Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
Lenovo claimed 12 hours of battery life, and on average, I got 11-14 hours, depending on the brightness used. Lenovo has also placed a conventional USB-A port on both sides of the chassis, while a microSD card reader and volume rockers also make an appearance. PCMag is obsessed with culture and tech, offering smart, spirited coverage of the products and innovations that shape our connected lives and the digital trends that keep us talking.
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3i Chromebook (Gen 8) review: Bigger Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3i Chromebook (Gen 8) review: Bigger
The available ports here are the same as on several previous Flex 3i generations and the C330 before them: you only get one USB-C port, two USB-A ports, HDMI output, an audio combo jack, and a microSD card slot. The Chromebook takes up less desktop space in this mode and can be placed on an uneven work surface – handy if you are following directions or instructions from a YouTube clip but don’t have much space for the display. Google patches the platform against vulnerabilities and Chromebooks are kept updated for up to eight years, depending on the chipset.inch, 1360 x 768-pixel panel that I've seen literally since my first rubberized education Chromebook back in 2015. The microSD card slot is located on the IdeaPad 3’s left edge, where you’ll also find a USB-C port, a USB 3. That’s a dual-core chip derived from Intel’s low-power and low-cost Atom line of processors, rather than the premium high performance Core family. Of course, there are now numerous affordable 2-in-1 Chromebooks to choose from, including the Acer Chromebook Spin. As Jared has written before, if you aren’t heavily invested in the Google ecosystem, you’re likely to struggle with Chromebooks.
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 11.6 Inch HD Chromebook - (Intel Celeron, 4
Comparing the Chromebook Flex 3i with the 13-inch Apple iPad Pro ( not exactly a fair comparison as the iPad Pro costs considerably more) and the Flex 3i is considerably thicker, but easier to fit into a more compact bag or tote. What's truly worth celebrating here is the resolution finally jumping above 1080p to 1920 x 1200 pixels.
Given that it only has 4GB of RAM, some lag when swapping tabs would have been forgiven, but this goes far beyond that. With fewer pixels to power, the IdeaPad 3 manages extraordinary endurance away from the power outlet, lasting for nearly 17 hours in our battery-rundown testing. Many bargain-basement Chromebooks still use proprietary barrel-style charging cables, which can be difficult and expensive to replace if your child loses them. Linux applications, such as GIMP, can be processor and memory intensive, whereas streaming Netflix videos with a dim display is much kinder. The all-plastic construction feels cheap, but there’s a nice two-tone textured effect on the lid, which itself isn’t as weak and flexible as on some budget Chromebooks.
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Chromebook (11in) review: Now cheaper than
To this end, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth come as standard, as do USB ports (both Type-A and Type-C, the latter often used for charging and video output, while Micro SD card readers are common. Or at least we didn’t until we had half a dozen Chrome tabs up and running with in-line video playback, and it’s tough to complain about that. Screens, too, sit towards the lower-resolution end of the spectrum, but you can still get a great computing experience out of one, and your wallet will thank you. The keyboard is not backlit, which may be a deal-breaker for people who need to type in low-light conditions.Then you've caught me testing gear and editing reviews of laptops, desktop PCs, and tons of other personal tech. The majority of my use revolves around using the Chrome browser, YouTube, Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Docs, a few Android apps, and GIMP, which installs as a Linux app.
Lenovo IdeaPad 3i Chromebook 11 Inch HD Laptop (Intel Celeron
Our only reservation in this area is the side mounted power button, which is rather too easy to hit when converting the Flex 3 from laptop to tablet and back. If context matters, the most critical qualifier concerning the new Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook is cash. I tried turning off some extensions to see if this issue was impacted by the higher load of a power user's profile, but to no avail. No screws or gaps mar the clean lines of the display lid or the edges of the laptop, which is clad in a mixture of polycarbonate and ABS plastics. At the very least, it would allow you to charge regardless of where a USB-C charger cable may be snaking in from.The scores in the Android Geekbench 5 benchmark are a little higher than the Celeron N4000-based Chromebooks, too, though not up there with the faster Pentium and Core i3 models. An 11-inch laptop is about as small as it’s possible to go without creating something totally unusable or having to type with your thumbs. It’s a good looking laptop too, with a plastic shell that could be mistaken for metal in a favourable light, a large trackpad, and a privacy shutter over the webcam lens, which we like to see. There’s something a bit cheap-looking and toy-like about the IdeaPad 3’s square chiclet keys – we’re a long way away from the classy, sculpted keytops found on Lenovo’s business-grade ThinkPad laptops.
Great Deal 
New Comment