Laptops - Organizer

1:47 pm | October 9, 2020

Editor's Note

• Original review date: October 2020
• Launch price: Starts at $500 / £499 / AU$1,239
• Target price now: No longer available

Update – August 2024: Sad news for fans of Flexing (ahem), but it looks like Lenovo has decided that two separate convertible IdeaPad lines was one too many - the original IdeaPad Flex 5 is effectively dead. In fact, no IdeaPad Flex models are currently available from Lenovo's website in the UK and AU, with only two Flex laptops (the 5i and 5i Chromebook Plus) still available on the US site.

While you may be able to pick up this laptop from third-party retailers, you'll be better suited looking at the current offerings from the standard IdeaPad 2-in-1 range from Lenovo, which are available with either 14- or 16-inch displays and come with the latest Intel and AMD processors.

These start at $519.88 / £549 / $1,009, placing them close in price to the Flex 5 we reviewed here back in 2020 - but with significantly newer and more powerful processors, they're a solid choice of entry-level laptop. You can even configure each model on the Lenovo website to get the perfect system for your needs.

Original review follows.

Two-minute review

Lenovo’s ‘Flex’ series of laptops are affordable 2-in-1 convertible systems that offer claimed all-day battery life. That’s a simple and appealing proposition.

In practice, it’s all a bit more complicated. You see, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5, to give it its full name, is available in both 14-inch and 15-inch variants and with both AMD and Intel CPUs. And with various iterations of those CPUs.

It’s all a bit baffling if you’re buying, but the specific model showcased here is the 15-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 powered by Intel’s latest 10th Gen processors, in this case an Intel Core i3-1005G1 chip.

Arguably, AMD’s laptop CPUs offer both better value and more performance right now. But given the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 remains pretty keenly priced and isn’t being pitched primarily on performance, that needn’t be an automatic deal-breaker.

Indeed, this laptop offers a very compelling all-round proposition. Along with that Intel CPU, the highlights kick off with a 15.6-inch touchscreen. It offers a FullHD 1,920 by 1,080 pixel resolution and IPS panel technology. As a ‘Flex’ model, that screen is hooked up to the IdeaPad’s chassis via a full 360-degree hinge and thus supports operation in full Tablet mode. Next up is a 128GB SSD. OK, that’s not a huge amount of storage, but it is a M.2 drive supporting the latest NVMe control protocol.

Other details include a decent 65 watt charger and claimed battery life of over 10 hours. That you get all this in an attractive chassis with a high quality feel from one of the biggest brands in the business for around $500 / £500 is impressive. But inevitably, it’s not the whole story.

At this price point something inevitably has to give and as reviewed the most obvious weakness is the meagre 4GB of RAM. It doesn’t have a huge impact on your benchmark numbers. But if you're partial, say, to running loads of browser tabs while you edit images - or some other typical multitasking scenario - you’ll quickly run out of system memory with only 4GB at your disposal, especially as some of that is pinched by the integrated graphics.

That’s a pity because in most other regards, this is a pretty nice portable. It’s good for that 10 hours-plus of claimed battery life, for instance. And the screen is accurate and pleasant to use, if a little dim. The keyboard is firm, crisp and pleasant to use and it mostly looks like a much more expensive laptop than it really is.

Yes, there are a few tell tales of corning curing beyond the 4GB of RAM. The trackpad is a little small for this class of portable. The sound quality from the integrated speakers is fairly poor. The supplied charger is a barrel type rather than USB-C despite the fact that the Flex 5 has a USB-C port that supports charging (further connectivity includes two USB-A ports, HDMI and a full-size SD card reader). That’s sort of both a plus and a minus, but you get the broader point. This is a nice machine for the money.

Spec Sheet

Here is the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
CPU: 1.2GHz Intel Core i3-1005G1 (dual-core, 4MB cache, up to 3.5GHz with Turbo Boost)
Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics
RAM: 4GB DDR4
Screen: 15.6-inch, 1,920 x 1,080, IPS, touch
Storage: 128GB M.2 NVMe SSD
Ports: USB-C, 2x USB-A, HDMI, SD Card
Connectivity: Lenovo AC Wifi, Bluetooth
Camera: 720p webcam
Weight: 4.4 pounds (2 kg)
Size: 14.08 x 9.37 x 0.7-0.8 inches (357.6 x 237.9 x 17.9-20.35 mm; W x D x H)

Price and availability

At around $500 (£499, AU$1,239), Lenovo is going for pretty punchy positioning for the IdeaPad Flex 5. You’ll struggle to find a similar laptop for less money.

