Lenovo N20 review: Lenovo's N20p Chromebook is half a hybrid
With a touch display that bends back 300 degrees, the N20p isn't as much of as shape-changer as its sister Yoga Chromebook.
The recently reviewed Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 11e Chromebook received high marks from us for its sturdy hybrid design and for pairing a touchscreen with Google's Chrome OS. But, that was a laptop intended for educational use. Built to withstand the rigors of the classroom, it was just too heavy and bulky for casual everyday commuting (and much more expensive than other Chromebooks).
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The Lenovo N20p is a consumer-friendly alternative, and Lenovo's first Chrome OS not aimed at either business or education buyers. It's a slim, lightweight ultraportable laptop that takes the central idea of a Chromebook -- a low-cost, simple clamshell for online use -- and adds better keyboard and touchpad than Chromebook users may be used to.
At $330 for a configuration with an Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM and a 16GB SSD, the N20p is still more expensive than many other Chromebooks, which usually run $250 to $300. For that extra investment, you get a touchscreen, still a rare feature for Chromebooks, and a hinge that's less flexible than Lenovo's Yoga line, but more so than a standard laptop.
Much like the Windows laptop line Lenovo calls IdeaPad Flex , the hinge on the N20p folds back past 180 degrees. Unlike fold-back hybrids, it doesn't go all the way back a full 360 degrees, allowing you to use it as a tablet. Instead, like the Flex, it stops, somewhat abruptly, at 300 degrees. That allows you to fold the screen back for use in what we call a kiosk mode, with the screen facing out and the base, keyboard facing down, as a kind of kickstand. It's marginally useful, more so if you're playing videos or presenting PowerPoint presentations, but unlike the Yoga hinge, it's probably not a system-selling feature.
Despite the trick hinge that might not get much use, the N20p is one of the better Chromebooks we've tested. The body is well-made and slim, the keyboard and touchpad are excellent for a budget-priced ultraportable, and the touchscreen, while not as useful in Chrome OS as in Windows 8, is still an occasionally handy extra. Yes, you could pay less for a Chromebook, but you'll be getting less, too.
Lenovo N20p Chromebook | HP Pavilion Chromebook 14 | Acer Chromebook 13 | |
---|---|---|---|
Price as reviewed | $330 | $425 | $300 |
Display size/resolution | 11-inch, 1,366x768 touchscreen | 14-inch, 1,366x768 screen | 13-inch, 1,920x1,080 screen |
PC CPU | 2.16GHz Intel Celeron N2830 | 1.10GHz Intel Celeron 847 | Nvidia Tegra K1 (armV7) |
PC Memory/HD amount | 2GB RAM/16GB SSD | 4GB RAM/16GB SSD | 2GB RAM/16GB SSD |
Networking | 802.11ac | 802.11a/b/g/n | 802.11ac |
Operating system | Chrome OS | Chrome OS | Chrome OS |
Design and features
For a laptop intended to grab the eye of the consumer (compared to Lenovo's better-known conservative business systems), the N20p isn't exactly flashy. A matte black interior is connected via a chunky central hinge to a lid covered with dull grey and a small Google Chrome logo on one side, and edge-to-edge glass over an 11-inch display and wide bezel on the other.
Like many ultraportable laptops, the chassis tapers towards the front, helping it feel thinner than it actually is. The N20p is 0.7 inches (1.8cm) thick and weighs 2.8 pounds (1.3kg), versus 0.87 inches (2.2cm) thick and 3.1 pounds (1.4kg) for the Yoga 11e. That may not seem like much, but in the hand, there's a real difference between the two, and it's obvious which one would be a better daily travel companion in your shoulder bag (unless you're especially accident-prone, in which case consider the tank-like Yoga 11e).If you're considering a Chromebook, you should also be aware of what a Chromebook does, and what it doesn't. This is essentially an online-only operating system that gives you access to many Web services via the Chrome browser, but little more. There are a handful of offline tools for photo and file management, but no ability to download, install, or run traditional Windows .exe files. We've written extensively about the advantages and compromises of using a Chrome OS computer, and it's best suited as a secondary PC for those who are comfortable using online tools such as Google Drive, Gmail or other webmail services, Pixlr for photo editing, or Netflix and Hulu for video streaming.
The keyboard on the N20p closely follows the style in more-expensive Lenovo laptops, with slightly curved bottom edges on keys for great typing accuracy, and the large touch pad is something the Chrome OS could really benefit from. The pad is wider than most, almost letterboxed, which leaves you less room for vertical scrolling, but I still found both two-finger swiping for scrolling down webpages and two-finger tapping for a right-click command worked well.The 11.6-inch 1,366x768 display is bright and has decent off-axis viewing angles, but the edge-to-edge glass over the front surface invited glare (but also adds to the system's sharp look). Having a touchscreen on the N20p has uses, but at the same time, Chrome OS is not designed with touch in mind in the same way that Windows 8 is (or Google's other OS, Android). It will be interesting to see how Google or Chromebook makers try and adjust the OS to make better use of touch. I found myself primarily using it for webpage scrolling and closing Chrome windows.
Lenovo N20p Chromebook
Video | Micro-HDMI |
---|---|
Audio | Stereo speakers, combo headphone/microphone jack |
Data | 1 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0, SD card reader |
Networking | 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth |
Optical drive | None |
Connections, performance, and battery
Even a few years into the USB 3.0 era, we're still seeing a lot of slower USB 2.0 ports. In this case, you actually get one of each, which is better than some other ultraportables, and with only 16GB of internal SSD storage, it's not like you're likely to need fast data transfer speeds anyway. Having faster 802.11ac WiFi is a plus, but the idea of fishing out a dongle or special cable every time to use the micro-HDMI port doesn't appeal to me.
We've seen some differences in Chrome OS performance over the past year between systems with Intel Celeron processors, such as this one, slower ones with ARM chips such as the Samsung Exynos and faster ones with Core i3 CPUs. Nvidia and Acer upended the apple cart a little but with the recent Acer Chromebook 13 , which uses the Nvidia K1 processor for average overall performance scores, but excellent 3D scores (as one might expect from Nvidia).
One area where the system did especially well is our online video streaming playback test. The N20p ran for 8:19, just a few minutes longer than the Nvidia-powered Acer Chromebook 13, and well ahead of Lenovo's own Yoga 11e Chromebook, which ran for 5:36 on the same test.
Conclusion
Chromebooks have become common enough that shoppers can now expect either a rock-bottom price or one or more special features. The Yoga 11e has a hybrid hinge that transforms into a tablet, the Acer Chromebook 13 does mainstream-quality graphics, and the Acer C720p (a long-time favorite) packs a touchscreen into a very inexpensive system.
The N20p straddles that line. It's not the least-expensive, not the most expensive, and it adds a touchscreen and decent design. But its main calling card, a semi-hybrid 300-degree hinge, is of dubious practical use. Much like the IdeaPad Flex line of Windows 8 PCs that preceded it, the N20p still stands on its own as a very good clamshell laptop, even if you'll never use its fold-back hinge.
Find more shopping tips in our Laptop Buying Guide.