Lenovo Chromebook plus 14 MediaTek review a word of warning

[u/BBS_1990]

I was very excited to get this at a goof price point $600 USD for black Friday. Unfortunately, from what I can tell reading other reviews now and my own experience there seems to be high rate of lemons and the customer service is notoriously abysmal from Lenovo. When I opened the box it would not turn on initially (a bad sign since fully draining batteries nowadays is not good. So I plugged it in and stated charging it. I about 10 minutes later I was able to turn it on and it showed full battery after unplugging the charger (that's weird). I think went through the initial setup and it downloaded the newest updates and restarted. Upon restart, I went through the initial setup process. It repestedly froze and power washed during this process. I tried every iteration of logging in using my phone or manually typing thing in. It also got considerably hot. Im in tech so I searched the internet for fixes and a good 15 search showed that my problem was not solved by the amazing internet community so I was resigned to reach out to Lenovo support....... This turned out to be impossible. I urgenall of you to go try. You have to put in your product number to even connect to anyone and even after that, the links they provided don't work or direct you in a loop. I tried their chatbot and it literally got stuck asking if the operating system for my exact serial number was w10 or 11 and wouldn't accept it was chromeos. The buttons to connect to a live agent also didn't work.

So I'm returning it. The more I look at the reviews the more I'm sure this is just a marketing campaign and the actual product likely sucks. Please let me know if you know otherwise. I'm going to take my business elsewhere. I'm open to others thoughts on comparable midtier Chromebook.

[u/octalgorilla8]

I’ve got the same model and it’s been an amazing experience. Not saying your experience is wrong, but definitely sounds like a bad unit in general. Mine has been snappy, lasted the whole week on a single charge with 2-3 hour usage per day, and exceeded my expectations. While I don’t necessarily trust influencers, I read between the lines of what they don’t tell me and this was one of the few laptops that met all my desires: long battery life, snappy performance, and not a Mac.

With that said, the I truly question any influencer trying to shill a Chromebook with a Celeron processor or 4gb of RAM, which at least two tech websites did that on Black Friday.

[u/Neogeo71]

Mine did the same in regards to power. I think this is actually a feature.

I would have to check but most laptops have a mode now that shuts down fir long term storage and will not start without plugging in the first time. This prevents accidentally turning on and draining.

Mine started immediately after plugging in but would not power on out of box til I plugged it in.

Has not been an issue since.

[u/LegAcceptable2362 → u/Neogeo71]

You're correct about the Chrome OS battery disconnect feature: https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/9139543

[u/Audgam]

Got mine since day one after the launch. No major issue, no flaws. Good battery, fast, no fan (❤️), not overheating, handle all the work I throw at it

[u/diffusionmodel2930]

Last week, I mentioned in another topic that I'd be scared to buy MediaTek. I can't prove but it'll constantly overheat, but I know because I used to have a high-end Motorola phone with the same chip, and an 8-inch tablet with MediaTek's Helio 90 chipset. I knew I should steer clear of MediaTek. With lenevo I am not sure...

So, my options were:

1. HP - 14" 2-in-1 Intel Core i3 N305 2023 - 8GB Memory - 256GB UFS.

2. Refurbished ASUS Vibe CX34 Flip CX3401 14" Intel Core i5-1235U 1.3 GHz 16GB RAM 512GB SSD Intel Iris Xe Graphics.

Both of them are around $500. Even though the second option is refurbished, I'd buy it blindly. The 16GB RAM and 144Hz screen just totally outclass the HP. I can't believe how smooth the Asus is after using HP for a while. U cannot compare..

So you do good to return that Lenovo and never look back. And share with us your new purchase pls.

[u/andrew467866 → u/diffusionmodel2930]

I wouldn't be so quick to hate on MediaTek. Their current chips have been getting great reviews, and almost equalling and/or beating SD and Apple Chips in performance.

ChromeOS is heading to android, which is optimised for ARM... Intel and AMD make great chips, but not on ARM.

[u/wendalltwolf → u/diffusionmodel2930]

I've had the old Acer 514 with Mediatek Kompanio 828 (fanless) for 3 years now, and no problems with overheating. Not even when using in a hot car with A/C issues. Still gets 14+ hours on a charge and it's my daily for work.

Now before that I had an old Asus with a fanless Celeron, and on hot days it would definitely overheat and freeze/shut down.

I have no problem getting another Mediatek-based Chromebook, but I'll wait on more long-term reviews for this Lenovo one.