The HP Pavilion x360, for instance, costs around 15% more, but only offers a 14-inch panel, albeit aided by 8GB of RAM. Indeed, it’s the Flex 5’s 4GB of memory in this entry-level configuration that is our main reservation.

The other snag is that if you’re willing to forgo the tablet convertible functionality, you can have a 15-inch laptop at around this price point with almost no serious compromises, such as the Asus VivoBook.

Design and features

Entry-level systems from the bigger brands have stepped up their game in design and quality terms in recent years and the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 is no exception. Granted, it’s not going to put the frighteners on an Apple MacBook Pro for sheer material class. But it absolutely, positively doesn’t look or feel cheap.

The 15.6-inch 1080p touch-enabled display, for instance, sports IPS panel technology and is housed in a high-quality metal enclosure with slim side bezels and a shuttered 720p webcam up top.

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OK, the main chassis is plastic. But it feels rigid and has an unusual and not at all unpleasant textured finish. The 360-degree hinge feels robust and the keyboard is stable and firm with only traces of flex and bounce.

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Ports wise, Lenovo likewise has you well covered. On the left side of the chassis, you’ll find a full-sized HDMI socket, a barrel-type power connector, headphone jack and a USB-C port. The latter supports charging the laptop itself, mitigating the slight disappointment of the barrel connector. While we’d prefer the Flex 5 came bundled with a USB-C charger, support for USB-C charging at least means you can carry a single charger to keep multiple devices juiced up.

On the right, a pair of USB-A ports and situated next to a 4-in-1 card reader that supports full sized SD cards, plus MMC, SDHC and SDXC cards. That’s one less plug-in adapter you’ll need to carry, in other words. Other features worthy of mention are the 720p webcam located on the top bezel and complete with a physical shutter and support for an optional digital input pen.

It’s also worth noting that the Flex 5 ships as standard configured with Windows 10 Home in S Mode. The sales pitch for S Mode is that it boosts performance and improves security. The latter is almost certainly true given it only allows software from the Microsoft app store to be installed. The downside, of course, is that it only allows software from the app store to be installed, excluding the vast majority of the huge ecosystem of Windows compatible apps and software that’s accrued over the years. That includes no Adobe software, no Apple apps, no non-Microsoft video conferencing apps, none of those handy little legacy apps.

S Mode is also streamlined to reduce CPU and memory usage, the latter being especially relevant for a laptop with just 4GB. Long story short, S Mode can make a lot of sense for schools and businesses, but is probably too restrictive for more general home and business users. However, it is the work of around five minutes to turn S Mode off via the Microsoft Store, so it shouldn’t be an impediment to anyone considering this system.

Performance

Benchmarks

Here's how the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
3DMark: Sky Diver: 3,761; Fire Strike: 919; Time Spy: N/A
Cinebench CPU: 743 points
GeekBench 5: 1,058 (single-core); 2097 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 3237 points
PCMark 10 Battery Life: 9 hours and 43 minutes
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 11 hours and 50 minutes

As a content consumption device, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 usually gets the job done. The combination of the dual-core Intel Core i3-1005G1 chip, 128GB M.2 SSD and 4GB of RAM delivers a responsive experience within certain confines. With a few tabs open in a browser and editing a text document, for instance, all is well.

Up the tab count and run some image editing in parallel, however, and you can run out of memory and into relative trouble. Of course, having a modern M.2 SSD helps enormously when that happens and files are being swapped to main storage. But we’d still prefer to have 8GB in this class of device.

By other metrics, performance is about as mixed as you might expect given the market positioning. The 15.6-inch 1080p IPS display has good colours and viewing angles, but lacks brightness. The dual 2 watt Dolby-powered speakers, meanwhile, deliver weak, thin audio lacking in much by way of dynamic range. And for the record, don’t expect to go gaming with the entry-level Intel integrated graphics.

Battery life

At this price point, battery life can often fall victim of cost cutting. Happily, the Flex 5 is configured with a fairly hefty 52.5Wh battery.

That translates into nearly 12 hours of video playback and nearly 10 hours in the more demanding PCMark battery test. That’s enough for all-day operation at school or the office or plenty of movies on a long-haul flight. Support for charging via USB-C also makes it easy to ‘borrow’ some power should you find yourself running low.

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These are the best Lenovo laptops you can buy

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook review

1:01 pm | October 7, 2020

Author: admin | Category: Chromebooks Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops | Tags: CPU, RAM | Comments: Off

Editor's Note

• Original review date: October 2020
• Still on sale and new models also available
• Launch price: $339 / £299 / AU$499
• Official price now: $349 / £399 / AU$549

Update: February 2024. We originally reviewed the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 back in 2020, and since then Lenovo has released several new iterations of the Chromebook. However, you can still buy the 2020 model we reviewed here, and while the price has slightly risen since the initial review (thanks, inflation), it is substantially cheaper than newer IdeaPad Flex models, which are premium Chromebooks with prices to match. This is why we still believe that this version of the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 remains one of the best student laptops you can buy.

