Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i 14, Core i5-13420H (Raptor Lake), 16GB LPDDR5, 512GB SSD, 14" WUXGA 300 nits, No OS - £396 with code @ Lenovo Direct

I typed this out for someone else that wasn't sure about the Windows install.
People will miss it as it's on page 1 so may as well post it here too -

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Installing Windows is the easy bit, it's sorting out the drivers that is a bit of a faff.
So, here goes...

You need to create Windows 11 installation media from the Microsoft site which you put on a USB flash drive 8GB or higher, preferrably USB3, a USB2 drive will be MUCH slower -
microsoft.com/sof…s11

On your current laptop/PC/etc, plug in a spare USB flash drive, go to the above page and download and run the installation media program.
Select 'Create installation media'.

You want the drop down menu's to say 'English (United Kingdom)' and 'Windows 11'.
Click next, it'll be on 'USB flash drive', click next and select your USB stick from the dropdown menu, and continue from there.
If you use your own anti-virus software instead of Windows built in, you might need to disable it if the program errors out when trying to create the installation media. If so just disable it and turn it back on once it's completed.

Now you might need a spare mouse, wired or wireless with a receiver should work. This is because Windows may not have the mouse drivers due to it being such a new laptop (it might, but no guarantee).

Plug the flash drive with the installation media into the laptop and power on, if there's no OS is should boot straight from the USB drive.
If not, restart it and hit F9 a few times while it starts up, you should then get the option to boot from the USB drive.

Just follow the on screen instructions to install Windows, it's simple enough.
It will ask you to select a drive to install on, if you're doing it on this laptop with a single new drive, just select the drive that's there and click next.

Thanks to plewis for reminding me about this bit -
During the Windows install you may get an “Oops, you’ve lost internet connection” or “Let’s connect you to a network” page.
If this happens, pres “Shift + F10” to open the command prompt.
In the commend prompt box type OOBE\BYPASSNRO and press Enter.
The laptop will restart and the setup will start again.

Now you should have a button to click in the bottom Right where it says 'I don't have Internet'.
Click that, and then 'Continue with limited setup'.
You can then create a local account and continue to follow the on-screen instructions.

When you get to the point where it asks for the license key, click the skip button and finish the Windows setup.

Now, this is where you will probablt have a bit of faffing around (as plewis has mentioned a couple of times on this deal).

You'll need wifi to update Windows, install all your drivers and then activate using your key.
There's a good chance Windows will not have the wifi drivers for that laptop.
If it doesn't, you'll need to download the wifi driver on another internet enabled device, stick it on a USB stick (you can use the one with Windows on, it's no longer needed) and transfer to the laptop.

The drivers are here -
pcsupport.lenovo.com/gb/…LAN

You'll have to select the driver that matches the wifi option you chose when configuring the system before buying.
Once you've downloaded the driver and stuck it on a USB drive, transfer to the laptop and run the installer.

If you can't quite figure that out which driver you need, download them all try them on the laptop one at a time until one works (not a great thing to do, but if that's your last option, not much choice).

EDIT: plewis mentioned in another comment that the driver you need is the Intel AX211, but that may be if you selected that wifi adapter in the configuration before buying.

If you happen to have an old basic USB wireless dongle, that may be quicker and easier than the above as Windows should already have the drivers (they're useful to have anyway and can be picked up from Amazon for less than £10).

If all goes according to plan, you should now be able to connect to the internet.
That's the worse of it done.

Now you have wifi, run Windows Update. Download and install all the updates. Reboot the laptop and run Windows update again. Repeat until there are no more updates.
You might have to set up your password/pin/log into your Microsoft acc sometime during this process.

Once you're all update, you can now activate Windows with your key, as shown here -



Now you should be activated and all is good in the world....wait, don't stop reading yet!
You need to install all the other drivers needed for your laptop, the easiest way is probably by using Lenovo's 'Vantage' software which you can get here -
apps.microsoft.com/sto…tab

Alternatively, you can use the 'Scan now' option from the driver and support page -
pcsupport.lenovo.com/gb/…ds/

Are all your drivers installed now? Try the touchpad, bluetooth, webcam, etc to make sure it's all working fine (it should be).


NOW you're done.

If that doesn't sound like fun, you could just buy the laptop with Windows pre-installed.

P.S.
Yes, I did just sit here typing all that out.
I really need to get a life. (edited)

Just buy a Windows 11 activation code online and watch a YouTube video on how to complete the install. It's very simple to follow.

Just the top.

Just pick up a £2-3 Win10 pro code from various places, have used literally hundreds of them without any problems.

