Lenovo - Flex 3 Chromebook 11" Laptop - Mediatek MT8183 - ARM Mali-G72 MP3 Graphics - 4GB Memory - 32GB eMMC

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook is my first laptop/tablet hybrid computing device and it offers a compact and versatile user experience for a variety of tasks and activities. While it may look like a small laptop, the device feels more like a tablet with a keyboard attached from a use standpoint and was surprisingly hefty at just over 2.5 lbs. The outer housing has a matte finish with a texture grip on one side of the top cover and two rubber feet that span the length of the bottom cover. When open, you can use the non-backlit keyboard and trackpad mouse for input just like a laptop, but the IPS screen is also a touch display with 10-point multi-touch support enabling you to interact with it with taps and swipes on the screen like a tablet as well. Since the hinge on the device rotates 360 degrees, you can use it in multiple form-factors, for example, opening the screen past horizontal disables the keyboard and trackpad but allows you to place the device in tent orientation so that it stands up on its own, or fold the screen completely flat for use as a tablet, viewable in both portrait and landscape orientation, though it felt a little weird to place the keyboard facedown on surfaces when folded flat. Spec-wise this model has a 64-bit 8-core processor (4x ARM Cortex A73 and A53 @ 2.0 GHz), 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of eMMC internal storage (though about 12 GB is used by the OS and pre-installed apps). Since the eMMC is soldered to the motherboard, the internal storage space is not upgradeable, however, you can add additional storage space by popping a microSD card in the slot adjacent to the headphone/mic combo jack. As for connectivity, this device supports WiFi 5 802.11AC (2 x 2) and Bluetooth 4.2; not the latest and greatest for either standard but still decent in terms of speed and device compatibility. There is one full-sized USB 2.0 port that, along with the USB-C power port, can be used for connecting a USB hub or other peripherals and storage devices. The power and volume control keys are found on the right-hand edge of the keyboard along with a Kensington lock slot. The unit runs Chrome OS, an Android based system, but the UI is a little different than your typical smartphone or tablet, as app shortcuts don’t appear on the main desktop but rather on a recent/running apps “shelf” along the bottom of the screen and app drawer that you have to swipe up to view. The 11.6” diagonal glossy display is nice and bright but doesn’t “wow” with only a 1366 x 768 (HD) resolution at 160dpi and its large ½ inch bezels; it looks decent when viewed straight on but dims quickly at off viewing angles. Color reproduction and saturation are on the low side (45% NTSC color gamut), so if you need pinpoint color accuracy for creative work like professional photography this may not be a great fit. When used for watching streaming video content like Netflix and YouTube, since the highest resolution it can display is 720p, choosing higher video quality settings can detriment playback performance by introducing buffering and skipping without actually improving visual detail. The device natively supports the entire Google suite of apps, and it’s easy to integrate your Google account settings, email, cloud photos, etc. by logging into a Google account and syncing your settings. If you don’t want to log-in or have a guest user, you can skip signing-in and 'Browse as a Guest,' though you will be limited in terms of the apps and features you can use in this mode. Many of Google’s services can be launched within the Chrome web-browser itself versus using a standalone app, for example Gmail, YouTube, and Drive. You can opt to download the apps from the Play Store if you prefer, however, this will use up internal storage space which is in short supply. I did find the “everything button” on the keyboard in place of the Caps lock key an interesting feature, as it is basically a one-touch button to bring up a universal search bar that searches for results both on the device itself for files and apps and online for other queries. Chromebook also supports Google’s virtual assistant which you can talk to by using the wake phrase “Hey Google” allowing you to control smart home devices, ask questions, or issue voice commands. You can set this feature to be ‘always on’ or only when it is plugged in and charging, to prolong battery life. The stereo microphones are situated adjacent to the 720p front facing camera above the top of the screen, and the while image/video quality from this camera isn’t amazing at 1 megapixel, it’s suitable for video chat and virtual meetings. Note that there is no rear facing camera on the device. The Chromebook can be used for casual gaming and basic creative work like image editing and digital art via lightweight cloud based apps like Lightroom mobile, but won’t be able to handle resource heavy desktop-based applications like Photoshop or Premiere. However, I was able to run and play mobile games like PUBG on it without any issues. The battery life is decent at up to 10 hours on a full charge, depending on your usage and settings like screen brightness and WiFi. I did have one instance where I couldn’t get the screen to power up despite the LED on the power button being on and having the unit plugged in with a full charge, however, I was able to perform a hard reset by pressing and holding the power button for 6 seconds and then booting it up again and that resolved it. Overall, the Flex 3 is a nice lightweight alternative to a traditional laptop. Its small form factor and range of features make it versatile for a variety of applications from work and play to entertainment. It has built-in anti-virus protection and performs OS updates automatically, to keep the device up-to-date and secure. While it doesn’t sport the best looking screen or most powerful processor, it starts up nearly instantly and can perform daily productivity tasks and handle internet browsing with ease.

