E-Fun’s budget-friendly detachable-hybrid Windows tablet, the Nextbook Flexx 9 ($139 as tested), offers solid connectivity options, an In-Plane Switching (IPS) screen, and an Intel Atom processor. But given its sluggish performance in our tests, don’t expect to be able to do much more than browse the Web with it. For the best in detachable-hybrid systems, we still recommend the entry-level Editors’ Choice Asus Transformer Book T100HA ($507.15 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) . Although it’s more than twice the price of the Flexx 9, the Asus T100HA has significantly better performance and features. For budget systems, we also recommend the E-Fun Nextbook 10.1 ($100.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , which is a similarly priced detachable-hybrid tablet with slightly better performance and a larger screen. But the Flexx 9 still offers great value, being the least expensive model we’ve seen so far.

Design and Features
The Nextbook Flexx 9 ($169.89 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window)  is about the size of a large paperback novel. The tablet alone measures 0.2 by 5.8 by 8.9 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.06 pounds. With the keyboard attached, the whole system measures 0.3 by 5.8 by 8.9 inches and weighs 1.94 pounds, which is heavy for its size. The Asus T100HA is bigger, at 0.9 by 10.3 by 6.7 inches, but only weighs 1.2 pounds. The E-Fun Nextbook 10.1 measures 0.95 by 10.2 by 7.4 inches and weighs 2.9 pounds, making it both larger and heavier than the Flexx 9. 

Made of polycarbonate plastic, the Nextbook Flexx 9 has a smooth finish and is available in black, blue, or purple. The connector for the keyboard comprises two large, magnetic prongs. The hinge that connects the tablet to the keyboard is very stiff, making the screen difficult to adjust. You can use the tablet as either a standalone slate, or with the keyboard as a laptop; it doesn’t support any other modes.

For such an inexpensive system, you actually get a decent number of ports. At the back of the tablet, toward the top-right edge, are volume controls and a power button. The left side has a headphone jack, a mini USB port, a micro-HDMI port, and the power jack, as well as a microSD card slot that can accept to a 64GB card. There’s also a USB 2.0 port on the right side of the keyboard dock.

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The 8.9-inch touch screen on the Nextbook Flexx 9 has a 1,280-by-800 resolution, with a 16:10 aspect ratio. This is the same resolution you’ll find on other budget Windows tablets, like the Dell Venue 8 Pro 3000 Series ($329.96 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) (which doesn’t come with a keyboard) and the pricier Asus T100HA. You’ll find a higher-resolution screen on more expensive entry-level detachable-hybrids, like the Lenovo Miix 2 (10-Inch) ( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) with its full HD (1,920-by-1,200) display. The Nextbook Flexx 9’s IPS panel offers wide viewing angles and a crisp picture.

The keyboard has chiclet-style keys and is small, but fairly comfortable to type on for short periods. The touchpad’s surface is a little slick for my taste, but it’s responsive. However, you have to press down a little harder on the integrated left and right mouse buttons than you normally would with the buttons on other touchpads to register a click. There’s a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera and a 2-megapixel rear-facing camera. Neither are good enough to produce quality photos, but the front-facing camera is adequate for video calls. Wireless connectivity comes by way of 802.11 b/g/n Dual-Band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

There’s 32GB of internal storage, but only 1GB of RAM and a 32-bit version of Windows 10. Cheaper entry-level systems, like E-Fun’s own Nextbook 10.1, tend to make do with 32GB. While most office tasks will run just fine on a 32-bit OS, the system can’t run 64-bit Windows apps, such as VLC Media Player. Other more expensive systems, like the Asus T100HA have 64-bit Windows 10, while others like the Lenovo Miix 2, have more storage (64GB). With basic specs and low storage, the Flexx 9 will have difficulty multi-tasking and will slow down significantly when several programs are running simultaneously.

Nextbook bundles a free one-year subscription to Microsoft Office Mobile (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook), and covers the tablet with a one-year limited warranty.

Performance
The Nextbook Flexx 9 runs on an Intel Atom Z3735G CPU that clocks at 1.33GHz. It’s not a very powerful processor and the tablet scored an unimpressive 1,385 on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, which gauges overall work performance. The $299 Asus T100HA (1,698), the $199 E-Fun Nextbook 10.1 (1,431), and the $350 Acer Aspire Switch 10 E (SW3-013-11N8) (1,481) all performed much better, putting the Nextbook Flexx 9 at the bottom in terms of performance for entry-level detachable hybrids, but it also costs less than any other detachable-hybrid system. Using the Flexx 9 for everyday tasks, such as Web surfing and Word processing, can be sluggish if you’re running many programs at once.

The tablet crashed during most of our graphics tests, though it completed the 3DMark Cloud Gate test with a score of 984. That’s way behind the Asus T100HA’s score of 1,972, and the Acer Aspire Switch 10 E’s ($313.99 at Office Depot® & OfficeMax®)(Opens in a new window) score of 1,176. This is likely due to the tablet’s shortage of RAM, but either way, the Nextbook Flexx 9  isn’t cut out for taxing graphics or gaming tasks, but at this price, we don’t expect it to be.

Multimedia performance isn’t much better. It took the tablet 18 minutes 58 seconds to finish our Photoshop CS6 test. The Asus T100HA completed the test much faster at 6:26. It performed slightly better in the Handbrake test, at 9:37, beating the Asus T100HA (11:27), but it was edged out by the Acer Aspire Switch 10 E, which finished in 9:10. This means decoding a video or performing taxing multimedia tasks will take quite a while. Removing red eye and resizing shots are fine, but find a more powerful system if you need to use Photoshop frequently.

See How We Test Tablets

Battery life is disappointing. On our rundown test, in which we play a 24-hour-long MP4 video file until the fully charged battery runs down, it lasted 6 hours 55 minutes, identical to the Dell Venue 8 Pro 3000 Series, which has a smaller 8-inch screen. The Lenovo Miix 2 lasted 7:47, and the Asus T100HA lasted significantly longer, at 10:32. The Acer Aspire Switch 10 E (SW3-013-11N8) had best-in-class battery life, at 13:30.

Conclusions
The E-Fun Nextbook Flexx 9 is a detachable-hybrid system with basic specs, and its budget price of $139 will be attractive to bargain hunters, but in the end you get what you pay for. In this case, it’s a Windows tablet that can browse the Web and run Microsoft Office Mobile, but will struggle with more difficult jobs or mutlitasking. It does have a good selection of ports and a bright IPS screen, and it comes in a lightweight, travel-ready body. Still, the more powerful Asus Transformer Book T100HA remains our Editors’ Choice for entry-level detachable-hybrid tablets, with its 128GB of internal storage, 4GB of RAM, better overall performance, and significantly longer battery life, though it will cost you $160 more. The similarly priced Dell Venue 8 Pro is a viable alternative if you’re willing to forgo a keyboard.