Editor's Note

• Original review date: February 2022
• Launch price: Starts at $1,149 / £1,199 / AU$3,399
• Target price now (updated model): Starts at $1,099 / £1,249 / AU$3,148

Update – September 2024: While it was one of the best ultrabooks on the market at the time we reviewed it, the HP Spectre x360 now faces fiercer competition than ever in the convertible ultrabook space - like the fantastic Lenovo Yoga 9i.

Truth be told, though, I adore this laptop - I've been using a high-spec model as my daily driver since way back in 2019 - and I'm pleased to see that it's recently received a hardware update from HP. That means you can currently pick up a Spectre x360 (at the base prices listed above) equipped with one of Intel's next-gen Core Ultra processors.

While I haven't personally tested those new configurations, I can stand by the tried-and-true performance of my 10th-gen Intel model, so I'd be shocked if the new iterations didn't perform highly. We'll be reviewing a new model soon, so watch this space!

Original review follows.

HP Spectre x360 (2021): two-minute review

It’s hard to improve on a winning formula but the HP Spectre x360 (2021) has done just that. It raises the bar of what to expect out of these laptops now that it comes with Intel’s Evo certification. 

To meet Intel’s standards, HP had to not only improve upon the laptop’s performance but its design and battery life as well. In fact, it lasted almost 13 hours in our PCMark 10 battery life test.

This makes the 2021 refresh of the Spectre x360 one of the best laptops out there right now, building on everything we loved in our HP Spectre x360 (2020) review. Whether you’re concerned about battery life and want something that can hang with Chromebooks and MacBooks during long workdays, need something portable enough to easily take on the go, or want something powerful, the HP will be able to satisfy just about any user outside of hardcore gamers.

With that said, the HP Spectre x360 takes some missteps. It’s a bit clumsy when in tablet mode since it’s a bit too big to comfortably use in that mode. If that’s a crucial feature for you and you want a laptop that’s as easy to use no matter what form factor it’s in, you might want to consider a Surface Pro 7 or iPad instead, which are thin and light tablets that can be used with keyboards.

Our other issue is that the fans become quite loud when you’re using the laptop – and, on occasion, even when you’re not. A few times we heard the fans kick even when the Spectre x360 was closed. It’s the one area of the design that doesn't feel completely premium.

Aside from those issues, this is a supremely accomplished laptop that’s great for day-to-day use, including work. However, with starting prices of $1,349/£1,199/AU$3,339 (various markets have different starting configurations), it's pricey. If you have the budget for it, though, you won’t be disappointed.

HP Spectre x360: price and availability

• How much is it? Starting at $1,149 / £1,199 / AU$3,399
• When can you get it? The HP Spectre x360 (2021) is available now
• Where can you get it? The HP Spectre x360 (2021) is available in the US, UK, and Australia

The HP Spectre x360 (2021) is available in a variety of configurations and prices. Prices start at $1,149.99 in the US, for a model with an Intel Core i5 -1135G7 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

In the UK, the base model costs £1,199.99 and comes with an Intel Core i5 -1135G7 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.

Then there’s a version with an Intel Core i7 -1165G7 processor, 16GB of R AM and a 512GB SSD, which is the version on review here. It costs $1,349.99/£1,399.99.

There's also a model with the same CPU and RAM, but with a 1TB SSD and a 4K OLED screen for £1,699.99.

In addition, the Spectre x360 comes with various screen sizes: 13 inches (the version we’re testing), 15 inches, and 13.5 inches (which has a taller 16:10 aspect ratio).

In Australia, you can get the 13-inch model with an Intel Core i7-1165G7, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD for AU$3,399. It's also available with the Core i7, 16GB of RAM, a 4K OLED screen and a 2TB SSD for AU$4,599.

Like models in the UK and US, there are numerous configurations available, including models with 14-inch and 15-inch screen sizes.

So, as you can see, there's plenty of choice available for those in the market for a new HP Spectre x360 – but we'd hesitate to say there's a model for every budget. Even the cost of the base models exceed those of many other laptops. This is a seriously premium laptop – which means it needs to work hard to justify its high price.

HP Spectre x360: design

• Stunning design
• Good amount of ports
• A better laptop than tablet

With a premium price you expect a premium design, and HP certainly delivers with the HP Spectre x360 (2021). To be honest, we never had any doubt that it would; the previous model was one of the nicest-looking laptops we've had the pleasure of reviewing.

