So, Lets get cracking, shall we?
Design:
If you take a look at the design, it makes a lot of sense.
Really its a design from 2009 from an company named Notion Ink.
Thats right, a design that predates the first iPad.
And it is a good idea. A good design, and well worth replication.
This design makes for a tablet that ranges between .12 inches making it fantastically thin, and .32 inches at its thickest, which is still thinner than the Nexus 10. The design looks fantastic, and I get all kinds of attention from people because of its unique look. So many people were doing double-takes when I pulled it out the first time in class.
Hardware:
The Yoga Tablet 8 and 10 are basically identical, with just a couple of exceptions, being the 8 vs 10 inch screen, and a 6000 vs 9000 mAh battery. But everything else is the exact same.
A 5.0 M Rear Camera
A 1.6 M Front Camera
It comes in 16 or 32GB onboard memory, which is expandable via a microSD slot in the back, be warned though, the microSD sits so well in the slot that you will probably need a credit card to seat it or remove it properly.
The MicroUSB port not only supports USB On The Go, but also is set up to charge devices connected. Running low on your phone? hook it up and get a boost from your Yoga tablet.
Your Headphone Jack, which will also support any in-line microphone.
Wifi, Bluetooth 4.0, Onboard sensors including, Light, Accelerometer, Microphone, and GPS.
And the crowing Jewels of the internal hardware are the 1.2GHz MTK Quad Core processors. and the 1GB of LowPower DDR2 RAM.
And perhaps in one of the more interesting moves, a kickstand. Its a very solid kickstand made of Aluminum, and the outer casing made from mostly Polycarbonate.
Also, when you receive notifications, the power button will pulse to let you know what you are missing out on.
Normally, I might be a little annoyed with the lack of an HDMI port, because I like to have a larger screen for videos. Well, because this is running a newer version of Android, it will wirelessly stream to Miracast enabled devices, and since I have one, its no big deal, but keep in mind that you will probably need a form of adaptor to make it work for you.
And to wrap it up, the 8 weighs in at 400g and the 10 at 600g mark. And while the 10 is not the lightest tablet in its size(that goes to the Xperia Z) it is definitely not the Heavyweight Acer A200 either. It strikes a good balance in weight, even though its not evenly distributed. (little joke there)
Performance and Conclusion:
Now, since the two most obvious features of the tablets are the Screen and the Batteries, its time to give those two their due. Some people have Hemmed and Hawed about the screen resolution. To be honest, it is just fine. Its HD, and while its last years HD resolution, it still works very well. Perhaps some people might get hung up on that after having seen higher density HD displays, but Lenovo knows who is looking at this tablet: its average folks like us who wouldn't be able to afford one of those $500 tablets anyway. And while this is on the high side of budget tablet status, its a good one. Also, the brightness seems odd to me. It seems like the displays low brightness is much higher than others, but its tough to quantify that, so we will just move on.
The battery. I dont want to spend too much time going on about it, so Ill give you a few battery drain estimates:
YouTube: 11-12hrs
Netflix: 12-13hrs
Browsing: 10-14hrs (it just really depends on your browsing habits)
Interestingly enough, the 8, in spite of a smaller battery size was usually outdoing the 10 by about 10% in battery life, I guess the larger display must suck a much larger amount of power. And just to give it all a bit more context, this is probably the first tablet that I have had the confidence to play a game, in the middle of the day, away from the charger, and still make it back to my outlet in the evening. This tablet runs the school-day test and shatters it. streaming, downloading, gaming. Everything all in a day.
The processor, and RAM do a great job working together. And while there are some games that you can manage lag with, they are VERY few and far between.
3D Mark: 3214
Antutu: 13480
Quadrant: 4830
They put some Beats audio software on there to make the sound quality better, and it just seems to be an equalizer, so Ive let it be.
And now for some unpleasant news: They put a skinned version of android that gets rid of the App drawer entirely. This bothered me a lot. I like to keep my home screen very spare, and focus on just the few apps that I use frequently. In this case, I just had to throw everything in this nifty folder: "Stuff I don't use". But, one thing that they got right was you can dismiss that annoying notification about storage removed. "Yeah thanks Android, I know there is a card missing-Im the one who removed it remember, I even asked you if that would be cool! Jeez".
And I found an interesting use for the kickstand, while playing a game, I would flip out the kickstand, and have 3 fingers above the stand, and my pinkies kind of hooked below. It was rather comfortable, and the position lent itself to long-term playing of platformers.
And just to wrap it up;
Are these the fastest tablets on the market? No
Are they the thinnest? The Lightest? The best Displays? No.
But do I care? Absolutely NOT! The design is a love letter to Physics, the Stand makes amazing use of space that would have gone to waste, the look is lean and polished, and the Battery life is amazing.
If you feel like getting anyone a Christmas gift, this is a REALLY good call.
