At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Lovely OLED display Surprisingly strong performance for a fanless Chromebook Loud, clear speakers Competitive battery life Cons Hard-to-read function keys AI tools feel unnecessary in everyday use Our Verdict With its eye-catching OLED screen and snappy MediaTek chip, the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 is a standout midrange machine that delivers. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices I’ve used a lot of Chromebooks over the years, and most of them tend to fall into one of two categories: either very affordable and sometimes forgettable or super premium with a price tag to match. The Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 wants to land somewhere in the middle. It’s got an OLED display, a brand new MediaTek chip with AI capabilities, and a design that’s sophisticated and understated.  So I spent a week using it for work and play to see if it actually holds up and I’ve got thoughts. Let’s get into it. Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14: Specs The Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 comes in two configurations. Both include the new MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 chip and UFS storage, but the base model offers 12GB of RAM and a non-touch OLED display, while the upgraded version (the one we reviewed) bumps that up to 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It also adds touchscreen support. While the $649 starting price may seem steep, it’s a good value for what you’re getting. Most Chromebooks, for instance, come with only 8GB of RAM, and UFS storage is faster than eMMC. It’s also future proof thanks to Wi-Fi 7. But the real standout is the 14-inch 1920×1200 OLED touchscreen display. You don’t see many laptops with OLED panels (touch or not) at this price. Model number: 83MY0000US CPU: MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 GPU: Immortalis-G925 RAM: 16GB RAM Storage: 256GB UFS Display: 14-inch 1920×1200 OLED touchscreen, 16:10, DCI-P3 Ports: 2 USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C, 1 USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A, 1 audio jack Networking: Wi-Fi 7 Dimensions: 12.37 x 8.63 x 0.62 Weight: 2.78 pounds Price: $649 After spending a week with the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14, I can confidently say it’s one of the best Chromebooks I’ve used. Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14: Unboxing The unboxing experience can set the tone if done well. Though I’d like to see fewer packaging materials (I’m a stickler for sustainability), the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 made it clear from the start: this is a more premium device, where design and user experience matter.  The box reminded me a bit of the ones Google PixelBooks usually come in. It’s mostly white with lilac-purple borders, giving it a clean and simple look. Inside you’ll find the laptop securely tucked into place. There’s also a separate compartment containing a visual overview of the dimensions and port types.  Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14: Exclusive new ChromeOS AI features Ah, AI. Hello again, old friend? Nemesis?  Since the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 is the first Chromebook to feature a processor with an NPU, I had to give the new ChromeOS AI features a try. That said, I focused on features I’d actually use, starting with Live Captions. I used this feature during a meeting I was leading and found it helpful, especially when the landscapers were outside my window and the roar of their leaf blowers occasionally drowned out what my colleagues were saying. Having the words pop up on screen in real time helped me stay on track and not miss anything important. I also tried Smart Grouping, which organizes your tabs and apps for you in a virtual desktop. Again, this is one of the more useful AI features. The idea is to reduce visual clutter so you don’t have to drag things around yourself or go hunting for a tab you can’t find. Admittedly, it was kind of nice having an invisible assistant that tidied up my personal open tab chaos. The Quick Insert button, which replaces the Caps Lock key, brings up a tool that lets you drop AI-generated images into whatever you’re working on. It also offers writing suggestions, so if you want to sound more formal or shorten a sentence, you can do that with this tool. I played around with it some, but there was no place for it in my day-to-day workflow. Local AI is a cool addition, but most of the features felt more like bonuses rather than must-haves. Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14: Design, build quality The design is exactly the type of minimalism I gravitate towards, so it’s earning major brownie points from me. Lenovo calls the colorway “Seashell” and it’s genuinely unique—it changes slightly depending on the lighting. At first glance, it looks standard silver, which is fine, but it’s nothing unique. It wasn’t until I was looking at the lid near an open window that I noticed the gold undertone in the chassis. It’s subtle, but it’s there and it’s really beautiful. But the most interesting thing about this design is not on the top of the laptop, but on the bottom. Underneath the laptop you’ll find a 3D wave corrugated pattern, which feels nice to run your fingers along–I’m a big textures person. It looks cool, but it’s also functional: the design helps you get a better grip on the laptop. This is great, because there’s nothing quite like the horror of dropping a laptop onto the floor. The metal build quality feels strong, too. You can tell straight away that it’s made of aluminum. The screen hardly had any flex when I gave it a gentle twist and the keyboard deck didn’t creak or groan when I pressed my hands down on it. This is exactly what I expected from a Chromebook in this class and it definitely lives up to those higher standards.  Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14: Keyboard, touchpad The keyboard feels nice to type on for extended periods, and I found that I adjusted to it quickly. However, compared to my usual laptop, this one skews a little more to the right, which threw me off at first. While the typing experience is definitely comfortable, I had a few tiny gripes with the keys themselves. Why are the function keys (F1 to F12) so itty bitty? I mean, they’re really small compared to the other keys. Any time I used them, I had to lean forward and squint a bit to see the icons on them. I’d also occasionally fat finger them because of their size. My other gripe is that the keys themselves attract some smudges. This is minor, as it’s nothing a microfiber cloth can’t fix.  I liked the touchpad a lot. Not only did it feel nice and smooth, like glass, beneath my fingertips, but it also quickly registered all my taps and swipes. I adapted to it pretty instantly and I don’t think I ever accidentally triggered it with my palms.  Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14: Display, speakers The 14-inch 1920×1200 OLED display produces a luscious-looking picture that blew my socks off. It’s not totally unexpected, though, as OLED panels produce deeper blacks and richer colors. The Chromebook Plus 14’s OLED display also offers 100 percent DCI-P3 color accuracy, meaning more saturated colors, especially reds and greens. When I re-watched Netflix’s Titan documentary, I was impressed by the depth (ugh, sorry) of contrast in the many dark scenes—unsurprising in a documentary about a submersible. Image editors would love this screen. I’m also loving the 16:10 aspect ratio, which this Chromebook has. It’s far superior to the usual 16:9 and I’m not afraid to shout it from the rooftops. The extra vertical space makes a huge difference because you can see more of a webpage or more of a document without scrolling. This is especially useful for someone like me, who writes and edits on the daily. The 5MP RGB webcam is nice, too. I’ve got very fair skin, so I usually appear lifeless—or so pale I glow—on video, but that wasn’t the case here. I used the webcam for a work meeting and I was surprised at how warm (color temperature, not body temperature) the picture looked. It made me look more natural and not at all like some sun-starved vampire. The Dolby-certified speakers are shockingly loud and punchy. When I played Jack White’s Archbishop Harold Holmes, his edgy guitar playing sounded fantastic. I didn’t have to crank up the volume much–I could still hear the music from a room or two away. What can I say? Upward-firing speakers just sound better than the downward-firing kind. Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14: Connectivity I’m so glad there’s USB-C ports on ether side of the laptop (a hot-button topic here at PCWorld). They both support charging, too–this should always be the standard. Lenovo even managed to include USB-A, which is impressive given how slim and lightweight this device is at just 2.78 pounds! I always like to see more port variety, but this is fine for an everyday machine.  Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14: Performance The Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 is one of the first Chromebooks to rock MediaTek’s new Kompanio Ultra chip. It’s built on Arm’s efficient architecture, so it can run full steam ahead without needing any fans. Under the hood, you’ve got an 8-core CPU with high-performance Cortex-X929 cores and an 11-core Immortalis-G925 GPU that can handle ray tracing. There’s also a Neural Processing Unit (or NPU) packed in there delivering 50 TOPS of AI power — the key to unlocking the special AI features I mentioned above. I definitely had high (but not unrealistic) expectations of the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14. Luckily, it met them with real aplomb. When I ran the CrXPRT benchmark, which measures how fast the machine handles everyday tasks, the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 turned in a score of 199. That’s about 17 percent faster than the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34, which comes with an Intel Core i5-13335U chip and currently ranks as our top pick for Chromebooks.  I will say that it’s much faster than the Lenovo Chromebook Duet, which sports an older MediaTek Kompanio 838 chip. The Basemark Web 3.0 score of 1,151 totally crushes the Duet’s score of 502.99–a benchmark that measures overall web performance. This means it’s more than twice as fast as the Duet. That’s a big jump in performance between the two chips. The only thing that’s giving me pause is the somewhat low Speedometer 3.1 score of 25.2. That’s fine for casual and day-to-day productivity, but the machine might struggle a bit with heavy-duty multitasking. That said, the Chromebook Plus 14 felt snappy, even with a bunch of tabs open.  