Lenovo Insider : why do I love being an Insider and why will I always support lenovo ?

So far in life I have many goals, many achievements and many milestones which I have reached to date,

One of them was being able to represent my favorite brand. Ive been a lenovo user for almost 8 years. Ive used multiple lenovo machines, and so far none of them have put me down, even the G series which is lenovo’s basic no extra features line of machines, even those seem to make me pause for a second and admire them.

Lenovo was founded in 1984. While the Lenovo brand came into existence only in 2004, the company has a much longer history. In 1984, Legend Holdings was formed with 200,000 RMB (US$25,000) in a guard house in China. The company was incorporated in Hong Kong in 1988 and would grow to be the largest PC company in China. Legend Holdings changed its name to Lenovo in 2004 and, in 2005, acquired the former Personal Computer Division of IBM, the company that invented the PC industry in 1981.

Lenovo’s premium line of machines are the ThinkPads. You can throw anything and everything at a thinkpad and it will outlive you. ThinkPads are MilSpec, they go through a variety of tests such as Baked, battered, blistered and blown with sand, Lenovo put the lineup of eight ThinkPad laptops through the gauntlet to pass a significant number of specifications for military-grade computing. Lenovo makes sure that every ThinkPad passes Low Pressure – Tests operation at 15,000 feet
Humidity – Cycles 95 percent humidity through the environment
Vibration (operational and non-operational) – Jostles and jolts the laptops to make sure they can withstand shocks
High Temperature – Simulates high heat conditions by baking the laptop up to 140°F
Low Temperature – Tests operation at -4°F
Temperature Shock – Fluctuates between -4 and up to 140°F to test operation
Dust – Blows dust for an extended amount of time

before they put it in the market for consumer purchase.

ThinkPads are used on the international space station

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Becoming a lenovo insider 5 years ago was one of the best days of my life, I was invited into the team by Kionna Coleman. I met a bunch of new people, who are honestly true to their word and are teaching and guiding me every step of the way. I can proudly say that Lenovo is one of the reasons to why I am where I am today. Lenovo is molding me in my line of IT. I want to be a programmer, and lenovo is playing a big role in getting me there. I learn new things every day, I meet new people every day, I get to experience new thing’s in the tech community every day, I see new problems and see solutions to them every day. I may not be a very active or an insider who voices his view unless told to, but I try my best to influence people to getting a lenovo instead of that HP because hey you wont regret it infact they say when you go mac you never go back. I say when you go lenovo you never go back, because that sorta innovation will not be found in any other OEM to date.  Lenovo originally designed the yoga later copied by HP, Dell, Acer. Lenovo made the helix, the theroy was later copied by HP, Dell, Acer.

Why be a lenovo insider ? what advantages have you faced so far ?

Being a lenovo insider I get to participate in tech related activities and enjoy myself. During these activities I get to influence people in my sector and bring them towards lenovo. Being a silent insider I focus on bringing the maximum amount of sales for lenovo here. I get to try new machines before anyone in my area tries it, and when I do try it and for example my neighbor is looking into buying a new machine Ill know the in’s and outs of what I have played with (for example the yoga 3 pro) I can look into what he/she plans on buying and I can fit lenovo into that and influence them to buy it. I am very open to trying out other machines, like a few days ago I got to check out the HP Split 13, comparing it to the ThinkPad Helix, I have to say the Split is utter shit. The split is exactly like the Helix only major difference, I can break it in no time, the ThinkPad Helix on the other hand has more security features, its aimed to enterprise users and keeping that in mind, it is very durable and you can trust all your important data with it and you will not fear any failures. Being a lenovo insider, Ive also been able to make new connections in the IT line of work, so if I ever need help I know where exactly to send an email or send a message asking for possible guidance. The insiders community is not all serious, we have had our fun times as well.  Ive also got to interact with the lenovo team, lenovo social team, and I have to say they are funny, yet very serious when it comes to the lenovo community. A perfect balance of both which makes the lenovo advocacy program a perfect place to be. Lenovo has taken me to a very high ground where I get to experience everything to the fullest extent, its like the voyager 1 being in interstellar space experiencing new things. I am the voyager experiencing new things

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Just through online forums, and groups ive learned alot through lenovo, but what would happen when I personally meet them or if lenovo arranges and insiders meetup, the world of knowladge will be standing right infront of me and I am willing to grab it. Yes ive done stupid things in my IT world, but lenovo and the insiders have been standing right behind me every step of the way to correct me.

Thank you Lenovo, Lenovo team and the insiders community for all your help and support it is the reason to why I am where I am today, I wish I could personally meet you all someday and I will. Thank you I am a proud lenovo insider and I will remain a proud lenovo insider and lenovo supporter till my last breath

 

Generation 1 Flex 14, 1 year later still a very worthy daily driver

As you all know I received my flex 14 exactly 1 year ago and in June it’ll be completing its wonderful 1 year journey with me. The Flex 14 did initially seem like a flimsy device to me, this is coming from a guy who is used to seeing thick devices, hosting the same amount of hardware but slower. When I first saw my flex 14 my initial thought were “wow its beautiful, Im not going to stress it out in any possible way because I want it to be with me for the longest possible time”. The Flex proved me wrong that it indeed is  not a flimsy device and is capable of much much more than what you might expect.

