Lenovo Flex 5 14 2-in-1 Laptop, 14.0″ FHD Touch Display, AMD Ryzen 5 4500U, 16GB RAM, 256GB Storage, AMD Radeon Graphics, Digital Pen Included, Win 10
Last updated on October 9, 2024 6:11 am Details
- Thin, light, and stylish – This 2-in-1 laptop weighs just 3.64 pounds and is only 0.82″ thick. It’s soft and comfortable to the touch, with a durable paint that creates a better user experience. Digital pen included
- The 10-point, 14-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS touchscreen allows the Lenovo Flex 5 14″ 2-in-1 laptop to be comfortable, fun, and easy to use. It’s also great to look at, with 4-side narrow bezels
- The 360⁰ hinge lets you use your 2-in-1 touchscreen laptop in whatever mode works best for you; Use it in ‘Laptop’ mode for everyday computing, ‘Tent’ mode for sharing things, ‘Stand’ mode for binge-watching, or ‘Tablet’ mode for more intuitive interaction
- Enjoy up to 10 hours of battery life, plus quick charge to 80% in just 1 hour
- Powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 4500U mobile processor with Radeon graphics, you have the performance to do more, from anywhere. With more cores, you’ll experience responsiveness that leaps into action for productivity, gaming, and content creation
Specification: Lenovo Flex 5 14 2-in-1 Laptop, 14.0″ FHD Touch Display, AMD Ryzen 5 4500U, 16GB RAM, 256GB Storage, AMD Radeon Graphics, Digital Pen Included, Win 10
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6912 reviews for Lenovo Flex 5 14 2-in-1 Laptop, 14.0″ FHD Touch Display, AMD Ryzen 5 4500U, 16GB RAM, 256GB Storage, AMD Radeon Graphics, Digital Pen Included, Win 10
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M. Gnann –
Update 10/7/20: Installed an Intel AX200 wifi card, wifi is now connected when I sign in already instead of having to wait a second or two. Just a bit more reliabillity. Also installed a 1TB 970 EVO (used a TDBT external nvme enclosure and Samsung Migration to clone old drive). The drive speeds seem a little better than the old drive while on battery (old: 1800/900, new: 1800/1800), but you don’t get the full speed (3500/2500) unless it’s plugged in. There’s little functional difference between the three, but the capacity upgrade is still worth it, and it is recommended to go with a better known brand for reliability, as this is the only drive in the machine.
Original: I bought the Flex 5 to upgrade from an old Bay Trail tablet. I primarily used that to read digital comics because with 2GB of RAM and a weak atom CPU, it couldn’t do much else. I was about to spend a few benjamins on a random chinese tablet until the Flex 5 went on sale and I made sure to grab it while it was in stock, because I knew it wouldn’t last long. I use it in tablet mode most of the time, which makes this a great deal for a 2-in-1, but even if you only use it as a laptop I still think the value proposition is too good to pass up.
In the box you get the laptop, the 60W type-c power adapter (which is great as I can use it for my phone as well), and the 2-button stylus (which comes with a usb holder). Although there is a barrel jack on the laptop for power, the included adapter is type-c, so if you want to use that port while charging, you’ll need to find a compatible barrel jack charger from Lenovo. The included stylus is quite nice. It uses a single AAAA battery (included) and has two buttons whose functions can be customized in the Lenovo Pen app and Windows Ink settings. The touchscreen/pen supports I believe 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, and it has hover detection. The only real knock there is that there is nowhere on the device to store the pen. There is a usb pen holder included, but it fits real tightly into the port, takes up one port, and with the pen covers the other port. Useful for carrying/travel, but not once you actually start using the device (unless you aren’t using the usb ports in which case it’s just fine!).
Now for the actual laptop itself. The specs are fantastic:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 4500U, 6c/6t, up to 4GHz all-core. On max performance in Windows/AC power, benches around 2400 in Cinebench R20, similar to my desktop’s 5820K@4GHz! Of note is that while it’s a 15W chip, with max power draw usually 25W, because of Lenovo’s efficient cooling they allow it to hit 35W, which is why you’ll get better performance out of this laptop than other 4500U laptops, and even get close to 4700U performance at times. Even when pushed, does not make the laptop get too hot to use comfortably. Because it’s so powerful and so low power, many tasks can be done without hearing the fan spin up at all, giving the laptop an effectively silent profile when you’re just web browsing, reading, or doing other light tasks.
RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200, dual channel. Unfortunately not upgradeable since it’s soldered, but 16GB should be plenty for this machine and the speed is a plus.
iGPU: Surprisingly capable, this is what really helps these Ryzen chips shine. While not a gaming laptop, you can certainly play esports titles very well, and even bigger games–GTA V can run at respectable frames at 1080p, and if you’re crazy, Red Dead 2 can be played at ~30fps on 720p/low settings. If you don’t mind lowering the resolution/settings, or playing at 30fps, you don’t have to ask yourself if it will run a game, but how well. That’s a big improvement in the iGPU space and at this pricepoint, where you’re not likely to get much of a GPU, especially in a 2-in-1.
SSD: 256GB nvme m.2. Speedy drive for sure, gets into Windows in seconds. Have no real issues with this drive, although the size is a little low. Luckily, this part is upgradable, although there’s only one single m.2 port and nothing else, so if you choose to upgrade, I would make sure to get at least a 1TB to make it worthwhile.
Screen: 14″ 1080p touchscreen, 250nits. I’ve seen a lot about how this screen has poor color accuracy, and while that may be true, that doesn’t stop it from looking really good anyway. You may not be able to do professional color work on it, but in any other use case I think it looks really nice and vibrant. The touchscreen is nice and responsive, and because of how fast this laptop is, I haven’t had any lag issues dragging things around or drawing. The pen is nice to use on it as well, although admittedly I’m not an artist so I can’t speak too strongly on that topic.
Keyboard/Trackpad: Standard Lenovo keyboard as far as I can tell. Decent travel, not the best typing experience, but I like it. The function shortcut keys are good, they are different on the laptop I received from the product pictures on Amazon. They’re more useful though as the Amazon pic shows a webcam toggle button which is useless as the webcam has a built-in privacy shutter. The keys are backlit as well with a couple levels of brightness. The trackpad is nice, it clicks in and supports multi-touch gestures such as pinch-and-drag, and three/four finger gestures, which are customizable. I use those for media controls and task switching, which improves productivity a bit! There is also a fingerprint reader just below the keyboard. This works in Windows Hello and it’s quite speedy. It also works while the screen is folded back past 180 degrees, even though the keyboard/trackpad is disabled, so you can still login in tablet mode easily.
Speakers: The speakers are on the sides of the keyboard and a Dolby Audio app is preinstalled. I find that it makes the speakers louder and clearer, so I recommend keeping it on. You’d think the speakers would sound muffled or bad when you lay the keyboard flat on a table (in tablet/stand mode), or when the laptop is closed, but actually you can still hear the sound loud and clear in both situations. It’s not an audiophile speaker setup, but it works really well, no complaints here.
Battery: Included is a 52Wh battery. I find that with basic browsing, listening to music, or reading, and medium brightness, you can easily stretch about 8+ hours out of it. If you are running some intensive programs or games using all the power they can, you might get 2-3 hours. The upside is the fast charging from the included Type-C power adapter. The fast charging is real, you can go from 0-full in under 2 hours. It also sips power in sleep mode, so if you only use it for a couple hours a day, you can get a few days of use before having to recharge, and even then you only need an hour or two to charge.
I/O: The USB-C port is sadly not thunderbolt, and does not do display out. But it does do power delivery and data. Otherwise, there’s HDMI, 2 USB-A ports, an SD slot (not spring-loaded, and SD cards stick out quite a bit, I recommend a low profile adapter such as the PiDrive for keeping microSD cards in the slot), and a headphone/mic combo jack. Would have loved to see a hinged ethernet port, but otherwise, the port selection is quite good, especially if you consider this laptop versus dedicated tablets which usually have anemic I/O. I’ll also throw in here that the included network card is upgradable. I had some connectivity issues until I installed later realtek drivers that I had to get from their website. Afterwards it’s been fine. However, if you would like to take advantage of Wifi 6 or BT 5, you can pick up an Intel AX200 card for around $20 and install that.