Two-minute review

If context matters, the most critical qualifier concerning the new Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook is cash. This thing is cheap. At under £300 in the UK and less than $350 Stateside (around AU$500), it’s affordable enough to earn some leeway when it comes to expectations.

Which is handy, because there are one or two shortcomings you really can’t miss. The most obvious is the Flex 3’s 11-inch screen. Given the tablet convertible 2-in-1 remit, diminutive proportions aren’t automatically an issue. They could be an advantage. In this case? Not so much, thanks to some hugola bezels including an exceptionally elephantine chin.

The net result is not only a conspicuously old fashioned-looking device but also one that’s bigger than it might otherwise be. The 1,366 by 768 pixel native resolution of the screen is likewise a reminder of an earlier era. In fact, the old school vibe extends beyond the screen. Aesthetically, everything from chassis to keyboard gives the impression of being somewhat oblivious to the last decade of laptop design.

With the exception of the 360 degree hinge, that is. It’s solidly executed and marks a literal and metaphorical turning point around which the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook transitions to its strengths. This is a very solid feeling device, especially given the price point, with a remarkably rigid body.

The Flex 3 is also decked out with impressive connectivity. Both sides of the chassis sport USB-C and USB-A sockets, which are complimented on the left by a micoSD card reader and headphone jack on the left and a volume rocker and power switch on the right. We just wish the latter was located inside near the keyboard. It’s all too simple to accidentally bump it when switching between tablet and laptop modes.

If the sheer quality of the Flex 3 is surprising, its core specifications are less so. Processing power comes from an Intel Celeron N4020 CPU. That’s a dual-core chip derived from Intel’s low-power and low-cost Atom line of processors, rather than the premium high performance Core family.

Alongside the Celeron chip is 4GB of system memory and just 64GB of eMMC-style storage. All told, it’s a pretty unimpressive technical line up that represents a bottom-rung Intel-powered solution. Were this a Windows laptop or convertible, that would be enough to have us running for the hills. However, the Chrome OS environment is both less demanding and also cloud-centric. So, outright performance and local storage are not as critical.

All of which means that the subjective experience is much better than you’d get in the Windows environment with the same hardware. The Lenovo Flex 3 feels pretty responsive, whether it’s streaming video or working in Google Docs. In tablet mode, the touchscreen functionality is fairly slick, with only occasional stuttering from the interface when swiping or scrolling.

As for battery life, this is one seriously long lasting machine, notching up over 16 hours of video playback.

Ultimately, it all comes back to that context. This is not a high performance device. But when you factor in price, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook is both surprisingly effective and appealing, and one of the best Chromebooks right now.

Spec Sheet

Here is the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
CPU: 1.1GHz Intel Celeron N4020 (dual-core, 4MB cache, up to 2.8GHz Burst)
Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 600
RAM: 4GB DDR4
Screen: 11-inch IPS touchscreen, 1,366 x 768 pixels
Storage: 64GB eMMC SSD
Ports: 2x USB-C with charging, 2x USB-A 3.1 Gen1, microSD
Connectivity: 802.11AC (2 x 2) WiFi, Bluetooth® 4.2
Camera: 720p webcam
Weight: 2.64 pounds ( 1.2kg)
Size: 0.7 x 11.41 x 8.18 inches (17.8 x 290 x 207.8mm; H x W x D)

Price and availability

At $339 (£299, AU$499) the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook packs quite a punch. It’s full-function 2-in-1 with an 11-inch IPS display and excellent build quality. It makes the likes of Google’s now defunct Pixelbook look incredibly expensive.

Of course, there are now numerous affordable 2-in-1 Chromebooks to choose from, including the Acer Chromebook Spin. The general theme in that class of Chromebook involves low-power processing and limited storage. The Flex 3 is no exception.

Meanwhile, alternatives such as the Asus Chromebook Flip and HP Chromebook X360 demonstrate what a little more cash will buy. But the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 has carved out a little niche of its own thanks to that particularly good build quality and some good features including dual USB-C ports.

Design and features

Rounding out the main features, wireless connectivity takes the form of WiFi 802.11 AC and Bluetooth 4.2. Cutting edge, the Flex 3 is not. But the core functionality is all present.

De-box, power up and it’s initially hard to look past those bezels. The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook has some pretty epic borders around its 11-inch touch-capable display. The lower chin, in particular, is enormous.