CrXPRT 2: 199 Speedometer 3.1: 25.2 Basemark Web 3.0: 1151 Kraken: 407.0ms Jetstream 2: 344.875 Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14: Gaming I had a chat with my coworker Michael Crider (you might know him!) about playing Minecraft on this device even before I got the unit. He’d been hands-on with the laptop and saw Google demo Minecraft running on it, which got us curious, especially since he struggled to run Android games on the Lenovo Chromebook Duet. So naturally, the first thing I did when I turned on the machine was load up Minecraft to see if this new MediaTek chip could run Android-based games better. Fortunately, it does! I recorded a quick video of my Minecraft session so others could see how smooth the gameplay is on this Chromebook. You can see me flying around in Creative Mode without any lag or stuttering. In the background, you’ll also hear ABBA playing, which wasn’t intentional, but who doesn’t love jamming out to Swedish pop stars while playing Minecraft? The whole thing felt casual and easy. Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14: Battery life Lenovo says the Chromebook Plus 14 gets around 17 hours of battery life, but I clocked it at 19 hours using CrXPRT 2’s battery benchmark. That’s a phenomenal result and one that lines up with other Arm-based machines. To be fair, that was with the screen brightness turned down. If you crank the brightness up to max, you’ll likely see a bit less, but that’s expected (as brightness always impacts the battery life). In terms of using it unplugged, I never felt like I had to sprint for an outlet stat. Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14: Conclusion After spending a week with the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14, I can confidently say it’s one of the best Chromebooks I’ve used. It’s fast, the design is lovely, and that OLED screen? Still can’t get over how good it looks, especially on a device under $750. Battery life is very good as well–it just keeps on chugging along. Yeah, the AI features are nice-to-have more than must-have, and the tiny function keys take some getting used to, but those are small complaints in an otherwise killer package. Lenovo crushed it. This Chromebook hits hard on performance, display, and battery life. It also just feels great to use day in and day out. If you’re shopping for a Chromebook, this one should be at the top of your list. That Editors’ Choice badge up top? It’s well-earned. Read...

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At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Outstanding cleaning ability given ample time Attractive pricing assuming coupons and discounts hold Amazing styling Cons Ineffective shorter cleaning cycles Overly complex controls Cleanup is more difficult than it needs to be Water gets into its charging port Our Verdict Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today This is a review of two pool robots, one which is the most exceptional cleaning device I’ve tested to date, and one that’s maddeningly frustrating and overly complex. You’ve probably already figured out the twist: Yes, they are same device, the iGarden Pool Cleaner K60. Specifications To start things off, just look at the thing: With its jet-black chassis and orange-trimmed wheels, the machine looks more like a sports car than a glorified leaf sweeper. Despite the evocative look, it still moves about courtesy of large wheels and treads that abut a pair of spinning scrubber. It’s a fairly classic, standard design. The control panel on the iGarden Pool Cleaner K60.Christopher Null/Foundry Its biggest selling point is under the hood: A fairly beefy 7500mAh battery powers the 30-pound robot to an epic running time of up to 6 hours, according to iGarden. (My testing achieved an even better maximum operating time of about 6.5 hours.) That’s so long that iGarden says it has a Guinness World Record for robotic pool cleaning longevity – though a quick search doesn’t quite bear that out, with Guinness noting a prototype robot from the same manufacturer hit the 40-hour mark in 2023. The iGarden Pool Cleaner K60 cleaned up 100% of the synthetic leaves in my first test. No matter though, 6 hours is mightily impressive, and what’s even more notable is that the robot achieved a feat that no other has done in my years of testing these devices: It cleaned up 100 percent of the material in my first synthetic leaf test, leaving behind absolutely no debris—even on steps, which few robots ever manage to clean properly. Even the very best pool robots tend to leave behind a few scraps during their run, but the iGarden scooped up everything on its inaugural run, a monumental first. (Subsequent runs did leave behind two or three tidbits, though that is still impressive.) Performance The rubber plug protecting recharging the iGarden Pool Cleaner K60’s battery repeatedly failed to prevent water getting into the port.Christopher Null/Foundry So, what’s the catch? Well, there are quite a few, starting