Unboxing the Lenovo Flex 5i: The Best Chromebook for Teachers

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

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I’ve used many Chrome­books and pur­chased quite a few. I’ve al­ways pur­chased  Leno­vo for one reason — they last. Now, I have a new, even more, durable Chrome­book  with a touch screen, which has become my go-to for Chrome­book ex­cel­lence: The  Leno­vo Flex 5i Chrome­book. I recommend this Chromebook as the best Chromebook for teachers. Here's why.

Spon­sored by Leno­vo and Google for Education. All opinions are my own.

Crisp Clear IPS Screen

When I am planning my lessons, I like the larger screen.

While students often have smaller screens, as a teacher, I like a larger screen, which is why the crisp, clear IPS 13.3” screen is perfect for me. I haven't seen a Chromebook screen this awesome. I also like its clarity because as I use the pencil and sometimes use my finger to interact with the screen, it just feels natural to me.

The Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook is Very Sturdy and Flexible

The first thing I noticed as I un­boxed the Leno­vo is it is very stur­dy. It boot­ed right up, and I could type on it with the key­board or stand it up with the pen­cil, which also had a charge. This de­vice op­er­ates like a stur­dy lap­top, a tablet, or even in my fa­vorite  for pre­sent­ing — like a “tent.” Also, when I'm working with students it is often easier to bring their work up in the “tent” position and I can annotate on it right there on my device as they work on theirs.  

I love an­no­tat­ing with the pen on my Google Slides and anywhere

I love transmitting wirelessly to the Chromecast and moving around the room as I annotate slides and so much more!

I was ex­cit­ed to get it work­ing with the Chrome­cast de­vice and my big mon­i­tor at the front of the class­room. I give many pre­sen­ta­tions in class, and with the pen­cil, I can annotate on my Google Slides. (Click the Slideshow but­ton to go into slideshow view.  Then, put your mouse over the bot­tom left side of the slides, and the three-dot menu will show. Click on the el­lipses icon and se­lect “Turn on the pen.”) 

If you’re us­ing slides, an­no­tat­ing them is a game-chang­er. Pret­ty much every tool I  use, including Google Slides, Near­pod, and Power­Point lets me an­no­tate on it using this pen. I love it because I can note anything on any slide, PDF, or graphic. Many years ago, teachers used transparencies because of this feature, and it is great to have this feature back and so easy to use. Because of this powerful ability to annotate anything with the pen, the Chrome­book is becoming my go-to for presentations, and I’ll be us­ing it in class today in AP Com­put­er Sci­ence.

Adap­tive En­vi­ron­ment

The Leno­vo de­vice au­to­mat­i­cal­ly man­aged pow­er loads and screen bright­ness and ad­justs to ex­cel­lent view­ing as I’m work­ing in my class­room. This is done, ac­cord­ing to Leno­vo with as­sis­tive AI.

It also has a “lock on leave” automatic feature. So, when I'm in front of this device, it stays awake longer; if I'm there, the screen will sleep instead of lock. However, if someone else looks at my screen, I get a notification, and the content is hidden. This adaptive feature is powerful for privacy and security as I work with sensitive student data. 

I’m set free!

So, I’ve been us­ing a sol­id de­vice but kept it plugged into HDMI. With the Chrome­cast and this de­vice, I can move all over the classroom, and it works all day. (It has a 10  hour bat­tery life.) The speak­ers are sol­id, as well, if I’m pulling up an in­struc­tion­al video to help a teacher with tech­nol­o­gy or helping a stu­dent right there at my desk.  

The built-in 1080p  cam­era also lets me cap­ture what­ev­er I need – par­tic­u­lar­ly when I put my face on a screen­cast as I often do for students and teachers.

What’s In the Leno­vo Flex 5i Chrome­book?

The 12th Gen In­tel(r) Core(tm) i5 Pro­ces­sor is in­side this de­vice with 8 GB of Ram and  512GB SSD Stor­age, so it is the fastest Chromebook I’ve used. Great device!

My Rec­om­men­da­tion

If you have Chrome­books for your school or are us­ing Google Class­room, this is a  rock-sol­id rec­om­men­da­tion for every teacher in your school. It is stur­dy, re­li­able, and the pen makes it even bet­ter. It has every­thing you need to be suc­cess­ful but what  I like best are the stur­dy de­sign, spill re­sis­tant key­board, the su­per long bat­tery life,  the abil­i­ty to po­si­tion the com­put­er any way I want to work and just how well it works with Google. 

Some Notes on the Google En­ter­prise Edition

Many schools are pro­vid­ing Chrome­books now be­cause of the Locked and kiosk mode, which pre­vent stu­dents from open­ing another tab while they are test­ing. Additionally, you can eas­i­ly re-en­roll a de­vice af­ter it is re­set. Fur­ther­more, Leno­vo Lan School man­age­ment soft­ware gives teach­ers fur­ther con­trol over the class­room environment in terms of fo­cus and ac­tiv­i­ties. This de­vice can work the whole day for a stu­dent and is very stur­dy. These de­vices are pow­ered by the “world’s only car­bon-neu­tral cloud,” ac­cord­ing  to Leno­vo.

I highly recommend this device.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this sturdy device as a perfect fit for teacher Chromebooks. Teachers need the flexibility of annotation, the security of the additional features that protect sensitive student data, and the reliability of a long-charge device that will last the whole day and be as mobile as we are. If this sounds like what you're looking for, the Lenovo Flex 5i is for you! 

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored blog post.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The post Unboxing the Lenovo Flex 5i: The Best Chromebook for Teachers appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

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