Get used to the name "Flex," because if you follow Lenovo, you'll be hearing a lot about this new line of multi-mode PCs. Today, the company announced two Flex notebooks: the IdeaPad Flex 14 and Flex 15 to go along with the Flex 20, a Windows 8 all-in-on PC that serves as the IdeaCenter Horizon's little brother.
As their name suggests, both the Flex 14 and Flex 15 notebooks will feature some degree of bending flexibility like their contortionist cousin, the IdeaPad Yoga. However to hit their affordable $629 starting price, a few concessions had to be made. Both notebooks will feature a unique hinge design that will allows them to be bent up to 300 degrees. The shorter range of motion means that consumers will only have access to two modes -- laptop and stand -- as opposed to the four modes featured on the Yoga (Laptop, Stand, Tent and Tablet).
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The thin-and-light Flex 14 measures 14.0 x 9.49 x 0.84-inch and weighs in at a portable 4.41 pounds. The Flex 15 is a little heavier, but still relatively portable at 5.07 pounds, 15.6 x 10.47 x 0.87 inches. In terms of specs, both notebooks will feature either Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro with up to a Core i7 Intel ULT processor, a max of 8GBs of RAM, and an optional Nvidia GeForce GT740M GPU with 2GB of video memory.The notebooks will also have the same set of ports including a USB 3.0 port, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, a 2-in-1 card reader, a combination headphone/microphone jack and Ethernet.
However the Flex 15's 15.6-inch touchscreen display can be upgraded to a 1080p display while the the Flex 14 will feature a 14-inch, 1366 x 768 touchscreen. In terms of storage, the Flex 14 will ship with a 500 GB hard drive while its big brother can hold up to a 1TB hard drive. Both notebooks can be outfitted with an optional 16GB SSD.
Both the Flex 14 and the Flex 15 will be available for purchase starting in late September.
