I have the 14-inch model 81C90009US and have been using it since late January 2018. This is a super high quality laptop that gives you a lot of options and expandability for your money while also being able to run the latest generation of hardware: 8th Intel i5 with 4 DISCREET cores plus Hyperthreading, DDR 4 RAM and PCIe M.2 SSD.i did a lot of research, bought and returned two other models before settling on the Flex5. I've been a tablet PC user since 2004, so tablet PC form factor and functionality was a requirement While I could afford a wide range of laptops, other requirements led me to the Flex 5, notably the touchscreen, good active digitizer, 14-inch size, and PCIe M.2+ 2.5-inch SSD storage options paired with a 8th gen Intel processor. That COMBINATION of features and FLEXIBILITY is very hard to find, Lenovo really nailed it with the Flex5 at an excellent price! Short list of pluses and minuses te, then more details and benchmarks below...Positive:+Tablet PC form factor (standard laptop, tent, tablet with touch and pen) with well above average performance and upgrade flexibility for the price Intel Core i5-8250U generation offers a total of 8 processing threads on 4 physical cores plus Hyperthreading, a very low base clock of 1.6GHz for power saving, a 3.4GHz turbo for performance when you need it, and a nice low 15W total power dissipation for both battery life and running cool .My experience is that some generations of Intel processors are smaller steps, others are bigger, and the 8th gen is one of the bigger steps in terms of speed and efficiency. +Great battery life, I get 5-6 hours regularly, more than enough for my use style and overall very good for all the typing performance, screen size etc. + 14" screen is the optimal size for me personally. I have all of 10 "Obsessed" to 17" laptops, and 14" is the sweet spot for me. This screen is 1920x1080 HD resolution, which is fine for my use on the road or away from the desk. I had an external QHD monitor, and it's fun, and I'd invest my money if I needed more resolution. I dock and have three HD screens, that's enough for me. +Touch is extremely reliable and configurable. Digitizer for the pen is Wacom, so it's EXCELLENT for taking notes, a key requirement for me. The Lenovo Active Pen that comes with this configuration of the Flex5 is actually very good. I have a drawer of about 30 different active and passive probes that I have used over the years and this is one of the better ones. It's also a good value at twenty six bucks. I bought three extras, one for each of my travel bags and one in the bracket that slides into the Flex's USB port.
Lenovo Active Capacity Touchscreen Laptop Pens for Lenovo Yoga 720, Flex 5, Miix 720, Miix 510 and Yoga 900s Laptops - GX80K32882
.+Just enough ports. With three USB3 on hand, two Type A and one Type C, I can do most of what I want and need when I'm away from my desk. See docking details under Connections below HDMI port is thankfully full size, simplifying connections on the go, and the SDXC slot is full size too, meaning easier connections to all the SDXC storage I have from multiple generations of cameras etc + 802.11AC WiFi built-in. My home is all multi-channel AC, so this is nice from a speed standpoint. + Expandable RAM. I replaced the 8GB stick with 16GB Crucial
Crucial ME CT16G4SFD8266 16G DDR4 2666MT s CL19 DR x8 Unbuffered SODIMM Retail
, offers good RAM headroom when you use demanding programs or lots of programs.+The fingerprint reader is fast, reliable, and works very well with Windows 10.+Backlit keyboard is a real boon in low/no light.Negatives-The screen is just bright enough to be used in a sun-drenched room and washes out in sunlight outdoors. I have a conservatory that I use the Flex5 in sometimes and need to maximize the brightness and make sure there's no direct sunlight on the screen falls for a good viewing experience. It's okay overall, but I would have liked a little more headroom on the screen brightness for those sunny occasions. Indoors, normal lighting isn't a problem. -The power connector is a 4.0 x 1.7mm barrel connector, unlike the other THREE Lenovo / ThinkPad connectors I've used before that I already own. Worked out, see details below under Connectors. -The SDXC card slot takes up only about half the length of the card, so no card is left in the slot all the time. Taken together, these three negatives weren't worth a full star given the strength and almost unique combination of positives, hence 5 stars from me. Highly recommended stock for the price and as a platform to build a laptop with high storage and very good performance across the board.DETAILS:***********Storage: 5 TB total as I configured it.**** ** ***I have a TON of things I like to keep on my laptop and need more than 2TB of capacity. Since PCIe M.2 is currently 2TB max and those 2TB PCIe drives per GB are very expensive, meant that I have something with two speic options or just needed a 2.5" SSD option (I already owned a 4TB Samsung 2.5 SSD). and wanted to use it