I bought this Chromebook during Black Friday and this is a great laptop for every day use. Pros and cons listed below: Pros: - Can use touchscreen - Portability - Battery Life Cons: - Processor is a little slow - Touchscreen has a slower response time vs. iPad - Only 1 USB port

I have used many Chromebooks over the years, and like most of them, this one is a solid machine that can get you from point A to point B and is a tremendous value. You just need to dig deeper to match your needs and expectations with what you are getting. For starters, the build is solid. It is quite compact, has a nice weight, feels good in the hand, and has little flex. Given it is a 2 in 1, the hinges feel strong and should last over time. The look is clean and modern, and I like the gray/silver color scheme with a darker keyboard. Quite plain. Perfect for me. Given its size/weight, I have been taking this everywhere with little effort. It is very portable. Time will tell, but I think it should hold up well. As it is a Chromebook, boot times are near-instant and initial set-up is extremely simple (with your Google account), although you can dig into some settings if you like. As the specs of the machine are not “cutting edge” by any means, I had some minor concerns about performance, but performance has been great. Honestly, that is one of the main benefits of Chrome OS. It does not need a lot under the hood to perform and I could not be happier. I have not been hitting it with 35 tabs open, but I have been able to tackle all of my work without issue using all of Google’s Suite of services and the odd app tossed in when needed. Being able to access the Play Store is a great add, and while it is still limited, I hope they keep improving the platform. Alas, everything is not work. Here, I think they delivered as well. The touchscreen is HD (at 1366 X 768), IPS, delivers great viewing angles, and a nice sharp and bright picture. Yes, it is not 4K, but it should not be expected at this price point. Simply, it looks pretty good. Further, touch works well, and is quite responsive. You never realize how much you like it until you use it. Sound quality is…good. Honestly, not the best, and it is a bit tinny sounding, but it does get loud and is largely distortion free. All in all, I am pleased with the sound and video. I have been using it for a ton of YouTube TV, YouTube, and Netflix and have liked what I have been seeing and hearing. It is a good media experience. The keyboard is solid with little give. Layout, spacing, and travel are all good. It feels nice to use. There is no backlighting, which, again should not be expected. The trackpad works well, and is responsive, but the push “feels deep,” and it is very “clicky.” Overall, I am happy with the inputs, but the trackpad is taking me a bit to get used to. It comes with a 720p camera which does the job. In time I am hoping all laptops push for better tech here, as video is becoming more and more important. That said, it works, and looks about what you would expect. You get a nice selection of ports, with headphone jack, USB-A, USB-C and a card reader. More would always be better, but you should be fine. I really like the inclusion of the card reader. If I had one issue with the “specs” of the machine, it would be the 32Gb of storage. Sure, given the nature of the machine saving to the cloud is important, but 32 just seems too little to me. At least with the card reader you can supplement that a bit. Connectivity is also solid, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that have been nothing but rock solid for me. Battery life has been great so far. I have generally been getting through days with battery to spare. Obviously, this is going to depend on how you use your machine, so it may vary from person to person. That said, I am fairly confident it should not be an issue. Lastly, the machine can be used in tent, tablet, laptop, or stand modes. Frankly, I have really only been using the “standard” laptop mode. The others work for what they are, and I suppose many will get use of those modes, but I just don’t really see myself using them often if at all. Ultimately, this is good machine. It is well-built, lightweight, and performs well. If you are looking for a machine for everyday tasks, this machine is solid in just about every way, and I think it is a great, great value.

