Geo GeoFlex 340
Not top-drawer quality, but it’s impossible to argue with its value – and the screen is a knockout for the price
SCORE
PRICE £291 (£349 inc VAT) from very.co.uk
The GeoFlex is arguably the most interesting laptop in this Labs. Its most obvious standout feature in this company is its price, yet it still packs the handy ability to twist the screen round 360° to create a quasi tablet. So it’s matching the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 for features at a quarter of the price.
You might expect every other aspect of this machine to be sacrificed in the quest for low cost, but even here the GeoFlex 340 includes some surprises. Top of the list is its screen. Unlike the drab displays of some low-cost laptops, it includes a 14.1in panel capable of covering 91% of the sRGB gamut and 67% of the DCI-P3 space. Whites even look white.
That isn’t the end of its talents, as it reaches an impressively high 361cd/m2 peak brightness with an average Delta E of 0.78. Those are the kind of figures we expect from £1,000 laptops, not ones costing under £400. Add a contrast ratio of 1,598:1 and the only cause for potential hesitation is its glossy finish; this does cause reflections when dark scenes appear onscreen.
It isn’t the fastest machine in the world, but that shouldn’t be a surprise with a low-power Core i3-1011U processor in charge. Even with a meagre 4GB of RAM and Windows 11 Home in place, though, we suffered no stutters whatsoever. A score of 67 in the PC Pro benchmarks emphasises that it’s no slouch, and its single-core result of 1,006 in Geekbench 5 isn’t far behind the 1,102 of the Swift 3 with its AMD Ryzen 5 chip. It’s only when you push the GeoFlex 340 with dozens of open tabs or in more strenuous tasks that you notice its limitations; a dual-core chip is designed for less demanding usage.
It isn’t designed for games, either, relying as it does on Intel’s creaky UHD integrated graphics. This offers all the acceleration of a geriatric hamster, stuttering to 15fps in
Dirt: Showdown and and 8fps in Metro: Last Light. It wouldn’t even complete the 3DMark Time Spy test, and drizzled its way to 714 in the older, DirectX 11 Fire Strike benchmark. Then we come to the curious topic of storage. Geo only includes 128GB via a 2.5in SATA drive, which is why it performed so poorly in the AS SSD storage benchmarks ( see p92). Fortunately, in day-to-day use this lack of pace isn’t an issue, but the limited storage may well prove to be. How sensible of Geo, then, to include expansion via an M.2 slot that you can access from the underside of the chassis by removing two screws.
We tried to access the laptop’s innards to see what else could be upgraded or repaired, but this laptop isn’t designed for such things. We’re sure it’s possible with the right tools (we used an iFixit kit), but even after removing 14 crosshead screws we could only peer inside. Nor does Geo provide a proper user guide: head to the help centre at geo-computers. com for a frankly pointless two-page PDF.
You may find yourselves in need of support, too, with this laptop proving unreliable during our battery tests.
Sometimes it would drain and recharge happily. Other times it sat at 1% and refused to budge. Note that you can’t recharge this laptop via the single USB-C port (rated at a lowly 5Gbits/sec for transfer speeds), instead relying on a 40W power brick with a fragile-looking pin. This weighs just 283g, which is fortunate as you’ll need it on your travels: expect around six hours of life from the battery under general use.
That USB-C port is also your only route to powering an external display, with no HDMI port here. And ports are in short supply as a whole: there’s a USB-A connector on the right, along with a microSD card slot, but aside from a 3.5mm jack that’s your lot. You may decide to use this as the speakers are distinctly weedy.
Don’t expect the world’s best keyboard either, with plenty of rattle and no “feel” to the keys. It’s functional rather than luxurious. Still, it’s good to see separate keys for Home, PgUp, PgDn and End, with the only bugbear in terms of layout being the single-height Enter key.
The trackpad is large, too, even if its clicks again give this laptop a cost-cutting air.
So long as you’re aware of what you’re buying, there’s a lot to like about the GeoFlex 340. Will it give you many years of flawless service? Frankly, we doubt it. But if you’re on a limited budget and want all the features that a convertible laptop brings, then you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Just keep the receipt in case something goes wrong.