{"id":20728,"date":"2013-10-31T15:03:56","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T20:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcitement.com\/?p=20728"},"modified":"2013-11-01T08:59:40","modified_gmt":"2013-11-01T13:59:40","slug":"review-the-lenovo-yoga-10-on-a-scale-of-one-to-ten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/hardware\/tablet\/review-the-lenovo-yoga-10-on-a-scale-of-one-to-ten\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Lenovo Yoga 10 On A Scale Of One To Ten"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talk about instant gratification. Not even 24 hours after writing about Lenovo’s new Yoga tablet line<\/a>, Techcitement found one waiting for us on our stoop to review. Specifically, it’s the 10″ model. Considering the excitement levels we have for this device, we’re going to jump right in. Did the reality match our expectations?<\/p>\n

First Impressions<\/h3>\n

There’s really no nice way to say this; Lenovo’s non-hybrid tablet designs have trended towards the boring. Black slates with screens, and that’s that. Even for all the “suit and tie” reputation that the legendary ThinkPad line has, those devices have more flare than the tablet line. The Yoga, however, has flare to spare.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Work it.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

We don’t do unboxing videos here (you’re welcome), but if we did, you’d have heard an appreciative grunt at the way the Yoga was presented. Just open and away you go. Which is good, because you’d likely be eager to hold this in your hands. It feels satisfying to hold, a comfortable blend of glass and metal, a huge improvement from some plasticky tablets. The back is not as smooth as an iPad, but only barely. One of the downsides of that is concern about scratching it up. The cylindrical element\u00a0(more on that later) looks great, but does it make the device awkward to hold? No at all. In fact, it makes for a more ergonomic experience than a simple flat slab.<\/p>\n

\"lenovo-tablet-yoga-10-hold-mode-4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the Yoga’s gimmick of “use it three ways,” it’s clearly designed to be used in a landscape orientation. The positioning of the logo near the cylindrical base is a dead giveaway. For the purposes of describing the ports, let’s stick with landscape. The cylindrical base houses stereo speakers on the front and the kickstand on the back. On the left of the cylinder, you’ll find the power button. This particular unit’s power button has an almost disturbing amount of give in that it feels like it’s on a spring and it goes way, way down. If you’re used to tablets with almost flush buttons that dip slightly, this will take some adjusting to. Also on the left side is the MicroUSB port that can be used for charging or syncing. Thanks to the massive battery, you can actually charge another device off of the Yoga. We were unable to test this feature, as we didn’t have a MicroUSB to MicroUSB cable at time of review. The microphone and volume control both reside on the right side of the device, with the headphone jack on the cylinder itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Yoga has a front and a rear camera. The front is housed on the left center of the bezel, and the rear is on the back near the power switch. The front’s placement seems a bit odd, as it means video chats with the tablet in stand mode are going to be a bit off center until one gets used to it. However, if the alternative would have been a thicker bezel, I think everyone can adjust quickly enough. Finally, you can find a MicroSD slot that can house up to an additional 64 GB of storage.<\/p>\n

The Yoga 10 weighs in at \u00a01.33 pounds. With Apple’s new iPad Air weighing in at one pound, it’s not the thinnest tablet out there, but it’s only 0.1 pounds heavier than the Nexus 10 and lighter than both the just-retired fourth generation iPad (1.44 pounds) and the iPad 2 (1.34 pounds). Let’s not even talk about comparing it to older 10″ tablets, like my still in-rotation HP TouchPad (1.6 pounds). Basically, unless you’re upgrading from a tablet that came out in the last four months, the Yoga feel downright light.<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

Software Experience<\/h3>\n

The Yoga comes running Android 4.2.2, which isn;t the latest revision of Jelly Bean, but\u00a0 it’s pretty close. It will be interesting to see if the tablets will update to 4.3 or even 4.4 (Kit Kat). Lenovo skinned the Yoga’s version of Android, but not as heavily as some tablets. Gone is the “launch wheel” as the central element of the screen, and it won’t be missed. A more puzzling design choice was Lenovo’s removal of the app drawer, gone from both the upper left as well as the app dock. Instead, a swipe to the left reveals all your apps. This may be fine for people coming from an iPad, but it’s a major shift in workflow for Android users. \u00a0Especially confusing is the fact that the app screen feels like a home screen, but you’ll realize it’s not when you try to make a folder on it. When you move two apps from the app screen to the first home page to make a folder, they vanish from the app screen, which definitely isn’t standard behavior for an app drawer. It’s confusing and a little annoying. Speaking of folders, clicking them opens them in full screen. We would have included a screenshot, but Lenovo seems to have removed that functionality from Android.<\/p>\n

\"Source:

My face when I realized that.<\/p><\/div>\n

Update:<\/strong> Lenovo reached out to let me know that the functionality was still there. The issue was with my review unit. Good to know!<\/p>\n

Speaking of apps, Lenovo’s early Android tablets were a textbook case of pre-loading. There was even a dedicated Lenovo app store in addition to Google Play. The Yoga has some apps pre-loaded, but it’s a much smaller batch. In addition to the expected Google apps (Chrome, Gmail, Hangouts, Maps, Play, YouTube, and some also-rans), Lenovo also loaded FileBrowser, a tweaked camera app, a basic audio recorder, a feature guide, the manual, an app for managing the Dolby audio, a power management app, AccuWeather, Skype, a download link for Norton Mobile Security (don’t do it!), and a Kindle App. That seems like a lot, but it’s less than we’ve seen on other systems. Also worth mentioning are the few apps that duplicated the job of other apps: EZ File Explorer, Route 66 Navigate, and a generic browser. Some apps could be deleted (Navigate), while others could not (Norton).<\/p>\n

