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    Any Flex 3 owners?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Clipse, May 12, 2015.

  1. Clipse

    Clipse Newbie

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    Wondering how the new flex is?
     
    Clipse, May 12, 2015
    #1
  2. thelastdonut

    thelastdonut Newbie

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    Sorry if theres a rule against replying to old threads, I didn't notice an official rules thread on glance and theres very few threads concerning this model laptop.

    So I recently got the new Skylake Lenovo Flex 3 (15") and overall I'm very underwhelmed. I know the 11 model with a Celeron tested reviewed poor in performance but I thought this spec change would at least bring it on par with my previous laptop.

    Core i7-6500U @ 2.5GHz
    8GB RAM
    1TB HDD
    Windows 10 (sigh)
    1080p Screen
    Intel HD Graphics 520
    Paid $699 for it, new

    My current/previous laptop is an Asus Q500A:
    Core i5-3210M @ 2.5GHz
    8GB RAM
    500GB HDD
    Windows 8.1
    720p Screen
    Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Paid about $500 for it used about 2-3 years ago, decent daily driver but only gripes being resolution, clickpad, and battery life.

    To be as brief as I can be, the Flex 3's Intel graphics frequently crashed and restarted (stated a Windows 8 driver crashing, I forced a non-manufacturer graphics reinstall last night that I've had "glitch" out on me once but not actually crash), I'm frequently hitting max CPU on this Win 10 build (most CPU intensive program I have is a screen capturing program, everything else is Office, terminal, email, etc). I haven't tried gaming but I wouldn't keep my hopes high because of before mentioned usage issues. Oh and since it needs to be mentioned, if you get this shipped with Windows 10, be ready to reinstall your drivers. My audio and video were messed up until I did a reinstall (video still isn't perfect), I wouldn't be surprised if I need to reinstall something else later.

    Its decent for Netflix if you can count that as an actual plus, but the screen is so dang dim that I need to crank it up to 70% or so for reasonable use in an ok lit room. Keyboard, weight, and overall build feels good imo, much better than a Dell Inspiron 7000 and better than the MSI PE60 6QE, but the entire thing is a fingerprint/grease/dust magnet. The one thing that seems like an outright upgrade to my previous laptop is the battery life, going from 3.5hrs to around 6hrs.

    Based on my experience, I'm hesitant to recommend this as is at this price. Spec-wise it seems decent but I suspect a majority of my issues (listed and unlisted) lie in Windows 10. In another week or so I'll buy another Windows 7 license and install that on the Flex, hopefully that solves some incompatibility issues but thats only going to add on to the cost of the laptop.
     
    thelastdonut, Jan 25, 2016
    #2