So, it comes as little surprise that the new model is yet another gorgeous laptop from HP. Design-wise, the Spectre x360 is basically identical to the previous model  – which is no bad thing, considering how impressed we were with its looks.

The Spectre x360 arrives with a brushed-metal design that's available in several color combinations. The 360-degree hinge, which allows the screen to flip back completely, turning the Spectre x360 into a tablet-like device, feels solid and reliable. The right-hand side is engraved with the word ‘Spectre’ – a nice touch that further cements the Spectre x360’s overall premium feel.

In terms of connections, you get an audio-in jack and full-size USB port on the right (the inclusion of a full-size USB port is a nice touch for such a thin and light laptop), plus two USB-C ports, a microSD port and a physical webcam kill switch on the left.

The latter allows you to turn off the webcam when it isn't in use; it's a great feature for people concerned about their privacy. It’s definitely a big selling point, and that – along with the full-size USB port and microSD slot – show that it is possible for a thin and light laptop to incorporate multiple connections without compromising design. It certainly puts the two USB-C ports of the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) and MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1, 2020) to shame.

Open up the HP Spectre x360 and you’re presented with a bright and vibrant screen, surrounded by extremely thin bezels. This gives the device a modern look, while keeping the overall size of the laptop down. 

It’s another case of a Windows 10 laptop looking more stylish than an Apple MacBook – something both HP and Intel will be pleased to learn, and is yet another reason for Apple to consider updating its MacBook designs.

The keyboard is large and enjoyable to use, with the keys offering decent travel. They’re also backlit, so you can comfortably use them in the dark.

The touchpad is nice and responsive. It's wider than you’d expect on a 13-inch laptop, providing a bit more room to move your fingers. There’s also a fingerprint scanner to the right of the touchpad for logging into Windows 10.

Similar to HP's provision of ports, the company has found a way of cramming a large keyboard and trackpad into a small body. It’s a seriously impressive design feat, and means the HP Spectre x360 doesn’t only look good, it feels good to use as well.

Flipping the screen entirely back, using the Spectre x360 as a tablet-like device, the large touchscreen works well. However, while this is a thin and light laptop, compared to tablets such as the iPad, the Spectre x360 actually feels heavy and bulky. 

Having the option to use the laptop in this way is certainly welcome, but it isn't an ideal replacement for a standard tablet. The Spectre x360 is far more successful as a laptop.

HP Spectre x360: performance

• Upgraded 11th-gen Intel processors
• Not really good for gaming

The biggest upgrade on the HP Spectre x360 (2021) over the previous model are its components and performance, with the laptop being a showcase for Intel’s latest mobile processors.

The review unit we were sent in for review features an Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor. This is a quad-core unit that can achieve boost speeds of up to 4.70GHz, which marks a decent leap over the Intel Core i7-1065G7 (the previous generation CPU) included in last year’s model.

As you can see in our Cinebench and Geekbench results, the new Spectre x360 delivers a lift in performance compared to last year’s model, with a single-core score of 1,317 compared to the previous model’s 1,259. It isn't a huge leap, but it’s an increase nonetheless. The Intel Core i7-1065G7 was a pretty great mobile processor anyway, so it’s good that Intel has built on its solid foundation.

Overall, as a result of the new CPU, along with a hefty 16GB of RAM, the HP Spectre x360 is a great little performer, with Windows 10 feeling fast and responsive. Multi-tasking, with numerous apps open at once, alongside plenty of Edge tabs too, didn’t really serve to slow down the Spectre x360’s performance, either.

For day-to-day use, then, the Spectre x360 delivers the sort of performance you'd expect of a premium laptop at this price point. You certainly won’t be disappointed.

However, one of the biggest upgrades to come alongside the new Tiger Lake CPUs such as the Intel Core i7-1165G7 is the inclusion of Intel Iris Xe graphics. This is an integrated GPU that promises to offer vastly improved performance compared to previous integrated graphics, and could even rival some discrete GPUs.

While the Spectre x360 certainly isn't one of the best gaming laptops out there, it could feasibly run some of the best PC games that don't have especially steep hardware requirements and will definitely do better than a lot of other thin and light laptops out there. 

