A Class Apart
In the clutter of laptops, tablets and hybrids, Lenovo’s Yoga Book is a breath of fresh air. By NIDHI SINGAL
Lenovo is known to come up with interesting devices under its Yoga series which score high on innovation and utility – be it adding a builtin projector to a laptop or launching a tablet that can be hung on the wall. Its latest offering, the Yoga Book, is a hybrid – a combination of a touch tablet and laptop, minus a physical keyboard.
The Lenovo Yoga Book is a striking looking laptop – carbon black body with a 360-degree rotating hinge in silver renders it a sleek look. For a laptop, Yoga Book is super slim and weighs 690 gms. It has a 10.1-inch screen with 1,900 x 1,200 pixel resolution, backlit LED capacitive IPS panel offering rich colours. The traditional physical keyboard has been replaced with what Lenovo calls a ‘Halo keyboard’. This capacitive full-touch flat surface has a built-in holographic keyboard, and doubles up as a touchpad for sketching or taking digital notes. Typing on the touch keyboard was a challenge initially, but I got a hang of it, and gradually enjoyed using it. It supports haptic feedback and lets out a sound alert for every key press, which can be turned off from the Halo keyboard settings under Control Panel. Although multiple presses at the same time are not registered, it works smoothly for Windows shortcut commands. There is a small button at the top to turn off ‘Halo Keyboard’ and activate the sketch mode.
Lenovo has added a compatible stylus, with 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity, which can be used to sketch in Microsoft Paint or OneNote. There is a real pen along with ink refills that can be used to work on the paper book pad that comes with the device. This book pad attaches to the surface magnetically, and anything one scribbles or sketches on it is replicated on OneNote.
This is a Windows 10 hybrid laptop powered by Intel Atom processor with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB ROM, offering 128 GB expandable storage. There is a SIM tray slot on the side with LTE support. While it is good for entertainment, browsing, and day-to-day operations, the processor cannot handle heavy-duty apps.
Also, its super sleek form factor has come at the cost of traditional ports. There is a microUSB port for charging, a mini- HDMI port, and an audio jack, but USB, full HDMI and LAN ports are missing. Speaker grills on the side with Dolby sound offer clear and loud output. The battery back-up is impressive – powered by an 8,500-mAh battery, the laptop lasted for over 11 hours. ~