Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 6 14 (2019) review: A solid, bargain-priced 2-in-1 saddled with iffy battery life - triplettcomplatict1968

Ben Patterson/IDG

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Impressive quad-core performance for the price
Homelike keyboard and trackpad
Solid viewing angles on the touchscreen display

Cons

Mediocre battery life
Dim display

Our Verdict

Lenovo's IdeaPad 6 14 packs a quad-core CPU and a full-HD touchscreen into a 2-in-1 form factor out. Its battery and video display could be better, but for the deal price, you're still getting much.

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One of the best things about Intel's 10th-gen Ice Lake processors is that we're beholding some cheaper prices for laptops high-powered past 8th-gen Intel CPUs, and Hera's a precedent. The Lenovo IdeaPad 6 14 manages to pack in a quad-core Core i5 flake and a full-HD touchscreen into a 2-in-1 form factor, all for evenhanded $500. It's a hard system by any standard, delivering impressive productivity carrying into action for its terms. Unsurprisingly, however, you'll have to settle for much compromises, including a dim display (typical for a budget system) and bad electric battery life story.

This review is part of our ongoing roundup of the best laptops. Get there for information on competing products and how we time-tested.

Price and configuration

We tested a $499 version of the IdeaPad Flex 6 14 (SKU turn 81EM000KUS, available on Walmart.comTransfer non-merchandise link) that, theoretically, looks like a strong performer when it comes to everyday computation tasks and productivity, although it's a smallish cramped in the storage department.

Processor: Quadriceps-burden Intel Heart and soul i5-8250U
Drive: 8GB DDR4 SDRAM
GPU: Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620
Display: 14-inch 1920 x 1080 touchscreen
Memory: 128GB SSD

For a $500 translatable, these specs look pretty much on target. That 8th-gen, quad-core Intel Core i5 CPU usually does the trick when it comes to Berth, web browsing, and other unit of time computing chores. The 8GB of RAM should supporte smooth some multitasking bumps. Lenovo doesn't specify whether the touch-enabled 14-inch screen uses IPS display technology, but supported the cubic viewing angles I byword during my examination, I'd say it's a safe count. The integrated art is criterial issuing for a productivity-minded laptop in this cost range. You'll exist able to play Bromus secalinus and do a bit light photo editing, but if you stress to play Fortnite, you should expect chopping and jaggy visuals. Our biggest holle would be with the deficient 128GB solid drive, which only leaves astir 92GB of free space once you account for Windows, Office, and another miscellaneous apps.

Design

Lenovo isn't known for flash design when information technology comes to its laptops, and our onyx-colored IdeaPad Flex 6 14 look back unit is no exception.

lenovo flex ideapad 6 14 81em000kus angle — It's a routine on the plain side, but the Lenovo IdeaPad Turn 6 14 is also pleasingly thin.

Measuring 12.9 x 9 x 0.7 inches, the Bend 6 14 feels pleasingly thin, but it's also a tad harsh at 3.4 pounds (operating theater 3.9 pounds if you include the AC arranger). Its flat atomic number 13 chapeau is plain save for a small, understated Lenovo logo in the rear-left nook. Being the 2-in-1 laptop that IT is, the Flex 6 14 lets you rotate its display all the way around for tablet function, or you can also tent information technology connected a desk or place it keyboard-lowered with its display angled up, kiosk way.

Talking of the Flex 6 14's touchscreen, it arrives with fairly filmy bezels on the sides and spinning top, but too a chunky 1.5-inch bottom bezel. Looking down at the keyboard, the brushed aluminum hand rest looks polished and refined, if a little champaign.

Display

The IdeaPad Flex 6 14's full-HD reveal is something of a miscellany. Permit's start with the good points, including its sharp 1920×1080 resolution, too as its three-dimensional viewing angles, with the screen's cleverness fading only slightly when viewed from a 45-point slant or greater. As I mentioned earlier, Lenovo doesn't limit whether this particular model of the Flex 6 14 uses an IPS (in-plane switching) panel, but it sure as shootin looks like it does.

lenovo flex ideapad 6 14 81em000kus tented — You can camp out the IdeaPad Flex 6 14 on a table thanks to its 2-in-1 design.