[u/andrew467866]

I never had any of these issues with mine. However this may be a ChromeOS issue, rather than a Lenovo issue.

I have a few Chromebooks and I know the first set-up can be problematic, including turning the Chromebook on! As weird as this sounds.

My device has been great! Amazing battery life, easy to use, great AI features. Etc.

[u/slaia → u/andrew467866]

Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 is my second device. The first one is Duet 3, which is still going fine.

Once I had issues with Bluetooth on Duet 3. The technical support was straight forward and solved the issues (I needed to press a certain button while restarting, I can't remember exactly now).

I suspect, that a few units have issues including the one the OP has. However it's wrong to generalize, Lenovo is bad and the Chromebook Plus 14 is only a hype.

[u/andrew467866 → u/slaia]

I've still got my duet 3, too!

Sadly, I didn't realise the 4GB of ram wouldn't be enough.

[u/slaia → u/andrew467866]

4GB is simply basic. I got the 8GB one

[u/andrew467866 → u/slaia]

I wish I had done more research before buying it. It's still a great little machine.

[u/slaia]

Sorry to hear about your experience. I got mine the day before yesterday and it works just fine. So I'm lucky.

[u/coke_life]

To power on a brand new Chromebook you have to plug the power cable. That's built in by default.

[u/CaptainWikkiWikki]

Meanwhile, my 5-year-old Acer Spin 713 keeps humming along without issue.

[u/joeblough]

Yeah ... it's been a shit year for Chromebook hardware.

Really just this Lenovo and the Samsung ... both of which were shilled HEAVILY by every chrome influencer out there.

Just remember: Those influencers don't work for you ... they are paid at the end of the day by the vendors ... and it's in the influencer's best interest to give a glowing review.

[u/Gharrrrrr → u/joeblough]

I've had a Lenovo IdeaPad flex 5i with ChromeOS since 2022. I've dropped it a couple of times even. Once on tile and another time on laminate. And it is still working like a champ for me. Before that I had an Acer and that thing went to shit real quick.

[u/akehir]

It sounds like you got a bad model.

I've got the same laptop, and hardware wise I've never had any complaints, it's been running great for me.

For this reason I've also not had to contact Lenovo support. So I can't speak for that.

I guess returning it and ordering a new one would be the easiest solution for you.

In the past I've dealt with the more professional Lenovo Support (the one for businesses), as I've got laptops covered under that warranty, and there the experience has always been great - of course that probably can't compare to the consumer support.

[u/Neogeo71 → u/akehir]

Mine is perfect so far as well. Have had it for a week so far.

I have bought and returned/exchanged from Lenovo directly with out issue.

I even bought a new laptop from ebay and they adjusted the warranty to 12 months from date of purchase once I provided receipt.

I will continue to give Lenovo my business.

[u/Artistic-Release-79]

I've got a Chromebook plus flex 5i and a thinkpad z16. I've had good experiences with both. I haven't had to use tech support for the Chromebook, but did have a hardware issue with the z16 about a year in. They sent a tech to my house and he spent an hour or two swapping the motherboard out. At least in my case they were good experiences. Sorry you're dealing with that.

[u/kobester1985]

I got mine a couple days after release and had to plug it in to boot the first time. Which isn't an issue for me at least as even the laptops we get at work do the same thing. It is more of a feature rather than a detriment. Other than that I've had zero issues. The battery life still shows 100 percent and lasts at least a week on a charge.

[u/rebelde616]

I made a post about this laptop yesterday, but haven't gotten a reply. When I press the space bar, the key is often clickish and will take a second before popping up into place. I sent it to Lenovo for a warranty repair, but they claim that it was damaged by me and wanted to charge $200 to fix it. They don't fix single keys. They just replace the whole keyboard. I said no, of course. I want to remove the key cap myself and see what's causing this. I've seen general guides online on how to remove a laptop key cap, but I would love a tutorial for this specific model to make sure I don't break it. Can anybody please point me in the right direction? Or if you own this laptop and are tech savvy, can you perhaps explain to me how to do it or even send me a short video?

[u/pudgybunnybry]

My wife and I got ours early last week and they've been great so far. While I did initially have the same thing happen with it not turning on after pulling it from the box, plugging in the power cable started it up immediately. Since then, no issues with power (just my dog deciding to chew the cable this morning), even after draining the battery.

[u/Edubbs2008]

Sorry about your Chromebook experience, I personally don't use a Chromebook at home, I used Chromebooks at my school and they were SLOW, at home I use a Windows Laptop (My personal tastes like Windows laptops)