Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 – Intro
The Lenovo's IdeaPad Flex 5 is kicking it like its game day. Packing some punch and delivering performance, quality at a budget price!
Starting at $859.99, it's a powerhouse that can give you the power you need to stay up to date on all your latest activities. While I'm taking the IdeaPad Flex 5 for a spin as a daily driver to work, create, edit and listen to music, I find myself also enjoying the entertainment from it via Netflix.
The Design
The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 follows similar approaches to other lines of the business when it comes to its design. That steel etched feeling with a sturdy construction is very sleek. The 360-degree Flex 5 hinges make it better at folding than a typical laptop clamshell. With that, you can prop it up for it to stand on its own so you can enjoy your next flick.
We are looking at 2-USB ports on the right side with an SD card slot and power button. You'll find the Power, HDMI, USB-C and headphone jack on the left side.
The Engine
This beast holds a 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-1035G1 Processor (1.60 GHz, up to 4.20 GHz with Turbo Boost, 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 6 MB Cache), its no slouch.
To add a bit of flair, Lenovo also managed to add an NVIDIA GeForce MX230 2GB of memory!
The panel is a full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) IPS touch screen, which supports inputs from the Lenovo Digital Pen.
Other interesting points to the laptop are the integrated 720P HD webcam, the touch screen capability and the excellent sound for such a small body. You can make use of the fingerprint sensor for added security and peace of mind.
Wireless connectivity includes 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2. Support for the latest Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) standard is absent, not a requirement for a laptop in this price range. The 802.11ac standard is plenty fast enough for most home wireless environments.
The backlit keyboard provides surprisingly secure key switches that make the typing experience easy and satisfactory. It's derived from a range of subtle variations from Lenovo's flagship ThinkPad keyboards.
You can find my exact configuration on Amazon Canada.
How I used Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5
I've used this laptop to create the actual header of this article. It was a pretty intensive process as it ate 10GB's of ram while doing the processing.
I've listened to music, chilled to Netflix and spent hours on YouTube. I've completed a work assignment. I did IT work by connecting remotely and even sat down at the pub to have a beer while doing a video conference.
All the typical stuff people would do outside of gaming. It can handle a lot of things. Open up that browser with those 40 tabs if that's what drives you.
Great Value, Excellent Performance
The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 starts at $859.99 on Amazon Canad with a 10th Gen Intel Core i5 and 16GB of ram. The model I'm using for the review in the 10th Gen Intel Core i5 with 16GB of ram coming in at $883.33. on Amazon Canada, just so slightly different.
You can't consider the ultraportable $859.99 laptop to work like a $1500 gaming machine or expect it to work like a $2000 mobile workstation that is designed for content creation. You can expect it to work as a decent laptop for all your daily activities outside of those functions.
I'm giving the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 a solid 4 stars out of 5. It does everything I need, but I'm sure it could be improved. The Canadian market is flooded with a lot of laptops and it's very competitive. Looking forward to seeing what else Lenovo will bring out for the budget-conscious folks.
