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
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
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
In 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
In game, thanks to the No lag experience I am able to get an Ultra KIll
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.
3xmc 