How has the flex 14 held its name and how does it stack up to other pc’s in 2015 ?

My Flex 14 is a Q4 2013 manufacture, it comes with a 4th gen i7-4500U, 4gb of ram, Intel Iris 5100 Integrated GPU, 16gb SSD for cache purposes and a 500GB HDD and originally comes with windows 8.0 upgraded to 8.1 but I clean installed it later with 8.1 Pro 64bit. I also use my Flex 14 as my gaming rig as well(PS I dont own a gaming machine, I used my G770 as my gaming machine but it broke down and then I gave it a complete revamp restoring it to brand new condition and its used as a daily side machine now). Turns out Intel Iris is capable of playing alot of games at low to middle settings and maintaining the fps at 33 and can go upto 60 depending on your settings. The dual Mode machine came very handy in projects, Power point sharing and normal day to day school/ homework. It showed no signs of weakness, and has also held up to its standard 9 hour battery life

IMG_20150312_133827                            The Flex sitting timidly on my homemade dock waiting for its next task

Performance while doing its daily tasks ?

The Flex 14 after the arrival of Broadwell, it does not run the latest and the greatest Hardware, in fact with the Haswell i3, things are very fluid, very fast and snappy. I have yet not faced any lags with the Flex, n BSOD’s no hardware malfunction’s. The only time I did have to open up the case was for a thermal paste change, because during games the system was heating up and I realized that its probably either dust or change or paste and the paste required change. Besides that overall it has not required any tinkering, any repair any replace no nothing. It has given one year of service with no quarreling or any sort of errors. The Flex 14 will be upgraded to windows 10 as Microsoft has offered windows 10 as a free upgrade to windows 8 users, and the new windows would give it a complete refresh and a new look. The automatic brightness can be a pain because it makes the screen look very dim and at times very bright. I have disabled it. The screen has a 1366×768, I do feel that a 1920×1080 would have been better, but the screen is just perfect when it comes to doing normal day to day tasks. The Flex does not have a back lit keyboard, but turning up the screen back light properly illuminates the keyboard letting you type in the dark with ease

Ports ?

The flex 14 has a

1. Charging port

2. Ethernet

3. HDMI

4. 1 USB 3.0 and 2 USB 2.0

5. SD- Card reader

6. A headphone and microphone combo jack

Sound quality ?

The flex 14 comes with a standard 2 speakers which are sitting at the base of the system, the speakers are enhanced with Dolby, giving us a crisp yet loud sound experience. When it comes to bass, connecting the headphones is where you’ll feel the heat, otherwise speakers only the bass is not so good, I do say that the laptops now days should have a built in Sub woofer

How is the battery going even after using it for 1 year ?

The Gen 1 Flex series aimed to giving a 9 hour battery life, and the Gen 2 aimed for a 7 considering the 1920×1080 screen. The Gen 1 Flex has a 4 cell lithium ION battery which has a capacity of 2200MAH which gives out 14.4 Volts. This battery is supposed to give a standard 9 hour battery life. Considering I use my Flex on battery alot, at least half the day it is running on battery. It give 4 hours of battery life on heavy load (light games, video editing), 7-9 hours with normal browsing, presentations or movies with low screen back light, and goes up to 10 hours with just music, lowest screen back light power saving mode and all other programs shut. I do re collaborate the battery once every 2 months to make sure that it is in perfect health and that specific month where I do not require the battery I set the power options to Conservation mode 

Capture                                          Just listening to some music with the screen backlight on full

Gaming

I try not to stress my Flex for long periods of time as it wasn’t build for gaming, but since I don’t own a gaming rig the Flex plays that role. So far dota is my favorite game and I make sure I play at least 3 matches a day, and the flex manages them very well

2015-03-12_00001In game settings with the FPS counter enabled, as you can see just on the menu it perfectly nails it to 60FPS and in game it goes 30-40 fps

1503525_922488321118315_741672755609955863_n                                        In game, thanks to the No lag experience I am able to get an Ultra KIll
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Victory I am the riki in this match

Conclusion

The flex 14 has proven itself to be a worthy machine to me and I can trust it with my data. It is a perfect travel plus work companion for me and I would recommend it to anyone. It has given me a wonderful 1 year and will indeed give me more. The flex has processed anything ive done or thrown at it, and I can tell you I depend on my machines alot, I use them to the maximum and I tend to stretch them to what they cant even do, but the flex has followed my every command and has processed it without any trouble any errors nothing it has so far been the best machine I have owned to date.