Introduction and design
Capitalizing on the stylus craze to give tablet owners more precision input, Lenovo asks users of its $299 (£195, AU$385) Yoga Tablet 2 with Windows to not only touch and poke at the screen, but to key it, stab it, and slash it with almost any metal object. Though Lenovo is merely iterating on its Yoga Tablet design, the real highlight - and really what distinguishes the tablet from others in the crowded space - is its AnyPen technology.
With AnyPen, the Yoga Tablet 2 owners benefit from the finer accuracy of a digital stylus, but with the convenience of being able to use most everyday objects as a pen. Rather than carrying a specialized digital inking device that could get lost or stolen, AnyPen lets you create your own makeshift stylus.
Lenovo hopes that the convenience of AnyPen will help the Yoga Tablet 2 command a premium price. The Yoga Tablet 2 is priced higher than the $150 (£100, AU$195) 8-inch Dell Venue 8 Pro with an optional Active Stylus, but Dell's advantage is that you can add a folio and compact keyboard with physical keys to turn the slate into a netbook. Those who prefer Android and need pen-enabled support can opt for the $330 (£215, AU$425) Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
Without stylus support, pricing for Windows tablets with screens eight-inch or under drop to below $200 (£130, AU$260). Options in this spectrum include the $149 (£100, AU$190) Asus VivoTab 8, the $79 (£55, AU$100) 7-inch HP Stream 7 , and the $179 (£115, AU$230) HP Stream 8 with a built-in 4G modem. If you're happy with iOS, Apple's $399 (£260, AU$510) iPad mini 3 is a great choice.
Design
Measuring 8.27 x 5.87 x 0.28 inches or 210 x 149 x 7 mm (W X L X H), the Yoga Tablet 2 is an extension of Lenovo's Yoga vision in offering customers a single device that transforms into different form factors.
Like the first generation Yoga Tablet, the Tablet 2 with Windows sheds the 360-degree hinged keyboard from Lenovo's Yoga Ultrabook series. Cloaked in black, you're presented with the familiar slim design, barreled edge that is home to a flip-out kickstand (and the battery inside), and metal flourishings. Although the sides, barrel, and kickstand are constructed from metal, the backside is made of textured, matte plastic.
A crisp 8-inch, full HD, 1080p IPS display graces the front of the tablet. Because of the barreled edge, the tablet feels more balanced in landscape mode when used on a flat surface. In this position, the rear of the tablet is elevated while the front edge is lower, making it more comfortable to look down on the screen when you're sitting at your desk and easier to type on the touchscreen.
In portrait mode on a desk, the barrel creates an elevated spine that prevents the tablet from fully laying flat. As a result, you're left with an inclined side, which is fine for casual web surfing and reading, but makes typing awkward.
To make the tablet slim, Lenovo relies on the barrel for several functions. The barrel houses a pair of front-facing, Dolby-tuned speakers. As this is the thickest point on the tablet, it provides more space for the speakers to produce richer sound.
The battery is housed in the barrel as well to keep the overall tablet slim. Lenovo also placed the rear 8-megapixel camera on the barrel. Additionally, the barrel serves as a hinge to stow the mechanical kickstand.
The metal kickstand is activated when you apply force to push down. This opens up the kickstand and you can then pry the stand fully open. The kickstand allows the tablet to be used in four modes.
According to Lenovo, with the stand closed, you can hold it like a tablet. With the stand engaged, you can stand it up similar to the larger Microsoft Surface Pro 3. You can tilt the tablet on a desk, so it's propped up for easier viewing and more comfortable on-screen typing.
Finally, you can fully open the stand, revealing a small hole in the center of the kickstand that allows you to hang the tablet. This last mode is great if you want to to hang the tablet in a workspace so you can watch videos or multitask.
As a tablet, the barrel also serves an ergonomic purpose, making the Yoga Tablet 2 with Windows comfortable to hold for long periods of time. In use, it feels like wrapping the cover of a paperback book around the spine.
Coupled with the tablet's light 0.94-pound (0.43kg) weight, it makes for a very pleasant companion to read an e-book on the couch or in bed. However, magazines, PDFs, and larger format materials will feel cramped on an 8-inch screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio.
The weight of the Yoga Tablet 2 with Windows is comparable to the 0.87-pound (0.39kg) Dell Venue 8 Pro, and is about the same weight as the 0.96-pound (0.44kg) iPad Air 2, though Apple's device has a larger 9.7-inch display. The nice thing about the Lenovo slate is that it feels balanced; when holding the tablet in bed, I never felt like the tablet would fall and smack me in the face.
The Yoga Tablet 2 comes with a minimum array of buttons and ports. Neatly fit on one end of the barrel is a circular power button. The button is surrounded by an LED ring, which lights up when the tablet is plugged in for charging.
The other end of the barrel is home to a 3.5mm headphone jack. A slim Windows button sits on the tablet's bezel, along with a single micro USB port and volume rocker on its side.
Unlike many other Windows slates, the placement of the Windows Start button on the side of the tablet makes it awkward, especially when used in portrait mode. For right-handed users holding the slate in their left hand, the Start button will be on the bottom edge of the device, making it difficult to reach.
