Lenovo has a few mainstream laptop brands, and you've probably heard of Yoga or ThinkPad before. If those great laptops are outside your budget, there's IdeaPad. It's a lineup of cheaper laptops that try to provide a similar experience to Lenovo's more premium devices at a lower cost. But what happens when Lenovo crams the top-of-the-line Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 laptop GPU into an IdeaPad? You get the IdeaPad Pro 5i 16, which was just announced in March and has been my daily-driver for over a week.

It's certainly an interesting choice by Lenovo to offer a configuration of a midrange laptop that retails for $1,700. As far as performance is concerned, the IdeaPad Pro 5i is rock solid. The display is good too, even if there's a lot of glare and a surprising amount of wobble. The problem is that you get the build quality of a sub-$1,200 laptop even though you're paying closer to $2,000. The IdeaPad Pro 5i feels like it is stuck in the middle, partially catering to various types of users, but never finding a concrete target audience. People who care about performance and value above all else might find the IdeaPad Pro 5i to be the perfect 16-inch machine, though I suspect they will be few and far between. For most people, there are too many caveats that come with this laptop for me to comfortably recommend it.

About this review: Lenovo loaned us an IdeaPad Pro 5i 16 for the purposes of this review. The company had no input in this article, and did not see its contents before publishing.

Price, specs, and availability

Lenovo announced the IdeaPad Pro 5i 16 (Gen 9) in March 2024, and it's now available for purchase. There are various tiers of the IdeaPad Pro 5i, but all of them use Intel Core Ultra chips. However, my review unit is the top-of-the-line version of the IdeaPad Pro 5i, so it's difficult to compare it to models with Intel Core Ultra 5 or Intel Core Ultra 7. These start at $1,172, but again, the value proposition of the entry-level models differs greatly from that of my IdeaPad Pro 5i, which includes the Intel Core Ultra 9 chipset, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 laptop GPU, and 32GB of memory for $1,700.

Notably, you can't buy my review unit as configured directly from Lenovo. It's available from B&H Photo, however, and can be purchased at a sale price of $1,550 at the time of writing. The IdeaPad Pro 5i can only be configured in an Artic Grey colorway, and it could come to more retailers in the future.

Design and ports

The main thing holding the IdeaPad Pro 5i back

The first thing you'll notice after using the IdeaPad Pro 5i for a few minutes is that it doesn't feel like a $1,700 laptop. The build quality is a lot closer to that of a $1,000 laptop, and that makes sense, considering the base-model IdeaPad Pro 5i costs around that much. I've seen some say the IdeaPad Pro 5i is made of plastic, but that isn't the case. It's made out of aluminum, although the aluminum case is so thin that it almost negates the benefits of a metal chassis. The fact that people are mistaking metal for plastic on the IdeaPad Pro 5i should give you an idea of the laptop's build quality. It simply isn't great.

The problems with the IdeaPad Pro 5i's construction aren't only noticed by a picky laptop reviewer, either. There is a lot of deck flex on the keyboard, touchpad, and palm rests, especially for a metal laptop. The more frustrating thing is the hinge and display wobble. Just typing on the keyboard is enough to cause the display to shake back and forth, and it's distracting. The design does look good, for what it's worth. The IdeaPad Pro 5i has a curved bottom case that makes it look and feel thinner than it is. I had no problem carrying this 16-inch laptop in a regular backpack. It felt smaller than the M3 MacBook Pro, when in reality the MacBook Pro is slightly thinner.

Speaking of MacBooks, it's the M3 MacBook Air that really makes the IdeaPad Pro 5i look rough. The build quality on that laptop crushes the IdeaPad Pro 5i, and the 15-inch version starts at $1,300. I might be willing to slightly downsize to the M3 MacBook Air, or upgrade to the M3 MacBook Pro, for the superior build quality alone.

On the bright side, the number and variety of ports on the IdeaPad Pro 5i is extremely solid. Lenovo, like many OEMs, is still shipping laptops with USB-C ports that have different specifications, and I'm still not a fan. One is rated for Thunderbolt 4, and the other USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. There are also two USB-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, an SD card reader, and a 3.5mm jack. You can charge over USB-C with PD 3.0, but using the proprietary charging connector will net you 170W of power.

Keyboard and touchpad

I usually love Lenovo keyboards, but this one is perplexing

If you've read my reviews of Lenovo laptops in the past, this is usually where I'd say the IdeaPad Pro 5i keyboard and touchpad feels just like other Lenovo keyboards. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. The keyboard itself is still great to type on in terms of feel, and it uses the slightly-curved keycaps found on most Lenovo laptops. However, the main keyboard is off-center due to the inclusion of a numpad. To each their own, but I think a numpad is pointless, especially on the IdeaPad Pro 5i. Lenovo openly markets this laptop as a computer for creatives, and that makes sense. It has a color-accurate touchscreen and a dedicated graphics card, after all.

So, why does the IdeaPad Pro 5i shift the keyboard and touchpad just to include a numpad? What creative professional doing design work or photo/video editing needs a numpad enough that it's worth the shifted layout? What businessperson crunching numbers in Excel with a numpad needs a dedicated RTX 4050 laptop GPU? These are all generalizations, sure, and people don't strictly fit into one box or another. The overall point still stands, though. I don't think including a numpad at the detriment of the main keyboard and touchpad is a worthwhile trade-off, especially for a device made for creators.

