Tech

Shapeshifters: Hands-on with Lenovo’s Windows 8 “tablaptops”

The Yoga, Twist, and Lynx all transform shapes, though not all for the better.

Casey Johnston – Oct 10, 2012 2:30 pm | 80

Do you need a new Windows 8 device to fully appreciate the operating system, to the point that you'll buy one?

Lenovo unveiled the final version of its IdeaPad Yoga convertible laptop Tuesday night, as well as two new hybrid models: the ThinkPad Twist and the IdeaTab Lynx. The Yoga remains Lenovo’s most solid entry (though it’s not without flaws), while the Twist seems like a callback to early “tablet PCs” circa 2003. As for the Lynx, we’re unsure why it needs to exist alongside the ThinkPad Tablet 2; a little more design work might have allowed Lenovo to merge the two products into one powerhouse tablet.

IdeaTab Yoga

The last time we crossed paths with the Yoga was at CES in January, when only the 13-inch size was available. Not much has changed—it still has the same solid body, 1600×900 touchscreen, and extremely flexible hinge.

The touchscreen was quite responsive as we swiped around the Windows 8 touch interface. The hinge was a little stiff for our taste as far as laptops go. We like to be able to open the computer while it sits on a table without having to hold the bottom side down to pry it apart. This stiffness seems to simply be the way things are for the Yoga, as without its stiff hinge, it can’t hold the “tent” position.

Our original complaints about holding the Yoga in tablet form still stand; gripping it where the keyboard is positioned on the flipped-around backside feels terrible. It’s bad enough that we could see someone taking pains to avoid ever holding it that way, instead gripping the bottom half of the base where the palm rests are located. Plus, at 3.4 pounds, the 13-inch Yoga is too heavy to perform well as a tablet. The 11-inch version isn’t much lighter, at 2.75 pounds. During its presentation, Lenovo representatives also made more than one demonstration of hanging the Yoga over things (railings, backs of chairs). We’re extremely skeptical anyone will ever actually do that, but Lenovo seems optimistic.

The 13-inch Yoga will be available for reservation at Best Buy starting October 12, and will launch at Best Buy and lenovo.com on Windows 8 launch day (October 26) for $1,099. The 11-inch version will not arrive until December and will be priced starting at $799.

ThinkPad Twist

Readers will surely remember the onslaught of tablet PCs about a decade ago. They were laptops with screens that could swivel around and fold flat, and they often came with a stylus which allowed you to take notes. If you were a college student around then, it seemed like it was The Endtimes of Paper. And it was OK to spend $1,000 on a new computer because you’d be saving at least, like, $5 per semester on notebooks (you savvy consumer, you!). Or so you thought: it turned out the screens were only sensitive enough to allow you to squeeze in a few words per digital page. They became defective after a couple of semesters, forcing you to abandon the abomination of a computer by sophomore year.

Lenovo is attempting to bring those days back with the ThinkPad Twist, a laptop with a swivel screen. The hinge seems sturdy, which was usually the problem with earlier tablet PCs. Back then, one too many conversions from laptop to tablet and the touchscreen would die.

That’s a pretty wide gap between the screen and base.

The hinge when the Twist is folded flat.

The device’s body, though, is pretty chunky. We also noticed that when we folded the screen flat, the two halves didn’t exactly make a whole, leaving a huge and ugly gap. With actual for-real tablets now floating around the market, a hybrid like this doesn’t make for a very compelling product anymore. Sure, it has Windows 8 and the touchscreen is immensely more useful than in days of yore, but the weight and price make it hard to justify.

The ThinkPad Twist will debut at “Staples and other retailers” on October 26, according to Lenovo. The starting price is $849, which will increase with customizations.

IdeaTab Lynx

The hinge on the Lynx: ugly, but it moves.

The Lynx is like a thinner, portless version of the ThinkPad Tablet 2, weighing in at 1.41 pounds without its dock, and 2.86 pounds with it. The 11-inch screen has an unimpressive 1366×768 resolution. As a docked tablet/ultra-netbook, the battery life is pretty compelling: eight hours on its own as a tablet, 16 hours with its dock.

With both parts fitted together, the Lynx makes for an ungainly netbook. We’ve lamented in the past that the upcoming ThinkPad Tablet 2 and its companion dock are unable to be folded together, or to articulate at all (this is an area where the Lynx wins). We found it was bit cumbersome to get the Lynx tablet in and out of the dock, but once it was in, the assembly felt pretty solid.

The difference in price between the Lynx and the ThinkPad Tablet 2 is small ($599 and $649, respectively, with another $149 for the Lynx’s dock). As we mentioned earlier, we’re not sure why these two couldn’t have been fused into one product: give the ThinkPad Tablet 2 a battery-powered dock, take away the stylus, keep the ports if Lenovo really feels that strongly about them (or just put them on the dock), and give the dock a working hinge.

The IdeaTab Lynx won’t be available until December and still has no announced retail outlets. As mentioned, the tablet is priced at $599, and the dock is an extra $149.

Casey Johnston Freelancer

Casey Johnston is the former Culture Editor at Ars Technica, and now does the occasional freelance story. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Applied Physics.

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