Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 14 laptop

Cons

• Not the best screen
• No gigabit network

Lenovo proves that a laptop with a high-end feel doesn’t have to have a corresponding price. The Flex 14 is designed like an ultrabook, but is slightly thicker than most real ultrabooks. However, there is a starting price of only five hundred euros.

In addition to its relatively low price and attractive design, the 14-inch model from this series has another trump card: the hinge. The laptop owes the name Flex to the possibility of folding the screen three hundred degrees. as a classic laptop and as a ‘tablet’.

The slightly wedge-shaped housing of the Flex 14 is about 21 millimeters thick at its thickest point and 11 millimeters thin at the front. The outside has a matte finish, which feels a bit rubbery. In contrast, the edges, including the ports, are finished in gray. Those ports include an HDMI port, a network port, three USB ports, one of which is USB 3.0 and a card reader.

On the inside, the laptop has a brushed aluminum look around the keyboard. The glossy screen is framed by a glossy black border with a Windows button at the bottom center for use in tablet mode. The AccuType keyboard is matte black with chiclet keys and the fairly large touchpad of 105 by 70 millimeters has a chrome edge. The build quality is fine; the case feels sturdy and the hinges hold the screen securely in place.

The screen is glossy, so reflections from the sun or other bright light can be problematic. The screen also has a TN panel, which means that the viewing angles, especially vertically, are not the best; colors and contrast quickly fade. The resolution is 1366 by 768 pixels and the touchscreen supports ten-finger multitouch.

The contrast ratio is not great at 546:1: the maximum brightness is quite low and the screen combines that with disappointing black levels. The color reproduction is also not very good; especially blue deviates considerably from the ideal value.

The Flex 14 tested by us is equipped with a Core i3-4010U with a clock speed of up to 1.7GHz, combined with a generous 8GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. Starting Windows from the hard drive takes just under a minute. With its Haswell processor, the laptop is reasonably fast with simple workloads, but more complex tasks such as converting videos are a bit slower, because only two cores are available. Due to the lack of a separate video card, the laptop is only suitable for playing simple games or newer games with the settings screwed down.

Lenovo specifies a battery life of ‘up to nine hours’ for its Flex 14, but our battery tests show lower figures. For browsing, the Flex 14 comes out at about four hours and fifteen minutes, while the laptop can play video for fifteen minutes less.

The noise production while the laptop does little work is low. During light to normal use, the device is barely audible. However, if we put the processor to work, the fan is clearly audible.

Conclusion

The performance of the laptop is reasonable, but an i3 processor from the U-series does not deliver lightning fast performance, especially since the laptop does not have an SSD on board. Those who adjust their expectations accordingly will not be disappointed. The only major drawback is the screen; which is reflective and not very bright. That’s not convenient outside in the sun. Finally, folding the screen to use the laptop in tablet mode, or as Lenovo calls it in ‘Stand mode’, is a nice and useful feature for some.