've run the Core Ultra 5 225U through our test suite, and it holds its own in single-threaded tasks like launching apps and basic photo editing, landing in the 60th percentile for CPU performance among all laptops. That's solid, but not a standout. Multi-core workloads—like video exporting or heavy multitasking—reveal the limits of the 2+8 core design; it's fine for everyday work, but you won't mistake it for an H-series chip. The real bottleneck is the RAM. With 8GB, even light multitasking can cause Windows to dip into the sluggish SSD page file, making the whole system feel slower than the CPU scores suggest.

Gaming is essentially off the table. The integrated graphics deliver roughly 54th percentile 3DMark scores, which means older indie games or 2D titles are playable at low settings, but anything from the last five years will struggle. Our testing puts the IdeaPad 5i in the 15th percentile for gaming overall, which is exactly where you'd expect a non-gaming ultraportable. On the upside, the SSD is a 512GB NVMe drive that reads and writes quickly enough for booting and file transfers, though storage capacity itself is a bit stingy, landing in the bottom third of our dataset. If you store a lot of media, you'll lean on cloud storage or external drives.

At $490 with a bundled USB hub, the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 undercuts virtually every name-brand competitor with a similar convertible design. The ASUS ProArt PX13 and Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro start above $1,200, and even the MSI Prestige 13 sits closer to $1,000. You're paying less than half the price for a machine that covers the basics: light productivity, media consumption, and note-taking in tablet mode. That's a genuinely good deal if your needs don't stretch beyond a browser, Office, and Zoom.

But value gets complicated when you factor in the 8GB RAM. If your workflow ever outgrows that, you're stuck. For an extra $150-200, you can often find convertibles with 16GB of RAM and more storage, like the Lenovo Yoga 7i or Acer Spin 5 when they go on sale. Those will feel faster for years to come. So the IdeaPad 5i is a great near-term bargain, but you might be trading a lower upfront cost for a shorter useful life.

Stacked against the Apple MacBook Pro MDE14LL/A, this Lenovo is in a completely different league. The MacBook Pro has a stunning XDR display, M4 chip, and starts at $1,599. You'd only compare them if you accidentally sat on your wallet and couldn't get up. The real competition is the ASUS ProArt PX13, a 13-inch creator-focused 2-in-1 with a high-res OLED and discrete RTX 4060 GPU, but it costs around $1,500. If you're doing photo editing or 3D work, the ASUS runs circles around the IdeaPad, but you're paying a huge premium. The Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro also offers a brilliant AMOLED touchscreen and superior battery life, but again, it's over $1,200. These laptops are for a different audience entirely.

Closer to home, the MSI Prestige 13 Evo is another lightweight 2-in-1 with Intel Core Ultra and typically 16GB of RAM. It often lands around $800-900, which still makes the IdeaPad look like a steal, but the Prestige's extra RAM and better display could be worth the step up if you multitask. The HP ZBook Ultra G1a is a workstation-class machine at workstation prices. So for someone who just needs a basic, ultraportable notebook that can occasionally fold into a tablet, the Lenovo is almost impossible to beat on price, provided you accept the memory ceiling.

If your daily workflow includes anything beyond the very basics—multiple open apps, photo editing, virtual meetings with screen sharing while taking notes—you should skip this model. The 8GB RAM isn't just a minor limitation; it's the kind of spec that makes a laptop feel outdated within a year. Instead, look at the Acer Spin 5 with 16GB RAM, a refurbished Lenovo Yoga 7i, or even a previous-generation Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 that's been discounted. Those will give you headroom to breathe without crossing into four-figure pricing. Also, if you need any kind of gaming capability, even light titles, this isn't the machine. The integrated Intel Graphics will frustrate you. A budget gaming laptop or a handheld like the Steam Deck is a better fit for that itch.

If you're a student who lives in Google Docs, watches lectures, and occasionally uses a stylus to scribble notes, the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 is a solid, budget-friendly sidekick. It's light enough to carry all day, the screen is comfortable for reading, and the Core Ultra 5 handles everyday chores without breaking a sweat. The backlit keyboard and generous port selection mean you don't need to carry a bag full of adapters. At $490, it's hard to argue with that proposition.

But if you're a multitasker who runs Slack, a dozen browser tabs, and Spotify while working in Excel, the 8GB of RAM will make you resent this machine. It's not a question of if but when you'll hit that ceiling. In that case, the money you save now will feel like a poor trade when you're staring at a spinning cursor. We'd only recommend this for the lightest of workflows, or as a secondary travel laptop for someone who already has a beefier desktop at home.