Lenovo Yoga Book review

Look, we aren’t being hyperbolic about just how thin the Yoga Book is. It’s one thing to call out the 9.6mm (0.38-inches; closed) figure, but it’s another thing entirely to see and feel the device. For Pete’s sake, if it was much thinner the tablet wouldn’t be able to fit the included audio jack.

We’re talking nigh-iPhone levels – by a tenth of an inch – of thickness on each end here, folks.

That said, the iPad Air 2 is noticeably slimmer than this at 6.1mm (0.24-inches), as is a comparable Windows tablet, like the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S at 6.3mm (0.25-inches). On the Android side, among the thinnest is the Google Pixel C, at 7mm (0.27-inches). All of these devices are also lighter than the Yoga Book (1.52 pounds; 690g) by tenths of a pound – with Apple’s leading slate unsurprisingly taking the lead in lightness by more than a half-pound.

Spec sheet 

Now, let’s see what Lenovo managed to cram inside one of the year’s thinnest tablets. Here is the Lenovo Yoga Book configuration sent to TechRadar for review:

• Operating System: Windows 10 Anniversary Edition or Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
• CPU: 1.44GHz Intel Atom x5-Z8550 (quad-core, 2MB cache, up to 2.4GHz with Turbo Boost)
• Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 400
• RAM: 4GB (LPDDR3)
• Screen: 10.1-inch FHD (1,920 x 1,200 resolution), IPS touchscreen
• Storage: 64GB flash storage (expandable by up to 128GB via microSD)
• Ports: microUSB, microHDMI, 3.5mm audio jack
• Battery: 8,500mAh
• Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi (2.4 & and 5GHz), optional 4G radio, Bluetooth 4.0
• Camera: 2MP front-facing webcam with fixed focus; 8MP rear camera with auto-focus
• Weight: 1.52 pounds (690g)
• Size: 10.1 x 6.72 x 0.38-inches (256.6 x 170.8 x 0.96mm; W x D x H)

As you can see, Lenovo has leveraged the same hardware to work with both Windows 10 and Android Marshmallow, but there is a difference in pricing for each. While the Android version costs a flat $499 (about £409, AU$655), the Windows 10 model asks for another 50 bucks at $549 (about £450, AU$720).

This is likely due to the fact that Microsoft charges its manufacturing partners for use of its Windows 10 operating system, whereas Google doesn’t charge vendors to use Android.

At any rate, either edition of the Yoga Book is comparable in price to key competitors, like the iPad Air 2 and Google Pixel C. Samsung’s Windows 10 tablet is far more expensive than this lot, though it’s a 12-inch device stacked up with 10-inchers.

That said, the Yoga Book offers more in some areas than its rivals and less in others. For instance, Lenovo’s tablet offers more memory (RAM) and storage than its two like-sized competitors to start, though its screen isn’t nearly as sharp, and its processor isn’t as powerful either.

Then again, neither of the two offer the Yoga Book’s unique features, so it’s rather difficult to get anywhere near an apples-to-apples comparison between this device and any of its rivals. 

For what this device offers in terms of original selling points over the competition, it’s excellent value. However, for everything unique about the Yoga Book, we’ve found it to be sorely lacking in power – so much so that it noticeably affects our experience using it.

Performance 

In our time using the Yoga Book (primarily the Windows 10 version), we’ve found the tablet more than ready to play full HD videos, handle basic web browsing and act as a brilliant drawing device – both digitally and with its clever analog-to-digital approach.

Unfortunately, attempting much beyond those functions, like our typical workload of 10+ Google Chrome tabs and using the Slack app to communicate with teammates, quickly reveals the device’s rather low power ceiling. And boy, will you feel it.

For a tablet touted for its ability to keep users productive, it has quite a bit of trouble keeping up with what we think is a basic workload for a Windows 10 device designed for productivity.

Here’s how the Lenovo Yoga Book performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

Benchmarks

• 3DMark Cloud Gate: 2,098; Sky Diver: 830; Fire Strike: Not supported
• Cinebench CPU: 117 points; Graphics: 15 fps
• GeekBench: 1,008 (single-core); 3,365 (multi-core)
• PCMark 8 (Home Test): 1,372 points
• PCMark 8 Battery Life: 8 hours and 32 minutes

While there isn’t much out there to compare most of these benchmarks against, we at least have Geekbench to bridge the gap between Windows 10, iOS and Android. Though, with both the iPad Air 2 and Pixel C’s multi-core processor results beating the Yoga Book by more than 1,000 points, that doesn’t do the Yoga Book any favors.

Clearly, the Yoga Book is a far worse performer in straight throughput against comparably-priced competitors. But, again, given that the Yoga Book is far from a straight-up tablet, we can’t fault the device too harshly for this.

What we can fault the Yoga Book for, however, is how this low power ceiling affects the entire experience when under such an aforementioned workload. Because the touch-based keyboard on offer here is an entirely digital affair, more of the CPU and RAM’s inherent overhead is dedicated to managing those input requests than is the case with an analog keyboard.

Regardless of how much overhead this actually amounts to, it’s woefully noticeable when, say, trying to write an email or even type a URL into the web browser while under such a workload as we mentioned above. The keyboard visibly lags behind our commands, and switching between typing and navigating via the touchpad takes more than a few presses before the touchpad responds.

(We find the same issue on the Android version, sadly, though it can handle a bit bigger of a load before buckling. However, it's blatantly clear that Google has some work to do before touchpads on Android devices are comparable to that of Windows in terms of speed and responsiveness.)

Frankly, this isn’t the sort of experience we expect from a device that promises to keep us productive. Granted, the word ‘productive’ is subjective, but we think that the tasks that keep us specifically productive shouldn’t be out of reach of a $550 (about £450, AU$720) device.

All told, if your workload is anything like what we’ve described above, don’t expect to be able to get it done on the Yoga Book without a bit of frustration. Here’s hoping Lenovo can address this somewhat through firmware patching – but, you can only push an Atom processor so far. That said, so long as you manage your expectations for what kind of work you can get done with the Yoga Book, your time with it might just be delightful.

Battery life 

What every user of the Yoga Book will be undoubtedly delighted by is the tablet’s lengthy battery life. Lenovo claims the tablet is good for up to 15 hours of life with general usage from its whopping 8,500mAh battery. Of course, vendor projections rarely, if ever, line up with real-world results, but the Yoga Book’s longevity is nevertheless impressive.

The PCMark 8 battery test, which simulates several computing tasks that we’d consider ‘general use’, put up a result of 8 hours and 32 minutes. That’s a far cry from 15 hours, but nevertheless it’s impressive for a Windows 10 tablet, much less any other.

In our anecdotal battery test, which plays a 1080p video on loop at 50% brightness and 50% volume, the Yoga Book lasted a cool 7 hours and 43 minutes. That’ll easily cover any national flight and some international.

While we haven't thoroughly tested the Android version's battery life, we see that it loses about 50% of its capacity after 4 hours. So, it's safe to expect about the same battery life here as we see from the Windows model.

Almost regardless of the task, you can expect the Yoga Book to last for an entire day’s worth of work (or play). Considering that our smartphones – and most laptops – can barely hang on through lunchtime much less the whole day, this is definitely an advantage for the Yoga Book.

Just strap in for some lengthy charge times on either version of the tablet – thanks to the microUSB port – to the tune of several hours. This is a shame, as USB-C offers fast charging and far more versatility than this dated connection standard. But, take solace in that you don’t have to charge the Yoga Book terribly often.