Lenovo have come out guns-blazing this year to take on the competition with the release of their new line of Android tablets. These budget friendly wedges come with a surprising twist which Lenovo are hoping will redefine how we use tablets going into 2014.
Meet the Lenovo Yoga Tablet:
The Lenovo Yoga Tablet is an Android JellyBean Apple Trackpad-looking device boasting a large, cylindrical, 18 hour* battery with a modest price tag. It has a unique shape that allows it to be more comfortable in the hand and practical on the table. The battery compartment holds a stand which can be pushed out into various angles to allow for a simple, comfortable viewing experience without the need to prop it up or use a case.
These tablets are firmly aimed at the lower-end of the market, which will become more obvious as the review progresses. Both tablets come with a cable, charging block and a couple of booklets. No earphones or other niceties here, folks.
The Yoga tablet is available in two sizes: 8ā³ and 10.1ā³. Aside from the screen size, they have the same specifications. For this review I primarily used the 8ā³ variant though Iāve had hands-on time with both.
Right out of the box the device feels a little flimsy, āplasticyā and not overly well built. The aluminium parts of the frame feel and look great but unfortunately the device has been let down by a cheap plastic cover on the back and, at least on the 8ā³ variant, poorly fitted components; the stand is both stiff to turn and has an awful lot of play around the hinge on the one side. This isnāt so much of an issue on the 10ā³ variant from what I could see.
On the front both the 8ā³ and 10.1ā³ versions use the same IPS panel in their respective sizes with a resolution of 1280 x 800. That resolution is just about passable on the 8ā³ variant, but the 10ā³ panel lacks clarity and definition. Neither panels offer anything breath-taking, but they do the job. Under the screen sits the stereo speakers which offer a fairly decent sound, though turning it up too high lessens the sound quality quite a bit, something that hasnāt been an issue on other devices Iāve tested. Above the screen is a 1.3mp front-facing camera.
On the left side of the device youāll find the power button. I found Lenovoās implementation to be both interesting and frustrating at the same time, I like that theyāve gone a little old-school with the use of a spring-loaded round, recessed power button ā the type youād find on a desktop computer ā but unfortunately in practise actually pushing the button could be a lot smoother and on a few occasions got stuck, requiring further presses to release it.
Above the power button is the micro USB port and on the right side of the device youāll find the volume rocker and a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.
On the rear of the device the SIM and microSD card slots are hidden under the stand. The Lenovo supports up to 32GB of external storage in addition to the 16GB of internal storage. Considering the price of the tablet, Iām both surprised and pleased to see theyāre offering a decent amount of storage and the ability to expand. That isnāt something youād find on a similarly priced Nexus and is one of my constant complaints around Nexus devices. Finally, sat oddly on the corner of the device is the rear 5MP camera which produces mediocre images at best.
Whatās on the inside? Under the hood as already mentioned is 16GB of internal storage. Beyond that youāre looking at a device with 1GB of RAM and a MediaTek 1.2GHz Quad-core processor, neither of which jumped off the page at me. In fact while they can probably get by selling the tablet with just a gig of RAM, Iām disappointed to see the use of a MediaTek processor. MediaTek chips are hardly renowned for their speed and popularity, usually instead found in cheap, Chinese Android media players and micro PCs.
With that covered, Iām going to just briefly cover the form-factor. After all, this is in fact the single greatest selling point of the Yoga tablet line isnāt it? Hereās the tablet side-on:
Source: Lenovo.com
As you can see above, the tablet is a wedge-shape, gradually fattening as your eyes gaze from left to right. Itās a nice looking tablet, especially from a distance, but just how practical is this design?
Lenovo are pitching the Yoga as a device perfect to hold with one hand. If youāve picked up a conventional tablet recently Iām sure you can understand where Lenovo are coming from with this concept. In using the device you could initially feel like they āget itā. Picking up and using the device for extended periods of time is absolutely no issue, itās fantastic to have something you can really hold on to.
Of course, thatās providing you only wish to use it in portrait orientation and with one hand. Pretty much every other position simply doesnāt feel quite right. The weight is distributed unevenly and holding onto the sides of the device whilst it sits in landscape orientation doesnāt feel great at all, though it isnāt unusable.
Then thereās the stand! Lenovo suggest two methods of using it once youāve twisted the stand out:
Source: Lenovo.com
In testing both of these methods, Iāve found ātiltā to be a lot more useful. The angle on āstandā is too harsh and makes it less than ideal to work with. Thankfully although Lenovo donāt mention it, I found it was possible to push the screen back a little which made it a lot easier to use, but too far and itāll fall over.
Iād hoped while unboxing that Iād be greeted by a nice, vanilla version of Android but that is definitely not the case here, the Yoga Tablets ship with a fairly heavily skinned version of Android 4.2.
Worse still is the fact that it hasnāt been skinned very well at all. The interface is full of glitches (above) and thereās an overwhelming feeling of āiPad cloneā throughout the shipped launcher. Lets break it down..
Lenovoās shipped launcher is a failed attempt to copy and improve upon the iOS homescreen. There is no app drawer so if you want to access your applications you need to swipe left through page after page of applications on the homescreen.
All of the stock applications have different, strange icons that are far too cartoonish and colourful to be taken seriously and for some reason thereās a perpetual menu icon on the right of the system navigation bar.
Generally navigating through the various apps and settings screens on the tablet is OK, though if youāre in a rush youāll notice it stutter. Similarly, using heavier apps or playing games results in the same stuttering and lagging that is all-too common with underpowered devices. Unfortunately given Lenovoās choice of MediaTek as the powerhouse for the tablet, Iām not surprised.
Aside from the odd stuttering though, the tablet works very well for typical browsing and light to medium intensity usage. Would I buy it to play games? No. Iād leave that and other intensive tasks to something like the 2013 Nexus 7.
Coupled with a bluetooth keyboard the tablet made a pretty good device for taking notes. Again, the angle was a little off but I was able to get around that. It is unfortunate however that Microsoft doesnāt yet support the Yoga and meant I couldnāt use my active Office 365 subscription on the device through any other means than the browser.
The Yoga deserves itās own section for battery life. I can moan about performance, poor spec and odd weight distribution all day long but I absolutely cannot knock the Yogaās battery life. It takes quite some time to fully charge the tablet from empty, but from a full charge I found I could unplug on Friday evening and plug it back in on Monday morning with charge to spare.
Over the course of one weekend the tablet endured around 4 hours of video playback during a road trip to see family, several hours of on-and-off web-browsing over both 3G and WIFI, a little gaming and plenty of app usage (related: check out my top Android apps of 2013) including Google Music.
The device topped out at around 9 hours of screen-on time, roughly 3 times more than my phone which often undergoes similar torture and falls just short of a full day before needing to be put on charge. The Yoga battery is consistently exceptional.
Itās unavoidable, the negatives seem to far outweigh the positives in this review. Itās really worth reiterating that this is a budget device with budget specs and certainly isnāt designed to compete with the titans of the industry.
While itās a great attempt at thinking outside of the box, the Yoga unfortunately feels rushed and unfinished. In an ideal world Iād have liked to see this device built with a little more scrutiny around build quality and a slightly better spec.
Itāll certainly do the job, and for those needing a (starting from) Ā£199 tablet optimised for single-handed usage and a battery that lasts forever it might just be the perfect device, but itās not for me.
Do you have a Lenovo Yoga Tablet? Are you considering one? Sound off in the comments or join the conversation on Google+.