This Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 is an excellent productivity laptop at $470 ($130 off)

Even though prices have gone up for gaming PCs over the past few months, it’s still relatively easy to find non-gaming laptops and desktops on sale. Lenovo’s IdeaPad lineup has some of the best mid-range PC laptops around, and now the IdeaPad Flex 5 is on sale for $469.99, a savings of $130 from the usual price. It’s a great option for a school computer, general productivity machine, or anything else that doesn’t involve heavy workloads or gaming.

The model on sale has a 14-inch 1080p LCD screen, a 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD, 8GB of RAM, a 720p fixed focus webcam, and dual 2W speakers with Dolby Audio. The processor is an Intel Core i3-1005G1, which has two cores, four threads, and a maximum clock speed of 3.40GHz. That’s not the fastest chip in the world, but it’s still more than enough for juggling Chrome tabs and talking on video calls. The 8GB RAM will also help with multitasking, though 16GB would have been nice to see. This is a 2-in-1 laptop, so you can flip the screen around and use it like a giant tablet.

The Flex 5 also has plenty of connectivity options, including 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Ethernet, HDMI, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, one USB Type-C connector (which is also used for charging the laptop), and a headphone/microphone combo jack. The laptop ships with Windows 10 Home with S Mode, and you should have no problem updating it to Windows 11.

This is a great value at the sale price of $470, if you need a Windows laptop for typical productivity tasks. The Core i3 CPU and 8GB RAM can easily handle a few browser tabs and communication apps, but don’t expect to play many games on the integrated Intel HD graphics. If the Flex 5 isn’t quite what you’re looking for, check out our roundup of the best laptops for more options.