Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 15 review

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 15 is a budget laptop with a twist. Where most at this price rarely stray far from the tried and tested, the Flex 15 features an unusually flexible design. See also: what’s the best laptop you can buy in 2014?

However, this laptop isn’t a carbon copy of Lenovo’s much pricier Yoga models. Where the Yogas pride themselves on metal-clad, Ultrabook-class chassis, the Flex 15 is a more heavyweight affair constructed from rounded plastics. This is the Yoga rejigged to be affordable.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 15 review: looks and design

Not that the Flex 15 feels budget. Its 2.19kg body looks and feels a cut above its budget peers, with a stout and solid chassis that has hardly a shrug of give in the base, and only a minor amount of flex in the lid.

It’s also noticeably more photogenic than most laptops you’ll find in this category. The soft-touch black plastics curve gently towards the laptop’s edges, sandwiching a strip of striking orange trim that runs around the laptop’s front and flares outwards as it approaches the hinge. It’s a lovely looking piece of kit.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 15 review: low-cost hybrid

It’s the extra centimetre around the Flex 15’s waist that hints at the presence of its novel, flexible hinge. Push it back and you’ll find the display rotates back through 300 degrees, allowing the Flex 15 to work as a standard laptop, or flip upside down and perform as a compact all-in-one touchscreen PC. Once flipped upside down, the keyboard and touchpad are deactivated, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally typing with your knees. There’s no “tent” mode, nor tablet mode, though – if such flexibility appeals, you’ll need to set your sights on one of Lenovo’s more multitalented Yoga models.

As a laptop, the Flex 15 is one of the finest budget models we’ve encountered for some time. We’d rather Lenovo hadn’t shortened the right-Shift key to make room for the cursor keys, but this is a minor quibble. Otherwise, the Scrabble-tile layout is spot on, with zero flex or wallow in the base and a lovely, light, crisp feel to every keystroke. It also manages to accommodate a numeric keypad.

The buttonless touchpad below isn’t quite as refined. A slight lip along its border occasionally interferes with Windows 8’s edge-swipes, but otherwise it isn’t too bad. Two-fingered scrolling and zooming gestures work well, and the whole pad depresses with a solid, muffled click. And it’s good to have the option of the stand mode in certain situations. It comes in handy for casual web browsing on a lap or workstation use on a desk with a full-sized keyboard and mouse. In either scenario, the ten-point multitouch touchscreen responds to every flick and prod of a finger.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 15 review: hardware

It’s no surprise to find an Intel Haswell CPU powering the Flex 15. What is a turn up for the books, however, is the presence of a Core i5-4200U processor, where most laptops at this price are stuck with Core i3 parts. The i5-4200U is a low-voltage CPU, which gambols along at 1.6GHz and boosts up to 2.6GHz when required, and delivers power enough to earn the Flex 15 a fine 0.63 in our Real World Benchmarks. That isn’t far behind many far pricier Ultrabooks.

It’s worth mentioning, though, that our US review unit came with 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, rather than the 4GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD of UK retail models. We’d expect slower boot and application startup times as a result, but overall performance should be largely similar.

Regardless, the low-voltage Haswell processor does wonders for battery life. With the screen calibrated to a low-but-usable brightness of 75cd/m2, and Wi-Fi turned off, the Flex 15 flicked through a locally stored set of web pages for 9hrs 59mins. Given the compact, removable 42Wh, 3,500mAh battery clipped into the Lenovo’s rear, that’s pretty good going.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 15 review: features and display quality

Lenovo has equipped the Flex 15 with most of the basics you’d expect at the price. Look along the flash of orange on the edges, and you’ll see a pair of USB 2 ports, a single USB 3 port, SD card reader, a 10/100 Ethernet socket and an HDMI output, as well as a volume rocker switch and a 3.5mm headset jack. Wireless connections include single-band 802.11n and Bluetooth 4. The only notable absentee is an optical drive, which Lenovo has sacrificed to keep the Flex 15 as slender as possible.

If there’s one area in which the Flex 15 gives away its cut-price beginnings, it’s the display. The modest 1,366 x 768 resolution strikes the first blow; brightness tops out at a low maximum of 217cd/m[sup]2[/sup]; and contrast reaches only 247:1. These stats aren’t great, but are no worse than most laptops available for around this price. The panel’s narrow vertical viewing angles are a bigger disappointment. Shift around in your seat, or lean back a little, and you’ll have to tilt the screen back and forth to avoid images becoming washed out or becoming unwatchably dark. Combined with middling colour accuracy, the Flex 15’s display isn’t great.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 15 review: verdict

For a laptop that makes such a striking first impression, the IdeaPad Flex 15 doesn’t quite fulfil its potential. The design is lovely, and the combination of power and stamina is unusual for a budget model, but we can’t help wishing Lenovo could have found room for a better-quality display. Still, that’s a complaint we’d level at pretty much every budget laptop we’ve seen in recent years – ultimately, an improved display would only transform the Lenovo from good to great. At this price, the IdeaPad Flex 15 remains a budget laptop to be reckoned with.

Details
Warranty
Warranty	1yr collect and return
Physical specifications
Dimensions	332 x 273 x 27mm (WDH)
Weight	2.190kg
Travelling weight	2.5kg
Processor and memory
Processor	Intel Core i5-4200U
RAM capacity	4.00GB
Memory type	DDR3
Screen and video
Screen size	15.6in
Resolution screen horizontal	1,366
Resolution screen vertical	768
Resolution	1366 x 768
Graphics chipset	Intel HD Graphics 4400
VGA (D-SUB) outputs	0
HDMI outputs	1
Drives
Spindle speed	5,400RPM
Optical disc technology	N/A
Optical drive	None
Battery capacity	3,500mAh
Replacement battery price inc VAT	£0
Networking
Wired adapter speed	100Mbits/sec
802.11a support	no
802.11b support	yes
802.11g support	yes
802.11 draft-n support	yes
Bluetooth support	yes
Other Features
Modem	no
USB ports (downstream)	2
3.5mm audio jacks	1
SD card reader	yes
Pointing device type	Touchpad, touchscreen
Integrated microphone?	yes
Camera megapixel rating	0.9mp
Battery and performance tests
Battery life, light use	9hr 59min
Battery life, heavy use	3hr 50min
3D performance (crysis) low settings	52fps
3D performance setting	Low
Overall Real World Benchmark score	0.63
Responsiveness score	0.71
Media score	0.69
Multitasking score	0.49