Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 (16″) review

Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 16: the wide folder that chose battery silicon

The 16-inch IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 at $1,084 takes the folding formula wide-screen with a battery-first Core 5 120U and 16GB of RAM. Its sheet is reliability-led — 85 against a convertible-class median of 49, a 73.5 percent edge in the top quarter — with a CPU score of 86.32 in the enthusiast band. The flagged weakness is memory (16GB against a class median of 32), and the resolved visual axes show what the efficiency-first silicon gives up: gaming at 23, photo design at 17.

Where it holds up

Reliability of 85 keeps the hinge-and-hardware confidence at the top of the convertible class, and the 120U's enthusiast-band 86.32 CPU score means the humble badge outperforms its station in office work — which reads 77.19 high-band. Portability of 39.7 is mid-band, about what a 16-inch folder can honestly claim. For a large folding canvas dedicated to documents and media, the fundamentals are sound.

Where it falls short

Memory at 16GB is the flagged weakness — half the class median — and on a 16-inch primary-device form factor that ceiling arrives quickly. The efficiency-first silicon trades visible performance for endurance: gaming collapses to 23 low-band, photo design to 17 low, modeling to 27 low and CAD to 30 low, with the performance index at 40.18 mid-pack. The 14-inch sibling's 100U actually clears game minimums where this machine's graphics do not register at all; wide-screen folding buyers should weigh what the bigger panel is for.

Price and depreciation

$1,084 matches the batch's convertible standard. No listing history anchors the unit, so the class rate of about 13.87 percent a year is the working assumption. Folding-plus-large-format is a niche that depreciates on taste as much as on hours.

Alternatives to consider

The 14-inch sibling (model 1829) at the same $1,084 posts a mid-band 64 gaming index with game minimums cleared and better portability (68.3) — the more capable folder for $0 more. The ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4 (model 1798) doubles the memory to 32GB at the same price with stronger reliability.

Bottom line

Fairly priced for the class. As a wide, dependable canvas for office-and-media duty it works; the 16GB ceiling and the low visual axes mean it should not be asked to be more than that.