While Cyberpunk 2077 at full graphical settings isn't on that list, Intel has claimed it could play GTA 5 at over 60fps, while esports games such as Rocket League, League of Legends and CS:GO – which are less graphically demanding, but require fast performance – could be playable on the right settings.

So, of course, we attempted to play a few games on the HP Spectre x360. As we've mentioned, this definitely isn't a gaming laptop, but we wanted to see if it would be possible to play games at the end of the day, when you want to unwind after a hard day at work.

The answer is: sort of. Total War: Three Kingdoms managed only 30fps on low settings. Anything more demanding was unplayable. We also fired up Ori and the Will of the Wisps – a visually stunning 2D platform game, which despite looking great, is less taxing than a lot of other modern games. 

Unfortunately, we had to drop graphical settings to low, and scale down the resolution, to achieve smooth gameplay. As such, while it was possible to play modern games such as Ori and the Will of the Wisps, it was only with big sacrifices to graphical fidelity. So, don’t give up the day job, Spectre x360.

One thing to note, is that even while performing relatively low-powered tasks, such as downloading an app, the fans of the Spectre x360 will kick in. In a way, it’s understandable, since this is a super-thin laptop that needs to keep its components cool. 

However, it proved annoying, and was in sharp contrast to the silent operation we saw in our Apple MacBook Air (M1) review, which has a fanless design.

HP Spectre x360: battery life

• Solid, half-day battery life
• Fast Charging capable
• Intel Evo Certified

One of the biggest quality of life improvements Intel is pushing with its Intel Evo platform is long battery life, and the HP Spectre x360 (2021) doesn’t disappoint here. It lasted an excellent 11 hours and 22 minutes in our own battery life test, which loops a 1080p video file at 50% brightness until the battery dies.

The previous HP Spectre x360 also performed well in this test, scoring 10 hours and 55 minutes. Nevertheless, the extra half an hour is welcome, and it means the more powerful components haven’t come at the cost of battery life.

We also ran the intensive PCMark 10 battery life test on the laptop, which replicates day-to-day use such as web browsing and video calling. Here, the Spectre x360 managed almost 13 hours – again, a very impressive achievement and a big leap over the previous model’s four-hour result (on PCMark 8).

As such, the Spectre x360's battery is nice and balanced; it's able to last equally well in both light- and medium-use cases. You’ll easily get through a full work day on this laptop, which makes it an excellent tool for business users who are looking for a device that offers superb performance, fantastic looks, and won’t need to be plugged in until they return home.

HP Spectre x360: software and features

The HP Spectre x360 (2021) is premium enough that it isn't overwhelmed by bloatware, and – being a 2-in-1 touchscreen – also comes with an HP Tilt Pen. There is also a physical webcam killswitch, which is something that should be standard on every laptop in 2021, but many still haven't gotten with the program. 

Even better, the HP killswitch is a physical shutter over the camera rather than a software webcam deactivation, since in the latter case, malicious actors can reactivated your webcam remotely with a little bit of malware. Software killswitches are really only good enough to let you easily shut off your camera when you need to step away from the meeting, but that's about it. 

HP has been a real leader on the physical shutter front (along with Lenovo), and as such, we will never miss an opportunity to commend either company for caring about its customers' privacy and consistently implementing privacy shutters. More manufacturers need to follow their example.

Should you buy an HP Spectre x360 (2021)?

If you're still seriously considering the HP Spectre x360 (2021), we can safely say you're almost certainly not going to be disappointed, but even though it's one of the best 2-in-1 laptops you're going to find anywhere, it's not going to be the right fit for everybody.

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

This review was originally published on February 1, 2021.

Editor's Note

• Original review date: October 2021
• Launch price: $399 / £369 / AU$629
• Surface Go 4 is available - but there's a catch

Update – August 2024: Unsurprisingly, Microsoft has followed up the Surface Go 3 with the Surface Go 4 - but what is surprising is that the Go 4 is aimed at businesses, unlike previous models which were mainly targeted at budget-conscious consumers. Because of this, and the fact that the Go 3 is now three years old, if you're looking for a cheap Windows 11 2-in-1 device, Microsoft doesn't currently have a product for you. A very odd choice. Instead, I would recommend the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook for pure value for money. If you don't want a Chromebook, then the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8 is a good Windows 11 2-in-1 laptop, though it is more expensive.