\"lenovo-tablet-yoga-10-stand-mode-5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The overall experience was a good load of apps, but the decision to change the UI in the intuitive manner done here is baffling. Dedicated Android users are going to need to seriously retrain their muscle memory.<\/p>\n

Performance<\/h3>\n

A quad core chip running at 1.2 GHz is going to make most users insanely happy. There are faster chips out there (The Samsung Note 10.1 has a 1.4 GHz chip), but in terms of day-to-day use, there’s not going to be that much of a difference.<\/p>\n

What does make a huge difference for any tablet is the screen. Any 10″ tablet that comes out in 2013 that doesn’t have at least HD graphics can be considered a failure. Both Lenovo Yogas have a 1280 x 800 resolution, giving you 149 PPI. That’s better than the iPad 2 (132 PPI), but falls flat before the iPad Air (264 PPI), th 2014 edition of the Nexus 10.1 (300 PPI), or even the Nexus 1o (299 PPI). In terms of real world use, movies and games looked fine, but one can’t help feeling they could have looked better. The choice of a lower resolution screen may have been to keep the price down, but with a multimedia tablet, most would likely be willing to pay a bit more. One area the screen didn’t disappoint was the viewing angle. This is certainly a tablet that more than one person can watch a movie on.
\n
\nWe were impressed to find a dedicated GPS chip in the Lenovo Yoga 10, one that even managed to find us without a data connection. This may be a more useful feature on the 8″ model though, as using a 10″ tablet for a GPS is a bit unwise. Speaking of unwise, if you intend to use the rear-facing 5 MP camera on any sort of regular basis, well, we advise you rethink that. Tablet cameras are never the best option. The 1.6 MP model in the front is great for video chatting, but that’s about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lenovo is promoting the Dolby stereo sound on the Yogas, but we aren’t impressed. It’s certainly better than a single speaker, like on an iPad 2, but about on par with the Beats stereo in an HP TouchPad. You’ll certainly enjoy it, but you’re not going to be DJing off the thing.<\/p>\n

We’ve been saving for last the two biggest features, the kickstand and the battery. The kickstand is designed to put the Yoga in three different poses: Hold, Stand, and Tilt. In reality, Hold is just basic tablet mode. But Stand and Tilt are handy for getting work done.<\/p>\n

\"Poke<\/a>

Poke it, it won’t fall.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I imagine Stand is even more handy if you spring for the optional Bluetooth keyboard case<\/a>, which you may want to do if you plan on working for a long time on the Yoga. Which you can totally do. Lenovo shoved a laptop battery in that cylinder, meaning you have more power under the hood than any other Android tablet. Several hours of web browsing and video watching barely made a dent<\/p>\n

The Strengths<\/h3>\n

Let’s be blunt, the main selling point of Yoga tablets is the kickstand feature and the design that comes with it. The cylinder\/kickstand is a smart way to get a laptop type battery into a tablet without an appreciable gain in girth, and it manages to create an eye catching look. Most importantly, the Yoga 10 manages to compete on features with other company’s flagship products without a flagship price (see below).<\/p>\n

The Weaknesses<\/h3>\n

Lenovo’s take on Android has improved, but there remains some baffling choices. Also, in a device with such great hardware design, the lower resolution leaves a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth.<\/p>\n

Pricing & Availability<\/h3>\n

The Lenovo Tablet 10 is available now, direct from Lenovo or select retailers. Lenovo<\/a> is currently offering a $20 instant savings, bringing the Tablet 10 down from $319 to the slightly more manageable $299. Which, coincidentally, is the same exact<\/a> price you’ll find it for elsewhere<\/a>. This is an insane price compared to other \u00a0flagship devices, but as we note above, the Yoga 10 doesn’t exactly match up to those flagship devices in terms of specs. Comparing it to a currently sold device it not only matches up with but beats gives us the iPad 2. The second generation iPad has a lower resolution screen, is heavier, slightly slower, has half the battery capacity, and rings up at $399. Even if you go for a refurbished or used model, you’ll still find yourself paying more for less.<\/p>\n

You can find smaller tablets with comparable specs for comparable prices (like the Kindle Fire HDX for $229), but there will be trade-offs (Kindle Fire has no Google Apps or SD expansion) and you’re simply not going to get the battery life. Also, let’s not kid ourselves. Three inches makes a huge difference.<\/p>\n

Wrap Up<\/h3>\n

\"yoga-tablet-features-panel\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Choosing a tablet is like dating. Looks aren’t everything, but they’re usually the first thing you notice. The Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10 has an eye-catching design, but it’s more than a pretty face. The impressive specs and insane battery life make this one a keeper, to the point that we wish we didn’t have to box the Yoga back up to return it to Lenovo. It also doesn’t hurt that the Yoga is a cheap date. A cheap, wonderful date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talk about instant gratification. Not even 24 hours after writing about Lenovo’s new Yoga tablet line, Techcitement found one waiting for us on our stoop to review. Specifically, it’s the 10″ model. Considering the excitement levels we have for this device, we’re going to jump right in. Did the reality match our expectations? First Impressions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,31,1085,12],"tags":[604,34,3,74,184,5035,5047,60,2746,2046,4943],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20728"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20744,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20728\/revisions\/20744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}