The Lenovo Flex 20 isn’t your standard all-in-one, whilst it’s designed to be a desktop PC, it’s also mobile given the existence of an internal battery — although it may be difficult to lift given it weighs a rather hefty 3.5kg.
The display isn’t exactly 20 inches either, with a 19.5-inch touchscreen capable of a resolution of 1600×900.
It certainly looked sharp, with bright colours and great viewing angles, although we couldn’t help but feel disappointed with the lower than 1080p resolution — an absolute must on devices of this size these days.
We never found ourselves a big fan of 20-inch tablet and AIO hybrids, but we’ve got to say the Flex 20 is a cool prospect.
When it’s stood up using the incredibly stiff rear hinge, then you’ll find Windows 8 on-board, but when you push the screen back into a flat table(t) mode, then Lenovo’s unique Aura user interface will pop up.
This isn’t the first device to feature Aura, the Horizon Table PCs have that honour. Essentially what the UI is geared towards is things such as gaming and photo manipulation — like you would find on Microsoft Pixel Sense tables, which were previously known as the Surface before the Surface tablets.
The Flex 20 also allows you to use paddles and suction-cup joysticks to make gaming easier and more fun, although we didn’t get to try these out.
The Flex 20 isn’t the highest-end device that Lenovo revealed at IFA, with a starting price of around $900 — meaning this is aimed more at the mid-to-high category, rather than directly into the high-end.
Battery life is also rather dismal, although it’s expected from a machine of this size, with Lenovo quoting around three hours before the battery runs flat — so do stay close to a plug.
That said, the Flex 20 is an exciting prospect — it’s certainly fun to play games within the Aura UI, and we were able to play a racing game in which you traced your finger and the car would follow you.
With a 19.5-inch display, the Flex 20 is obviously designed to be a tablet-AIO hybrid that the whole family can sit around and play with simultaneously, and not something you’ll be carrying on the train anytime soon.
If you sound like the kind of person who wants to sit his family around a table playing games, but have always felt that the way you do it at the moment is too low-end, then maybe you’ll want to go and get a Flex 20 when it ships later this month.