Original review follows.

Two-minute review

The Surface Go 3 is Microsoft’s latest attempt to bring its line of Windows tablets and laptops to a more budget-conscious audience, especially now that learning and working from home is becoming so prolific. And, even for people that don’t have to do much serious work from home, having a small Windows 11 device like this that you can easily bring with you wherever you go is pretty appealing, and could serve as a good competitor to the iPad mini. 

However, while the introductory price of just $399 / £369 / AU$629 may sound appealing, you’re going to have to add at least $99 / £118 / AU$199 to the equation if you want the keyboard, and even then you’re left with a $500 device that has hardware that’s barely capable of handling all the best parts of Windows 11 – 4GB is not going to cut it anymore on anything but a Chromebook. 

You can get it with up to an Intel Core i3 processor and 8GB of RAM, but with a price of $629 (£569, about AU$870) – again not including the price of the Type Cover – it starts making less sense when compared to other budget Windows laptops, Windows laptops that will have hardware that is way more adept at the multitasking that we all need these days. 

That being said, the Surface Go 3 does do some things incredibly well. The hinge on the back is still as sturdy as ever and it has one of the best webcams we’ve used in a laptop of any price point – let alone one that starts at just $399. If the main thing you’re going to be using your computer for is video calling and you want a device that can do it on the go, you can’t really go wrong with the Surface Go 3. Just don’t expect to do much else while you’re talking. 

But this all adds up to a device that’s kind of hard to recommend. It definitely works, and Windows faithfuls that don’t want to learn ChromeOS or iPadOS will be able to get some work done. But, at this price point, a Chromebook or an entry-level iPad is simply going to be better for most people, as those operating systems are way better at performing on the low-end hardware found here.

Price and availability

The Surface Go 3 is available today starting at $399 (£369, AU$629). For that entry-level price tag you’ll get an Intel Pentium 6500Y processor, 4GB of RAM and a 64GB eMMC drive. That is incredibly affordable, especially for a Surface device, but our advice is to, well, not buy that one. 

At a minimum, you should probably go for the mid-range spec, which will get you the same processor, but with 8GB of RAM and an actual SSD – with 128GB of storage. Not only should you have 8GB of RAM at a minimum with Windows 11, but that SSD is going to load programs so much faster than the eMMC drive found in the starting tier. 

You can max it out with a dual-core Intel Core i3 CPU, 8GB of RAM and the same 128GB SSD for $629 (£569, about AU$870). And, well, if you need something more powerful than that, you should just go with the Surface Pro 8, which is so much better in every conceivable way – it almost feels like the two devices were made by different companies. 

Throughout our time with the Surface Go 3, we keep asking ourselves why anyone would buy this thing when something like the Asus Chromebook Flip is about the same price, and will just be a better experience all around. Chromebooks sometimes get a bad rap, but devices like the Surface Go 3 are probably the best advertisement that Google could get for its laptops. 

Design

Just like any Microsoft Surface device, the Surface Go 3 is truly a gorgeous little laptop, rivaling that of the iPad, especially the iPads available at this price point. It’s incredibly thin at just 0.33 inches thick, and weighs just 1.2 lb, making it the ideal device to carry around if you don’t want to go out with a hulking backpack every time you just want to get some work done at the coffee shop. 

The model we have in has the classic silver Surface aesthetic, with the Windows logo in a gorgeous chrome finish on the back of the device, on its hinge, where it’s going to get the most attention. From behind, this is one of the more attractive devices you’ll probably see in a café, but it’s a different story from the front. 

Not a lot has changed in the Surface Go’s design since the Surface Go 2, which means the chunky bezels are back again. It is a tablet, which means people will need a little bit of space for just holding the device, but there are so many tablets out there that have solved this problem already – including Microsoft’s own Surface Pro 8 – that it really feels like a relic. But, again, this is a budget device, so we’re not expecting a truly extravagant piece of tech here. 

Between the bezels is a 10.5-inch 1,920 x 1,280 display. A 1280p display isn’t exactly impressive on its own, especially in 2019, but given its price point, Microsoft could have easily given this a 720p display and called it good, and we’re glad it didn’t. But don’t expect a totally beautiful display, either. 