So kids are nearly fully back in school. But our daughter has to have a chrome book for certain in school learning and certain at home learning. Or if god forbid there is another shut down(hope not). So I wanted to get her something that was a bit more powerful and touchscreen than the free loaner they gave her at school. And decided to try this one out. Since the specs were better than hers at this price point. At this price you expect more and you get it. Since chromebooks are super inexpensive nowadays. Which is amazing by the way. This is a perfect middle grown. The mediatek cpu/gpu is not a powerhouse but it’s a solid contender. Super quick turn on/off. Fast UI controls.snappy switching from app to app. Great WiFi speeds wifiAC. Webcam works well at 720p. Great for my kids games(no hiccups or over heating) and YouTube kids works great as well. No issues. Nice touchscreen and this is bigger than her 5th gen iPad, which this is also replacing at home. The screen is only 720p which is a downgrade but at least it is an IPS screen. Which helps with rich colors and viewing angles. Plus she doesn’t pixel count and does not care much . Plenty good if you ask me. When flipping into tablet mode you don’t have to worry about it eventually breaking. This little 11inch is sturdy. Clean simple design and Lenovo quality you can rely on. 32gb storage is very low. But not for these type of devices. Plus good apps are generally small and if you run out of space you can always just add more storage for a low price. Battery life is amazing. Her old iPad would die pretty fast. All in all My daughter loves it and that’s what matters. So if you are a parent and looking for a very solid smaller form factor chromebook. I can recommend this model 100%. It’s way beyond what they offer at schools nowadays. Happy parent here!

Had it for over 2 years now and it work perfectly.

A bit small but it was perfect until i got juice in the keyboard. Will consider another

This was my first Chromebook. I had it for two days, and ended up returning it. Here's my views on it, and I hope it will be of help for others:

The Lenovo Flex 3 is a solidly built 2-in-1 Chromebook that can handle most of our daily computing tasks. Even though the Flex 3 comes up a little short on memory storage and doesn’t have all the latest technologies it’s still a good versatile Chromebook. Due to its smaller size, low weight and flexibility it is very mobile and serves multiple purposes in our house. We use it for everything from web browsing to controlling smart things using the Google assistant. First the good: The overall build quality is solid with the look and feel of a much more expensive laptop. The 11.6 inch IPS screen is a glossy touchscreen display that has 1366 x 768 HD resolution. The screen responds nicely to touch commands and performs well in both laptop or tablet mode. While the display is a glossy screen its not such a high gloss that it becomes a fingerprint magnet. Because the hinges fully rotate you can operate this Chromebook as a tent, stand, tablet or a laptop. Even with its small size it still has a full keyboard and a decent size trackpad. The keys are chicklet type keys and are very flat so it took some time to get used to them. The touchpad was very responsive however I found that the right and left button clicks were a tad louder and less solid than I would have preferred. There is a 720 p camera above the display and it includes a well designed camera lens cover. The lens cover is a slide mechanism that covers the camera with a red indicator dot so it’s easy to see that the camera is in fact covered. If you have kids and worry about cameras this is a great feature. The 720p camera resolution provided good video quality and this Chromebook makes a nice portable video endpoint. On the side of the Chromebook there are volume controls for when you are using the tablet mode. Like all things Google these days this supports the Google assistant so you can use voice commands to perform task. The speaker’s volume and audio quality is what you would expect out of laptop this size. The Chromebook auto powers on and has my desktop loaded by the time I have the top fully opened so it launches very quickly. I’ve been watching the battery life and it looks like I can get over 10 hour of use per charge. Not the newest but still not bad: Chromebooks generally rely heavily on the cloud for storage but in today’s low cost per gigabyte you would expect more than just 32 GB of memory storage. Most cell phones now have more memory than this. On the plus side it does have a Micro SD slot that you can load with more memory storage but it won’t be as responsive as core storage would have been. With just a handful of apps I have already locked up half of the available memory so using Google drive is important. There are two USB ports included a USB-A and USB-C but both are older 2.0 versions so they are slower than the current USB 3.x standards. The wireless included is WiFi 5 802.11ac which is good but again wifi 6 802.11ax is the latest wireless version. The built in Bluetooth support is version 4.2 which doesn’t offer the same range, security or speed of the latest 5.x version of Bluetooth. While none of the items above are critical they all can affect the overall performance if not properly managed.