The immediate consequence is a device a full size larger than it would be with more modern bezels. It’s around the same proportions as many 13-inch laptops. Arguably, that’s not ideal for a device that also doubles as a tablet. The smaller generally the better when holding tablet devices.

The Flex 3 also looks a little dated. That’s not just a function of those bezels. The limited 1,366 by 768 screen resolution adds to that impression. As does the general design aesthetic. Trendy and slick the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook most certainly is not.

But what it doesn’t feel is cheap. The chassis is extremely rigid and the 360-degree hinge that allows this machine to transform into a tablet feels robust. That sense of engineering quality extends to the keyboard, which has plenty of keystroke and a really solid base. There are far, far more expensive laptops which lack keyboards of this quality.

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The dual USB-C sockets, which both support charging, are another feature you might not expect on such an affordable machine. Not only do they allow you to both charge and connect peripherals via USB-C at the same time. Situating a port on each side of the chassis gives you total flexibility when you plug into the wall. A minor detail, perhaps, but you’ll occasionally be very thankful for it.

Lenovo has also placed a conventional USB-A port on both sides of the chassis, while a microSD card reader and volume rockers also make an appearance. Our only reservation in this area is the side mounted power button, which is rather too easy to hit when converting the Flex 3 from laptop to tablet and back.

In terms of specifications, at this price point expectations need to be kept in check. Processing power comes from an Celeron chip with Intel’s cheaper, lower power Atom-derived cores rather than high performance Core items. There’s also only 4GB of RAM and just 64GB of local storage in sub-optimal eMMC configuration. But then you’re not going to get 8GB of system memory, a large M.2 SSD and a premium processor in a 2-in-1 device without paying far, far more.

Performance

Benchmarks

Here's how the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
Mozilla Kraken: 2,109ms
Octane: 17,669pts
JetStream: 59.311pts
Battery life (TechRadar movie test): 16 hours and 20 minutes

Were this a Windows machine, that Intel Celeron chip, 4GB of memory and 64GB eMMC SSD would be enough to invoke fear of the almighty, as in almighty awful performance. But not in a Chromebook.

Granted, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook is no powerhouse. But running Google’s Chrome OS and the G suite of apps, it’s more effective than you might think. That Intel chip has decent video decoding chops, too, thanks to some dedicated hardware. So, decoding video streams or locally stored video files puts very little load on the CPU cores. You can generally count on smooth video playback.

The same can’t quite be said of scrolling around apps and web pages. However, the touch functionally is reasonably responsive. The stuttering and stalling is momentary rather than chronic. More demanding web pages, such as Google Drive, do occasionally feel a little laggy. But it’s not enough to truly slow you down.

Battery life

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3’s Intel Celeron N4020 CPU is not normally something to show off about. However, it surely contributes to the fairly epic 16 hours-plus of video playback. That’s true all-day battery life and it’s the kind of performance you’d never get from a budget system with a full fat Intel Core process. Clearly less is sometimes more.

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These are the best Chromebooks

LG Gram 17 (2020) review

9:58 pm | July 31, 2020

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops | Tags: CPU, RAM | Comments: Off

Editor's Note

• Original review date: July 2020
• Launch price: Starts at $1,749 / £1,549 (about AU$2,450)
• Target price now (updated model): Starts at $1,399.99 / £1,439 (around AU$2,050)

Update – August 2024: Although the 2020 configuration reviewed here is no longer available for purchase, the LG Gram 17 is still going strong, sitting among the ranks of the best ultrabooks.

LG has tried iterating on the popular Gram design a few times, most notably with last year's LG Gram Style and the recent LG Gram SuperSlim, with frankly middling success. The classic Gram and Gram Pro models remain superior, in my opinion - and the Gram 17 is frequently on sale these days, meaning you can often pick one up for below the target price listed above.

The most recent iteration of the Gram 17 comes in a few different configurations, but most importantly all of these offer Intel's new Core Ultra CPUs - bringing better battery life and boosted AI performance for tools like Microsoft Copilot. In other words, there's never been a better time to buy an LG Gram laptop.

Original review follows.

Two minute review

When you pick up a 17-inch laptop like the LG Gram 17, you're likely expecting a device that is packing the most powerful hardware on the market, while simultaneously being big, bulky and heavy. Well, what if we told you that none of that is true about the LG Gram 17?

If you want to get your hands on the LG Gram 17, it'll set you back $1,749 (£1,549, about AU$2,450). For a 17-inch laptop with a Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage – not to mention the 1,600p display, that's actually quite a bargain. Comparitively, the HP Envy 17 is cheaper at $1,399 (about £1,070, AU$1,960) but that's with single-channel RAM with its closes hardware configuration, and a much heavier 6.02 lb build – twice the weight of the LG Gram 17.

