I will admit upfront that reviewing a laptop is new territory for me. With products like earbuds, keyboards, cleaning gear or smart home devices, the use case is usually pretty obvious. You listen to music, you type on it, you clean with it, or you connect it to your home and see whether it makes life easier.

A laptop is quite obviously very different. It can be a work machine, a family device, a travel companion, a media screen, a tablet replacement, or simply the thing you grab when your phone screen is too small and your desktop is too far away.

That was the lens I ended up using for the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1, rather than trying to review it like a dedicated laptop benchmarking site.

My day-to-day setup is already fairly established, and a lot of what I do is tied to other devices and systems. So instead of becoming my primary work machine, the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 became more of a household and planning device. It was the laptop I picked up for browsing, trip planning, research, media and general couch-friendly use and in that role, it started to make a lot more sense.

Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 specifications

My review unit was the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 14IPH11, finished in Lunar Grey.

It came equipped with Intel’s Core Ultra 7 355 processor, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and integrated Intel Graphics. The display is a 14-inch WUXGA IPS touchscreen running at 1920 x 1200 and 60Hz.

Windows reported around 954GB of usable storage, which is normal for a 1TB SSD once formatting and system partitions are taken into account.

If you need more storage down the track, Lenovo has included two M.2 SSD slots, although retail configurations ship with a single SSD installed. That leaves a second slot available for user expansion, which is a nice inclusion in this category.

The integrated Intel Graphics are worth noting too. This is not a laptop with a discrete GPU in the traditional sense, so it is best suited to everyday productivity, media playback, light creative use and general home or office tasks rather than gaming or heavy graphics workloads.

Being a 2-in-1 device, this particular model came with a stylus included.

First impressions and design

The first thing that grabbed me was how premium the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 felt.

IdeaPad historically sits below Lenovo’s Yoga and ThinkPad lines, so I was not expecting anything too fancy. Yet the Lunar Grey finish, aluminium top cover and sturdy hinge gave it a more polished feel than I expected.

It is not an all-aluminium chassis, with Lenovo listing an aluminium top cover and reinforced PC-ABS bottom, but it does a good job of feeling solid where it matters. At around 1.5kg, it also felt reasonably light for a 14-inch 2-in-1. Not tablet-light, obviously, but light enough that I was happy moving it around the house and using it away from a desk.

That matters because this is not just a standard clamshell laptop. Its party trick is a 360-degree hinge, which allows it to shift into several different configurations, from your classic laptop mode to tent mode, where it sits up on both the base and screen edge, through to tablet mode. For me, that flexibility was central to the experience. To capitalise on this flexibility, Lenovo include a stylus with this particular model, which makes complete sense but it’s worth confirming with the specific model of IdeaPad 5i 2-in-2 if you go shopping for one.

Display and touchscreen experience

The 14-inch WUXGA IPS touchscreen made a good impression.

It was bright and crisp, and the taller 16:10 aspect ratio gave it a little more breathing room for web pages, documents and general day-to-day use. The 1920 x 1200 resolution is well matched to the 14-inch size, giving text and interface elements a clean look without feeling cramped.

It is not an OLED panel, so you do not get those deep blacks or that extra level of contrast, but it is more than good enough in normal use scenarios like browsing, streaming, research and tablet-style interaction.

The touchscreen also felt central to the way I used the device. On a normal laptop, touch can sometimes feel like a feature that exists because it can, rather than because it should. On a 2-in-1 device, it makes far more sense.

I found myself naturally reaching for the screen, especially when using it away from a desk. That is where the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 started to feel less like a traditional laptop and more like a flexible home device.

As with most glossy touchscreens, fingerprints are part of the deal. That is not a Lenovo-specific criticism, just the reality of poking at a screen.

Keyboard and trackpad

Even though the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 can be used primarily as a tablet-style device, the keyboard still matters, and Lenovo has met the brief accordingly.