The screen isn’t especially bright, and color accuracy is a bit lacking. Watching animated shows like Sailor Moon or Bob’s Burgers clearly reveals how lacking this display is in this area. Neither of these shows really need a high-resolution display, but they are extremely colorful and show how shallow the color representation here is. Colors appear a bit washed out and bland, which isn’t the end of the world but it is a bit disappointing in a ‘PixelSense’ display. 

Speakers are similar. They’ll provide a pretty decent experience if you just want to watch the odd YouTube video or watch some Netflix in your downtime, but they’re not exactly great for listening to music. Though they are positioned near the top of the screen when the Surface Go 3 is in its laptop mode, which means there is minimal distortion. One of the benefits of a tablet. 

Speaking of laptop mode, the Surface Go 3 does not come with the Type Cover – which is definitely a knock against its value – but especially if you’re going to be doing some schoolwork, it’s essential for this device. Call us old-school but we still think that a keyboard and mouse is still the best way of navigating Windows, and that includes Windows 11, even with all of the improvements that Microsoft has included.

As for the Type Cover itself, it’s as good as ever, and has not changed. It’s still surprisingly comfortable to type on given its low profile, with plenty of key travel. However, with a keyboard made for a device this small, it will take some getting used to how close the keys are together. We have pretty small hands, and even we still find ourselves making mistakes when trying to touch-type. 

The Type Cover also has a trackpad, and it’s passable. But this device excels when you use the touchscreen instead, especially if you just need to scroll down a document or web page or hit a quick button. Although, we find the gestures on the trackpad to be indispensable, so we still can’t see ourselves seriously using this device for work without the Type Cover – another reason Microsoft should just include it as standard. Microsoft stopped including it years ago and we will absolutely not stop complaining about it being sold separately until they include it again. Admittedly, this probably won’t happen, but we can dream, can’t we?

While we do think that the Type Cover is indispensable for using the Surface Go 3, that’s not the only accessory that’s core to the Surface experience – there’s also the Surface Pen. This is also not included, but it’s honestly one of the biggest selling points for any Surface device and it feels excellent, whether you’re writing down notes or doing some sketching in Photoshop. Yes, the Surface Pen is an incredibly expensive addition and we wouldn’t say you need it, but it is a nice-to-have if you can afford the extra $99. 

As for ports there isn’t much here, as to be expected in a device this small. On one of the narrow sides of the tablet are all 3 ports, and you’ll get a Surface Connect port, a USB-C (Thunderbolt 4?) and a combo 3.5mm audio jack. Honestly, it’s not a lot, but with a device like this, that’s to be expected. On the side of the laptop, you’ll find a power/lock button and a volume rocker. The volume buttons are likely just there to be used when the Surface Go 3 is being used as a tablet, but even in laptop mode, they’re super nice to easily reach up and adjust the volume. 

Performance

The Surface Go 3 we’re reviewing here has an Intel Core i3-10100Y processor, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. So, needless to say, it’s definitely not the fastest device in the world. That processor is a 2-core, 4-thread fanless chip with a base clock of just 1.3GHz, which means it will absolutely start to struggle as soon as you ask it to do any kind of multi-tasking. And don’t even think about trying to do any kind of heavy creation workloads on this thing. 

In Cinebench R23, the Surface Go 3 scores just 1,277 points which is nearly four times slower than the Surface Pro 8, and this SKU is a little over half the cost. And in PCMark 10, we get a score of just 2,596 points, which is the lowest score we’ve ever seen in that test. But laptops are one thing, it’s also important just how this laptop handles day-to-day.

And, well, that’s not great either. Whenever we’re just looking at, like, one webpage and chatting in Slack, the Surface Go 3 holds up alright. But as soon as you try installing an app or running any kind of media – like Spotify – in the background, you can start to run into slowdowns. This wasn’t such a big deal a couple years ago, before we all started having to work and learn remotely, but if there’s anything these last couple of years has taught us, it’s that hardware that’s easily able to handle multitasking is invaluable. 

Because now that our PCs are one of the main ways we interact with the world, they just can’t be single-purpose devices anymore, and that goes for pretty much everyone. The pandemic has made multitasking so important, and it really is a shame that this device puts so much emphasis on the design instead of the internals. We would much rather have seen a less flashy aesthetic if it meant that it didn’t slow down when doing simple everyday tasks that everyone is going to have to do. 