Design:
If you take a look at the design, it makes a lot of sense.
Really its a design from 2009 from an company named Notion Ink.
Thats right, a design that predates the first iPad.
And it is a good idea. A good design, and well worth replication.
This design makes for a tablet that ranges between .12 inches making it fantastically thin, and .32 inches at its thickest, which is still thinner than the Nexus 10. The design looks fantastic, and I get all kinds of attention from people because of its unique look. So many people were doing double-takes when I pulled it out the first time in class.
Hardware:
The Yoga Tablet 8 and 10 are basically identical, with just a couple of exceptions, being the 8 vs 10 inch screen, and a 6000 vs 9000 mAh battery. But everything else is the exact same.
A 5.0 M Rear Camera
A 1.6 M Front Camera
It comes in 16 or 32GB onboard memory, which is expandable via a microSD slot in the back, be warned though, the microSD sits so well in the slot that you will probably need a credit card to seat it or remove it properly.
The MicroUSB port not only supports USB On The Go, but also is set up to charge devices connected. Running low on your phone? hook it up and get a boost from your Yoga tablet.
Your Headphone Jack, which will also support any in-line microphone.
Wifi, Bluetooth 4.0, Onboard sensors including, Light, Accelerometer, Microphone, and GPS.
And the crowing Jewels of the internal hardware are the 1.2GHz MTK Quad Core processors. and the 1GB of LowPower DDR2 RAM.
And perhaps in one of the more interesting moves, a kickstand. Its a very solid kickstand made of Aluminum, and the outer casing made from mostly Polycarbonate.
Also, when you receive notifications, the power button will pulse to let you know what you are missing out on.
Normally, I might be a little annoyed with the lack of an HDMI port, because I like to have a larger screen for videos. Well, because this is running a newer version of Android, it will wirelessly stream to Miracast enabled devices, and since I have one, its no big deal, but keep in mind that you will probably need a form of adaptor to make it work for you.
And to wrap it up, the 8 weighs in at 400g and the 10 at 600g mark. And while the 10 is not the lightest tablet in its size(that goes to the Xperia Z) it is definitely not the Heavyweight Acer A200 either. It strikes a good balance in weight, even though its not evenly distributed. (little joke there)
Performance and Conclusion:
Now, since the two most obvious features of the tablets are the Screen and the Batteries, its time to give those two their due. Some people have Hemmed and Hawed about the screen resolution. To be honest, it is just fine. Its HD, and while its last years HD resolution, it still works very well. Perhaps some people might get hung up on that after having seen higher density HD displays, but Lenovo knows who is looking at this tablet: its average folks like us who wouldn't be able to afford one of those $500 tablets anyway. And while this is on the high side of budget tablet status, its a good one. Also, the brightness seems odd to me. It seems like the displays low brightness is much higher than others, but its tough to quantify that, so we will just move on.
The battery. I dont want to spend too much time going on about it, so Ill give you a few battery drain estimates:
YouTube: 11-12hrs
Netflix: 12-13hrs
Browsing: 10-14hrs (it just really depends on your browsing habits)
Interestingly enough, the 8, in spite of a smaller battery size was usually outdoing the 10 by about 10% in battery life, I guess the larger display must suck a much larger amount of power. And just to give it all a bit more context, this is probably the first tablet that I have had the confidence to play a game, in the middle of the day, away from the charger, and still make it back to my outlet in the evening. This tablet runs the school-day test and shatters it. streaming, downloading, gaming. Everything all in a day.
The processor, and RAM do a great job working together. And while there are some games that you can manage lag with, they are VERY few and far between.
3D Mark: 3214
Antutu: 13480
Quadrant: 4830
They put some Beats audio software on there to make the sound quality better, and it just seems to be an equalizer, so Ive let it be.
And now for some unpleasant news: They put a skinned version of android that gets rid of the App drawer entirely. This bothered me a lot. I like to keep my home screen very spare, and focus on just the few apps that I use frequently. In this case, I just had to throw everything in this nifty folder: "Stuff I don't use". But, one thing that they got right was you can dismiss that annoying notification about storage removed. "Yeah thanks Android, I know there is a card missing-Im the one who removed it remember, I even asked you if that would be cool! Jeez".
And I found an interesting use for the kickstand, while playing a game, I would flip out the kickstand, and have 3 fingers above the stand, and my pinkies kind of hooked below. It was rather comfortable, and the position lent itself to long-term playing of platformers.
And just to wrap it up;
Are these the fastest tablets on the market? No
Are they the thinnest? The Lightest? The best Displays? No.
But do I care? Absolutely NOT! The design is a love letter to Physics, the Stand makes amazing use of space that would have gone to waste, the look is lean and polished, and the Battery life is amazing.
If you feel like getting anyone a Christmas gift, this is a REALLY good call.
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