The backlit keyboard is worth calling out. Yes, backlit keyboards are fairly common now, but I still consider them close to essential. If you are working in low light, sitting on the couch at night, or trying not to light up the whole room, a properly backlit keyboard makes a real difference.

Lenovo also lights the key characters clearly, not just the area around the keys, which makes the feature far more useful. It is one of those things that may not sound exciting on a spec sheet, but you quickly miss it when it is not there.

The keyboard felt comfortable for general use, and the overall typing experience was pleasant.

The trackpad was also easy to use, although I did get caught out the first couple of times while figuring out where I could click. Clicking in the far left or right corner was a no-no.

 

Everyday performance

In day-to-day use, the IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 felt effortless.

Intel’s Core Ultra 7 355 processor, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD is a strong configuration for an everyday productivity machine, and it showed.

Facial recognition was lightning quick, Windows felt responsive, apps opened quickly, browsing was smooth, and I never felt like I was waiting for the laptop to catch up. The combination of the Intel Core Ultra processor, generous memory and SSD storage gives the machine plenty of breathing room.

This is not a gaming laptop or a mobile workstation, and the integrated Intel Graphics makes that quite clear. I would not be considering this if your main priority is gaming, 3D rendering or heavy GPU-based creative work.

For the kind of work most people are likely to throw at it though, there is plenty here. Browsing, streaming, multitasking, research, documents, video calls and general family use all sit comfortably within its wheelhouse.

What impressed me just as much was how little fuss it made. I do not recall much heat or fan noise at all. For my use, it was generally whisper quiet, which suits the type of device this is trying to be. A flexible laptop and tablet you move around the house should not constantly remind you it is working hard.

Camera, audio and video calls

Lenovo has also covered the basics for video calls and media use. The IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 includes a FHD 1080p IR camera with fixed focus, along with a physical privacy shutter. The IR camera enables Windows Hello facial recognition, which as mentioned was very quick in my time with it. Coming from the information security space, I always appreciate a proper privacy shutter too.

Software toggles are fine, but there is something reassuringly simple about physically blocking the camera when you are not using it.

Audio is handled by stereo 2W speakers optimised with Dolby Audio, while voice pickup comes from a dual-microphone array. The hardware spec is good for a laptop designed around everyday productivity, study, video calls and home use.

 

Battery life and Rapid Charge Boost

Battery life was one of the more impressive parts of my time with the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1.
Lenovo lists the laptop with a 60Wh battery and claim up to 14 hours of battery life using MobileMark 30. While I did not run a formal battery rundown test, real-world performance felt strong. My use was not a continuous eight-hour workday, but more like repeated 30 to 60 minute sessions stretching across several days while planning an overseas trip.
That meant jumping between browser tabs, accommodation options, maps and general research, then closing the lid and coming back later. In that kind of stop-start household use, the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 had excellent standby behaviour and never made battery life feel like something I had to actively manage.
If you do find yourself in the situation where you’re running low on charge, the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 features Rapid Charge Boost, which will give you 2 hours of life from just 15 minutes of charging.

AI features, Copilot and Lenovo Qira

Lenovo is also calling this an AI PC.

That phrase can mean everything and nothing. In hardware terms, the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 has an NPU, or Neural Processing Unit, built into the Core Ultra platform. The intention is that supported AI tasks can run more efficiently on-device instead of leaning entirely on the CPU, GPU or cloud.

Enter Lenovo’s Qira platform.

Rather than offering Microsoft Copilot and calling it a day, Lenovo is building Qira as its own AI layer across Lenovo PCs, tablets and Motorola phones. Lenovo describes it as a cross-device intelligence designed to understand context and help users move between supported devices more naturally.

Leveraging large and small language models, along with generative AI partnerships from the likes of Microsoft, OpenAI and Stability AI, Lenovo is not reinventing the wheel here. Rather, it is trying to package those capabilities into something that feels more personal, and more useful across the devices people already use. For example, if you’re working on a document, or looking up holiday destinations, Qira can make suggestions to help you in drafting or making destination bookings, as a personal assistant. If you move from your IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 to your Tablet or Motorola smartphone, Qira picks up where you left on your IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1, giving you continuity in your experience across all the devices.