The laptop is packed with a top-end Intel Core i7-1065G7, but it's configured down to a 15W TDP, down from the 25W that you'll find in some more powerful configurations. To further hamper the maximum performance of this processor, LG has a pretty lightweight cooling solution on hand, which stops it from boosting quite as high as something like the Surface Book 3, which has the same processor at the same TDP, but is 28% faster in Cinebench R20. However, the Surface Book 3 is much heavier.

Spec sheet

Here is the LG Gram 17 (2020) configuration sent to TechRadar for review:

CPU: 1.3GHz Intel Core i7-1065G7 (quad-core, 8MB Intel Smart Cache, up to 3.9GHz with Turbo Boost)
Graphics: Intel Iris Plus (integrated)
RAM: 16GB LPDDR4 (3,200MHz)
Screen: 17-inch WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600)
Storage: 2 x 512GB SSD (PCIe, NVMe, M.2)
Ports: 3 x USB-A 3.1, 1 x Thunderbolt 3, microSD card reader, combi audio jack, 1 x HDMI
Connectivity: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 Bluetooth 5.0
Camera: 720p Webcam
Weight: 2.98 pounds (1.35kg)
Size: 15 x 10.3 x 0.7 inches (381 x 261 x 17.78 mm; W x D x H)

The LG Gram 17 weighs just 2.98 lbs and is just 0.7 inches thick, making it the most portable 17-inch laptop we've ever used. Just for comparison's sake, the Surface Book 3 we just mentioned is a 15-inch device and weighs more at 3.35lbs. Even the Dell XPS 15, which is a laptop we would love to carry around everywhere we go weighs more at 4.5lb.

So, basically, if you're looking for a laptop with a huge display and a numpad that you can easily carry around everywhere without weighing you down, the LG Gram 17 should be near the top of your list.

The laptop even has a wide selection of ports, which makes it excellent for working on the go. On the left-hand side of the laptop, you're getting a charging port, a USB-A, an HDMI-out and USB-C, which can also be used for charging. On the opposite side, you get MicroSD, two more USB-A ports and a lock. In a laptop this thin and light, the LG Gram 17 provides such a wealth of ports that we just can't help but wonder why everyone else keeps opting for just USB-C these days.

However, the thin and light design does have one critical drawback – durability. The keyboard deck and screen have a bit too much flex to give us much confidence in its ability to survive any kind of trauma. LG does claim that the magnesium-alloy chassis has passe 7 MIL-STD durability tests, but it's definitely a device that you don't want to subject to much bending or drops.

Despite the flexibility of the keyboard deck, typing on this laptop is an absolute dream come true. The LG Gram 17 keyboard is a pretty standard chiclet setup, but the keys have just the right amount of travel that typing is quiet and comfortable, without messing with our accuracy. Plus, there are more and more large laptops coming out that are doing away with numpads, and having one here is a dream come true, especially because it doesn't really make the rest of the keyboard feel cramped – again because of the sheer size of the device.

The touchpad gets the job done, too, and is honestly one of the better Windows trackpads we've used. It's still not quite as good as the trackpad on something like the Razer Blade 15 or a MacBook, but it's far from the worst, and gestures and tracking is nice and accurate.

LG Gram 17 numpad — (Image credit: Future)

The LG Gram 17's largest downfall, however, is likely going to come down to the speakers. They're bottom-firing, because we can't have nice things, and sound extremely flat. Listening to Caroline Polachek's "So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings" the driving bass that makes up so much of the texture of the song is just completely stripped out. The song still slaps, but it's just not the same as listening on competent speakers. Likewise, listening to Sisters of Mercy's "This Corrosion", the weak bass causes the backing vocals to outpower the main vocals, which takes away from that juicy gothic atmosphere that makes that band so good in the first place.

It's a shame because the display is so good. We're talking about a 2,560 x 1,600 IPS display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is frankly beyond amazing for getting some work done. But the display is also extremely colorful, which is great for watching some anime on your break – but, again, you'll have to deal with the weak speakers or plug in some headphones.

We already alluded to performance a little bit, but you really shouldn't expect the LG Gram 17 to be some ultra-powerful workstation. The CPU performance is dialed back to facilitate the lightweight cooling solution, which makes the LG Gram 17 score 1,227 points in Cinebench R20 and 3,274 points in the Geekbench 5 multi-core test. The Surface Book 3, with the same processor, configured to the same TDP scores 1,697 and 4,350 points in the same tests, respectively.

