[Video Review] Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (14″, Gen 7) – A convertible for the masses



Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (14", 2022) in-depth review

Lenovo produces a lot of machines that focus on affordability. In fact, it was once the brand's identity. Now, its notebooks are a combination of high-quality materials, powerful hardware, and again - competitive pricing.One such machine is the IdeaPad Flex 5 (14", 2022). It comes in an AMD and an Intel option. Frankly, we had the former, which may provide a hint of disappointment on everyone's faces, once you take a look at the specs sheet.Yes, while Lenovo has picked the latest and greatest from Intel, the Team Red solution only features the rebranded Zen 2 chips, maxing out with th[...]

Pros

  • 13-hour battery life
  • 16:10 aspect ratio
  • Fantastic cooling
  • Comfortable input devices
  • No PWM (LEN140WUXGA (LEN9125))
  • SD card reader
  • Fingerprint reader

Cons

  • Soldered memory
  • 54% sRGB coverage (LEN140WUXGA (LEN9125))
  • Older processors (although still pretty powerful)

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (14", 2022) - Specs

  • LEN140WUXGA (LEN9125)
  • Color accuracy  6.3  3.3
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 16GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro
  • Battery
  • 52.5Wh, 52.5Wh, 3-cell, 52.5Wh , 52.5Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Glass Fiber
  • Dimensions
  • 313.1 x 224.9 x 17.8 mm (12.33" x 8.85" x 0.70")
  • Weight
  • 1.55 kg (3.4 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 1.4b
  • Card reader
  • SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.1
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD / FHD with Privacy Shutter, Fixed Focus
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Dual array microphone with noise-cancelling, support for Lenovo Voice Assistant (LVA), and Amazon Alexa
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W Front Facing-facing Stereo Speakers, Dolby Audio
  • Optical drive
  • optional
  • Security Lock slot

All Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (14″, 2022) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

Manufacturers have been known to charge premium for good convertible laptops, but Lenovo is trying to change that with its IdeaPad Flex 5 Gen 7, which offers competitive hardware and features in a compact 14-inch chassis.

[Design]

We were a bit surprised to learn that it’s made from a mix of plastic and glass fibers, as the finish is incredibly smooth and lead us to believe that we’re working with a singular material. On the other hand, the base shows a lot of flex, while the lid is noticeably tougher, mainly thanks to the glass display cover. The device appears stylish, with three colors to choose from…
[Cloud grey, Stone blue, Storm grey]

With a weight of only 1.55 kg and a thickness of 17.8 mm, it’s a great laptop, but holding it as a tablet for an extended period may cause arm fatigue.

[Input devices]

Moving to the base, we see a backlit keyboard that’s very comfortable even in longer typing sessions. Lenovo has found some extra space on the edges of the base to put speaker grills, making for a front-firing setup. That’s not all, as there’s also a fingerprint reader as well as a pretty large touchpad with a smooth surface and exceptional accuracy.

[Ports]
The I/O is split on the left and right. The left side keeps the power plug, an HDMI 1.4b port, one USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port with Power Delivery and DisplayPort functionality, as well as an audio jack. On the other side, there’s the power button, an SD card reader, and two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports.

[Display]
Behind the glass cover, sits the 16:10 display. We settled for the Full HD variant, while you can also get a higher-res 2.2K panel with better colors. Still, for regular use, the Full HD variant does well, as it gets bright enough, at 300 nits, and doesn’t flicker at any brightness level. It covers only 54% of the sRGB color gamut, so keep that in mind if you want to use it for design, in which case the 2.2K panel is for you, with 100% sRGB coverage.

If you still want to improve the work of your display, our display profiles have you covered, we’ll link them down below for you to check out.

[Sound]

The sound coming off of the Dolby Atmos speakers is fantastic. The setup gets loud enough and shows no deviations from clarity across all frequencies, so we’re really happy with it.

[Performance]

When it comes to hardware, the laptop comes with either the Alder Lake U-series or the Ryzen 5000U-series. We tested the AMD version, which offers three Zen 2-based processors.

[Ryzen 3 5300U
Ryzen 5 5500U
Ryzen 7 5700U]

The Ryzen 5 5500U delivers performance similar to the Core i5-1250U, which is pretty good, considering that it uses an architecture from three years ago.

[Cooling]

It’s also relatively easy to keep cool, as the laptop’s two heat pipes and one fan take good care of it, maintaining constant clock speeds of above 3.30GHz on all cores in short and medium loads, while dipping just below 3.00GHz in long loads. This does lead to high temperatures, both on the inside and the outside, however, keep in mind that this is after 30 minutes of torture testing, which doesn’t happen most of the time.

What’s more important is that there’s very low noise coming from the fan, which means a silent machine even under full load.

[Battery]

As for the Ryzen 5’s efficiency, it makes the 52.5Wh battery last for 13 hours and 9 minutes of Web browsing, or 13 hours and 20 minutes of video playback.

[Teardown and upgradeability]

Finally, taking a look inside the IdeaPad Flex 5, we find almost nothing to upgrade, as the 16GB of LPDDR4x memory is soldered onto the motherboard. You can access the storage via one M.2 PCIe x4 slot, but if you want to upgrade, you’d have to get rid of your existing drive.

In any case, we’ll leave our teardown video linked in the description below.

[Verdict]

All in all, we’re pleasantly surprised by the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (14”, Gen 7), which opens up the convertible market to the masses, offering snappy hardware from both Intel and AMD, as well as screen options for both regular use as well as professional color work and design.

If you want to know even more about the device, swing by our website, where we have an even more detailed review.

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