Bugs/Fixes: There aren’t many issues, but there are a few things to know about. The fan does spin up quite noisily while you set up Windows and install updates for the first time. This isn’t really a bug, but something I’ve seen in other reviews. Some things will run in the background so you won’t know Windows is still working, but after the first hour or two, things should be back to normal and fan noise should pipe down. There is an audio stutter problem where occasionally the audio cuts for maybe a half second. The fix there is to disable Dolby audio in the Dolby app, although I find that this reduces audio quality/loudness, so I leave it on. The little stutters aren’t frequent and while a little annoying, they’re not a big deal. Hopefully this gets fixed in a future software patch. Recently, after a Windows update, the fingerprint reader stopped working. I went into Device Manager and disabled/enabled it, afterwards it has been working fine. The Onekey battery function (lets you check the battery by hitting a key on the keyboard while the machine is off) has had issues that prevents it from booting, so I recommend keeping it off.
Overall, the features and specs packed in the box for $599 makes this laptop an absolute steal. If you’re not wanting to shell out for a laptop with a dedicated GPU, I don’t think you’ll have any regrets purchasing this machine!
CS –
It was delivered today and I opened it. I was very excited, as I purchased this laptop to upgrade after 5 years. I charged the battery to full and switched on the laptop. Did all the setup and was just browsing different websites. Installing new apps and just the basic things. After 1 hour I observed that the fan speed was very high. and when I touched the laptop, it was burning hot. I also looked at the battery remaining and it was already drained by 30% in 1 hour. Which means even the battery life is not more than 3-4 hours.
Don B. –
Amazon Canada is shipping these machines direct from the US to fill Canadian orders. The serial numbers are recorded by Lenovo as US machines, and as such, no extended warranty service options or registration is available in Canada. This leaves you only with depot service available for 1 year, and it’s on you to ship it back to the US if you need service.
logan2611 –
TL;DR Overall a very nice laptop, would recommend <$700
I’ve had this laptop for about 6 months, and I wanted to share my thoughts on it.
CPU: The CPU in this laptop is excellent. For daily web browsing honestly this CPU is a bit overkill. Unlike on some laptops, this laptop has built in power profiles that let you increase the processor’s TDP in order to get better performance, which allows it to overtake some of the cheaper 4700U based laptops (albeit with more power usage). Using the “Extreme Performance” power profile, the CPU will use about 30-35W continuously and has a max burst power usage of 45W. Max temps in Extreme Performance mode are generally around 95C, and in “Intelligent Cooling” mode (basically Balanced Power:Performance) they are around 75C.
GPU: The iGPU does fine. It’s enough to let you play some older games at decent framerates, and maybe some new titles with some convincing. Performance is pretty standard for a 4500U based laptop.
RAM: This laptop features dual channel 3200MHz DDR4 RAM, which the Ryzen CPU is quite happy with. However, the RAM is soldered and there is no way to expand it.
SSD: Mine came with a 256GB NVMe SSD (Union Memory 8SSSS0W761B1Z1CH05X0XH0). While this isn’t going to win any awards, its decently fast and gets the job done. If you want to, the SSD in this laptop is replaceable with a 2280 or shorter, but unless you want to either buy or 3D print a SSD extension, this laptop will take 2280 and 2242 drives out of the box.
WiFi/BT: The internet wasn’t very helpful in identifying what WiFi/BT card this comes with, but it is either a RTL8822BE or RTL8822CE, the only noticeable difference between these 2 cards is one supports BT 4.2, while the other supports BT 5. Based off of the description on this Amazon listing, its probably the RTL8822BE. While I kinda wish this laptop came with a WiFi 6 card, it is swappable and an AX210 only costs about $20. I do not believe there is a WiFi adapter whitelist in the BIOS either so any wireless adapter should work fine as long as it is an M.2 E key card.