It says DP1.4, Alt Mode isn’t explicitly stated.

psref.lenovo.com/sys…pdf

The best way to set this up with Windows 11 I found is to use the BypassNRO command and get the drivers from the website on another machine when you get to the desktop. The touchpad drivers also don’t come included, so get a USB mouse or something if you can. I didn’t have a USB Ethernet adapter here but most people won’t own them anyway.

Thanks for that - I don’t post often but like to support why I’ve posted it if I can. I am not saying this is the ultimate deal for a laptop, but it certainly ticks most of the boxes including very keen pricing, modern hardware, solid specs (inc 16GB LPDDR5 which is very rare here) - it won’t be for gamers, those who need to go a whole day on battery, etc. but impossible to please everyone.

Anyway, I bought one myself and for work out of my own pocket, which I wouldn’t do if it’s no good!

Thanks, I thought so, it's an insane spec for sub £400. I don't think it can be beaten. You need to install your own OS but that's not a big deal for most and it's worth the extra effort for a 13th Gen CPU and good rest of system spec. The laptop feels premium with the metal lid and the plastics don't feel cheap.

Everyone has anecdotal evidence of some brand being bad - some guy was moaning about a 5 year old EliteBook overheating in my other thread and told people not to buy any HP laptop. Lenovo are fine and sweeping statements with no evidence are a waste of everyone’s time - especially as Lenovo Legions are considered some of the best gaming laptops and thousands of businesses rely on upper-end ThinkPad T, P and X series systems.

I do think the Abyss Blue is nice but it might not suit those in a professional environment. Nice to have the option anyway. (edited)

This still seems to be an outlier - I have never seen 13th Gen (or current Gen) i5, 16GB RAM (especially fixed and latest spec), bigger than average SSD and display under the £400 mark. I suspect it’s mostly Lenovo running a discount code + no OS, which is something most manufacturers don’t offer, as without an OS they can’t preload your machine with subsidised junk.

Sub £400 for this kind of spec is unheard of imo. Easily a £500-550 machine.

Yes more than fine, that game will run on a toaster.

If I’m honest, a T480s is a higher tier and premium business machine even though it’s older. This IdeaPad is faster and well-specced out of the box but don’t expect the same level of build quality or expansion - the RAM is fixed and single slot SSD. You’ll probably want a current or recent ThinkPad T or P series, maybe a Legion (also flexible).

Can’t speak specifically for this laptop but I’ve found that Lenovo give very long lead times but deliver much quicker and this is from my experience of both repairs and sales. It’s obviously a protection they give themselves. The last couple of things I’ve ordered from them have said 2 weeks but come within a couple of days. 

Thanks - it is a great deal and the laptop is good quality. The OS install is not as smooth as you might think as the CPU and chipset is so new - read my short notes above. I recommend you have a USB mouse and flash drive to hand.

It’s a normal keyboard, I would go so far to say it’s a very good keyboard, I am fussy with rubbish keyboards, it’s got good travel and is comfortable. It’s not as damped as more expensive ones but it’s good quality, not far off a decent ThinkPad.

See my comments above and in listing but I don’t think so as you’re into a higher price class and other machines may serve you better, eg Vivobook Pro or Zenbook.

I'd say around 5 hours watching youtube. I've had a similar laptop before with ryzen cpu and smaller battery and remember getting around 4 hours. So i think this one is a little better. Also it might be able to limit the cpu wattage via software or bios to 15w and that would extend the battery a bit

There are lots of options including cheaper ones and I am not sure if this is fully licensed, Microsoft will probably say they are not an authorised distributor. Genuine, legitimate and licensed are fluid terms and I wouldn’t want to get into that again, just do what works for you is the best advice I can give. 

The problem is getting through Windows setup without driver installs. Not a bad idea but quite niche, same as getting a USB Ethernet adapter, most slightly older USB Wi-Fi or Ethernet will be built-in drivers already. Very rare Windows doesn’t work out of the box with these today, but even the touchpad doesn’t work! 

It’s about 10 seconds. When you open the lid it powers on by default and it’s at the Windows 11 desktop quickly, unless it’s finishing updates.

Yes, plenty. Lots of CPU performance for the money here - I'd go so far as to say you won't get more for £400 even in a desktop form factor.

If it may save you some time, I replied to Adnan_Rahman a few posts down with instructions and links, feel free to check it out.

