OLED upgrade is almost a no-brainer for the new Lenovo IdeaPad 5a 2-in-1 15

Lenovo's newest 15-inch convertible is now shipping with AMD Ryzen AI 400 series CPUs starting at just $800. As detailed in our review, the base configuration comes with a rather mediocre IPS touchscreen with both noticeable backlight bleeding and a narrow 45% NTSC color range — attributes that are common amongst budget or entry-level models. To our surprise, however, Lenovo offers a significant display upgrade for not that much more money to improve the visual experience.

The IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 15AGP11 can currently be configured with an OLED panel for just $70 more than the base configuration mentioned above. While it's not uncommon to offer both IPS and OLED options on laptops, the price discrepancy is much lower than anticipated to make the OLED option a no-brainer for most buyers. Not only does OLED offer the usual benefits including deeper black levels, wider P3 colors, and a higher native resolution than IPS, but this particular panel also increases refresh rate significantly from 60 Hz to 165 Hz and maximum brightness by 100 nits up to 1000 nits for DisplayHDR1000 support. The upgrades are so noticeable that they should significantly improve the user experience almost immediately. This is the kind of display one might find on a much more expensive Yoga Pro model rather than a basic IdeaPad 5 model all for only $70.

The one major drawback to selecting OLED over IPS is the inevitable hit to battery life. Higher resolutions, faster refresh rates, and brighter pixels don't come free, after all. Even so, the boost to visuals is arguably difficult to ignore given the relatively increase to price.