with the fact that the iGarden K60 really needs those six hours to do all that work. The unit can be set to operate for shorter cleaning times (60-, 90-, or 120 minutes), and even the 120-minute mode wasn’t effective at picking up more than about 70 percent of my test debris, leaving large parts of the pool untouched. Even a second 120-minute run didn’t pick up what was left behind, and it was only when I set the robot to run on its undisturbed, run-until-the-battery-dies schedule that I was able to achieve that 100 percent pickup performance. That presents users with a quandary: Would you rather have a robot that picks up about 95 percent of debris in two hours, or one that gets 100 percent in six hours? I think it’s a fair compromise to select the former, as no one wants to drop a robot in the pool in the morning, only for it not to finish until the end of the day—especially if you’re planning on swimming that day. The iGarden Pool Cleaner K60 features a 4-liter debris basket.Christopher Null/Foundry The K60 is also marred by a wildly complex interface, both on its chassis and in its half-baked mobile app. The app’s control panel is a touchscreen festooned with icons, many of which are difficult to parse. A clock icon seems self-explanatory, but you’ll need to understand what the three lights next to that icon mean to use it properly. One light equals a one-hour cleaning time, two lights is 90 minutes, and three lights is two hours. No lights means it runs until the battery dies. An “AI timer” has a similar three-light system, corresponding to auto-cleaning cycle of every 24-, 48-, or 72 hours, presuming you leave the robot in the pool after each run. Additional controls are built for cleaning mode (floor-only or floor/wall/waterline) and “turbo mode” (which speeds up the robot considerably). Alas, none of this is intuitive, and even after a week of use I found myself referring to the manual to refresh my memory about what icon was what. Even turning the robot on is tricky. First, you’ll find a knob on the underside of the robot that must be turned as a sort of master power switch. Then the power icon on the touchscreen must be held down for three seconds until it starts flashing. At this point you can change your operating selections via the other buttons, and then you must push the power button again. Wait too long on any step and the robot will go to sleep and you’ll need to start over. When I attempted to run the robot on its inaugural run, I had to fish it out of the water with a hook twice because I’d messed something up. Frustrating. The iGarden app iGarden’s barebones app doesn’t log cleaning sessions or include a battery-life indicator.Christopher Null/Foundry iGarden’s mobile app is somehow no better. While it recreates most of the hardware experience, it lacks anything in the way of extras—including a battery monitor or a log of operations. I also found that my selections in the app didn’t always transition to the robot, requiring me to double-check the control panel before each run. I encountered other problematic, if less-severe issues as well. The iGarden’s filter basket is large but strangely designed, with multiple chambers and a relatively small access hatch that together make it difficult to clean out. You’ll charge the unit via a standard plug-in cable, and the charging port is covered via a thick rubber gasket when it’s in the pool. The problem is this gasket isn’t 100 percent waterproof, and each time I ran the robot, water got into the charging port, which in turn necessitated attempting to drain it by placing the robot at an angle with the port facing down, often overnight. Even the hook provided to retrieve the robot is non-standard in size. Retreival is doable with a more typical hook, but not as easy as it should be. And for that matter, a robot this expensive should be able to dock at the waterline when it’s finished running. The multi-chambered debris basket proved difficult to clean out.Christopher Null/Foundry The perhaps optimistically named turbo mode helps the robot get its job done slightly faster, but it’s also a little less effective. It runs out of battery life after five hours while collecting a bit less debris. A bigger issue is that while in turbo mode, the robot twice beached itself on a high step, unable to get back to deeper water without a push. It’s unclear if this is an anomaly of turbo mode or just bad luck during those test runs. Should you buy the iGarden Pool Cleaner K60? The iGarden K60 is billed at a heady $1,498 MSRP, but it’s currently on deep discount (with a coupon) if purchased directly from the manufacturer. You should also be aware that this robot is listed on Amazon as the model GT60. We checked with the manufacturer and verified that the G60 and the K60 are the same product. Finally, the iGarden model K40 and K20 are essentially the same robot, but they offer 4- and 2.5-hour maximum running times respectively. With the discount applied, the K60’s discounted price puts it within striking distance of some midrange robots, a price that merits consideration. While it’s an exceptional cleaner (given enough time in the water), its numerous quirks and foibles mean it’s ultimately an exercise in compromise that will require some serious thinking to justify buying. Read...