The Intel page for the CPU's hardware video encoding capabilities is a bit vague, but it has Quicksync.
I had a quick google and found the details for this CPU -

Version 8 (Tiger Lake, Rocket Lake, Alder Lake, Raptor Lake)The Tiger Lake, Rocket Lake, Alder Lake & Raptor Lake microarchitectures implementation adds VP9 12-bit & 12-bit 4:4:4 hardware decoding and HEVC 12-bit 4:2:0, 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 hardware decoding.

Gen12 Xe will also support native AV1 decode, which includes 10-bit 4:2:0 16K stills and 10-bit 4:2:0 8K, 4K and 2K video. Hardware encoding for VP8 was dropped and hardware decoding is only available on Tiger Lake.

Lots of decoding.
Encoding? Not so much... (edited)

October 2025, but this supports Windows 11 anyway

It’s fine, but not ‘as good’ value.

If it's fast single-core speed only, then yes. But most CAD programs prefer professional grade GPUs like AMD FirePro/Pro WX-series or nVidia Quadro/RTX A series which this doesn't have.

Having never tried this with Win10/11, I'm not sure what would happen.

As gutsu mentions, OEM licenses, which is what you get with PC's/laptops that come with WIndows pre-installed, can only be used on one machine (specifically one motherboard which is explained below).
This may not always be the case as you can sometimes specify you want a retail license when you buy your machine, but if you didin't specify it or they didn't state it in the details, you likely don't have it.

The Windows license key is now stored in the BIOS of your motherbaord. That's why if you ever need to re-install Windows 10/11, you'll find you don't need to enter the Windows license key the second time or any time after, it's already in the BIOS and Windows already knows it's registered.

So, one of two things will happen if you try to clone your OS to this laptops SSD.

A) It will work just fine, will boot up and work but you will now be using an un-registered version of Windows as there is no license key in your BIOS for Windows to find.
If that were the case, you can just buy a new key and register it.

or

B) It will simply refuse to boot into Windows, giving you an error message of some kind because the OS you have cloned has an activated licesne and Windows can't see the key in your new BIOS on the laptop, or because the drivers in the cloned OS are causing conflicts with the hardware on the new laptop.

You're better off just backing up your apps and data, installing Windows on the new laptop yourself, then transferring the backup to the new laptop. (edited)

Don’t think the code applies when you add the upgrades, am sure I tried this before with 10% off codes and it says they’re invalid or refuses to add them.

System Specs System Specs: (Edit)
Processor: 13th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-13420H Processor (E-cores up to 3.40 GHz P-cores up to 4.60 GHz)
Operating System: No Operating Systemselected upgrade
Operating System Language: No Operating System Languageselected upgrade
Microsoft Productivity Software: No Microsoft Officeselected upgrade
Memory: 16 GB LPDDR5-5200MHz (Soldered)
Solid State Drive: 1 TB SSD M.2 2242 PCIe Gen4 TLCselected upgrade
Display: 14" 2.2K (2240 x 1400), IPS, Anti-Glare, Non-Touch, 100%sRGB, 300 nits, Narrow Bezelselected upgrade
Graphic Card: Integrated Graphics
Camera: 1080P FHD RGB/IR Hybrid with Dual Microphone
Color: Cloud Grey
Fingerprint Reader: No
Keyboard: Backlit, Storm Grey - English (UK)selected upgrade
Wireless: Wi-Fi 6E 11AX (2x2) & Bluetooth® 5.1selected upgrade
Palmrest: Al
Battery: 3 cell, 56.6Wh
Power Cord: 100W USB-C Slim 90% PCC 3pin AC Adapter - UKselected upgrade
Adobe Elements: No Adobe Elements
Adobe Acrobat: No Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Creative Cloud: No Adobe Creative Cloud
Security Software: No Security Software
Warranty: 1 Year Courier or Carry-in

Sounds about right, add Lenovo Rewards and go through TCB. If you have Education access it’s a little less.

This may help........ hotukdeals.com/com…547

Installing Windows is the easy bit, it's sorting out the drivers that is a bit of a faff.
So, here goes...

You need to create Windows 11 installation media from the Microsoft site which you put on a USB flash drive 8GB or higher, preferrably USB3, a USB2 drive will be MUCH slower -
microsoft.com/sof…s11

On your current laptop/PC/etc, plug in a spare USB flash drive, go to the above page and download and run the installation media program.
Select 'Create installation media'.

You want the drop down menu's to say 'English (United Kingdom)' and 'Windows 11'.
Click next, it'll be on 'USB flash drive', click next and select your USB stick from the dropdown menu, and continue from there.
If you use your own anti-virus software instead of Windows built in, you might need to disable it if the program errors out when trying to create the installation media. If so just disable it and turn it back on once it's completed.

