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Lenovo 500e Chromebook

 & Eric Grevstad Contributing Editor

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

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Meet the Lenovo 500e Chromebook

Call it "Junior's First ThinkPad": Apart from a textured-plastic instead of plain matte-black lid, the Lenovo 500e Chromebook is bound to remind you of the company's legendary business laptops.

Typing on the 500e Chromebook

The keyboard has a shallow but snappy typing feel. It's one of the best budget-Chromebook keyboards we've used.

An Angled View of the Screen

The IPS panel is topped by Corning Gorilla Glass for ruggedness, and to defend against overzealous stylus pokes.

The 500e Keyboard Layout

The island-style keyboard follows standard chromebook conventions, with a search/app menu instead of a Caps Lock key and a top row of browser back, forward, reload, and system volume and brightness buttons.

Lid Logo

You can see the texture of the lid's plastic here.

Left Edge Ports

You'll find a USB 3.0 Type-A port and a USB Type-C port on the 500e Chromebook's left side, along with a microSD card slot and a headphone jack.

Right Edge Ports

The right edge hosts a volume rocker for use in tablet mode, as well as the power button, another pair of USB 3.0 and USB Type-C ports, and a Kensington-style cable-lockdown slot.

The Passive Stylus

The stylus is of the no-battery, simple stick variety.

Stylus Storage

The chassis has a niche in which to store the pen, so it's less likely to get lost.

Using the Stylus

Palm rejection on the touch panel worked well when drawing or poking with the stylus.

About Our Expert

Eric Grevstad

Eric Grevstad

Contributing Editor

My Experience

I was picked to write PCMag's 40th Anniversary "Most Influential PCs" feature because I'm the geezer who remembers them all—I worked on TRS-80 and Apple II monthlies starting in 1982 and served as editor of Computer Shopper when it was a 700-page monthly rivaled only by Brides as America's fattest magazine. I was later the editor in chief of Home Office Computing, a magazine about using tech to work from home two decades before a pandemic made it standard practice. Even in semi-retirement, I can't stop playing with toys and telling people what gear to buy.

The Technology I Use

I wish I still had my TRS-80 Model 4P, Laser 128 (educational toymaker VTech's Apple IIc clone), Psion Series 5, and ThinkPad 701C with the fold-out "butterfly" keyboard.

My main machine is a Lenovo Yoga 9i all-in-one desktop with a 13th Gen Core i9 and 32-inch 4K display running Windows 11 Home, Microsoft 365 Family, and Norton 360 with LifeLock. My wife and I get 400Mbps Spectrum internet as part of our homeowners' association fee, but I pay a fortune for streaming services.

I also have a Google Pixel 7 Android phone and pay Mint Mobile $15 a month. We share a Volvo XC60 Recharge plug-in hybrid; I'd have a car of my own, but it seems wasteful to buy a Corvette E-Ray to drive 10 miles a week.

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