Lenovo Flex 5 14″ – The Best Lightweight Laptop
The Lenovo Flex 5 14″ display with 1920×1080 resolution is the best 2-in-1 convertible laptop which offers better computing performance than many competitors. It’s also got decent physical connectivity options, a sturdy, well-designed chassis, and a comfortable keyboard.
The high-end and elegant design with a flexible mechanism allows Lenovo Flex 5 to be used at any angle – laptop, tablet, or tent mode. The display is good for indoor use, but it is quite reflecting outside, and the 250nits brightness makes it difficult to see the content.
The Lenovo Flex 5 is a powerful laptop that punches well above its weight level. There are several competitors that cost more than twice as much as this 2-in-1 convertible laptop offer greater processing performance.
The Lenovo Flex 5 also offers a nice keyboard, good physical connectivity options, and a strong, well-designed chassis. Because of the convertible form factor, you can rapidly go from work to play mode. A privacy shutter, fingerprint scanner, front-firing speakers, and rapid charging are also included.
The Lenovo Flex 5 is our favourite laptop for working from home this year. The Ryzen 4000 processor provides high performance and long battery life. While the Lenovo Flex 5’s 14-inch display could be better and it could use a few ounces less, it’s still a fantastic value and a great mainstream laptop.
Lenovo Flex 5 14″ Performance
The 360-degree tilt of the Lenovo Flex 5 gives it more flexibility than a traditional clamshell laptop. You may stand the notebook up like a tent, lay it on the keyboard portion like an easel, or even fold it fully flat and use it as a tablet by folding the hinge past 180 degrees.
Aside from a more relaxed chassis design, the Lenovo Flex 5’s fourth-generation AMD Ryzen “Renoir” CPU options allow it to deliver such a strong balance of pricing and performance. A Lenovo Flex 5 with an eight-core Ryzen 7 4700U processor can be configured for even more power.
A larger 512GB SSD is also available as an optional upgrade from Lenovo. The Lenovo Flex 5 configuration with all of the bells and whistles still comes in at under $800.
802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 provide wireless communication. The latest Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) standard isn’t supported, but it’s hardly a must-have feature for a laptop in this price range. For most residential wireless setups, the 802.11ac standard is quite fast.
The Lenovo Flex 5’s only other notable issue is its screen, which has a somewhat weak backlight rated at only 250 nits of brightness, aside from the rather bulky chassis. The display works well in dimly lit rooms, but it may be difficult to see in brightly illuminated areas, such as offices.
The display is a full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) IPS touch screen that accepts Lenovo Digital Pen inputs. The pen, which is an optional accessory, has 4,096 pressure sensitivity levels and two configurable buttons.
Lenovo Flex 5 14″ Tech Specs
Product Dimensions: 12.66 x 8.56 x 0.82 inches
Standing screen display size: 14 Inches
Max Screen Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Pixels
Processor: 2.1 GHz ryzen_5_4500u
Processor Brand: AMD
Processor Count: 1
Graphics Coprocessor: Integrated AMD Radeon Graphics
Graphics Audio: Stereo Speakers with MaxxAudio Pro
RAM: 16 GB DDR4
Hard Drive: 256 GB flash memory solid state
Computer Memory Type: DDR4 SDRAM
Memory Speed: 2.1 GHz
Chipset Brand: AMD
Card Description: Integrated
Wireless Type: 802.11ac
Number of USB 3.0 Ports: 2
Hard Drive Interface: Solid State
Average Battery Life: 10 hours
Operating System: Windows 10 Home
Item Weight: 3.63 pounds
Power Source: Battery Powered (1 Lithium-ion metal battery required)
Pros:
- Robust computing performance
- Excellent value
- Soft-touch, durable chassis
- The screen supports touch input
- Webcam privacy shutter
- Two USB Type-A ports
- Lenovo Active Pen included
- Comfortable keyboard
- Amazing battery life
Cons
- Relatively heavy for a 14-inch ultraportable
- Dim 250-nit display
- Buggy in tablet mode
Conclusion
The Lenovo Flex 5 is just barely ultraportable, measuring 0.82 by 12.7 by 8.6 inches (HWD) and weighing 3.3 pounds. You can save a lot of money by going up a few tenths of an inch in width and a few ounces in weight while still maintaining an amazing processor speed to get your jobs done.
By combining performance, connectivity, entertainment, and affordability with a beautiful look and feel, the Lenovo Flex 5 gives you more creative options.
If you’re looking for a powerful laptop or you want full-day battery life or your work involves a lot of typing, then you can buy the Lenovo Flex 5. But if you work outdoors or if you play games a lot then this Lenovo Flex 5 is not a suitable option for you.
The Lenovo Flex 5’s tendency to stay out of stock is likely due to coronavirus-related production delays and general challenges surrounding the debut of a new CPU family, in addition to the good value.
An HD webcam with a fixed-focus lens shoots 720p video sitting above the Lenovo Flex 5’s screen. In my tests, the image quality was a little noisy and washed out at times, but that’s to be expected with laptop webcams.
While the camera lacks infrared sensors for facial recognition, it does include a physical privacy shutter for further security while not in use. To eliminate laborious passwords, you can use the keyboard-mounted fingerprint reader instead of a facial recognition system to log in to your Windows account.
