Introducing Our New Entertainment System!

As a part of the Lenovo Mom’s program, Lenovo sent us the Flex 20″ All-in-One Computer, to use in our household these past two months.  My kids have enjoyed using it’s touch screen to interact with YouTube and do research for my daughter’s science fair.  It’s a great PC for the kitchen, making it great to pull up recipes, add needed items to our Cozi shopping list, using it to Skype, and send quick email’s.

Yes, you can use the Flex 20 to surf the Internet, write school research papers, analyze spreadsheets, write blog posts, you name it.  But the Lenovo Flex 20″ offers so much more, it has become our new entertainment system for fun, impromptu gaming, movie watching, and picture creation and viewing. You see, the Lenovo Flex 20 is one of those All-in-One tabletop PC’s too.  When it says it’s an All-in-One, it really means it. The Flex 20 is a:

• PC
• Windows 8 Tablet (extra big!)
• Tabletop PC

The Flex 20 is really a 3-in-one, all-in-one, you see?  It’s great as a PC, but the fun really begins when you lie the Lenovo Flex 20″ on its back, in tabletop style.  Lenovo has created a tabletop software called Aura, that allows multiple people to manipulate the screen at once.  If you’ve ever tried to control your 8″ or 10″ tablet at the same time as someone else, you’ll notice, only one person’s actions can control it.  Not so with a tabletop PC.  Up to 8 people can touch the screen at once.  We took some camera shots using the built-in cam, and then all of us were able to pull out pictures and change the size of them at the screen all at once.

Lenovo Flex 20 Family Fun

Here are some of our favorite games/programs that came with the Lenovo Flex 20:

This is a fun game where you roll an electronic dice (sold separately) right on the monitor (when in tabletop position) and the game reads the dice and automatically moves your character for you!  It’s somewhat similar to Monopoly but you acquire countries along the way.  It plays a catchy little tune as you play the game.  It’s a relaxing game too because the only real work you have to do is roll the dice, the game does much of the other work for you.

My husband’s family are big into cards…they love all sorts of card games, so when we saw Texas Hold ‘Em was included, my husband was excited…and my eight-year-old son too!  We all sat around the Flex 20 tabletop and were dealt our hands face down.  You can then cusp your hand around your cards and with a finger, lift the top of your cards to see what you were dealt.  No one else can see you if your hand cusped.  It’s really cool.  It’s very handy too to unplug the Flex 20, lay on a table, and begin playing as opposed to finding a deck of cards and dragging out the poker chips.

Who doesn’t love roulette?  And with the fun of music and flashing lights, it gets even more fun.  Our kids loved placing their chips on the table and hoping for the best.  You should see the anticipation after spinning the wheel with your finger and waiting for the little ball to settle on the number. It was fun to see our kids’ reaction when they won big.

My son loves DrawRace 2.  I happened to be walking by him while he was on the Flex 20 in the kitchen and noticed he was playing a game I hadn’t seen before, he found it on his own.  With DrawRace2, you are presented with different race tracks.  You choose one and then draw the path  with your finger that want your race car to take.  My son draws his a bit fast so at times the line goes off the track.  After you’re done, you press start and you can control your speed with an onscreen button while you race the track against a computer.  Each time you try to improve by drawing your line more carefully and trying to speed up your time.

This is by far our most favorite game, King of the Opera!  There are four tenors on a center stage.  Your tenor just constantly turns in circles.  You can get him to move forward by pressing on your color pad, but be careful, you could just knock him off the stage!  The goal is to knock off all the other tenors so you are the top tenor with the loudest voice.

There are several stages to the game and our favorite stage is when we are joined by the singing Fat Lady.  In this game everyone works on knocking her off the stage to obtain top tenor status.  This game is a crack-up!

The Flex 20 is not all fun and games.  It’s also fantastic for movies.  My kids have enjoyed watching Netflix for years on our tablets.  They like to get themselves comfy on the floor and watch some of their favorite movies or series.  But now with the Flex 20, they have a much bigger viewing screen and it’s easier for both of them to watch together.  The can move the Flex 20 to their room, the bonus room, even outside if they want to.   And with Flex 20’s 2 hour battery, they’ll have enough time to watch a whole movie before the battery dies.

We had fun one night putting on masks and hats and hamming it up using the Flex 20’s built-in cam.  We took a whole bunch of pics.  We then laid the Flex 20 flat to tabletop and opened the pictures.  We all played with them as we would adjust the size of different pictures all at once.  We each picked out our favorite on and enlarged it to show eachother.  You can also open up music or videos in the same way, though only one video or song can play at once.

The Lenovo Flex 20″ In Action

If pictures say a thousand words, videos must say a hundred thousand!  Take a look at our family using the Flex 20″ for fun and games:

The Lenovo Flex 20″ is currently on sale at Lenovo for $749.  It’s a great bargain for a touch all-in-one PC and will bring lots of enjoyment to the whole family.

 A Mom’s Perspective

I just LOVE the fact that you can unplug the Lenovo Flex 20 at any time and move to another area of your house.  With it’s 2 hour battery, it’s just enough time to watch a movie, show some pictures, or play a fun game.  You can’t do that with a game console or a TV.  It weighs almost 8 lbs, so it’s not heavy to move around, but I still don’t feel comfortable with my kids moving it.  Can you imagine a cracked screen on an all-in-one PC?  That would really be a bummer.

So the Lenovo Flex 20 is a workhorse during the day, helping us with homework, research papers, cooking, Skyping, and email.  But at night and on weekends, it’s comes into new life as our entertainment system!  If you’re looking for a PC for your home, I would definitely recommend one with a touch screen, as touch is the main interface your kids know with devices, it is definitely the future.  It is also very helpful in the kitchen to use touch over a mouse and keyboard.

Have you tried the new tabletop PC’s yet?

*  As a member of the Lenovo Moms team, I am compensated and have been provided Lenovo product for being a part of this program.