The keyboard layout will come down to personal preference at the end of the day, while the touchpad is more objectively bad. It's off-center as well, leaving virtually zero room on the palm rest for my left wrist. This may be a consequence of being left-handed, but the touchpad location made it more difficult to comfortably use. I suspect this will be less of an issue for right-handed people, as there is ample space on the right side for your wrists. Either way, your left arm is going to be digging into the corner of the IdeaPad Pro 5i.

The touchpad also just feels cheap, producing a loud and unsatisfying click. It does have a large area, though. I experienced clicks not seeming to register in Windows 11 on occasion, which is something at least one other reviewer also noticed. It's unclear if this is an isolated incident or a more widespread issue affecting IdeaPad Pro 5i touchpads. Overall, compared to the keyboard and touchpad of something like the Lenovo Yoga 7, the setup on the IdeaPad Pro 5i was disappointing.

Display

Great for color accuracy, not so great for fighting glare

Since it is marketed as a creator laptop, the IdeaPad Pro 5i's display is of particular importance. Luckily, this is an area where Lenovo gets it almost completely right. The panel itself is OLED and sports a 2K resolution at a 16:10 aspect ratio. Of course, it's a touchscreen, but I didn't find myself using it that much on a laptop of this size. The display supports a 120Hz refresh rate, too, adding to the smoothness and coming in handy during any light gaming sessions. The only issue I encountered was glare, especially outdoors and occasionally indoors. However, the IdeaPad Pro 5i is far from the only laptop to have this problem.

The color accuracy of the IdeaPad Pro 5i is one of its biggest strengths. In our independent testing, the laptop's display perfectly matched Lenovo's claims.

The IdeaPad Pro 5i completely covers the sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamuts, while still providing ample coverage of NTSC (94%) and AdobeRGB (95%). It further positions the IdeaPad Pro 5i as a laptop made for content creators, and can handle color-sensitive work, like photo editing.

The brightness is good as well, and it's rated at 400 nits. I measured slightly less than that, at 382.7 nits, but that seems to be within the margin of error. Either way, the IdeaPad Pro 5i is easy to see indoors. When using the laptop in direct sunlight, the glare is more of an issue than the brightness. The IdeaPad Pro 5i's display is the most complete aspect of the laptop, and it's great for content creation.

Performance

Intel Core Ultra 9 is probably too good for the IdeaPad Pro 5i

The IdeaPad Pro 5i is an excellent performer, and if anything, the issue is that it's almost too good. The inside, with an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor and RTX 4050 graphics, doesn't match the build quality on the outside. But if performance is what you're after, the IdeaPad Pro 5i has it. With Core Ultra, this laptop gets an NPU, though it isn't part of the next wave of NPUs that will support Copilot+. In a nutshell, the IdeaPad Pro 5i is powerful enough to handle light-to-moderate photo and video editing workflows, but probably won't satisfy power users dealing with multiple streams of hi-res video.

We tested the IdeaPad Pro 5i against the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra, which costs more but has the same Core Ultra 9 processor. I also threw in the Lenovo Slim 7i 14 to get an idea of how the Core Ultra 9 185H stacks up against the Core Ultra 7 155H. All the tests were run with the IdeaPad Pro 5i connected to power, and here's how they turned out:

The results were about as expected. The IdeaPad Pro 5i beats the Slim 7i thanks to the better processor, though not by that big of a margin. With dedicated graphics, the IdeaPad Pro 5i will perform better than any laptop with integrated graphics. Still, the RTX 4050 laptop GPU is at the low end of discrete graphics, so it is bested by the RTX 4070 in the Galaxy Book 4 Ultra. While the Galaxy Book 4 Ultra beats the IdeaPad Pro 5i in nearly every test, it's important to note that it costs over $1,000 more. In that context, the IdeaPad Pro 5i looks a lot better. The value proposition for the IdeaPad Pro 5i is simple: performance on a budget. If you're searching for the best performance per dollar, you might be able to sacrifice things like build quality and keyboard/touchpad layout for the IdeaPad Pro 5i's internals.

Battery life was just fine on the IdeaPad Pro 5i, as I got between 4 and 6 hours of charge on average. For what it's worth, I'm someone who uses high brightness all the time, but my workload isn't that extreme. It consists of mostly web-based tasks and photo editing. My M2 MacBook Air still offers as much as double the battery life of the IdeaPad Pro 5i.

Should you buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5i 16?

You should buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5i 16 if:

• You care about a laptop's performance and can live with unfortunate design choices
• You need an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor on a budget
• You want a 16-inch laptop that looks and feels smaller than it is

You should NOT buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5i 16 if:

• You value things like build quality, keyboard layout, and touchpad quality
• You're able to pay more for a more premium laptop
• The laptop isn't on sale

Despite all the annoyances and caveats I've pointed out in this review, there is still a case for buying the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5i. This laptop is for the person who doesn't want to spend extra money on what could be considered non-essential factors, like material choices and build quality. The internals of the IdeaPad Pro 5i, highlighted by Intel Core Ultra 9 and RTX 4050 graphics, are great for creatives with less-demanding workflows. It's also a lot easier to overlook the downsides that come with the IdeaPad Pro 5i when it is priced at $1,550, like it is currently, compared to the MSRP of $1,700.

Personally, I'm not that type of buyer. Performance is great, and so are specs. But things like the chassis, display, keyboard, and touchpad are parts of a laptop that you will interact with each and every day. To me, those aren't the kinds of things you compromise on.