Specifications, value and features
Noticeably lacking on the Yoga Tablet 2 are ports. This means that tablet owners will likely need to use the Lenovo Tablet 2 primarily as a consumer tablet or rely on Bluetooth or Wi-Fi for expandability. Unless you're in the market for portability, business owners may want to shop for a larger tablet with full-sized USB ports.
That said, the issue of limited ports is fairly standard across a number of smaller slates, including those from Dell, Asus, and HP. Here's the Yoga Tablet 2 with AnyPen configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
Spec Sheet
- Processor: 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z3745 (quad-core, 2MB cache)
- Display: 8-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) IPS
- Memory: 2GB
- GPU: Intel HD Graphics 5300
- Storage: 32GB (an additional 64GB via micro SD expansion)
- Camera: 1.6MP webcam; 8MP rear BSI camera
- Ports: micro USB, 3.5mm audio jack
- Weight: 0.94 pounds (0.43kg)
- Size: 8.27 x 5.87 x 0.28 inches (210 x 149 x 7 mm)
The micro USB port on the side is used to charge the tablet. If you need full USB functionality, you can pick up a micro USB on-the-go (USB OTG) adapter, which gives you access to a full-sized USB port. With an adapter, you can plug in a hard drive, keyboard, or flash drive.
Another feature that is missing is a video output port. The micro USB port on the Yoga Tablet 2 with Windows unfortunately does not support MHL capabilities, meaning you cannot get a dongle adapter and plug it into the HDMI port of an HDTV or monitor.
However, if you need to output your display to a larger screen, you can use wireless display (or WiDi) technology to mirror your screen. Likely Yoga Tablet 2 owners will live within the confines of their 8-inch panel.
The beauty and blemishes of an 8-inch screen
That's not necessarily a bad thing, as the 8-inch IPS display is beautiful, with wide viewing angles and a crisp 275 pixels-per-inch (ppi) resolution. The display looks fantastic indoors and under shade, but gets quickly washed out when under direct sunlight. If you're planning on using the Lenovo Tablet 2 as an e-reader on the beach, you may want to reconsider your option despite the excellent ergonomics and long battery life.
Unlike the Dell Venue 8 Pro, there isn't a custom keyboard accessory to transform the Yoga Tablet 2 8 Windows into a portable netbook. You can connect a full-sized Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, but the keyboard is almost twice as big as Lenovo's footprint for the tablet, negating the portability benefit.
Using Windows on an 8-inch screen feels cramped, and this is an endemic problem with running a desktop OS on a small display. Modern UI apps that are designed for touch work fine, with large buttons for finger use, but legacy programs for the classic desktop don't fare well. Navigating small text-based menus with fat fingers was problematic, unless you're poking at it with a pen via AnyPen technology.
AnyPen, but not with 'AnyApp'
This brings us to another quirk of the tablet: Lenovo's adoption of AnyPen. The technology makes stylus use convenient, as you can use almost any everyday object as a stylus. The problem is that choosing the wrong instrument could leave your screen with scratches over time.
Theoretically, you can use a knife, keys, a paper clip, scissors, or any metal object to draw with the tablet. However, if you use a knife and press too hard, you're not only making digital ink marks, but you can potentially leave analog etching on the glass screen. Similarly, choosing to write with a ballpoint pen can leave physical ink residue on the screen that's hard to wipe away.
Another issue is that some specialized inking apps, like Microsoft's popular OneNote, fail to recognize the metal object you're using as a stylus alternative. This means that you can use a paperclip to pan around or select menu items, but you can't write or draw.
I was successful in using the handwriting input panel, instead of the software keyboard, to input text that way. Though this seems slower than tapping on-screen keys, it could come in useful for inputting text in character-based languages.
On the Paint app, I didn't have any issues with sketching, but AnyPen lacked the pressure sensitivity that more advanced pens using N-Trig's or Wacom's technology offer. As such, AnyPen may not be suited as a stylus substitute for writing or drawing. You'll be fine if you're using your AnyPen stylus alternative to pan around the screen, select items, or do anything you traditionally would do with a mouse (or your fingers) for input.
The screen was too small for me to test palm rejection technology with AnyPen, but I can rest part of the side of my hand on the display while drawing on the screen with a ballpoint without issue.
Performance, benchmarks and software
Even though the benchmark numbers seem low, performance from the Yoga Tablet 2 is surprisingly snappy for general computing tasks. However, you won't want to play graphics-intensive games or do processor-stressing tasks, like Photoshop or video editing, on this tablet.
Unfortunately, I ran into many issues installing 3DMark, and Fire Strike is simply incompatible with this slate's quad-core Intel Atom (Bay Trail) processor. Worse off, I wasn't able to install Maxon's Cinebench to measure CPU and GPU performance, as the tool was designed for 64-bit systems. The Yoga Tablet 2 with Windows was loaded with a 32-bit version of Windows 8, and sadly, Lenovo does not offer the tablet with a 64-bit version of the OS.