We don’t know if this is an issue with Windows 11, but it’s not exactly new. Windows has become more and more hardware intensive as time goes on to power flashier animations, but it means that low-power devices like the Surface Go 3 simply don’t work as well as they have to. And that’s one of the reasons that if you’re looking at a device in this performance tier, we wouldn’t recommend the Surface Go 3, we’d recommend a Chromebook – those might have similar specs, but the software is so much more adept at operating with it. 

Camera and microphone

Microsoft has clearly put a lot of thought into making the video calling experience excellent on the Surface Go 3, which isn’t too surprising given how central Microsoft Teams is to Windows 11 in general. The webcam on this thing is absolutely amazing, easily capturing all the detail in our face without washing out colors or catching extra bloom in the background. 

We’ve been taking a lot of video calls with the Surface Go 3, both through Teams itself and through Google Hangouts and Discord, and we haven’t heard a single complaint. The microphone is also simply excellent, capturing our voice without any distortion, and we don’t have to repeat ourselves because something wasn’t picked up. 

And of course the webcam supports Windows Hello, and it is the best integration we’ve seen yet. It logs us in incredibly quickly, even when we have a facemask on our chin while we’re sitting outside a coffee shop or when we’re wearing a ton of eyeliner after a night out. 

Video calls are a huge part of all our lives these days to be sure, and Microsoft has knocked it out of the park here. This is the one area that the Surface Go 3 truly excels at its price point. If you’re doing a lot of video calls and you want something portable that has a webcam that doesn’t suck, the Surface Go 3 is going to be an excellent choice. 

Battery life

The Surface Go 2 didn’t exactly have the best battery life in the world, but it was fine. But the Surface Go 3 is a massive disappointment and has gone completely backwards in this regard. In the PCMark10 battery test, which emulates a bunch of real-world workloads like text editing and video calls, the device lasts just 6 hours and 25 minutes. 

That’s usually what we see in a gaming laptop with super high-power graphics and a high resolution display, not in a tablet with a low-power fanless chip and a 1080p display. Battery life this short is frankly embarrassing for a tablet like this, and it’s not just the benchmark, either. Just taking an hour at our local coffee shop to write out this review in Microsoft Word saw our battery drop from 100% to 70% in just around 35-45 minutes. 

We had the screen at full brightness  because we were working outdoors, but still this is a Y-series chip and should absolutely have longer battery life. One of the main selling points of this series of Intel processors is its power efficiency, so we simply cannot wrap our heads around why the battery life is so bad here – and it’s not a Windows 11 thing because the other Surface devices last much longer. 

The Surface Laptop Studio, for instance, lasts nearly twice as long as the Surface Go 3, and that laptop has a high-performance Tiger Lake H35 processor. There is simply no excuse for battery life this short. Period.

Software and features

One of the major reasons to buy a Surface device in the first place is that you’re kind of getting a pure version of Windows that you really won’t find elsewhere unless you build a PC yourself. There is no bloatware here, just a pure and simple Windows 11 installation. It’s something we’ve always loved about the Microsoft Surface lineup, and especially at this price point it’s not something you should take for granted. 

Usually when you buy a Windows laptop for this cheap, you’re going to be inundated with a load of useless bloatware that will fill your screen with pop-ups and ads – it’s simply be a headache to deal with, especially if you’re not super familiar with digging around the Windows 11 settings app. 

Instead, the Surface Go 3 provides you an essentially blank canvas to let you choose how you want Windows to work for you. That’s Microsoft’s whole thing, after all, and the reason why Windows 11 is still as open as it is. Now, the model we’re reviewing here is the commercial version, which ships with an unlocked version of Windows 11 Pro, which means we’re able to install whatever we want without having to disable anything. 

For most people that buy this tablet off the shelves of their local Best Buy (or regional equivalent), the laptop is going to ship with Windows 11 Home in S-Mode. This is probably for the best, as it will help with the low-end hardware, and will be safer for students that probably aren’t as jaded by the internet as we are at this point. That does mean that you won’t be able to install things you download online right out of the box, but it’s relatively easy to disable S-Mode in the Settings app, and we have a guide here. 

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

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.

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. 

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.

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

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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