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The Lenovo Ideapad Flex 14 comes with a Haswell (latest) Core i5 4200U CPU, 128GB of SSD, 10-point multitouch and a rotating display. Just one year ago, that sort of specification would have set you back 1000 Euro. Today, €699 (€587 pre-tax, RRP)
The SSD-version doesn’t seem to be available in the USA yet but when we last looked, it was $749. Here in Europe it’s already shipping. If you’re prepared to go to a 1.7Ghz Core i3 version then you can knock €100 off that price and keep the SSD. Seriously, that’s great value multi-mode computing…assuming everything works.
We had some hands-on with the Lenovo Flex at IFA and it’s a little bit chunky and a little bit heavy compared to Ultrabooks. Plasticky too but at this price you’re not going to get the high-end materials and case engineering.
The story here though isn’t about the Flex 14, it’s about mainstream-priced notebooks getting high-end components. SSD, touch, Core i5 U-series. You know what Intel project we need to thank for that don’t you!