Benchmarks
- 3DMark: Cloud Gate: 1259; Sky Driver: 483; Fire Strike: N/A
- PCMark 8 Home Test: 1,020
- PCMark Battery Life: 6 hours and 1 minute
- Cinebench: N/A
In observed performance, compared to Intel's more powerful Core series of processors, you won't notice any difference in surfing the web, streaming YouTube videos or opening the occasional Microsoft Word document or Excel spreadsheet.
If your life is in Google Apps and you play in the clouds of Netflix, Pandora, and Amazon, the Yoga Tablet 2 does a great job displaying photos and videos on its vibrant display. Audio from videos sound rich on the tablet's Dolby-tuned speakers, but don't expect the volume to fill a room.
Another issue that professional users will encounter is the limited amount of storage space on the tablet. Available in a single configuration with 32GB of space, the Yoga Tablet 2 with Windows shows only 19.4GB of free storage out of the box.
A micro SD card slot located behind the kickstand will alleviate some of your storage needs, but users who install a lot of applications will find that the available storage on the tablet will quickly disappear. Lenovo says the Yoga Tablet 2 supports up to 64GB micro SD cards, a 128GB card works fine in my test.
Battery life for the Yoga Tablet 2 is strong. Lenovo claims the 6,400mAh battery lasts up to 15 hours on a full charge. Using PCMark 8's home battery life test, the tablet recorded just over six hours. In real world use, I squeezed 12 hours and 45 minutes before the tablet powered itself off.
Bundled software
The Yoga Tablet 2 with Windows comes with minimal software installed. Aside from the standard pre-loaded Windows 8 apps from Microsoft, you'll find a one-year subscription to Microsoft Office 365. There is also a Lenovo Yoga 2 demo app with videos highlighting some of the features of the slate for new users.
Aside from your Office 365 subscription, the most useful pre-loaded app on the tablet is the SHAREit app. The app allows you to share files between your tablet, a desktop PC or a smartphone.
You'll need to install the SHAREit app on your other companion devices to transfer files and share photos. Given that the tablet doesn't come with a USB port, unless you acquire a USB OTG cable, SHAREit comes in handy as you can't readily plug in a USB flash drive.
Verdict
Priced more expensively than competing 8-inch slates, the Yoga Tablet 2 commands a premium price for its unique features. Lacking a full-sized USB and display-out port, the tablet feels less productive than Dell's $429 (£280, AU$550) Atom-powered Venue 11 Pro.
The Venue 11 Pro is less portable than the Lenovo, but the 11.6-inch display gives you more screen real estate. You also gain the versatility in being able to transform the tablet into a desktop by connecting a display, keyboard, and mouse, or into an Ultrabook form factor with an optional keyboard dock accessory.
The main reason to choose the Yoga Tablet 2 over Apple's iPad mini 3 at the same price is for the ability to run a full desktop OS. Given Apple's large touch-friendly catalog of apps compared to small menus designed for keyboard and mouse input on Windows, the Lenovo's advantage becomes less clear.
We liked
A gorgeous display, long battery life and ergonomically slim design helps to keep the Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 with AnyPen a competitive tablet. Lenovo added some useful tweaks to differentiate its slate, but those OEM customizations make the tablet more expensive than other seven-to eight-inch Windows tablets.
A unique barreled edge houses a large battery to give the Tablet 2 long battery life. Rated for 15 hours, we got close to 13 hours of real-life usage on a single charge. The built-in kickstand and crisp display make the tablet a joy to consume videos while traveling.
We disliked
The lack of a full-sized USB port and a video-out port keeps the Yoga Tablet 2 limited to its 8-inch screen, as you won't be able to output to a larger HDTV beyond Intel's WiDi solution. Users will need to rely on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to connect peripherals like keyboard, printers, and hard drives to the tablet rather than plugging in a cable.
While innovative, Lenovo isn't first to market with AnyPen. Rival Sony implemented the technology in its Xperia Z Ultra phablet. The technology offers users the ad-hoc convenience of having a stylus, but the drawback is that your screen can become scratched over time if you use a sharp metal object as a stylus replacement. Furthermore, AnyPen does not offer the pressure sensitivity that digital artists need for sketching or drawing on the tablet.
And though the lack of apps is more an issue with Windows 8, Lenovo's choice of Microsoft's desktop OS makes the tablet a little cumbersome to use. Users will be able to tap into legacy apps on the desktop, but text-driven menus are small and difficult to press, making it less than ideal.
Final verdict
The Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 with Windows is a solidly-built tablet. Though the hardware design offers a lot of ergonomics, the software choice makes it clumsy. The lack of touch-centric Modern UI apps for Windows, coupled with a less than ideal experience of navigating text-driven menus in the classic desktop mode, negates the benefit of having long battery life to be more productive.
With the Yoga Tablet 2, Lenovo aims to differentiate itself in the tablet market with AnyPen, but the solution feels unpolished. Unless you've got your heart set on using any metal object as a stylus replacement for input, you can find cheaper 8-inch Windows tablets elsewhere. Buyers should choose the Yoga Tablet 2 with Windows for Lenovo's excellent hardware design, ergonomics and lengthy battery life.
from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/1FFuFFS
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