Lenovo Ideapad Flex 10 first impressions

Right out of the box the Lenovo Ideapad Flex 10 has that netbook feeling. Yes, slightly cheaper plastics but for a touchscreen multi-mode mini laptop, a nice light and compact form. After just a few days of hands-on we're happy that the keyboard isn't going to be sub-standard for its category and that build quality is acceptable but it's the screen that leaves us a little deflated. It's a 1366x768 non-IPS part with a relatively low maximum brightness and, to our eyes (we'll get the testing hardware to confirm this later) a weak color, contrast and black level. 

On the positive side it's great to have a fanless laptop and it indicates the level of energy efficiency going on inside the Flex 10. The Celeron N2806 CPU is a 1.58-2Ghz dual-core unit so we don't expect any record performance results but it does appear fluid in Modern and desktop environments...as long as the hard disk isn't busy.

That hard disk has us looking for a way in to do an SSD upgrade but it doesn't look that simple so we won't be levering this review loaner apart!

With a 24Wh battery inside you can't expect huge runtime figures but we'll measure that for you and put those figure, along with all the other tests in the full review.

One thing we do like about the Lenovo Flex 10 is that flip-round screen. It's not a full Yoga-like fold-back experience but the screen-forward mode is perfect for seat-back entertainment, and that includes a little Windows modern gaming too. As a kids-pc, a breakfast PC, 3hr flight PC, this really could be a useful little PC. 

Other things we've noted so far: 

• No SD or microSD card slot
• USB3.0 port is available
• Non-removable battery
• 320GB drive is SATA, 7mm 5400 RPM
• Flex 10 appears to be Miracast capable

The street price is dripping quickly on the Lenovo Ideapad Flex 10 so it's way below the original $400 target price and $360 launch price. It's $329 at Amazon.com just a few weeks after launch so you'll probably see $299 on this before long. At that price we think it could make a pretty good summer holiday PC.

The full review will be up soon so stay tuned.