Benchmarks

Here’s how the LG Gram 17 (2020) performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark Night Raid: 6,631; Fire Strike: 1,679; Time Spy: 711
Cinebench R20 CPU: 1,227
Geekbench 5 Single-Core: 1,290; Multi-Core: 3,274
PCMark 10 Home: 4,276
PCMark 10 Battery Life: 14 hours 28 minutes
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 9 hours 38 minutes

LG Gram 17 speaker — (Image credit: Future)

That makes Microsoft's flagship much better for heavy workloads, but the size of the display, inclusion of a numpad and the lightweight design means that this laptop is more geared to folks that just need to do some heavy Microsoft Excel work while traveling. This is definitely reflected in the battery life, too.

The LG Gram 17 is, without a doubt, the longest-lasting full-fat Windows 10 laptop we've ever tested, lasting a whopping 14 hours and 28 minutes in the PCMark 10 battery test, and a whole 9 hours and 38 minutes in our anecdotal movie playback test. The LG Gram won't just get you through your workday without needing a charger, it could probably get you through two if you're careful about battery usage.

For the right person – basically anyone that needs to do work with a big screen while traveling – the combination of a lightweight build, super long battery life and a high-resolution display is enough to earn the LG Gram 17 an easy recommendation. Sure, CPU performance isn't as high as we know the chip is capable of, but if it means we can pack a 17-inch laptop in our bags for the same weight as a 13-inch laptop, it's kind of something we're willing to live with.

LG Gram 17 ports part 1 — (Image credit: Future)

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LG Gram 17 ports part 2 — (Image credit: Future)

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Microsoft Surface Pro X review

9:22 pm | November 21, 2019

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops | Tags: Battery Life, CPU, RAM, Surface Pro | Comments: Off

Editor's Note

• Original review date: November 2019
• Launch price: $999 (£999, AU$1,699)
• More modern Surface devices are much more successful

Update – September 2024: In many ways, the Surface Pro X was ahead of its time. When it launched in 2019 it was notable for coming with a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, based on Arm technology, rather than the Intel hardware previous Surfaces came with. Unfortunately, back then, support for Arm hardware within Windows wasn't very good, and that meant the Surface Pro X felt underpowered and over priced, especially as many popular Windows 11 apps couldn't run on the device. These days, however, Arm-based Windows laptops are much more popular, thanks to Microsoft's Copilot+ PC initiative, which has seen the company, along with the likes of Asus, HP and Dell, release laptops like the Surface Pro 11 and Dell XPS 13 (2024), that come with Arm-based chips with specialist NPUs (Neural Processing Units) that are designed to perform AI tasks. While the Surface Pro X ended up being a noble failure, many of these new Copilot+ PCs are truly excellent devices, and many have started to appear on our best laptops of 2024 list.

Original review follows.

Two Minute Review

The Microsoft Surface Pro X is an undoubtedly stellar looking and feeling tablet. Microsoft’s newest attempt at an ARM-based Surface Pro device could have been impressive as well. It even boasts Microsoft’s first-ever original processor, the SQ1, which it co-developed with Qualcomm.

However, it unfortunately falls short of expectations. We’re more than a little let down by a few key Pro X design choices. Particularly, this tablet/laptop hybrid doesn’t have an audio jack, and its battery life, while decent, is subpar compared to predecessors and contemporaries. And, that’s without getting into the pricing.

At first glance, the Surface Pro X's price tag might seem rather appealing, especially next to some of its rivals. However, in reality, it's simply too pricey for the level of performance you’re getting. All told, we find the Surface Pro X hard to recommend for most people.

Microsoft Surface Pro X review — All Surface Pro X models include Microsoft’s Qualcomm Snapdragon-based processor and the 13-inch PixelSense touch display. (Image credit: Future)

Spec Sheet

Here is the Surface Pro X configuration sent to TechRadar for review:

CPU: 3.0GHz Microsoft SQ1 (based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx; octa-core)
Graphics: Qualcomm Adreno 680 GPU
RAM: 16GB LPDDR4x (2,133MHz)
Screen: 13-inch 2,880 x 1,920 (267 ppi) PixelSense display (3:2; 450 nits)
Storage: 256GB SSD
Ports: 2 x USB-C 3.1; Surface Connect port; nano SIM slot
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac); Bluetooth 5.0; Snapdragon X24 LTE modem
Cameras: 5.0MP webcam (1080p video; Windows Hello); 10.0MP rear camera (1080p/4K video; autofocus)
Weight: 1.7 pounds ( 774g)
Size: 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.28 inches (287x 208 x 7.3 mm; W x D x H)

Price and availability

The price of entry into Microsoft’s future-gazing Surface Pro X is $999 (£999, AU$1,699) – that gets you 8GB of memory (RAM) and a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD). You can double the storage, which ups the price to $1,299 (£1,269, AU$2,149), and double the RAM (16GB) with a 512GB SSD, which costs $1,799 (£1,819, AU$2,899).

