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Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch review: Two-minute review
The Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch is a high-end device, featuring a premium build and spec – with a price tag to match.
It looks very elegant, more so than other Chromebooks. It apes Apple’s MacBook line in all the right ways, with its sleek, rounded chassis and delectable materials. It’s also very thin and reasonably light, making it a cinch to carry around.
This really is one of the best Chromebook constructions I’ve seen. Every aspect screams quality, and there are a few atypical touches, such as the central protrusion on the top of lid to help with opening, and the wavy contours of the underside panel.
The lid is as smooth and as stable as I could’ve wished for, too, although it doesn’t open to a full 180 degrees. The bezel around the display is incredibly thin, which is always a positive.
You don’t get many interfaces on the Chromebook Plus 14-inch, although I was glad to see two USB-C ports, both of which can be used to charge the device and connect to external monitors, and placed either side for improved convenience. A USB-A port and a headset jack are the only others.
The Chromebook Plus 14-inch performs as well as its state-of-the-art design suggests. It can handle all manner of tasks, from light productivity to gaming, and the 16GB of RAM in my review unit made light work of multitasking.
Complementing this performance is the brilliant OLED display, which provides plenty of clarity, vibrancy, contrast, and brightness, with the latter helping to keep reflections at bay. It also has touch functionality, which works very well, if not quite on par with those on tablets and phones.
The touchpad, however, is the best I’ve used on a Chromebook: it’s unbelievably smooth, while its large dimensions and responsive inputs make navigation as easy as can be. The keyboard is also great to use, although I did have to acclimatize somewhat to the solidity of the keys themselves, but once I did, typing was an equally enjoyable experience.
Battery life is also superb, lasting about 14 hours in our movie playback test. Not many other Chromebooks can beat this, barring the odd few. It’s also very quick to charge.
All of these class-leading elements come at a price, however. The Chromebook Plus 14-inch is one of the most expensive Chromebooks around, straying into Windows-laptop territory – and ChromeOS simply can’t compete with these machines in terms of sheer versatility.
For this reason, it’s hard to recommend the Chromebook Plus 14-inch outright, unless you manage to catch it in a generous sale. But if you have your heart set on a Chromebook Plus and the money to spend, the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch won’t disappoint.
Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch review: Price and availability
- $749.99 / £699 / AU$1,197
- Available now
- High end of the market
The Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch costs $749.99 / £699 / AU$1,197 and is available now. Models with differing RAM and storage capacities are also available.
This is one of the most expensive Chromebooks on the market. At this price, the Chromebook Plus 14-inch rubs shoulders with some of the best laptops running Windows, which have far greater compatibility and customizability. The best value laptop as far as we’re concerned is the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441, which we also compared favorably to a MacBook (specifically the Air model), owing to its thin and light design and commendable speed.
There’s also the HP Chromebook Plus 15, which we rate as the one of the best Chromebooks for students, thanks to its blistering performance by the standards of the sector. While it’s also expensive for a Chromebook, it’s still considerably cheaper than Chromebook Plus 14-inch, despite having a larger display.
Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch review: Specs
My Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch review unit had 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
|
Price: |
$749.99 / £699 / AU$1,197 |
|
CPU: |
MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 (8 cores, 2.1GHz) |
|
Graphics: |
Integrated Arm Immortalis-G925 MC |
|
RAM: |
16GB LPDDR5x |
|
Screen: |
14″ WUXGA (1920×1200) OLED 400nits Glossy, 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 |
|
Wireless: |
MediaTek Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 |
|
Camera: |
5.0MP with privacy 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 review: Design
- Fabulous construction
- Takes cues from MacBooks
- Not many ports
The Chromebook Plus 14-inch is expertly crafted. Its Apple-inspired appearance is more than surface-deep; its build quality rivals that of the best MacBooks, even featuring its own fingerprint scanner. Further similarities lay in the Chromebook Plus 14-inch’s thin and light body, which makes it easy to travel with.
But the Chromebook Plus 14-inch has some unique aspects that set it apart slightly. There’s a bulge in the center of the lid that makes it easier to open, while the underside is crinkled – quite why, I’m not sure; but I appreciated it nonetheless, as it feels oddly satisfying to hold.
The lid hinge is engineered to a high standard as well, offering smooth yet sturdy adjustments. The bezel around the screen is minimal, which I’m always pleased to see as it allows the display to make full use of its allotted space.
Even the power adapter is well designed, forgoing the mid-cable brick that many others are saddled with. It’s still something of a wall wart, though, and the length of brick directly behind the plug might make it unsuitable for certain setups.
Thankfully, it should prove thin enough to avoid infringing upon adjacent sockets. It’s a shame the cable itself isn’t that long, but it should suffice for most setups.
There are only four ports on the Chromebook Plus 14-inch, but two of them are USB-C, and both support charging and external display connections, which helps to make up for the lack of dedicated ports for these. They’re also located on either side, which makes the Chromebook Plus 14-inch conducive to a wider variety of setups. The other two interfaces are a USB-A (on the left) and a headset jack (on the right), which are always useful additions.
Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch review: Performance
- Fast all-round performance
- Sharp and vibrant display
- Super smooth touchpad
Benchmarks
Here are the benchmark results for the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch:
TechRadar Battery Life Test: 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 an excellent performer. It can handle light productivity with ease, while the 16GB of RAM in my review unit (quite a lot for a Chromebook) meant it could multitask without issue.
It can also stream 4K content seamlessly without endless pauses for buffering, as well as run some reasonably demanding mobile games. I played Asphalt Legends on high settings and Call of Duty: Mobile on max settings, and both ran as smoothly as I could’ve wished for. Alien: Isolation was a slightly less impressive experience, but it was still just as playable.
The OLED display is glorious, and easily among the best in this sector, rendering colors with fantastic vibrancy. It also has great contrast, and although reflections can reveal themselves at points, I found there’s enough brightness to eliminate the worst of them. The 1920 x 1200 resolution is pleasingly sharp, too, especially within its 14-inch frame.
What’s more, the Chromebook Plus 14-inch also has touchscreen functionality. This works very well, thanks to how responsive and precise it is. It’s slightly more grabby than some of the best tablet screens, but only marginally, so keen illustrators and other stylus users will still find it smooth enough. It’s only a shame that a stylus isn’t included.
The keys on the Chromebook Plus 14-inch feel very tight and solid when pressed, which did take me some time to get used to. However, they’re incomparably stable, and their relatively deep indentations provide plenty of security and tactility.
With all this said, they still have a short and snappy actuation, and offer plenty of feedback thanks to their dampening. They’re also backlit, which is somewhat of a rarity on Chromebooks.
If anything, the touchpad on the Chromebook Plus 14-inch is even better. It has the silkiest surface of any Chromebook touchpad I’ve used, which makes gestures and navigation effortless. The latter is further aided by its relatively large size, too.
Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch review: Battery life
The Chromebook Plus 14-inch has an exceptional battery life. It managed to last 14 hours when I played a movie on repeat from a full charge. This eclipses many of its rivals, including the HP Chromebook Plus 15, which only managed close to 11 hours.
However, it can’t beat the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook with its score of 16-plus hours, nor can it outlast the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441, which achieved over 18 hours. It’s quick to charge, though, taking just 100 minutes to top up completely.
Should I buy the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch?
|
Attributes |
Notes |
Rating |
|---|---|---|
|
Price |
It’s one of the most expensive Chromebooks around, and comes dangerously close to mid-range Windows laptops. |
2.5 / 5 |
|
Design |
It’s hard to fault any aspect of its construction, and there are a few unique touches that only make it better. |
5 / 5 |
|
Performance |
There’s little the Chromebook Plus 14-inch can’t handle, from productivity and browsing to streaming and gaming. |
5 / 5 |
|
Battery life |
The Chromebook Plus 14-inch can outlast many of its rivals, with only a few exceptions. |
4.5 / 5 |
|
Total Score |
Chromebooks don’t come much better than this, but you’ll have to pay dear for the privilege – at which point non-ChromeOS devices might make more sense. |
4 / 5 |
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch: Also consider
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch |
HP Chromebook Plus 15.6-inch |
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 |
|
Price: |
$749.99 / £699 / AU$1,197 |
$549.99 / £449.99 / AU$749 |
$949.99 (about £760 / AU$1,470) |
|
CPU: |
MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 (8 cores, 2.1GHz) |
Intel Core i3-N305 (8 threads, 3.80GHz) |
Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 |
|
Graphics: |
Integrated Arm Immortalis-G925 MC |
Integrated, Intel UHD Graphics |
Qualcomm Adreno GPU |
|
RAM: |
16GB LPDDR5x |
8GB LPDDR5 |
16GB LPDDR5X |
|
Screen: |
14″ WUXGA (1920×1200) OLED 400nits Glossy, 100% DCI-P3, 60Hz, Glass, touchscreen |
15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080), 144Hz, 16:9 aspect ratio, non-touch 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 |
|
Wireless: |
MediaTek Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 |
MediaTek Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3 |
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 |
|
Camera: |
5.0MP with privacy shutter |
1080p FHD camera with privacy 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) |
Here are some equally-capable alternatives to the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch:
How I tested the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14-inch
- Tested for two days
- Used for various tasks
- Experience with Chromebooks and other laptops
I tested the Chromebook Plus 14-inch for a couple of days, during which time I used it for all manner of tasks, from productivity and browsing to streaming and gaming.
I also ran our series of benchmark tests for Chromebooks, and put its battery life through its paces by running a movie on a continuous loop.
I have plenty of Chromebook experience, having owned and reviewed a number of them. I’ve also owned and reviewed other laptops and even tablets, so I know how they compare to Android, Windows, and macOS devices.
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lewis.maddison@futurenet.com (Lewis Maddison)
