Lenovo Flex 3 11.6-Inch Mini 2-in-1 Notebook

The Lenovo Flex 3 11.6-inch convertible 2-in-1 touchscreen laptop takes design cues from the Flex 3 15″ and 14″ convertibles, but it belongs to an entirely different notebook category. Besides much smaller footprint and weight, the Flex 3 11.6″ uses the entry-level Intel Celeron and Pentium “Bay Trail” processors, instead of the full-blown Intel Core series. Therefore, it is a budget-class mini-laptop with ability to fully flip the screen and transform itself to a tablet or a multimedia stand. It is priced accordingly, starting at only $300.

With its form factor and functionality, the Lenovo Flex 3 11.6″ is a lower-end replacement for the pricier Lenovo Yoga 3 11, which sports a faster Intel Core M CPU, 1080p display resolution instead of 1366×768, faster solid state drive instead of Flex’ hard drive or eMMC storage, and other benefits. Specs-wise, the Flex is closer to the HP X360 11, Dell Inspiron 3147 and Toshiba Radius 11 convertibles.

The 3-pound Lenovo Flex 11 with a 0.9″ thick profile comes with either the Intel Celeron N2840, Celeron N2940, or Pentium N3540 processor, paired with 2GB or 4GB of system memory. They are all basic chips, with Pentium offering noticeably better performance than the Celerons. All of these CPUs can handle the basic day-to-day tasks like web browsing, Office document editing, or multimedia playback, but if you want to avoid occasional slowdowns, getting a Pentium-equipped configuration with 4GB of RAM is recommended. As for storage, choices are 32GB and 64GB capacities based on eMMC technology or a much larger but slower 500GB hard drive. Another recommendation is to avoid the 32GB models.

The 720p display supports multi-touch input, but lacks IPS wide viewing angle technology found on the Yoga 3 and other higher-end 2-in-1s. The keyboard has no backlight, but is quite spacious for the notebook’s category and features ergonomically shaped keys. It is accompanied by a roomy touchpad with integrated left and right click buttons.

Other included perks are stereo speakers, a 720p web camera, 802.11AC wireless, Bluetooth, a USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI video output, a multi-format media card reader, and a combo audio connector.

The chassis is made of plastics, with the palmrest finish resembling brushed metal. Lid color choices are black and white.

Lenovo says the battery life on the Flex 3 11 lasts up to five hours.