All Surface Pro X models include Microsoft’s Qualcomm Snapdragon-based, 3.0GHz SQ1 system-on-a-chip (SoC) processor, as well as the 13-inch, 2,880 x 1,920-pixel (267 pixels per inch) PixelSense touch display in the signature 3:2 aspect ratio.

You already know the kicker, don’t you? That’s right, these prices do not include the Type Cover with the stowable and automatically charging Surface Slim Pen. That will cost you an additional $269 (£259, AU$429).

This means that the cheapest version of the complete Surface Pro X experience will cost you $1,269 in the US to start. That’s for the bare minimum of acceptable memory and storage these days, meanwhile a Surface Pro 7 goes for nearly $150 less and will get you a much stronger Intel Core i5 (Ice Lake) processor.

While the Surface Pro X is certainly an expensive device, it's price starts to look a little more tempting when compared to its chief rival: the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. That starts at $999 (£999, AU$1,699) for half as much storage (64GB), with a similarly-sharp display and just one USB-C port.

Its keyboard accessory costs an exorbitant $199 (£199, AU$299), while the tablet’s Apple Pencil goes for another $129 (£119, AU$199). All told, that’s $1,329 in the US to get a comparable experience to the complete Surface Pro X.

So, unless you have a very specific use case that only the Surface Pro X can solve, there are a number of far more powerful, versatile and feature-rich (even thin-and-light) laptops out there for similar prices – just check out our best 2-in-1 laptops and best tablets with keyboards buying guides for some brilliant alternatives.

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The Surface Pro X feels just as pleasing and accurate to doodle and draw with. (Image credit: Future)

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The Surface Pro X simply trims and rounds out the classic yet dated Surface Pro design. (Image credit: Future)

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The new Type Cover is comfortable and impressively accurate for a keyboard cover. (Image credit: Future)

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The tablet feels impressively light, and slips easily into almost any bag – even with the Type Cover attached. (Image credit: Future)

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The stylus is now flatter than before in order to accommodate the new storing and charging functions. (Image credit: Future)

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The Surface Pro X has gained not one, but two USB-C ports. (Image credit: Future)

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The Surface Pro X has a 13-inch 2,880 x 1,920-pixel PixelSense touch display. (Image credit: Future)

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The new Type Cover bounces under key presses more noticeably than before. (Image credit: Future)

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The Surface Pro X looks and feels thinner, lighter and better than previous Surface Pro models. (Image credit: Future)

Design

The Surface Pro X simply trims and rounds out the classic yet dated Surface Pro design, bringing down its thinness and weight even further. Specifically, the Pro X measures 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.28 inches (287 x 208 x 7.3mm) and weighs 1.7 pounds (774g).

The tablet feels impressively light, and slips easily into almost any bag – even with the Type Cover attached. Microsoft has also eliminated the hard angles of the classic Surface Pro design, giving the Pro X a much more rounded and modern look and feel that's closer to that of a smartphone.

We appreciate these subtle design changes that make the Surface Pro X feel more like an iPhone XR than a Windows tablet – which is a compliment.

There’s just one color option for the Surface Pro X: a matte black aluminum finish paired with a black Type Cover that drops the Alcantara fabric, and that’s unfortunate. This is certainly a sleek and unassuming look, to be sure, so it’s not all that bad.

However, we have one massive problem with the Surface Pro X design. While it has gained not one, but two USB-C ports, there is no headphone jack on the tablet. This is essentially a $1,300 Windows laptop (after all, Microsoft claims that this tablet can replace your laptop) with no 3.5mm audio support.

We know that the iPad Pro has also dropped the headphone jack, and folks didn’t break a sweat over that. However, no one in their right mind seriously expects a laptop experience from an iPad, while that’s exactly what we’ve been trained to expect from a Surface Pro. This is a major detraction in our book, and should be rectified in any followup device that Microsoft produces.

As for typing on the new Type Cover, it’s plenty comfortable and impressively accurate for a keyboard cover, though it does bounce under key presses more noticeably than before. We also appreciate the ergonomic angle staying with the new stowaway barrel for the Surface Pen Slim.

While we’re at it, let’s discuss the Surface Pen Slim. The stylus is now flatter than before in order to accommodate the new storing and charging functions. However, it feels just as pleasing and accurate to doodle and draw with. All of the standard pressure sensitivity is present, and the display's palm rejection is still spot-on.

