Often times, 15-inch 2-in-1 laptops are not really practical. They are heavy, difficult to handle, and just too spacious. However, they have one big advantage – a big touchscreen. So, if you need the touchscreen capability, and you want to work with a dedicated Pen, this would be a decent option, right?
Well, this should be the case with the Ideapad Flex 5 (15). It not only has a lot of screen real estate, but it comes with an optional Lenovo Digital Pen inside of the box. Additionally, it can be outfitted with the best ULV processors Intel provides – the 10nm Ice Lake chips. Moreover, the highest possible tier is the Core i7-1065G7, which has a pretty remarkable integrated graphics solution.
This should be helpful for all your hours of photo retouching and vector creating. Also, Lenovo provides two display options – a Full HD IPS one, as well as a 4K IPS panel with HDR and VESA certifications.
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-ideapad-flex-5-15/
Contents
Specs Sheet
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (15″) - Specs
All Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (15″) configurations
See all Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5 (15) review – Wacom drivers and a 4K HDR display option configurations
What’s in the box?
Inside the package, we got a 65W power brick, some paper manuals, and an optional Lenovo Digital Pen.
Design and construction
As with any 15-inch notebook, the footprint is quite big for a convertible. However, the laptop also weighs 1.80 kg and has a profile of 17.9-20.9mm. Ultimately, this would be a perfect combination for a conventional device, but for a 2-in-1 – it feels a bit on the heavy side. In terms of build materials, the lid cover is made out of aluminum, while the rest of the notebook comes in a plastic shell. Its also worth mentioning that the base has some sort of a textured finish, which feels a bit grippy.
To no surprise, the lid doesn’t open with a single hand. Also, the hinges are not very stable in an upright position and you will have a hard time using the touchscreen like that. Thankfully, the display has a glass cover, which greatly increases the resistance to flex. By the way, the touchscreen and the Pen use Wacom drivers out of the box, and the HD camera has a privacy shutter.
However, the base provides a very different experience. It twists, the keyboard deck bends and it generally feels soft. Nothing unexpected, though. As we mentioned, it is entirely made out of plastic. As of the keyboard, itself, it has comfortable feedback, but the key travel is a bit too short. On the bright side, it features a NumberPad section, as well as a fingerprint reader.
Beneath the keyboard, you will find the Mylar touchpad. This term means that the material used for the surface is made out of a plastic sheet, which has very similar properties to glass. This gives the touchpad very nice gliding, while the tracking is also decent.
Instead of having its speakers firing downwards, the Ideapad Flex 5 (15) actually has its shooting towards the user. This leaves the bottom plate only home to the ventilation grill, while the hot air is exhausted from the back.
Ports
This notebook has its Power plug, HDMI 1.4b connector, USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an audio jack on the left, as well as two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, and SD card reader on the right.
Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance
This device’s bottom panel is held in place by 9 Torx-head screws. As the saying goes, after undoing them, you need to pry the bottom panel with a plastic tool.
Since our unit is not equipped with a discrete GPU, there is only one heat pipe, which is relatively thin. Thankfully, the area of the heat sink is quite big, so cooling should not be a problem here.
On the downside, the RAM modules are soldered to the motherboard, so there are no upgrades possible in this aspect. The maximum capacity you can get is 16GB of 3200MHz DDR4 memory. However, there is one M.2 PCIe x4 slot for fast storage.
Battery-wise there is a 52.5Wh unit.
Display quality
Lenovo ThinkPad Flex 5 (15) is equipped with an IPS panel, model number AUO B156HAN02.5 (AUO25ED). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).
Viewing angles are excellent. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.
The measured maximum brightness of 287 nits in the middle of the screen and 292 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 16% (top right corner). The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6120K – slightly warmer than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is good – 1200:1.
To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.
Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.
Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.
The yellow dotted line shows Lenovo ThinkPad Flex 5 (15)’s color gamut coverage.
Its display covers only50% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.
Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.
We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.
Below you can compare the scores of Lenovo ThinkPad Flex 5 (15) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).
The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.
The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.
Response time (Gaming capabilities)
We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.
We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 24 ms.
PWM (Screen flickering)
Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.
Lenovo ThinkPad Flex 5 (15)’s display doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness levels. This means it is safe for long workdays, without presenting any strain in your eyes in this aspect.
Blue light emissions
Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.
Conclusion
Lenovo ThinkPad Flex 5 (15)’s touchscreen IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, good contrast ratio, and a non-flickering backlight. Although it is safe for long periods of use, the panel has a relatively poor color representation, with only 50% of sRGB coverage, uneven luminance across the area of the screen, and color accuracy, which is worse than being color-blind.
Buy our profiles
Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Lenovo ThinkPad Flex 5 (15) configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS AUO B156HAN02.5 (AUO25ED).
*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected]
Read more about the profiles HERE.
In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.
Office Work
Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.
Design and Gaming
This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.
Health-Guard
THealth-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.
Sound
Lenovo ThinkPad Flex 5 (15)’s speakers produce a sound with decent quality. However, its low tones have some deviations from clarity, while the mids and highs are clear.
Drivers
All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/flex-series/flex-5-15iil05/downloads/driver-list
Battery
Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This notebook’s 52.5Wh battery was able to last for 9 hours and a half of Web browsing and 7 hours and a half of video playback.
In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.
For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.
We use F1 2017’s built-in benchmark on loop in order to simulate real-life gaming.