That is where the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 starts to feel like part of Lenovo’s bigger strategy. If you already use, or are considering, Lenovo tablets or Motorola phones, Qira is clearly intended to make those devices feel more connected. If you buy one part of the ecosystem, you could do well to buy another and complete it with the complementing laptop, tablet or smartphone. Or all three?

At this stage, I would treat that as promising rather than essential. The hardware is there, and Lenovo clearly wants Qira to be part of the experience, but the value will depend on how deeply users buy into that Lenovo and Motorola ecosystem over time.

Beyond the AI branding, nothing in the software experience jumped out at me as particularly intrusive, which is about as much as I ask for an out of the box experience from a Windows 11 Laptop.

 

Ports and connectivity

The IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 also has the kind of practical port selection that still matters in the real world.
USB-C is there, as expected, but Lenovo has not gone all-in on making users live through dongles. The inclusion of USB-A and HDMI gives it more flexibility for older accessories, external displays and everyday peripherals. Lenovo thankfully also has not skimped on the humble 3.5mm headphone and microphone combo jack either. There have been times when I have been in the lurch with a flat Bluetooth headset and needed to reach for a spare wired headset, so having this as an option is genuinely appreciated.
This may not sound exciting, but it is the sort of decision that makes a laptop easier to live with. Not every household has fully moved to USB-C everything, and not everyone wants to carry adapters just to connect a mouse, storage device or display.

Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1: verdict

The IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 became the device I reached for when I wanted something bigger than my phone, more flexible than a desktop, and easier to move around than a traditional work setup.

That is the real strength of the form factor.

As a laptop, it is quick and capable. As a tablet-style device, it is useful for browsing, research and touch-first interaction. In tent or presentation mode, it works well for media or sharing something on screen. It is not a perfect replacement for a dedicated tablet, but it comes close.

The IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 feels more premium than I expected, the screen is bright and crisp, performance is effortless for everyday use, battery life impressed me, and it stayed quiet enough that I barely thought about heat or fan noise at all.

The 2-in-1 design also felt incredibly useful. The flexibility of having a laptop and tablet-style device in one gave me options that were genuinely beneficial.

The AI PC angle is harder to judge. The hardware and AI foundation is there, and Lenovo’s Qira platform gives the device a more usability than simply pointing to Microsoft Copilot. For now, I would treat Qira as a nice to have rather than the main reason to buy it.

The key is knowing what you want from it. If you need a gaming laptop, workstation or true tablet replacement, this is not that. But if you want a polished, responsive Windows laptop that can move between desk work, note-taking, couch browsing, media and touch-first use, the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 makes a lot of sense.

At the time of writing, Lenovo Australia lists the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 (14-inch, Gen 11) at up to A$3,309 depending on configuration.

Digital Reviews Network thanks Lenovo for sending us the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 to review!

 

Test model and specifications

  • Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 14IPH11 – Lunar Grey finish
  • Intel Core Ultra 7 355 processor
  • 32GB RAM
  • 1TB SSD
  • Integrated Intel Graphics
  • 14-inch WUXGA IPS touchscreen
  • 1920 x 1200 resolution
  • 16:10 aspect ratio
  • 60Hz refresh rate
  • Intel AI Boost NPU, rated up to 49 TOPS
  • FHD 1080p IR camera with privacy shutter
  • Windows Hello facial recognition
  • Stereo 2W speakers with Dolby Audio
  • Dual-microphone array
  • 60Wh battery
  • USB-C charging with Rapid Charge Boost
  • USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, microSD card reader and 3.5mm headphone/mic combo jack
  • Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4
  • Backlit keyboard
  • 360-degree hinge
  • Weight: 1.44kg
  • Aluminium top cover with reinforced PC-ABS bottom
  • Windows 11 Home