The Lenovo Flex 5i was disappointing on the battery rundown test, coming in last with 10 hours and 36 minutes. Not that 10-plus hours is terrible, but the longer the better. All the others lasted for between 12 and 13 hours, with the Yoga 7i coming in just one minute shy of 14 hours. The only i5 competitor here is the Asus VivoBook S14 (S433), with its 11th Generation Intel Core i5-1135G7 and 8GB of RAM—all the others have 16GB. These laptops all have Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, so you won’t be using any as a dedicated gaming laptop. It’s important to note that when shopping for gadgets and technology products, it can be tempting to go for the lowest price possible. However, be wary of retailers that offer prices that seem too good to be true. Some less reputable retailers may sell counterfeit or low-quality products, which can be dangerous and not perform as well as the genuine product. You could make the case that Lenovo might have done better with a larger battery than the 52.5Wh one it used, even at a modest weight gain. The slightly more power-hungry processor in the Acer Spin 5 didn’t prevent the system from scoring right in the middle on battery life, at 12 hours and 38 minutes. We test Windows PCs' graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark: Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics), and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs).

On the photography front, I've owned a host of 35mm cameras, both film and digital, as well as a Mamiya 645 medium format, a Toyo 4x5, and a Graflex 6x7cm. The last I modified to provide full swings and tilts (allowing you to avoid converging parallel lines, as when you photograph a tall building from ground level). I'm proud of this project, which I wrote about in View Camera magazine. Of the comparison convertibles we match against the Flex 5i, three have the Intel Core i7-1255U and one the Intel Core i7-1255P, which outperform the Core i5-1235U on the Flex 5i. The fifth system has an 11th Generation Intel Core i5-1135G7, with only 8GB of RAM. Interestingly, a Flex 5i available from Walmart with the Core i7-1255U likewise comes with only 8GB RAM. The Flex 5i 14 isn't sleek, though. It measures 0.8 by 12.7 by 8.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.3 pounds, which just barely qualifies it as an ultraportable. The stylish, ultrapremium Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 measures just 0.56 by 11.7 by 8.2 inches and weighs 2.9 pounds, though it does have a smaller display.When you take a device with you everywhere, it makes a good first impression. You can choose a color that best suits your style with numerous options. With a 360° hinge, the IdeaPad devices can be used as a laptop or tablet. Lenovo uses 360-degree steel-encased hinges, and this design allows the user to work in four different modes at one time. Take your laptop or tablet anywhere you want to, and use it however you like. That's in addition to two intermediate configurations that make the laptop's keyboard more discrete for greater convenience while performing video and touch screen-dependent tasks.

Performance from the 11th Gen Core i5 CPU is perfectly adequate for performing basic productivity tasks or streaming web videos. I never experienced even a hint of sluggishness while browsing with multiple tabs open or installing apps over the course of several days of testing. The generous 16GB of memory likely helps significantly in this regard; it's the same capacity we typically see in 2-in-1 laptops that cost twice as much.There’s also a fingerprint reader and a pair of stereo 2-watt speakers with Dolby audio. Audio quality is adequate for general use, and certainly for webcam sessions. However, when listening to music at volume, you’ll get some distortion, as with many budget portables. As noted, the two hinges offer little play, and the laptop swings easily from closed position through 360 degrees to tablet mode (with the display facing up and the keyboard beneath). The thin bezels framing the display help it seem roomy. The laptop also features a larger ventilation grille on the bottom compared to the 2021 model. We run the same general productivity benchmarks across both mobile and desktop systems. Our first test is UL's PCMark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall system performance and also includes a storage subtest for the primary drive. All comparison systems, except the Asus VivoBook S 14 (S433), scored above 5,000 on the PCMark 10 Full Productivity Test Suite, indicating a laptop fully capable of performing standard office tasks. In fact, 4,000 is the cutoff for that, so all of these units can hold their own with productivity tasks.