Editor’s Rating: 6/10
A decent 2-in-1 laptop with good battery life and adequate power and functionality for its price.
The Good
A well-built 14-inch model that offers decent performance and exceptionally good battery life. It is one of the best laptops for college students who needs a budget performer for school work, some entertainment, and even light photo editing.
The Bad
The screen’s brightness is a bit dark and the overall appearance and design of this hybrid laptop are a bit uninspiring.
Detailed Review of Lenovo Flex 14 (2019)
Finding the best laptop model that will suit your everyday needs is not easy.
But there are laptops that try their best to provide everything that people will need. Take Lenovo Flex 14, for example. It is not the best Lenovo laptop available, but it’s a good 2-in-1 laptop that has a variety of features that allows it to offer you a bit of everything.
With a decent-sized display, adequate power, and great battery life, this jack-of-all-trades laptop can be a good option for both work and play purposes. But since it tries to offer a bit of everything, it won’t really stand out in many areas.
This might already be good enough for you, especially if there isn’t anything that in your everyday task that would require a dedicated laptop.
Lenovo Flex 14 Configuration In Review
Processor: Intel Core i5-8265U (up to 3.4GHz) | RAM: 16GB DDR4 | Storage: 512GB SSD | Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 614 | Display: 14” Full HD LED touch screen, 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution | Operating System: Windows 10 Home | Battery Life: 10 Hours | Weight: 3.52 lbs | Other Features: Backlit Keyboard, Fingerprint Reader
A Device That Can Do A Bit Of Everything
When you look at the specs sheet of the Lenovo Flex 14, you will see that it’s using a fairly good processor, the 8th Generation Intel Core i5-8265U. It’s not the most powerful processor, but it’s powerful enough to perform well on almost any kind of task you give it.
It can even compete against some of the older models that use the i7 processor, making it one of the best i5 laptops, at least in terms of power. You can use this device for writing and editing documents, as well as browsing the net or even watching movies.
But then Lenovo paired it with a 16GB DDR4 RAM, which further allows this laptop to do more tasks. With this combination of power and memory, you can now use this device to do more intense tasks like coding or even editing images in Photoshop (just make sure that the image will only have 2-3 layers, as anything more than that will likely cause a lag or slowdown in performance).
Browsing multiple tabs won’t be much of an issue with this laptop, even if some of them are playing videos. Storage space won’t be an issue as well since the Flex 14 is equipped with a 512GB SSD internal hard drive, which also has decent write speeds.
As for graphics, this 2-in-1 uses the Intel UHD Graphics 615. It’s the typical basic graphics that you’d usually see on laptops like this one. But it’s enough to allow you to stream 4K content and play light casual games or older titles.
…this device can really provide a bit of everything, which can be good enough in most cases…
The laptop’s 14-inch display is average, nothing special or groundbreaking about it. It provides decent images when you watch videos or look at photos. One complainant about the screen, though, is its brightness.
It is noticeably dimmer compared to other laptops in the same price range. You will need to crank up the brightness a bit just to have a better viewing experience. Speakers also provide good sound, though the bass is absent, sound quality is good even on slightly larger rooms.
You can see that this device can really provide a bit of everything, which can be good enough in most cases. However, this also shows that the Flex 14 doesn’t really stand out at anything when it comes to performance.
If your activities or tasks will be more strenuous like doing complex image editing, or video editing, this device won’t be able to help you with that.
Well-Built Laptop with Flexible Connectivity
Aside from decent power and specs, the Lenovo Flex 14 is also well-built and provides a variety of ports and sockets for different connectivity purposes.
Lenovo uses plastic for the build of the Flex 14. A soft-touch plastic is used on the lid while a high-quality one is used on the deck and keyboards. This makes the laptop flex a little when applied with some direct and intentional pressure. Fingerprints and smudges also stick easily on the lid, which can be a bit of an annoyance.
