Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro Touch Laptop: 14" 1400p, Ryzen 5 5600U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Expired

Raw, not very organized thoughts on this device after 4 months daily use...

I bought this last time it was on FP. I replaced the Ideapad 5 14" amd 4600u i bought last year, which I liked a lot, but wanted more. This model adds 5600u, touch screen, glossy, and 1400p lcd over the old model. It's also genuinely 300nits brightness, which is generally good. The 4600u model had 1080p, no touch screen, matte, but Did have a fingerprint reader which this does not. The old model also had around 150 nits brightness in reality, despite being advertised as 300. But the color was nice, and I always though was beyond the 45%srgb they advertised. This model advertises 73% and also looks very nice. This has IR cam for face recognition instead of the fingerprint reader - which I generally dont like, i was happy with the fp reader - however, this one has a screen that lights up when you walk up to it. A little creepy , but ok whatever.
Also, the old model had an intel ax200, and this one has a Qualcomm Atheros wifi 5 instead. To be honest, after upgrading to an intel ax210, I feel the qualcomm had better long range/weak signal reception, but not enough of a difference to make me bother swapping back. If you are trying to download large files, and get spontaneous disconnects (wifi is normally fine, but lets say you can't ever download the AMD gpu driver update file which is almost a half gig in size, then get a new router and with a different cpu in it, if you can (intel, mediatek, qualcomm, broadcom, etc)- it's the cause of your problem)
One big annoyance I've found, is the old model felt solid and wore over time very well. I didn't realize how well til i got this one. It creaks and cracks all over the place. I opened the case and found the bottom is metal - which is very nice, however it has plastic pieces bonded to it so it can snap into place. They are not bonded well, and seem to be the cause of the noises. I am assuming this is a fit/finish issue only, and so far it has not gotten worse or led to hinge or other issues.
Of note, if you open these up, as the base is metal, do not slide your fingers along the edge to try and pry it open, use a plastic spade or something, as it WILL slice your fingers open, and good. Trust me. The edges are thin and rough.
Also note, the speakers are on the bottom, not the top - that is cosmetic. And in general they are quiet. Do not get loud at all. Also, if you hold notebook in your hands, it'll muffle the speakers. But they are good (down firing) on a table. It does have bt and Headphone jacks as alternatives. Comes with win11x64, and it reports the wifi connection incorrectly, idk why, but the benchmarks indicate correct high speeds. I think the antennae are in the hinge
The touchpad isn't great, and neither the sound (realtek) nor the touchpad have custom apps to configure, which annoys me. Get a mouse if you like.
Battery life is excellent, and you'll get around 4 to 5 hours of aggressive use, and it can go 8 or so if the use is more mundane.
Performance is just as good as you might expect. 1 of the 2 usb c supports display out. and 1 usb-a port chagres out if you want. (turn on in bios) Use windows settings: system, recovery, restart, advanced. And on restart, windows recovery screen, go into advanced troubleshooting to get 'boot to uefi bios' - as F2 is tough on this thing..
Fan noise is fine, i have it on intelligent cooling. The performance boost with High Perf fan setting (in bios) is negligible 99.% of the time, and slight the rest of the time. Not worth enabling. No problems with hinge on this or my old model. And i used/use them daily.
The ssd is a short WD sn730 and the performance is very,very good. 3500mb/s read 2700mb/s write, sequential.
Old model, and i think this one, support upgrade to 80mm full size m.2 ssd's if you want. Memory is fixed, so buy 16gb if you use your notebook heavily. 8gb is fine for many people. I always have 20 tabs open, run office and other business apps often, etc, so appreciate the 16gb.
Lenovo *just* released the bios update which I presume fixes the AMD fTPM stuttering issue.
The keyboard action is ok to good.
Screen does not flip over like the Yoga for tablet mode, and this does not support use of a digital pen / stylus.

What I find most satisfying: 1400p, touchscreen. Speed.
Most annoying: quiet audio, 1/2 sized up/down arrows.
What surprised me? I thought the glossy would annoy me. It doesn't. Though outside it bright light, it might, idk yet.

I may go to the thinkpad next time if all specs were same, as i'd like the j-mouse, and full size arrow keys, might have a network jack, and better keyboard action it's reported to have.
The amd 7600u is peeking around the corner, with rdna2 gpu, which is almost 1.5 to 2x faster than this gpu. This one is likely very good for the majority of college students, especially with the extra screen resolution/(real estate). Note: more technical users might appreciate the Thinkpad's extra features, but add $500 to the price. Some might want a better gpu for gaming. Some might prefer a 15" screen -but i would avoid 17" if they need to carry it around - those are heavy. I like the slim portability of this model.
***I would not hestitate to buy this at $550. I paid $650 and am overall pleased with it. It's a great price for a very capable mid-range notebook ***

Where's the guy that wants a touch screen from the thinkbook post a couple days ago? This is his chance.