Strong AMD Zen5 CPU with pen and OLED for a low price: Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 14AKP10 laptop review

When you decide to buy a Lenovo IdeaPad, you decide to accept compromises in comparison to more premium Lenovo laptops like the Lenovo Yoga series. However, the price is lower here, too. The price-performance ratio of the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 14AKP10 is very good, Lenovo manages to squeeze out a lot of performance out of the Zen5 processor of the Krackan Point series. This makes the Lenovo laptop an attractive choice for students, who may be able to get it for an even cheaper price.

Our most significant negative is the battery life, which can be improved by using the dark mode. Apart from that, the Lenovo convertible has no grave weaknesses, with Thunderbolt and USB4 as the most significant missing feature. Under load, the IdeaPad gets rather warm and loud, but this is a sacrifice for the good performance. Buyers can also enjoy the wonderful OLED screen and the comfortable keyboard, as well as the Wacom digitizer pen, which is included ex factory.

The Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 14AKP10 in the tested variant costs €999. It is not yet on sale in the USA, but Lenovo's PSREF database already lists the models that will be available in the United States.

IdeaPad as a brand is not as well known as a ThinkPad, but Lenovo's consumer brand can now also boast a tradition that goes back many years. The current lineup is structured logically: You have IdeaPad 1, IdeaPad 3 and IdeaPad 5, ranging from budget laptops to the midrange. Everything more premium is part of the Lenovo Yoga brand.

Our review unit is named Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 14AKP10 - this name signifies, that this is a mid-range laptop with convertible features (2-in-1) with a 14-inch screen and AMD Krackan Point (14AKP). The 10 at the end shows the generation name (Gen 10). With this laptop, Lenovo mostly seems to target students and other users who want an affordable device with a pen and touchscreen - as well as a modern AMD CPU.

Lenovo will not win a design price with the IdeaPad 5 laptop. The design is too simple for that, but this does not have to be something bad. The Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 Gen 10 is mostly clad in gray, even the keyboard is fitted to this colorway. Only the silver Lenovo logo on the lid and the AMD stickers on the palmrest provide some contrast, as well as the glossy black glass frame around the screen. The sides of the Lenovo laptop are rounded, which makes it comfortable to hold it, and it also looks thinner. The screen has a reverse notch, but without a prominent camera bump on top, which is something that some more expensive Lenovo laptops have.

Quality wise, the low pricing of the Lenovo IdeaPad laptop is definitely noticeable. While the workmanship is fine, the materials are rather cheap, and they feel like it. Both the base unit and the screen can be twisted rather easily. At least the base is rigid enough to keep the keyboard from flexing while typing.

The screen of the Lenovo laptop can not be opened with one hand. Since this is a convertible, the maximum opening angle is 360 degrees. The two drop down hinges only allow for minimal wobbling.

The 14-inch convertibles in our comparison are all placed in a similar range when it comes to footprint and weight. With 1.5 kg of weight, the Lenovo IdeaPad 2-in-1 14AKP10 is the most lightweight model, but still rather heavy. Especially in tablet mode, this is too much. The device will probably be more useful in the tent and the stand mode when using it with pen and touchscreen.

The Lenovo IdeaPad has a good port selection, Lenovo even includes a microSD card reader. However, there is still potential for improvement, as Lenovo does not include USB4 or Thunderbolt on the USB-C ports. Also, the positioning of the ports could be better. There are two USB-C ports on the left and two USB-A ports on the right. It would have been nicer if Lenovo put one of each on both sides.

As mentioned, Lenovo does put in an SD card reader. The card reader on the right provides average transfer speeds. We tested it with the AV Pro microSD 128 GB V60 reference card.

The MediaTek Wi-Fi card in the Lenovo laptop offers high transfer rates, and it supports the modern Wi-Fi 7 standard.

The webcam is a simple 1080p one. The produced images are not very good, they are just enough for basic video calls.

In addition to the 65 W charger with the USB-C plug, the IdeaPad includes the Lenovo Digital Pen 2 Wacom AES pen that supports pressure sensitivity. The pen can not be stored in the chassis, and it has to be kept externally. It is powered by an AAA battery.

While sustainability is hugely important for Lenovo's business laptops, the topic seems less importance over in consumer laptop land. Neither is the packaging recyclable nor does the laptop make use of recycled materials for the case. The CO₂ emissions in production are also rather high, with 198 kg/CO₂ equivalent.

At least Lenovo provides maintenance manuals for the consumer models now as well. One should not expect a long spare part availability, however. The same is true for firmware updates.

Lenovo gives the IdeaPad 2-in-1 14AKP10 a 24-month warranty with bring-in service. Optionally, the warranty can be extended to 48 months and expanded to include Accidental Damage Protection (ADP) and on-site service. The warranty is only valid in the country of purchase - in this case, Germany.

Lenovo uses both the AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350. A dedicated GPU is not present in the IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 14AK10. Instead, it used an integrated GPU from AMD, with either the AMD Radeon 840M or the AMD Radeon 860M, depending on the CPU. The RAM is soldered, it is LPDDR5X memory with a capacity of 16 or 24 GB. An M.2 2242 SSD with a maximum capacity of 1 TB serves as the storage.

There are three different energy profiles, which can be set with the key-combination FN+Q.

• Best battery life: Power Limit 1 (power consumption under sustained load) 20 W / Power Limit 2 (highest power consumption) 33 W
• Balanced: Power Limit 1 (power consumption under sustained load) 23 W / Power Limit 2 (highest power consumption) 38 W
• Best performance: Power Limit 1 (power consumption under sustained load) 45 W / Power Limit 2 (highest power consumption) 60 W

We used "Best performance" for all performance benchmarks.

The AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 is an AMD processor of the "Krackan Point" series. The CPU has eight cores, with four Zen5 and four Zen5c cores. Clock rates range from 2 to 5 GHz, the TDP of the CPU is 28 W. For comparisons with other processors, our CPU comparison list can be used.

With a high power limit of 45 W for the Ryzen 7, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 14AKP10 achieves an impressive level of performance. In the Cinebench loop under sustained load, it scores the highest scores among the convertible laptops in our comparison. The AMD systems with Zen4 chips are soundly beaten. The performance advantage applies to all categories, so we are able to say: If you look for convertible with great CPU performance, the Lenovo IdeaPad laptop is certainly a good choice.

In battery mode, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 convertible scores 15009 points in Cinebench R23 Multicore - a reduction by ten percent.

System performance of the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 14 Gen 10 is very good. Both in the Crossmark test and in PCMark 10, the Lenovo laptop takes the top spot in our ranking.

The 512 GB SSD of the Lenovo laptop is made by Western Digital. Its performance is good and does not decrease under sustained load either. It should be noted that Lenovo uses the smaller M.2 2242 form factor, which may make upgrading more difficult.