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Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch assessment: Two-minute assessment
The Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch is a high-end system, that includes a premium construct and spec – with a price ticket to match.
It appears very elegant, extra so than different Chromebooks. It apes Apple’s MacBook line in all the correct methods, with its modern, rounded chassis and delectable supplies. It’s additionally very skinny and fairly gentle, making it a cinch to hold round.
This actually is without doubt one of the finest Chromebook constructions I’ve seen. Each side screams high quality, and there are just a few atypical touches, such because the central protrusion on the highest of lid to assist with opening, and the wavy contours of the underside panel.
The lid is as easy and as steady as I might’ve wished for, too, though it doesn’t open to a full 180 levels. The bezel across the show is extremely skinny, which is all the time a optimistic.
You don’t get many interfaces on the Chromebook Plus 14-inch, though I used to be glad to see two USB-C ports, each of which can be utilized to cost the system and hook up with exterior screens, and positioned both facet for improved comfort. A USB-A port and a headset jack are the one others.
The Chromebook Plus 14-inch performs in addition to its state-of-the-art design suggests. It could actually deal with all method of duties, from gentle productiveness to gaming, and the 16GB of RAM in my assessment unit made gentle work of multitasking.
Complementing this efficiency is the good OLED show, which supplies loads of readability, vibrancy, distinction, and brightness, with the latter serving to to maintain reflections at bay. It additionally has contact performance, which works very effectively, if not fairly on par with these on tablets and telephones.
The touchpad, nevertheless, is one of the best I’ve used on a Chromebook: it’s unbelievably easy, whereas its giant dimensions and responsive inputs make navigation as straightforward as might be. The keyboard can also be nice to make use of, though I did should acclimatize considerably to the solidity of the keys themselves, however as soon as I did, typing was an equally pleasurable expertise.
Battery life can also be very good, lasting about 14 hours in our film playback check. Not many different Chromebooks can beat this, barring the odd few. It’s additionally very fast to cost.
All of those class-leading parts come at a worth, nevertheless. The Chromebook Plus 14-inch is without doubt one of the most costly Chromebooks round, straying into Home windows-laptop territory – and ChromeOS merely can’t compete with these machines by way of sheer versatility.
Because of this, it’s laborious to suggest the Chromebook Plus 14-inch outright, until you handle to catch it in a beneficiant sale. However in case you have your coronary heart set on a Chromebook Plus and the cash to spend, the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch gained’t disappoint.
Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch assessment: Value and availability
- $749.99 / £699 / AU$1,197
- Accessible now
- Excessive finish of the market
The Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch prices $749.99 / £699 / AU$1,197 and is obtainable now. Fashions with differing RAM and storage capacities are additionally accessible.
This is without doubt one of the most costly Chromebooks in the marketplace. At this worth, the Chromebook Plus 14-inch rubs shoulders with a number of the finest laptops operating Home windows, which have far larger compatibility and customizability. The very best worth laptop computer so far as we’re involved is the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441, which we additionally in contrast favorably to a MacBook (particularly the Air mannequin), owing to its skinny and light-weight design and commendable velocity.
There’s additionally the HP Chromebook Plus 15, which we price because the one of many finest Chromebooks for college kids, because of its blistering efficiency by the requirements of the sector. Whereas it’s additionally costly for a Chromebook, it’s nonetheless significantly cheaper than Chromebook Plus 14-inch, regardless of having a bigger show.
Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch assessment: Specs
My Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch assessment unit had 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
|
Value: |
$749.99 / £699 / AU$1,197 |
|
CPU: |
MediaTek Kompanio Extremely 910 (8 cores, 2.1GHz) |
|
Graphics: |
Built-in Arm Immortalis-G925 MC |
|
RAM: |
16GB LPDDR5x |
|
Display: |
14″ WUXGA (1920×1200) OLED 400nits Shiny, 100% DCI-P3, 60Hz, Glass, touchscreen |
|
Storage: |
256GB UFS 4.0 |
|
Ports: |
2x USB-C (3.2 Gen 1, PD 3.0, DisplayPort 1.4), 1x USB-A (3.2 Gen 1), 1x headset jack |
|
Wi-fi: |
MediaTek Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 |
|
Digicam: |
5.0MP with privateness shutter |
|
Weight: |
2.78lbs (1.26kg) |
|
Dimensions: |
12.37 x 8.63 x 0.62in (314 x 219 x 16mm) |
Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch assessment: Design
- Fabulous building
- Takes cues from MacBooks
- Not many ports
The Chromebook Plus 14-inch is expertly crafted. Its Apple-inspired look is greater than surface-deep; its construct high quality rivals that of the finest MacBooks, even that includes its personal fingerprint scanner. Additional similarities lay within the Chromebook Plus 14-inch’s skinny and light-weight physique, which makes it straightforward to journey with.
