Lenovo Flex 6, 14-Inch 81EM000DUS

The Lenovo Flex 6 with 14 inches HD LCD IPS panel with touch screen reviewed here has impressive features that really works well. The best part is the affordability in this crowded convertible PC market. It can also function as “Tablet PC” thanks to its 360 degrees swivel design and with the optional pen; you can get creative with included software. Even without a pen, the touch screen registers simple & multi-touch gestures really well. Once you get accustomed using touch screen, you will see that using this PC becomes very intuitive.

In this price range, the Lenovo Flex 6 offers a very well balanced mix of features, which you can find only on premium priced laptops, which I find a major benefit in this new 2018 model. The laptop’s LCD panel is good with high-resolution full HD display and the Yoga-like design makes it possible to use it as a tablet as well as in a tent type for viewing multimedia. The speakers are excellent for a laptop of this size and are ‘Harman Kardon’ branded boasting Dolby Audio premium sound.

The display’s bezel (only on three sides) is actually quite thin for a laptop that is quite affordable. Actually looks high-end. Granted there is about 1 inch or thicker bezel at the bottom of the display but I found this larger than normal bottom bezel useful as this prevents your fingers coming in view while you type. The camera is on the top and has a white light to indicate its ON. Lenovo has apps that allow you to disable camera from the taskbar. You could also cover it using a thin black electrical tape! Webcam camera is 720p, which works great with Microsoft Skype.

The keyboard has adjustable brightness enabled back-lighting and provides comfortable scalloped type of keys that you tend to find only on high-end laptops. The keyboard also has a row of multimedia keys and provides easy access to volume, display, and host of other functions with minimal effort. The touch-pad is actually very responsive and features multiple gestures compatible with Windows 10. Scrolling effortlessly using two fingers, minimizing to desktop using 3-finger grab all works great.

The laptop also has a fingerprint sensor, which is Windows 10 “Hello” capable, which I found very useful. The quality of the laptop is better than expected for the offered price range, it does not feel like cheap plastic and the brushed metal look gives the laptop a high-class look. This is of course little heavy but relatively thin laptop. It weighs in at 3.5 pounds and about 18mm thick.

The laptop is very snappy, all the included applications worked right out of the box; there was no hanging, lagging and there were no crashes. The review is for configuration which has Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz, with 16GB of DDR4 RAM (SK Hynix HMA82GS6CJR8N-VK); The SSD had a capacity of 256GB, which is a M.2 type model number HFS256GD9TNG-62A0A (SK Hynix.) Granted, it is not the best M.2 “PCIe SSD” currently in the market but in my tests, I found out that the Windows 10 OS boots in under 15 seconds, which I consider plenty, fast enough for a laptop of this price range.

The laptop's motherboard has a built-in Intel HD VGA (620), which drives the LCD panel, also a GeForce MX130 discrete sitting on PCI Express x4 Gen3 bus, dedicated video memory 2048 MB of GDDR5 type: Realtek 8822BE Wireless LAN 802.11ac PCI-E NIC. Wi-Fi Wireless. You also have Bluetooth 4.1 for file transfers and audio device pairing. The laptop has 'secure boot' enabled, also has a TPM module, which gives Windows 10 the cryptographic operations. This also means it is harder to tamper using malicious software, which is good for you as a customer & the hardware manufacturer (Lenovo) & software provider (Microsoft).

PROS:

• Good build quality, feels sturdy, does not look cheap! Touchpad works great!
• LCD panel is good quality, FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS multi-touch good viewing angles.
• Battery life is better than average, has fast charging options!
• Boots fast under 15 seconds, wakes up fast too. 
• Has fingerprint sensor with Hello compatible!
• All included applications worked right out of the box, No hangs or crashes!
• Tablet PC mode is a plus. You can do creative things using the optional pen.
• You can double your laptop as a gaming device using XBOX app from Microsoft.
• Has USB-C port, Always ON USB 3.0 port for charging your phone. 
• Has HDMI port, SD card slot.
• Has a standard 3.5mm audio combo jack perfect for wired headphones.

CONS:

• Little bit heavy at 3.5 pounds
• The graphics GeForce MX130 is not compatible with Microsoft mixed Reality (VR)

Even with the very few minor CONs listed above, which I have discovered thus far, the laptop is very capable looks good and feels good in hand, It is otherwise fully functional thereby not affecting my overall impression. 

I however caution you that you need to get the “top-most” model "81EM000DUS" or better. Please note that Lenovo makes laptops that are affordable for the masses but please do not get too stingy trying to save few dollars on the low-end model in the Flex-6 series, please make yourself a favor and get the Lenovo Flex 6, 81EM000DUS model which has INTEL i7-8550U CPU and 16GB RAM and you will be happy with it.

You can get one of these from Amazon by clicking the link below:

 Lenovo Flex 6, 81EM000DUS model