Samsung 850 EVO 4TB 2.5" SATA III internal SSD (MZ-75E4T0B/AM)
). For the Flex5, I chose a good, fast 1 TB PCIe M.2 SSD as the boot drive
Samsung 960 EVO Series - 1TB PCIe NVMe - M.2 internal SSD (MZ-V6E1T0BW)
, and then use my 4TB 2.5" SSD as the data drive. I imaged the included 128GB M.2 SSD to the new 1TB M.2 BEFORE using the laptop this way for the first time with Acronis and my desktop -PC turned on, no worries about drive IDs etc. Worked like a charm *********Connectors *********Connectors on laptop are: Power - 4.0 x 1 .7mm barrel connector for 20V power supply 1 full size HDMI output 1 3.5mm stereo jack for speakers USB is 2x USB 3 Type A, one Type C. For a docking station I use the
Pluggable USB 3.0 Universal Laptop Docking Station for Windows (Dual Video HDMI & DVI/VGA, Gigabit Ethernet, Audio, 6 USB Ports)
.Have these plugged into the USB-C port.Connect one monitor to the dock via HDMI and another to the Flex5's HDMI output, for a total of 3 monitors, including the Flex5 screen when docked.I also keep my audio out of the dock for convenience rather than having a different cable to connect to the laptop. The size of the power input is different from the other THREE types of Lenovo I've owned and used before so I've got a few right now Bought 5.5 x 2.1mm to 4.0 x 1.7mm barrel adapter
DC Power Converter Plug Conwork 5 Pack (5.5mm x 2.1mm to 3.5mm x 1.35mm) Tip Size AC/DC Adapter Barrel Plug Connector for Chargers
DC Power Converter Plug Conwork 5 Pack (5.5mm x 2.1mm to 3.5mm x 1.35mm) Tip Size AC/DC Adapter Barrel Plug Connector for Chargers
and used some of the many 19v and 20v chargers I had lying around. Works great!***********Storage speeds*********Samsung 960 EVO series - 1TB PCIe NVMe - M.2 internal SSD (MZ-V6E1T0BW)----- - ------------------------------------------------- - --------------CrystalDiskMark 6.0.0 x64 (C) 2007-2017 hiyohiyo Crystal Dew World : https://crystalmark.info/----------- - ------------------------------------------------- - ---------* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes sequential read (Q= 32, T= 1) : 2782,068 MB/s Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1822,577 MB/s Random Read 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 713,222 MB/s [ 174126.5 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB ( Q= 8,T=8) : 572,475 MB/s [ 139764.4 IOPS] Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 172,916 MB/s [ 42215.8 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 128,598 MB/s [ 31396.0 IOPS] Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 27,037 MB/s [ 6600.8 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 70,151 MB/s [ 17126.7 IOPS ] Test : 1024 MiB [C: 33.3% (310.2/930.2 G iB)] (x5) [Interval=5 sec] Date: 2018/04/09 0:19:20 OS:Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 16299] (x64)Samsung 850 EVO 4 TB 2.5 inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E4T0B/AM)------------------------- ------------------------------ -------------------- CrystalDiskMark 6.0.0 x64 (C) 2007-2017 hiyohiyo Crystal Dew World : https://crystalmark.info/------ ---------------------- ----------------------------------------- ------------------------------* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes /s]* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 557,711 MB/s Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1 ) : 532,782 MB/s Random Read 4KiB (Q = 8,T= 8) : 403,698 MB/s [ 98559.1 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 356,231 MB/s [ 86970.5 IOPS] Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 146,325 MB/s [ 35723.9 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 121,307 MB/s [ 29616.0 IOPS] Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 34.553 MB/s [ 8435.8 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 92.992 MB/s [ 22703.1 IOPS] Test : 1 024 MiB [D: 71.3% (2654.2/3724.9 GiB)] (x5 ) [interval=5 sec] Date : 2018/04/09 0:28:17 OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 16299] (x64)