I was to a lesser extent impressed by the display's overall brightness, though, with the screen future in at a comparatively dim 231.7 nits (or candelas). In general, we opt laptop computer presentation smartness closer to the 250-nit range. While 230 nits is still adequate for indoor viewing, you'll have a tougher time seeing the display if you read the Flex 6 14 outdoors.

Bet on on the plus side, the Bend 6 14's touchscreen responded promptly and swimmingly to my taps and swipes, and I had no ail typing using its onscreen keyboard. The display is compatible with Lenovo's Active PenRemove non-product connexion, which is available for an additional $50 (or $38 once you apply Lenovo's "instant" discount).

Keyboard, trackpad, and speakers

The Flex 6 14's backlit keyboard boasts a pleasingly tactile feel, with a decorous add up of travel (the length an individual key moves when it's struck), a homogenous tactile happen in the mediate of each keystroke, and a gratifyingly springy rebound. There's no dedicated quantitative computer keyboard nor any media playback hotkeys, but there are Alt-enabled hotkeys for intensity, muting the mic, disabling the camera, and Windows lock u.

lenovo flex ideapad 6 14 81em000kus keyboard — The Flex 6 14 boasts a comfy keyboard, and yes, that's a fingerprint reader right there.

The mid-sizing trackpad sits centered directly beneath the keyboard. It allowed for precise cursor movements while keeping the herky-jerkies to a negligible. The trackpad was small enough that my palms didn't brush information technology while I typewritten, just even when I tried advisedly brushing my palms over the trackpad, it did a nice job of rejecting those accidental (or non sol accidental, in my case) inputs.

Sitting near the bottom-right corner of the Twist 6 14's keyboard is a Windows Hello-enabled fingermark reader, which I accustomed signaling in to my Windows write u during the bulk of my testing. I've had bother with finicky fingermark readers in the past, but the one on this Lenovo most always recognised me along the first effort, even when I swiped my fingertip at an tip over.

The Flex 6 14 features a few down-release Harman Kardon-designed speakers. Dolby audio helps to advance the soundstage a tad, but otherwise we're talking your canonic meh laptop computer speakers, almost wholly lacking in bass voice reaction. You'Ra meliorate off plugging in headphones if you want to see decent sound.

Ports

The Twist 6 14 comes with a standard array of ports for a 2-in-1 sofa bed in its monetary value range. On the unexhausted, we find out a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C port, a USB 3.0 Typecast-A embrasure, a full HDMI port wine, a jazz group audio port, and a barrel-shaped charging port.

On the right, there's a second USB 3.0 Eccentric-A port, a media card lecturer, and a laptop security slot.

lenovo flex ideapad 6 14 81em000kus right ports — On the right face of the Flex 6 14 you get a second USB 3.0 Type-A port, a media scorecard reader, and a laptop certificate slot.

All all told, we can't complain around the Flex 6 14's collection of ports. Sure, Thunderbolt 3 ports would cause been a positive, but you'll just about ne'er notic whatsoever in a laptop computer this inexpensive. If we had to pettifog about something, it would be roughly the too-easy-to-press power button on the Flex's right edge.

Performance

Overall, the Lenovo IdeaPad Twist 6 14's performance in our benchmarks was about as middling arsenic we foretold. Part of the challenge is its 2-in-1 form factor, which is tougher to sustain precooled than a traditional clamshell laptop. We were also somewhat foiled by the Deform's flukey battery sprightliness, especially given the sizing of said stamp battery. On the other hand, the space-core IdeaPad Turn 6 14 managed to rear some solid numbers when it came to multi-core performance.

PCMark 8 Work 2.0 Schematic

Our first benchmark measures how a given laptop performs when it comes to daily computing tasks. PCMark 8 Work 2.0 simulates such everyday desktop chores equally online shopping, social network browse, tinkering with spreadsheets, and video chatting. A laptop that gets a PCMark 8 score higher than 2,000 can typically run Office without skipping a beat.

lenovo ideapad flex 6 14ikb 81em pcmark8 — The IdeaPad Flex 6 14's solid PCMark 8 score promises buttery Office performance.

While our IdeaPad Flex 6 14 comes in sixth away of Nina from Carolina laptops in our comparison chart, they're all or s clumped together in the 3,100-to-3,500 chain, which is well above the minimum necessary.

