The Packard Bell Carrera F5 doesn’t look like much, and at R9,500, it isn’t the most obvious budget pick either. But under that plain grey shell sits a Ryzen 5 chip, 16GB of RAM, and a fast SSD that handles everyday work with ease, from spreadsheets to heavier browsing. Its 15.6in touchscreen and almost-360° hinge add welcome versatility, turning it into a capable oversized tablet whenever needed.
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Design
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Display
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Performance
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Battery
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Value
Packard Bell certainly has a reputation around Stuff. The term that comes to mind is ‘easy’. The company’s products are certainly a straightforward choice for budget buyers. The Carrera F5 laptop that came Stuff’s way breaks the mould. It’s not exactly expensive, but at R9,500, it’s not quite the easy choice we hoped for, either.
A big reason for that is Packard Bell’s inclusion of an AMD chip, rather than something bearing the Celeron name. That alone means you can rely on it to get you through the basics, all without putting up a huff. Is that enough? For some folks, yes. But those are the same folks looking to save as many bucks as possible. The better question, then: does the Carrera F5 justify that higher price without simply resting on its AMD laurels?
Two shades of grey
In some ways, yes. But the design is not one of them. The Packard Bell Carrera F5, while inoffensive, looks like a budget laptop. That’s… kinda fair, considering, but we certainly wouldn’t have minded a little more flair. The all-grey chassis may pass for metal from a distance, but an up-close inspection reveals its true nature. This is a blessing in disguise, with the plastic body helping keep that weight down to 2.6kg. That’ll make sense later.
You’re getting a fairly generous touchpad here that should suffice when your mouse gets left behind. Ditto for the keyboard, which doesn’t do anything spectacular here but offers solid comfort that’ll get you through a couple of hours. Up top lies a 1MP cam that’ll exempt you from the video-on Teams meeting for everyone else’s sanity.
Adorning the Carrera F5’s right side are a few handy holes. One of those is a 3.5mm audio jack, accompanied by an Ethernet port and two USB-A (2.0) ports to tinker with. It’s also where you’ll find the power button, freeing up room on the keyboard. Flip it ’round, and the F5 throws you a single Type-C, USB-A (3.0), and an HDMI port.
Perhaps the Carrera F5’s greatest strength has nothing to do with its abilities as a laptop, but rather as a tablet. The 15.6in FHD IPS touchscreen display works well enough on its own, but it’s the almost-360° hinge that’ll turn it into a slightly overweight tablet at a moment’s notice. Being able to bedrot with a 15.6in display that also felt like we were ditching work for good was great. So great, in fact, that it grants the F5 a little more leeway elsewhere.
*whip crack*
Not that it really needs it. Sure, the Carrera F5 with its AMD Ryzen 5 (5500U), 16GB DDR4 RAM, and 512GB SSD was never going to set the world alight, but it at least accomplishes the goals it set out to beat. It steps up to the plate when it comes time to work, plying our Excel spreadsheets with enough memory to keep things flowing smoothly. It’ll bear the weight of a fair few Chrome tabs before struggling, too, even with Spotify running.
We had even less trouble convincing the F5 to drop its workplace demeanour and slide right into being a home computer or, better yet, a student’s workhorse. As long as you don’t bring the vibe down with fantasies of 4K video editing or other dedicated design software, you’ll hardly ever see the F5 putting up a fight. Shuffling around the place feels satisfyingly snappy even with Windows 11 at the helm.
It may not be all that equipped to handle gaming, but the Carrera F5 makes a valiant go of it anyway. We didn’t even bother attempting to boot up something even slightly ray-traced, and kept our expectations to a minimum. That way, we could walk away slightly surprised when the F5 performed admirably when presented with the most casual strain of games imaginable: Balatro, Nova Roma, and Minecraft. Bedrock Edition, of course.
To be fair, a potato with enough courage could get Balatro working, but the fact that Minecraft trudged along in a playable state was good to see. The battery suffered a bit under the extra workload, only netting a couple of hours when away from the cord. Give it less to do, like general scrolling and streaming, and it’ll eke out something closer to nine hours. That’s with the brightness set to the max — a necessary precaution in an overbright office.
Packard Bell Carrera F5 verdict
The Packard Bell Carrera F5 isn’t quite the slam-dunk value proposition we’ve come to expect from the brand, but it’s certainly more capable than the grey exterior suggests. The Ryzen 5 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a responsive SSD make quick work of everyday workloads, while the almost-360° hinge lends a sort of versatility that’s rare for this price. It won’t exactly fool you into thinking this is a more competent device, but it doesn’t really need to.
At R9,500, the Carrera F5 edges into territory occupied by stronger competitors and more polished alternatives. Still, if it’s a dependable workhorse you’re after that can cosplay as an oversized tablet and handle a full day of various classes or office duties, Packard Bell’s thrown together a surprisingly competent little package here. It may not be the easiest recommendation ever, but it’s one that makes sense the longer you spend with it.
