Performance is weak but on par with the Asus ProArt, the only other Snapdragon Plus machine I’ve tested to date. Compared to Snapdragon Elite systems, expect about a 20 percent drop in performance on general applications and web work, and significantly more on graphics-related tasks, where the IdeaPad runs at about half the framerate. Some Copilot+ PC features struggled, such as translated live captions, although the Cocreator AI image creation system was reasonably useful.
I thought a silver lining to the laptop’s affordability would be that the IdeaPad would definitely prove to have outstanding battery life, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. While the ProArt clocked in at around 19+ hours of runtime, the IdeaPad managed just under 9 hours in my full-screen YouTube test and less than 12 hours in the second run-through. It might be fine for keeping the kids entertained all day, but it’s lighter than most other Snapdragon machines.
Another problem: At 3.3 pounds and 22 millimeters thick, the IdeaPad 5x is too big for its screen size. I had to scroll back through my testing records to 2016 to find anything with a 14-inch screen that was heavier. (That said, some 14.4-inch systems released since then are also on the beefy side.) Weight is noticeable, in the lap and if you’re trying to use it as a tablet, though on the plus side. , the system is silent anyway. I couldn’t get the fan to register as us, even under a load of stress tests.
-Folded-Upright-Tablet-Reviewer-Photo-SOURCE-Christopher-Null.jpg)
Photo: Christopher Noel
Yet the price makes this laptop at least vaguely attractive, and at the price-performance level, the numbers don’t look too bad. However, some basic level of performance is still a necessity given how power-hungry modern applications can be, even on a budget machine, and at $850 the IdeaPad 5x isn’t so incredibly cheap that its drawbacks outweigh it. Can be easily overlooked.