However the Chromebook Plus 14-inch has some distinctive points that set it aside barely. There’s a bulge within the middle of the lid that makes it simpler to open, whereas the underside is crinkled – fairly why, I’m undecided; however I appreciated it nonetheless, because it feels oddly satisfying to carry.
The lid hinge is engineered to a excessive commonplace as effectively, providing easy but sturdy changes. The bezel across the display screen is minimal, which I’m all the time happy to see because it permits the show to make full use of its allotted area.
Even the facility adapter is effectively designed, forgoing the mid-cable brick that many others are saddled with. It’s nonetheless one thing of a wall wart, although, and the size of brick immediately behind the plug may make it unsuitable for sure setups.
Fortunately, it ought to show skinny sufficient to keep away from infringing upon adjoining sockets. It’s a disgrace the cable itself isn’t that lengthy, however it ought to suffice for many setups.
There are solely 4 ports on the Chromebook Plus 14-inch, however two of them are USB-C, and each help charging and exterior show connections, which helps to make up for the dearth of devoted ports for these. They’re additionally positioned on both facet, which makes the Chromebook Plus 14-inch conducive to a greater variety of setups. The opposite two interfaces are a USB-A (on the left) and a headset jack (on the correct), that are all the time helpful additions.
Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch assessment: Efficiency
- Quick all-round efficiency
- Sharp and vibrant show
- Tremendous easy touchpad
Benchmarks
Listed below are the benchmark outcomes for the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch:
TechRadar Battery Life Take a look at: 14 hours and 4 minutes
Jetstream2 Benchmark: 288.364
Kraken Benchmark: 398.8ms
Speedometer 3.1: 26.6 (±0.45)
The Chromebook Plus 14-inch is a wonderful performer. It could actually deal with gentle productiveness with ease, whereas the 16GB of RAM in my assessment unit (rather a lot for a Chromebook) meant it might multitask with out concern.
It could actually additionally stream 4K content material seamlessly with out infinite pauses for buffering, in addition to run some moderately demanding cellular video games. I performed Asphalt Legends on excessive settings and Name of Responsibility: Cell on max settings, and each ran as easily as I might’ve wished for. Alien: Isolation was a barely much less spectacular expertise, however it was nonetheless simply as playable.
The OLED show is wonderful, and simply among the many finest on this sector, rendering colours with unbelievable vibrancy. It additionally has nice distinction, and though reflections can reveal themselves at factors, I discovered there’s sufficient brightness to eradicate the worst of them. The 1920 x 1200 decision is pleasingly sharp, too, particularly inside its 14-inch body.
What’s extra, the Chromebook Plus 14-inch additionally has touchscreen performance. This works very effectively, because of how responsive and exact it’s. It’s barely extra grabby than a number of the finest pill screens, however solely marginally, so eager illustrators and different stylus customers will nonetheless discover it easy sufficient. It’s solely a disgrace {that a} stylus isn’t included.
The keys on the Chromebook Plus 14-inch really feel very tight and stable when pressed, which did take me a while to get used to. Nevertheless, they’re incomparably steady, and their comparatively deep indentations present loads of safety and tactility.
With all this mentioned, they nonetheless have a brief and snappy actuation, and provide loads of suggestions because of their dampening. They’re additionally backlit, which is considerably of a rarity on Chromebooks.
If something, the touchpad on the Chromebook Plus 14-inch is even higher. It has the silkiest floor of any Chromebook touchpad I’ve used, which makes gestures and navigation easy. The latter is additional aided by its comparatively giant measurement, too.
Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch assessment: Battery life
The Chromebook Plus 14-inch has an distinctive battery life. It managed to final 14 hours once I performed a film on repeat from a full cost. This eclipses lots of its rivals, together with the HP Chromebook Plus 15, which solely managed near 11 hours.
Nevertheless, it will probably’t beat the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook with its rating of 16-plus hours, nor can it outlast the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441, which achieved over 18 hours. It’s fast to cost, although, taking simply 100 minutes to high up utterly.
Ought to I purchase the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch?
|
Attributes |
Notes |
Ranking |
|---|---|---|
|
Value |
It’s one of the vital costly Chromebooks round, and comes dangerously near mid-range Home windows laptops. |
2.5 / 5 |
|
Design |
It’s laborious to fault any side of its building, and there are just a few distinctive touches that solely make it higher. |
5 / 5 |
|
Efficiency |
There’s little the Chromebook Plus 14-inch can’t deal with, from productiveness and searching to streaming and gaming. |
5 / 5 |
|
Battery life |
The Chromebook Plus 14-inch can outlast lots of its rivals, with just a few exceptions. |
4.5 / 5 |
|
Whole Rating |
Chromebooks don’t come a lot better than this, however you’ll should pay pricey for the privilege – at which level non-ChromeOS units may make extra sense. |
4 / 5 |
Purchase it if…
Do not buy it if…
Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch: Additionally think about
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch |
HP Chromebook Plus 15.6-inch |
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 |
|
Value: |
$749.99 / £699 / AU$1,197 |
$549.99 / £449.99 / AU$749 |
$949.99 (about £760 / AU$1,470) |
|
CPU: |
MediaTek Kompanio Extremely 910 (8 cores, 2.1GHz) |
Intel Core i3-N305 (8 threads, 3.80GHz) |
Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 |
|
Graphics: |
Built-in Arm Immortalis-G925 MC |
Built-in, Intel UHD Graphics |
Qualcomm Adreno GPU |
|
RAM: |
16GB LPDDR5x |
8GB LPDDR5 |
16GB LPDDR5X |
|
Display: |
14″ WUXGA (1920×1200) OLED 400nits Shiny, 100% DCI-P3, 60Hz, Glass, touchscreen |
15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080), 144Hz, 16:9 side ratio, non-touch display screen |
14″ QHD (2560 x 1600) @60Hz touchscreen |
|
Storage: |
256GB |
128GB |
256GB |
|
Ports: |
2x USB-C (3.2 Gen 1, PD 3.0, DisplayPort 1.4), 1x USB-A (3.2 Gen 1), 1x headset jack |
1x USB-A, 2x USB-C, 1x microSD, 1x 3.5mm audio |
2x USB-C 4, 1x USB 3.2, 1x microSD, 1x 3.5mm audio jack |
|
Wi-fi: |
MediaTek Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 |
MediaTek Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3 |
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 |
|
Digicam: |
5.0MP with privateness shutter |
1080p FHD digicam with privateness shutter |
1080p at 30 fps FHD RGB,720p at 30 fps IR |
|
Weight: |
2.78lbs (1.26kg) |
3.81lbs (1.73kg) |
3.17lbs (1.40kg) |
|
Dimensions: |
12.37 x 8.63 x 0.62in (314 x 219 x 16mm) |
14.28 x 9.5 x 0.78in (363 x 242 x 20mm) |
0.58 ~ 0.0.62 x 12.36 x 8.81in (14.69 ~ 15.64 x 314 x 223.75mm) |
Listed below are some equally-capable options to the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch:
How I examined the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch
- Examined for 2 days
- Used for numerous duties
- Expertise with Chromebooks and different laptops
I examined the Chromebook Plus 14-inch for a few days, throughout which era I used it for all method of duties, from productiveness and searching to streaming and gaming.
I additionally ran our sequence of benchmark assessments for Chromebooks, and put its battery life by means of its paces by operating a film on a steady loop.
I’ve loads of Chromebook expertise, having owned and reviewed quite a few them. I’ve additionally owned and reviewed different laptops and even tablets, so I understand how they examine to Android, Home windows, and macOS units.