Screen: It’s okay. With only 250 nits of brightness, I wouldn’t recommend it if you plan on using this outside often. The hinges are just about stiff enough to not have the screen violently shake while typing, but also soft enough to be able to open with just a single hand.
Touch: The touchscreen is probably my favorite part of this laptop. Although it only has 4096 pressure levels, it is plenty to write on and is probably enough to sketch. The touchscreen feels decent to use and this laptop comes with a pen that takes 1 AAAA battery (1 is included), which also feels decent to use. The laptop also feels quite nice to use in tablet mode.
Battery: I usually end up getting around 8 hours or so under typical usage. There probably is some room for improvement but 8 hours is already enough for me and I don’t want to sacrifice features.
Keyboard: The keyboard feels okay. As far as I know it uses the standard scissor mechanism with rubber domes. The keyboard also has a backlight with multiple brightness levels.
Touchpad: The touchpad is decent. It supports gestures, and has a left, middle and right click. The middle click is something I quite enjoy.
Chassis: The chassis feels very nice for ABS plastic. It has a nice finish to it that makes it feel surprisingly premium.
IO: This laptop has a DC barrel jack, type C PD, HDMI port, 3.5mm combo jack, 2 USB 3 ports and a half length SD card slot. This laptop comes with a USB Type C charger (very nice). The type C port can act both to charge and as a standard USB 3 port with an adapter. I am not sure if this port supports video out, as I don’t have anything to test it with and Google gives me mixed results. The laptop seems to be able to charge off of basically any PD capable adapter, however lower power adapters will make the CPU throttle down to 400MHz.
Audio Out: The speakers are upwards firing and sound okay for laptop speakers. The built in DAC definitely won’t replace an external DAC, but for a laptop its pretty good. It sounds decent and provides up to 32 bit audio at 48khz sampling rate. It’s output power is a little weak, but it can still drive 50 ohm headphones without a problem. The HDMI audio out supports 32 bit 192 khz audio.
Audio In: The internal microphone sounds okay but picks up a lot of noise, both in the electrical sense and in the background sense. Typing and clicking on the trackpad are about 2/3 as loud as my voice is.
Serviceability: Pop the back panel off and you have access to basically everything. A screen replacement seems to be pretty standard in terms of difficulty.
Included OS: My memory isn’t too great for this part since uninstalling the included OS was the 2nd thing I did. However from what I remember it was Windows 10 Home, and the bloatware was okay. It mostly came with Lenovo stuff for the laptop.
Other OS Support: Linux support on this laptop is amazing, as long as you are running kernel 5.9 or newer. The laptop does not work properly at all in kernels 5.6 or older. Distros that I know include a new enough kernel and are for normal desktop usage are Ubuntu 21.04 (no stable release as of this review), Debian Bullseye (also not released yet), and basically all Arch Linux derivatives (Manjaro Linux is highly recommended by me, especially for this laptop). If you are going to boot Linux, make sure you are on the newest BIOS as older BIOSs have issues suspending. I highly recommend checking out this page if you want to tinker with this laptop on Linux (I did not have any of the mentioned issues that are on this page). https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_IdeaPad_5_14are05#Tips_and_tricks
FreeBSD based OSs boot, however are currently missing drivers in 12.x such as for the touchscreen, touchpad and WiFi/BT.
Other Notes: The AMD PSP is disableable on this laptop, which is a bit nice. There also exists a patch that you can apply to the BIOS for this laptop to unlock a bunch of stuff, including some base clock overclocking (this of course voids your warranty). Check out CodeHusky’s video for more information on that. This BIOS mod does require a SOIC8 clip as the stock firmware flashing utility does not accept the modded BIOS file.
Pryme –
I saw some slightly frightening reviews about this laptop, like most products online. I can confirm they were all wrong- this laptop is one of the best I’ve ever used, and feels on par with my $1500+ laptops or better in some aspects! I split up my review into sections about the laptop, if you’re interested or unsure about a specific part of the laptop.
Keyboard: Very responsive, thin, keyboard. Feels similar to the very expensive butterfly keyboard found on newer macbooks (awesome value for money here). Backlighting is very useful, and easy to turn on and off, only downside is that there is no dedicated number pad. I’m usually very picky about keyboards, but I find this one amazing. I’d rate the keyboard 10/10.