As for that display, it is a 13-inch PixelSense touchscreen with a 2,880 x 1,920 resolution (267 pixels per inch) and a 3:2 aspect ratio. This is a simply gorgeous screen with excellent color, and it's also impressively bright at 450 nits.

Honestly, we’re left a little puzzled by the Surface Pro X design. It certainly looks and feels thinner, lighter and better than previous Surface Pro models. However, it dropped the headphone jack to achieve that thinness, and that’s a really tough pill to swallow.

Performance

We’re getting similar vibes from the Surface Pro X’s power profile that we are from its design: some big sacrifices were made in the name of thinness, lightness and lasting power. Here’s the kicker: the latter point doesn’t even see a huge improvement.

Benchmarks

Here’s how the Surface Pro X performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

PCMark 8 Home: Unable to run
3DMark: Unable to run
Geekbench 4 (Single-Core): 3,563; (Multi-Core): 11,769
Cinebench: Unable to run
PCMark 8 Battery Life: Unable to run
TechRadar Battery Life Test: 7 hours and 54 minutes

Unfortunately, because of the ARM-based SoC, we were only able to run Geekbench and our video-based battery rundown test on the Surface Pro X. That’s at least enough for us to compare it against its number one rival, the iPad Pro.

So, how does Qualcomm’s 7-nanometer SoC compare against the Apple A12X Bionic? Well, it gets trounced, to be frank. We’ve seen the latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro achieve numbers 40% to 50% higher than the Surface Pro X in the Geekbench 4 single- and- multi-core tests.

Granted, these are two different operating systems (OS), but both processors were designed specifically to perform within their respective OSes, so that explanation doesn’t fly these days.

While day-to-day tasks, like checking your emails, browsing the web and creating documents in Microsoft Office, ran pretty well on the Surface Pro X, trying to do anything more strenuous than that could cause problems. You might get away with editing photos and other images on this tablet via Photoshop, but that’s about it.

Microsoft Surface Pro X — The Surface Pro X battery life is undoubtedly long. (Image credit: Future)

Battery life

Microsoft promises up to 13 hours of mixed usage time for the Surface Pro X, touted as one of the tablet’s most appealing features due to its new ARM-based silicon. Well, we’re sad to say that this hasn’t panned out in our testing.

The Surface Pro X did last longer than the Surface Pro 7 (6 hours and 2 minutes) in our video rundown battery test, but the older Surface Pro 6 (8 hours and 45 minutes) lasted nearly an hour longer than this version.

This is more than likely due to the even sharper display within the Surface Pro X than its two predecessors, not to mention brand new silicon compared to the umpteenth iteration of the 14nm Intel processor in the Surface Pro 6.

In the end, while the Surface Pro X battery life is undoubtedly long, it’s just not as long as Microsoft’s Pro 6, which holds the crown for longest lasting Surface Pro tablet to date.

Software and features

As with every Surface that has preceded it, the Surface Pro X isn’t feature-rich nor are there many key pieces of software to discuss – in fact, many apps aren’t supported at all, due to the underlying processor architecture – which has its ups and downs. The major benefit here is that there is basically no bloatware on this tablet at all, as it’s sold directly by Microsoft.

Another gain is the Windows Hello facial recognition, using the tablet’s infrared camera next to its webcam, and is as quick and accurate as before. Just as they have before, we can open the tablet from its Type Cover and it’s already logged us into Windows 10. Talk about instant-on performance.

That said, this Surface in particular has the added benefit of optional LTE connectivity through a nanoSIM slot. This makes for an always-connected device, but will cost additional cash on a monthly basis. It’s up to you whether this feature is worthwhile, but we’ll keep on tethering on our laptops via our iPhone.

Buy it if...

You want the thinnest, lightest Surface yet
If portability is your chief concern in buying a new laptop, then consider the Pro X for sure. This is the thinnest, lightest Surface to date, making the ultimate Surface Pro for frequent travelers and others who simply appreciate these kinds of devices.

You want LTE baked into a laptop
If you absolutely must have instant LTE connectivity from a tablet and are willing to pay extra for that, then the Surface Pro X might be for you. This turns the Pro X into a more smartphone-like experience in that it is truly always connected, but it’s also additional cash.

Don’t buy it if…

You want the most powerful Surface Pro
Despite Microsoft’s team up with Qualcomm for its unique SQ1 processor, we’re not seeing better numbers from this tablet versus the Surface Pro 7. That’s a real shame, but again the focus here is portability.

You want the longest lasting Surface Pro
In spite of Microsoft’s promises, the Pro X is not the longest lasting tablet of this year (much less last year). We chalk this up to the upgraded display resolution and new silicon that isn’t as widely tested or established.

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