A couple of weeks ago I bought a brand-new laptop, the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5. I have a nearly 5-year-old custom desktop with an Intel i5-7400, 1050Ti and 8GB RAM. I recently moved and found myself using the old laptop. It's tiny and slow, but found myself using it a lot.
I moved house, and it seems a laptop fits in with how I use my new space. There is no desk anymore in the living room. I have a small room upstairs, but that'd require separate heating. I'm learning that heating is costly. Additionally, I'd also like to have a laptop for portability. I'd go to the library for a focus boost.
Input
Keyboard
The keyboard is small and misses some keys. That is to be expected on a 14-inch device, with speakers on either side. I would still have loved Home, End, PageUp, PageDown buttons instead of them being hidden behind the Fn + Arrow keys. It has a backlight, with two brightness options. It's nice in the evening, although a simple lamp fulfills the same purpose. With a lamp you can even pick the colour temperature to be a bit warmer in the evening. The keyboard has a US layout, which is a must. I like the long enter and long left-shift keys.
Trackpad
I have barely used a mouse. All I need to use can be done with the trackpad. The gestures are simple to learn, as they are adapted from mobile.
Tap to click, Two-finger tap to right-click, Three-finger tap to middle-click. Swipe to move the mouse. Swipe with two-finger to scroll, or go back/forward (not supported everywhere). Three-finger swipe-up to see all open apps, three-finger horizontal-swipe to switch desktops.
Output
Screen
The screen is a 14 inch 16:10 1400px 60Hz screen. The screen size has a perfect balance. It's a 14-inch screen but a little taller than most. I take advantage of the extra height by using the Linux top bar, and fitting more text on the screen. A drawback is its high resolution of 1400p, or 2.2K as Lenovo calls it. It requires me to set scaling to 125%. Fractional scaling on Fedora isn't fully supported, but you can enable fractional scaling with a simple command. I don't use my laptop outside, nor do I know colour accuracy. Thus, I will not comment on it. I use night light during the day.
Speakers
I like to listen to music, and that works fine on this device. YouTube videos are also perfectly understandable. The IdeaPad boasts Dolby Atmos on the front of it, but I don't have the knowledge to comment on that. I don't like that it's painted on the front. You can't remove it like you can with the CPU and GPU stickers. I like my LinkBuds S better than the speakers. I like the noise-cancelling and they are pretty convenient. You can connect them via Bluetooth.
Software
Operating System (OS)
I went through the Windows setup for the Lenovo specific stuff. It might've updated the BIOS or something. After that, I installed GNU/Linux Fedora on the device. I had a problem with the IdeaPad not coming out of suspend, but that was easily fixed by updating the software. I like Linux because it can run on the server and laptop. Having the same OS on both devices is really nice. I started out with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, so I'm pretty familiar with the OS and the terminal.
Customization
I have a few extensions installed. Some make the top bar more useful. Others make the entire system look better. I wanted the top bar to be functional, without it being too busy.
- AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support adds App Indicators to the top bar. App Indicators are those small apps on the right side of the Windows toolbar. Examples are the JetBrains Toolbox and Steam.
- Compact Top Bar is pretty obvious. It makes the top bar smaller.
- Workspaces indicator by open apps shows your open apps and desktops, similar to the Windows toolbar. You can click on them or scroll to change desktop. Changing desktops is irrelevant to me. A trackpad gesture is way better. I customized the look to be more minimal.
- Media Controls shows your music in the top bar, and gives you very simple, customizable controls.
- Vitals gives you information about resource usage in the top bar. You can pick the items to display yourself. I have it show CPU%, RAM%, Max Temperature and remaining battery time.
- Blur My Shell changes your backdrop for certain Gnome pages. It switches out the default gray tone with a blurred, darkened version of your wallpaper. You can customize the values.
Conclusion
I really like the move to the IdeaPad. There were a few bumps, but those were figured out quickly. I like the device, especially the form-factor, its portability and the power. I'm happy with the customization, and will continue to improve it. I'm sure it will stay me for quite a few years. Please do contact me on Twitter, currently X or via email if you have any suggestions.
Specs
Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 14ARP8 (83AN0003MH)
Sources are bol.com and Tweakers
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS
- GPU: Integrated AMD Radeon 680M
- RAM: 2x 8G LPDDR5 (16GB total)
- Storage: 500GB PCIe SSD
- Screen: 14 inch 2240 x 1400 (16:10) IPS @ 60Hz
- Battery capacity: 75Wh
- Ports:
- Left side: 2x USB-C (1x USB4 Gen 3x2 , 1x USB3 Gen 2x1), 1x HDMI 2.1
- Right side: 2x USB-A (2x USB 3.2 Gen 1x1), 3.5mm jack, SD-card reader
- Connectivity:
- Wifi 802.11ax (WiFi 6)
- Bluetooth 5.1
- Microphone
- Speakers (Dolby Atmos)
- Webcam
- EAN / IAN / Barcode: 0197528933498