Lenovo Flex 5 Review An Affordable 2 In 1 Laptop

December 01, 2022

This review will look at the features and specifications of the Lenovo Flex 5. The design, CPU, RAM, storage options, GPU, and battery performance of the laptop will all also be reviewed. After each section of this review, I’ll provide the laptop a rating that describes how it performs in each category. As a result, once you’ve finished reading this review, you’ll be able to decide whether or not this laptop should be your next purchase.

Lenovo Flex 5 Review: My Initial Thoughts

I think it’s important to start by acknowledging that the Lenovo Flex 5 is by no means a premium device. This laptop doesn’t have that much to offer in terms of features, design, or innovation. However, it’s one of the most basic convertible notebooks you’ll find on the market, yet one of the most attractive ones out there. Moreover, the laptop has an affordable price compared to its competitors. The Lenovo Flex 5 series falls into the mid-range and high-end categories. This makes the laptops particularly suitable for studying and watching movies or browsing the internet. If you need an affordable 2-in-1 laptop, know that the Lenovo Flex 5 features a great selection of hardware components. It’s a fast and reliable laptop that costs less than an entry-level ultrabook. Speaking of its affordability, the laptop starts at $642.23 – as of the time this review was published (July 2021).

Lenovo Flex 5 Design, Dimension & Weight Review

What is amazing when you start to use this laptop for the first time is how little it weighs. A 1650g weight for a laptop is close to nothing, which you can tell as soon as you pick up the laptop. Most of the laptop chassis is made of plastic, but that doesn’t mean the laptop isn’t solid or durable. The Lenovo Flex 5 is best described as light but durable. The design combination makes a solid first impression. The only color option available for the Lenovo Flex 5 is Graphite Grey. At first glance, this color appears to be elegant and high-end. The laptop has a soft-touch finish with a metallic coating on the front with small metal Lenovo branding placed towards the right. When you first open the laptop, you’ll see a 14-inch screen, a keyboard and trackpad combo, and two front-firing speakers. Right above the laptop’s display screen, you will find an HD webcam with a fixed-focus lens that shoots 720p video or images. However, the image quality of the webcam is a little noisy and washed out at times, but that’s to be expected with most laptop webcams. Additionally, the Webcam does not have infrared sensors for face recognition. However, it does have a privacy shutter for covering the Webcam. The laptop has a 360-degree rotatable hinge that is made of a fairly well-made and durable material. Furthermore, the Flex 5’s 360-degree hinge makes it more flexible than a conventional clamshell laptop. By folding the hinge past 180 degrees, you can prop the notebook up like a tent, or use it as a tablet. This flexibility isn’t unique to the Lenovo Flex 5. Lenovo developed the 2-in-1 convertible laptop concept, and it now offers varieties of such laptops in different price ranges. The Lenovo Flex 5 offers better computing performance than many competitors that cost more than twice as much. It also offers a nice keyboard, good physical connectivity options, and a strong, well-designed chassis. Speaking of keyboards, the keys on the Flex 5 keyboard are well spaced and have a good amount of travel. Also, it is very comfortable to type a long document or write a script on the keyboard. Like most laptops, the Lenovo Flex 5 comes with half-sized upper and lower arrow keys. The Keyboard also has a backlighting keyboard which comes in handy when used in the dark. Moreover, the keyboard’s backlighting can be enabled by pressing Fn + Spacebar keys. Just below the keyboard, you will find a very spacious trackpad. The trackpad supports Windows 10 gestures and clicks and it is also smooth and very responsive. For years, Lenovo laptops have been known for their comfy keyboards, and the Flex’s keyboard is no exception. The same can be said for the touchpad, which makes it easy to move the cursor. As mentioned earlier, the Lenovo Flex 5 is a 2-in-1 laptop, which means it has a touchscreen. This also means that the screen is a little shiny and light-sensitive, which helps with color representation. Lenovo includes a stylus or Lenovo Digital Pen for the Flex 5’s touchscreen display. The pen has a pressure range of 4096 levels and can be used to access screen content, take notes, and draw. However, because the pen is not magnetic, it cannot be kept attached to the laptop at all times. Instead, Lenovo includes a plastic holder that you may use to store the pen using one of the USB ports. When it comes to ports, the Lenovo features all the necessary ports you will need. On the left of the laptop, there is a charging port, an HDMI port, a USB-C port with Power Delivery, and a microphone combo jack. Additionally, to the right side, you get 1 USB 3.1 (Gen 1) port and an SD card reader. Unfortunately, the laptop doesn’t feature an Ethernet port or Thunderbolt. As for connectivity, the Flex 5 comes with dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0. I had no problems connecting to the network or using Bluetooth; both performed perfectly well. In terms of the Operating System, the Lenovo Flex 5 comes with either a 64-bits Windows 10 Home or a 64-bits Windows 10 Pro. As mention earlier, the laptop doesn’t weigh much. The laptop’s dimensions and weight are 321.5 x 217.5 x 20.8 mm and 1650g, respectively. In comparison, the Lenovo Flex 5 is lighter than the Lenovo IdeaPad S340. The Lenovo IdeaPad S340 measures 358 x 245 x 17.9 mm and weighs 1790 g. Finally, I’ll rate the Lenovo Flex 5 an eight for overall design in this review.