But despite the plastic finish and its slim dimension (it only has a thickness of 0.69 inches), the Lenovo Flex 14 feels sturdy and durable. The minimal flex itself is not a concern since it requires direct pressure. So unless you intentionally try to bend the laptop, you won’t have any issues with that. The laptop also uses sturdy hinges that have no trouble holding the base and display at any angle.
As for the laptop’s keyboard, it is well-built with adequate space, and good key sizes. This makes typing on the keyboard very comfortable, even during prolonged typing use. The keyboards are also on the quiet side, so you won’t get distracted as you’re typing.
…offers good connectivity options with the different ports available…
You also don’t have to worry too much about the heat, as Lenovo made sure that this laptop can handle it. Even after extended use, the device stayed relatively cool as its fans and vents can disperse heat properly. One thing to take note of is that the vents are located at the back hinge of the deck, so you might feel the hot air when used in tablet mode.
The Lenovo Flex 14 also offers good connectivity options with the different ports available. On the right side of the port, there’s 2 USB 3.1 Type-A slots and an SD card reader, while on the left side there’s a Thunderbolt 3 Type-C port and HDMI port, and a headset jack.
These different ports will allow you to be flexible when it comes to using this 2-in-1 laptop without the need to use additional adaptors. The SD card reader itself has good speeds, allowing for faster copying or transferring of files. This is something that not all laptops in this price range can do.
Long-Lasting Battery Life
The battery life is probably one of the major selling points of the Lenovo Flex 14, as a single full-charge can last for more than 10 hours with average work or school tasks. If you use it to full capacity, it still performed well lasting close to 7 hours.
You can even achieve a good 13 hours of battery life with this device, but it would require that you tone down the settings like dimming the laptop’s brightness or not having too many programs open.
Using the laptop while connected to the charger is also not an issue. The charger’s “wall wart” form, though, might make it a bit difficult to fit it in any wall socket. Charging time is also fast, and you can even get an additional 2 hours of battery life just for 15-20 minutes of charging.
Critic Reviews
The Lenovo Flex 14 is a mixed bag. Its strongest areas lie in battery life and storage speed. It is difficult to find a laptop with an NVMe drive at the $800 price point, and the fact that the Flex 14 lasts all day on a charge is the icing on the cake. The Flex 14 is perhaps best suited for students in search of a low-cost convertible that won’t mind sacrificing on the keyboard, build quality, and display brightness.
If you don’t mind cranking up the screen brightness, you’ll find Lenovo’s IdeaPad Flex 14 an attractive convertible laptop for $899.99—a Core i5 2-in-1 that competes well with more costly Core i7s. At 3.65 pounds, the Flex 14 is a little heftier than ideal, but still considerably lighter than most 15.6-inch convertibles.
Buy It If…
The 2-in-1 laptop market always offers many good choices, which can make it difficult for buyers to pick one. This model is an ideal choice to get at an affordable price for everyday work or school activities like typing and editing documents, doing minor photo editing, and a bit of gaming and entertainment.
Don’t Buy It If…
A low average screen brightness and features that don’t really stand out at anything mean that this model might not be a good choice for people who need a more dedicated laptop. If you’re someone who will do a lot of heavy-duty photos and video editing, or prefer to play the latest video game titles, then there are better options available for you.
Lenovo Flex 14 (2019) Alternatives
There are many different models to choose from if this device is not the one you’re looking for. Here are some of the models we suggest
- ASUS VivoBook Flip 14: A very thin and light 14-inch model that is very affordable
- ASUS ZenBook Flip 14: A more powerful 2-in-1 alternative to the Lenovo Flex 14.
- Lenovo Yoga 730: Well-designed laptop with powerful specs at a good price range.
Verdict
If you prefer a laptop that you can use to play the latest PC games available, check out our roundup of the best gaming laptops. If you’re on a tighter budget, here’s our list of the best gaming laptops under $1,000.