Camera: One drawback to the laptop is the Camera, which is very pale, and doesn’t capture skin tone accurately at all. Although there are no built in camera settings to be found on Windows 10, a quick fix is to download Skype, and use the built in Camera Settings in-app that let you change hue, brightness, and most importantly, saturation. You might be thinking: “that’s a bad fix, I don’t use Skype”, but for one reason or another, the camera settings in Skype apply to the system camera, so any changes will apply to any video meet service (zoom, google meet, etc). Based on this simple fix, I’d rate the camera a 7.5/10. Nothing to write home about, but does the job well.
Screen: I saw that some people were picky about colour accuracy, which I didn’t find to be a problem. It might be slightly less accurate then many very expensive laptops, but at this price point (with an IPS anti glare display), its amazing. Bezels are also very think on top and on the sides. I’d rate the screen 9/10.
Touchpad: The touchpad is a bit of a downside for me, as I prefer a firmer touchpad. It’s clicky, if you’re into that, but also very responsive if you’re not. I’d rate the touchpad 7.5/10.
Specs / Performance: Absolutely. Amazing. You can’t go wrong with this new Ryzen processor (4000 series). It’s faster than any comparable processor at this price point, or even well above it (faster than my i7 and i5 10th gen intel processors). 16GB of RAM was more than enough, and again, above what you would normally get at this price point (8-12GB). The integrated AMD radeon graphics worked pretty well for me- certainly not as good as an NVIDEA dedicated graphics card, but good enough for medium gaming. At this price point, you can’t get anything better by a long shot. I’d rate spec / performance 9.5/10.
Cooling: Last but not least, a very important aspect on every laptop. I read some stories about overheating in the reviews, but I’m happy to mention that I haven’t experienced any issues with cooling or fan noise. The fan can only be SLIGHTLY heard when running higher end gaming (which can be highly expected on a laptop), and only slightly heats up when running higher end gaming. I’m happy to report that *almost* none of the heat is conveyed through the keyboard / upper, but comes out the sides and the back. I’d rate cooling a 9.5/10.
Touch screen and pen: I personally don’t use these 2 features, but when testing them, they performed about the same as my iPad Pro in drawing, and handwriting. The screen might get some fingerprints if you’re using it as a tablet though. The pen itself doesn’t feel too premium, just some higher quality plastic with 2 buttons, but the ballpoint definitely isn’t cheap, as it feels really nice when writing or drawing. I’d rate the touch screen and pen an 8/10.
Build quality + hinges: I found the build quality to be very similar to very expensive laptops that cost over $1500. The finish is a metal, but almost slightly grippy / rubberized texture. It feels very premium, and definitely looks much better aesthetically than regular plastic on a cheaper laptop. The hinges are very sturdy, and are made out of a sleek finish metal, which seem to be built at a high expense by Lenovo. I personally don’t flip it around very much, but if I did, I’d imagine that the hinges would last a very long time, as they’re very high quality. The laptop looks and feels great, I’d mistake it for a very high end laptop any day of the week. I’d rate the build quality + hinges a 9/10.
Some negatives about the laptop:
-Like mentioned in some reviews, the warranty is a US warranty, so if you’d have any issues, you’d have to ship it to the US to get fixed (only an issue if you’re in Canada), but it is extendable+upgrade able, and came with a 15% off discount on warranty extensions or upgrades.
-Ports: might not be enough for some people, but definitely covers the minimum / average that most people would use. One downside is that the included charger is USB-C, rather than the dedicated charging port charger. Haven’t found it to be an issue, as most of my accessories are regular USB.
Conclusion: 100% buy this laptop if you’re in a price range of 800-1000+. It feels very premium in almost every sense, from screen, to build quality, to performance. The value is unparalleled in 2020, much better than any dell Inspiron or Acer at this price. I hope this review was helpful, as it took me a bit of time to write, but I like when a product has a super detailed review, so I hope this will help some people who weren’t sure about the laptop!