Add another to the small-but-growing list of tabletop PCs. The Lenovo Flex 20 is a middle-of-the-road, 20-inch battery-powered screen with a kickstand, making it half-tablet, half all-in-one. It's thinner and lighter (at 7.7 pounds) than some of the initial tabletop systems, such as the HP Envy Rove 20, but still bigger and heavier than the 18-inch Dell XPS 18.
While there's nothing extraordinarily different about the Flex 20, it has benefited from some post-holiday price adjustments. The original pitch when we previewed the system back in September 2013, was a 20-inch tabletop with a mainstream Core i5 processor for around $900. The Flex's initial release, near the end of 2013, dropped the CPU to a Core i3 (the only configuration currently available), and shaved a bit, but not enough, off the price.View Full Gallery (13 Photos)
However, as of January 2014, the Flex 20 is available from both the Lenovo online store and retailers such as Best Buy for $749. That feels like a very reasonable entry point to the very interesting world of tabletop PCs, especially as this system includes a wireless mouse and keyboard, and Lenovo's custom Aura software interface, which kicks in automatically when the Flex is set down flat.
You're not getting a particularly high-end configuration, to be sure. The Core i3 CPU is coupled with a 4GB of RAM and a standard 500GB HDD, plus the screen (really 19.5-inches diagonally) has a lower 1,600x900 resolution than other tabletop PCs.
Sony's Vaio Tap 21 goes Core i5, plus a full 1080p screen for $899, and Dell's 18-inch XPS 18 offers similar specs to the Flex 20, plus a 1080p screen, for $799. Between those, I'd say the XPS 18 is my favorite hardware design, but Lenovo's Aura software is excellent, and makes the tabletop argument better than anyone else.
| Lenovo Flex 20 | HP Envy Rove 20 | Dell XPS 18 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $749 | $929 | $1,399 |
| Display size/resolution | 20-inch, 1,600x900 touch screen | 20-inch, 1,600x900 touch screen | 18-inch, 1,920x1,080 touch screen |
| PC CPU | 1.7GHz Intel Core i3-4010U | 1.7GHz Intel Core i3-4010U | 1.8GHz Intel Core i5-3337U |
| PC Memory | 4GB 1,600MHZ DDR3 SDRAM | 4GB 1,600MHZ DDR3 SDRAM | 8GB 1,600MHZ DDR3 SDRAM |
| Graphics | 1748MB Intel HD Graphics 4400 | 32MB Intel HD Graphics 4000 | 32MB Intel HD Graphics 4000 |
| Storage | 500GB, 5,400rpm hard drive | 1TB, solid state hard drive | 500GB, 5,400rpm hard drive, plus 32GB SSHD |
| Optical drive | None | None | None |
| Networking | 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0 | 802.11b/g/n/ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0 | 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0 |
| Operating system | Windows 8 (64-bit) | Windows 8 (64-bit) | Windows 8 Pro (64-bit) |