CPU options
The Ideapad Flex 5 (15) comes with a choice of three 10nm Intel Ice Lake processors. They are the Core i3-1005G1, Core i5-1035G1, and the Core i7-1065G7.
Results are from the Cinebench 15 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (15") CPU variants
Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (15") models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (15") model is the best bang for your buck.
Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.
Results are from the Cinebench 15 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)
GPU options
This means that the integrated solutions are the Intel UHD Graphics and the Intel Iris Plus Graphics G7. Additionally, this notebook can be purchased with a GeForce MX330 with 2GB of GDDR5 memory.
Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (15") GPU variants
Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (15") models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (15") model is the best bang for your buck.
Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.
Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Gaming tests
| CS:GO | HD 1080p, Low (Check settings) | HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings) | HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average FPS | 53 fps | 29 fps | – fps |
| DOTA 2 | HD 1080p, Low (Check settings) | HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings) | HD 1080p, High (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average FPS | 82 fps | 42 fps | 21 fps |
Temperatures and comfort
Max CPU load
In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.
Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.
| Intel Core i5-1035G1 (15W TDP) | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5 (15) | 2.59 GHz (B+159%) @ 95°C | 2.15 GHz (B+115%) @ 95°C | 1.66 GHz (B+66%) @ 81°C |
| Lenovo Ideapad 5 (15) | 2.46 GHz (B+146%) @ 84°C | 1.95 GHz (B+95%) @ 76°C | 2.06 GHz (B+106%) @ 74°C |
| HP Pavilion 14 (14-ce3000) | 2.91 GHz (B+191%) @ 92°C | 1.82 GHz (B+82%) @ 73°C | 1.49 GHz (B+49%) @ 65°C |
| Dell Vostro 15 3591 | 2.09 GHz (B+109%) @ 75°C | 2.09 GHz (B+109%) @ 84°C | 1.77 GHz (B+77%) @ 85°C |
| Acer Aspire 5 (A515-55) | 1.98 GHz (B+98%) @ 79°C | 1.68 GHz (B+68%) @ 79°C | 1.52 GHz (B+52%) @ 79°C |
| Acer Swift 5 Pro (SF514-54GT) | 2.88 GHz (B+188%) @ 80°C | 1.62 GHz (B+62%) @ 64°C | 1.65 GHz (B+65%) @ 67°C |
| HP 340S G7 | 2.71 GHz (B+171%) @ 92°C | 2.42 GHz (B+142%) @ 93°C | 1.77 GHz (B+77%) @ 72°C |
| Dell Inspiron 5593 | 2.53 GHz (B+153%) @ 99°C | 2.14 GHz (B+114%) @ 94°C | 1.88 GHz (B+88%) @ 87°C |
| Dell Inspiron 17 3793 | 2.75 GHz (B+175%) @ 98°C | 1.97 GHz (B+97%) @ 91°C | 1.79 GHz (B+79%) @ 89°C |
So, we ran this test at the Extreme performance preset, and these are the results we got. The cooling is surely one of the more modest ones out there. But as the synthetic benchmarks have proved, it happens to be just enough.
Comfort during full load
So the good thing is that while the fan is clearly audible, it is not too loud. Neither does the laptop get too hot to touch.
Verdict
Thankfully, the Wacom drivers seem to be working perfectly, which means that the laptop works great with its Lenovo Digital Pen. So, if you happen to be in need of a 2-in-1 device with a lot of real estate, the Ideapad Flex 5 (15) would do a decent job.
Yes, it’s a little bit heavier than what we would like, and its memory is soldered to the motherboard (which means no upgrades) but the overall experience is great. Also, using it in the “Extreme Performance” preset, we found it to perform extremely well. Also, if you have the budget, we would advise going for the Core i7-1065G7 and 16GB of memory option, as it would deliver the ultimate performance/longevity of the product.
Speaking of advice, the 1080p panel of this notebook is something that should be avoided. Lenovo ThinkPad Flex 5 (15)’s touchscreen IPS panel (AUO B156HAN02.5) has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, good contrast ratio, and a non-flickering backlight. Although it is safe for long periods of use, the panel has a relatively poor color representation, with only 50% of sRGB coverage, uneven luminance across the area of the screen, and color accuracy, which is worse than being color-blind.
At least on the bright side, you get Wi-Fi 6 support, fast storage, an SD card reader on board, and decent battery life. So, despite the fact that the laptop comes with a lot of features, including an optional Pen inside the box, the poor 1080p panel just won’t deliver if you are hoping for something marginally close to professional. However, Lenovo also offers the Ideapad Flex 5 (15) with a 4K unit, which has HDR and VESA certificates. Additionally, one of the great options on the market is the ASUS ZenBook Flip 15 (UX563).
Pros
- Makes great use of the Wacom drivers and its optional Digital Pen
- Decent performance and battery life
- 4K IPS display option
- Doesn’t use PWM for any brightness level (AUO B156HAN02.5)
- Supports PCIe x4 SSDs, WiFi 6 standards, and SD cards
Cons
- Lacks a Thunderbolt connector
- No RAM upgradability post-purchase
- 50% sRGB coverage (AUO B156HAN02.5)
- Poor color accuracy (AUO B156HAN02.5)
- Its base is a bit twisty
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-ideapad-flex-5-15/
Yet again Lenovo ruin a fairly good device with a dog of a display,why dont they ever learn?.Horrific temperatures under load dont bode well for longevity,no HDMI 2.0 at this point in time,no,just no.No other maker gets as close to ideal as often as Lenovo yet every time they manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.