HandBrake

Directly things get a little tougher, with our HandBrake benchmark designed to come across how a C.P.U. performs under a crushing warhead—in this case, converting a 30GB MKV filing cabinet into a arrange suitable for an Mechanical man pill. Running HandBrake will come on the fire u on whatever laptop Central processing unit, and it give the axe take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a incomplete to complete. IT hence shows us how a laptop deals with thermal performance over a relatively farsighted period of metre.

As we can learn from the chart, the Flex 6 14's HandBrake score is bad solid, beating out end year's model while holding its own against an IdeaPad S340 with a quad-core Whiskey Lake Core i5 processor (which, to cost impartial, isn't that much of an upgrade compared to the Kaby Lake Refresh chip in the Flex 6 14). Down at the bottom of the chart is an Acer Aim 5 with a two-fold-core i3 central processor, which goes to show what a difference a quad-core CPU makes when IT comes to CPU-intensive tasks such as video encoding.

Cinebench

Here's another test of multi-nitty-gritty CPU performance. Our Cinebench test measures how long it takes for a laptop to render a 3D image immediately, and as with HandBrake, it's a benchmark that favors multi-core processors. Dissimilar the protracted HandBrake exam, however, Cinebench merely takes a few minutes to run, screening how a particular laptop handles a short-run break of intense CPU activity.

While the IdeaPad Flex 6 14's Cinebench performance isn't as dazzling as its HandBrake score, information technology still manages to stay above the 500 mark, which is what we'd expect from a quad-core Substance i5 CPU. That said, the Flex 6 14's Cinebench result waterfall surprisingly short of last year's Flex 6 14, and its single-train of thought performance is too a moment on the low pull. Again, though, while we would have likeable to see to it punter Cinebench numbers, in that location's nothing here that raises a bolshy flag.

3DMark Pitch Diver

Saddled with mixed graphics as it is, the IdeaPad Flex 6 14 is no gaming machine and doesn't call to be. Still, we political campaign the art-oriented 3D Mark Sky Diver bench mark thus you potty learn how opposite parts compare and decide for yourself. For most mainstream productivity, integrated graphics will suffice—fair don't await to flirt anything beyond basic games.

lenovo ideapad flex 6 14ikb 81em 3dmark — The Turn 6 14 and its integrated artwork center lands bad much where we expected in our 3DMark Sky Diver test. Note the lone laptop with discrete nontextual matter way at the top of the chart.

We South Korean won't sustenance you edgy: nothing to see here, with the Deform 6 14 landing in essentially the homophonic blah territory as similar laptops with integrated artwork cores. The sole exception is the Acer E 15 at the best of the graph, which comes with a separate Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics placard. Entry level though it is, the GeForce MX150 demonstrates fair-and-square how self-aggrandizing of a visible boost you can get with discrete graphics.

We should also note that last year's IdeaPad Bend 6 14 comes in dead last disdain having distinct GeForce MX130 nontextual matter in its favor. We were dumbstruck by that resolution and then, and we're shut up puzzled as to why the older Flex fell so remote snub given its discrete graphics calling card.

Battery life

We trial run battery spirit by looping a 4K video using the stock Windows Movies & TV app, with screen brightness fit to about 250 nits (which, in the case of the IdeaPad Turn 6 14, meant dialing its brightness the whole way heavenward) and setting the volume to 50 percent, with headphones plugged in.

The Flex 6 14's disappointingly mediocre, with its 48 watt-hour stamp battery lasting an average of 473 minutes, operating theater just timid of eight hours. Now, eight hours power sound pretty good, but that figure out bequeath fall once you start putting stress on the CPU, and we've also seen sight of laptops with similar-sized batteries manage to nominate it well past the 500-bit brand.

Bottom wrinkle

Having ticked off all of the Lenovo IdeaPad Turn 6 14's performance numbers—just about good, some only ordinary—there's one more figure we should focus happening: 500, as in dollars, which is a pretty inexpensive monetary value tag for a polished quad-core convertible like this one. Sure, we would have preferred better battery life history and a brighter display, but compromises are the name of the game when it comes to budget laptops. If you're in the securities industry for a bargain-priced yet productiveness-centralized 2-in-1 and you can live without altogether-day battery life, the IdeaPad Deform 6 14 is worth a look.

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Ben has been writing almost applied science and consumer electronics for more than than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he covers smart speakers, soundbars, and other shrewd and home-field devices.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/398350/lenovo-ideapad-flex-6-14-2019-review.html

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