Now you might need a spare mouse, wired or wireless with a receiver should work. This is because Windows may not have the mouse drivers due to it being such a new laptop (it might, but no guarantee).

Plug the flash drive with the installation media into the laptop and power on, if there's no OS is should boot straight from the USB drive.
If not, restart it and hit F9 a few times while it starts up, you should then get the option to boot from the USB drive.

Just follow the on screen instructions to install Windows, it's simple enough.
It will ask you to select a drive to install on, if you're doing it on this laptop with a single new drive, just select the drive that's there and click next.

Thanks to plewis for reminding me about this bit -
During the Windows install you may get an “Oops, you’ve lost internet connection” or “Let’s connect you to a network” page.
If this happens, pres “Shift + F10” to open the command prompt.
In the commend prompt box type OOBE\BYPASSNRO and press Enter.
The laptop will restart and the setup will start again.

Now you should have a button to click in the bottom Right where it says 'I don't have Internet'.
Click that, and then 'Continue with limited setup'.
You can then create a local account and continue to follow the on-screen instructions.

When you get to the point where it asks for the license key, click the skip button and finish the Windows setup.

Now, this is where you will probablt have a bit of faffing around (as plewis has mentioned a couple of times on this deal).

You'll need wifi to update Windows, install all your drivers and then activate using your key.
There's a good chance Windows will not have the wifi drivers for that laptop.
If it doesn't, you'll need to download the wifi driver on another internet enabled device, stick it on a USB stick (you can use the one with Windows on, it's no longer needed) and transfer to the laptop.

The drivers are here -
pcsupport.lenovo.com/gb/…ent?name=Networking: Wireless LAN

You'll have to select the driver that matches the wifi option you chose when configuring the system before buying.
Once you've downloaded the driver and stuck it on a USB drive, transfer to the laptop and run the installer.

If you can't quite figure that out which driver you need, download them all try them on the laptop one at a time until one works (not a great thing to do, but if that's your last option, not much choice).

EDIT: plewis mentioned in another comment that the driver you need is the Intel AX211, but that may be if you selected that wifi adapter in the configuration before buying.

If you happen to have an old basic USB wireless dongle, that may be quicker and easier than the above as Windows should already have the drivers (they're useful to have anyway and can be picked up from Amazon for less than £10).

If all goes according to plan, you should now be able to connect to the internet.
That's the worse of it done.

Now you have wifi, run Windows Update. Download and install all the updates. Reboot the laptop and run Windows update again. Repeat until there are no more updates.
You might have to set up your password/pin/log into your Microsoft acc sometime during this process.

Once you're all update, you can now activate Windows with your key, as shown here -

[image]
Now you should be activated and all is good in the world....wait, don't stop reading yet!
You need to install all the other drivers needed for your laptop, the easiest way is probably by using Lenovo's 'Vantage' software which you can get here -
apps.microsoft.com/sto…4MV?hl=en-us&gl=us&activetab=pivot:overviewtab

Alternatively, you can use the 'Scan now' option from the driver and support page -
pcsupport.lenovo.com/gb/…ds/

Are all your drivers installed now? Try the touchpad, bluetooth, webcam, etc to make sure it's all working fine (it should be).


NOW you're done.

If that doesn't sound like fun, you could just buy the laptop with Windows pre-installed.

I missed the name of person who posted all steps so credit goes to him (edited)

I've sent mine back last week, they emailed me a label. But since then its been radio silent. No idea when getting money back worst case senario i will raise a complain with paypal.

Did you make a decision?

Can any other members chime in?

Any problems with this laptop?

What are you talking about, it retails at over £540 with the base spec before you add the 16GB RAM and other options.

It's also a 13th Gen i5 with 16GB LPDDR5, 512GB SSD and decent 14.0" IPS display regardless of what the original price was. (edited)

Thanks mate, I appreciate that.

Sweeping statement, this is fine and the laptop is capable of handling it, there is no noticeable thermal throttling. If your workload is light then it won't consume the entire energy or thermal budget anyway. Battery life is adequate for a 56.6Whr pack.

If you think you can get a U-series powered laptop for this price with similar specs and quality, please post it.

I hate to be a killjoy but the reason I didn’t mention eGPUs is because this doesn’t have Thunderbolt or USB4 so I doubt that’ll work. Also the OLED is only 60Hz. I have the AORUS Waterforce eGPU and I’d have mentioned the compatibility if I thought it would. (edited)