Lenovo Flex 5 Processor (CPU) Performance Review

You can get a Lenovo Flex 5 with either an 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 4700U or a 4-core Intel Core i7-10510U processor. The AMD Ryzen 7 4700U has an 8MB cache and runs at a base frequency of 1.60GHz and a maximum frequency of 4.1GHz. On the other hand, the Intel Core i7-10510U has a base frequency of 1.80GHz and a maximum frequency of 4.90GHz. The Intel Core i7-10510U also has an 8MB cache. With any of these processors, the Lenovo Flex 5 is powerful enough to deliver great performance and also multitask. The laptop can easily handle document editing, web browsing at the same time. The model I reviewed came with an AMD Ryzen 7 4700U processor. To determine the processor’s performance, I ran a Cinebench 15 benchmark test. Based on the benchmark result, the Lenovo Flex 5 scored 938 points. In comparison, the Lenovo Flex 5 outperformed the Lenovo Yoga C740. In the same benchmark test, the Lenovo Yoga C740’s processor scored 698 points. Based on these results, I’ll rate the Lenovo Flex 5 an eight in this review for processor performance.

Lenovo Flex 5 Memory (RAM) Performance Review

The Lenovo Flex 5 comes with an LPDDR4 4266 MHz memory that supports a maximum memory of 16 GB. Unfortunately, it has just a single memory slot. Furthermore, because the memory is soldered to the motherboard, you won’t be able to upgrade it any further. In all honesty, I don’t think you’ll ever need to. Additionally, the RAM has been configured as dual-channel. Multitasking and running more RAM-intensive software, such as Photoshop or Lightroom will not be any problem for the laptop. In addition, performing daily tasks will be a smooth and enjoyable experience. Interestingly, the performance of the Lenovo Flex 5 is similar to what you would expect from more expensive notebooks. The Lenovo Flex 5 I reviewed came with 8 GB RAM. With the 8 GB Ram, the laptop was still able to multitask well without lagging or slowing down. To determine the laptop’s RAM performance, I ran a PCMark 10 test. The Lenovo Flex 5 received a score of 4678 points in the test. In comparison, the Lenovo Flex 5’s performance is way better than the Asus Vivobook S15, which received 3769 points in the same benchmark test. Finally, I’ll rate the Lenovo Flex 5 an eight in this category because of its excellent RAM performance.

Lenovo Flex 5 Storage Option & Performance Review

The Lenovo Flex 5 comes with a PCIe M.2 SSD. The storage can take up to a maximum of 1TB. The laptop also features an SD card reader for extra storage. For those who demand a large amount of storage space, the SD card storage option should be handy. The Lenovo Flex 5 laptop I reviewed came with a 512 GB SSD. To determine the laptop’s transfer speed, I conducted a CrystalDiskMark test. The laptop got 2111.57MB/s and 1020.73MB/s sequential read and write respectively in the CrystalDiskMark test. These scores are similar to what you would get with the 10th gen Core i7 laptops. In comparison, the Lenovo Flex 5 outperformed the Lenovo IdeaPad S340. The Lenovo IdeaPad S340 delivered a read speed of 1825Mbps and a write speed of 982.4Mbps. The Lenovo Flex 5’s storage is quite outstanding for its price. As a result, I rate the laptop’s storage performance a nine out of 10.

Lenovo Flex 5 Graphic Card Performance Review

Just like its processor, the Lenovo Flex 5 also has multiple graphics options. You can get the laptop with either AMD Integrated Graphics, Intel UHD Graphics, or NVIDIA GeForce MX330. Out of the three graphics cards, only NVIDIA GeForce MX330 features a 2 GB dedicated VRAM. The NVIDIA GeForce MX330 has a 1531MHz base frequency and a 1594MHz boost frequency. The implication is that if you are a gamer or need a laptop to handle graphics-intensive applications, you should get a Lenovo Flex 5 with NVIDIA GeForce MX330. Before I share the graphics performances of these graphics cards, I’ll like to discuss the specifications of the integrated graphics cards that could ship with Lenovo Flex 5. The AMD Integrated graphics card has a base frequency of 300 MHz and a boost frequency of 1600MHz. The Intel UHD Graphic card, on the other hand, has a base frequency of 300MHz and a boost frequency of 1150MHz. Now that we are done with the formalities, let’s dive into the performances of the laptop with these graphics cards. As we normally do in our laptop reviews, I will discuss both the real-life performances and benchmark test results. With any of the graphic cards, you should be able to use this laptop for editing videos, or photos. The laptop should also handle playing 4K content on an external monitor. Additionally, with the AMD Integrated graphics card, you’ll be able to play some popular multiplayer online games. The Nitro Flex 5 is no gaming laptop, mind you, but you could play most games at the lowest settings. Moving on, the laptop I reviewed had an AMD Integrated graphics card. To determine the graphic card performance, I conducted a gaming test. In the gaming test, this laptop played Counter-Strike: Global Offensive at 60fps in a high setting. The graphic performance is quite outstanding. To further determine the graphic performance of the laptop, I conducted a 3DMark graphic test. In the test, the Lenovo Flex 5 score 9602 points. In comparison, the Lenovo Flex 5 performed way better than the ASUS VivoBook S15. The ASUS VivoBook S15 managed to score 4779 points in the 3DMark graphic test. I am quite impressed with the Lenovo Flex 5 graphic and gaming performance. Therefore, I will rate the laptop a nine out of ten for its outstanding graphics performance.

Lenovo Flex 5 Battery Life & Performance Review

The Lenovo Flex 5 has a 3-cell 52.5 watt-hour li-polymer battery. Lenovo claims the battery should last about 10 hours. To confirm Lenovo’s claim, I conducted some battery tests. The Lenovo Flex 5 was an average performer in the first test. It lasted eight hours in a web browsing test, compared to the Lenovo Yoga C640 which lasted over 10.5 hours. To further evaluate the battery, I conducted additional battery run-down tests. I played a video clip on repeat – the Lenovo Flex 5 lasted for 11 hours. That’s not bad, but it’s far less than the spectacular 23 hours of the Lenovo Yoga C640. Lastly, I ran the laptop through a demanding battery test, the Basemark web benchmark. This simulates battery life when running more demanding applications. Based on the Basemark web benchmark test, Lenovo Flex 5 lasted three and a half hours. This result is similar to laptops like the Yoga C640. In terms of battery life, the Lenovo Flex 5 isn’t the best. However, unlike many budget laptops, the Flex 5 can last the majority of a workday on a single charge. In conclusion, I will rate the laptop a seven in this review due to its average battery.

Lenovo Flex 5 Review: My Final Thoughts

For $642, the Lenovo Flex 5 is a blisteringly fast laptop with a build quality that justifies the price. The configuration is also impressive; you don’t frequently see a laptop with a PCIe SSD and 16GB of RAM for this low price. All in all, the Lenovo Flex 5 is an extremely versatile laptop. It offers great performance and fantastic dependability. The plastic chassis feels nice to the touch, the trackpad is smooth, even if a bit small. Plus, its hinges seem solid enough to not break down when you need them the most. If you are looking for an affordable laptop with impressive specifications, then this is a great laptop. I hope you found this Lenovo Flex 5 review helpful? If you found the review helpful, click Yes to “Was this post Helpful?” below. You could also review this product with the “Leave a Reply” form found at the end of this page. For more Smartphone buying guides, visit our Laptop Reviews page. You may also find our Laptop Specs page very helpful.