Lenovo Yoga Book Preview – Convertible with unique keyboard and stylus
In recent years we have seen many interpretations of the concept of ‘convertible’: with and without stylus, foldable, rotatable, with removable keyboard or with kickstand. We actually thought we had seen every possible variant, until we joined Lenovo’s press conference on the eve of the IFA electronics fair in Berlin. In addition to a few regular laptops, the Chinese manufacturer showed the Yoga Book: a convertible with a touch keyboard and a special stylus that makes it possible to write on the screen as well as on paper.
Let’s start with the basics. The Yoga Book is a 10.1″ convertible that connects a screen to a second surface via the now-familiar watchband hinge. That hinge is stepless and can be bent 360 degrees, while still being rigid enough to guarantee that it does not bends on its own. When closed, the Yoga Book is 9.6mm at its thickest point, tapering off to 4.05mm at the tip. Combined with a weight of only 620 grams, it makes the Book feel very compact and light. Yet it is sturdy throughout enough, thanks to the use of an alloy of magnesium and aluminum.
In regular convertibles, or in laptops, the surface on the other side of the hinge is a standard keyboard. Not at the Yoga Book. Keys are present, but they are incorporated into the surface as touch-sensitive buttons. You only know they are there because they are illuminated, which is why Lenovo calls it a ‘halo keyboard’. In fact, tapping on the Yoga Book is comparable to tapping on a touchscreen, with the only difference being that you don’t have your fingers on the screen and therefore better see what you are doing and leave fewer fingerprints at the same time. Logically, that is not very nice, certainly not compared to a real keyboard. For shorter texts, however, it can get by, thanks in part to the fact that the surface is more sensitive to touch than a capacitive touchscreen.
The Book’s ‘party trick’ takes place when you grab the included stylus. You can use this to write on the keyboard surface. The lighting then goes out and you are left with a plain black canvas. You can think of it as a Wacom-esque drawing board attached to a tablet. In such a situation, you equip the supplied stylus with the soft tip that is included. The tip is interchangeable, but more on that in a moment. The stylus itself is otherwise passive; so there is no battery in it. It does need energy, which it receives from a small magnetic field generated by coils in the drawing surface. Via electromagnetic resonance, the pen picks up enough energy to control the sensor present, and that sensor in turn makes it possible to determine exactly where the pen is located.
The most interesting application of the Book required us to swap the rubber nib in the stylus for a regular, inked one. That allowed us to write on the notepad supplied by Lenovo. This block has the exact size of the keyboard and can be magnetically attached to it. You then have an old-fashioned notepad on one side of the device and next to it a 10.1″ touchscreen in portrait orientation, which immediately mirrors what you put on paper as a user. Drawings and notes are digitally copied with striking accuracy. make digital copies of notes and forward them to others If you don’t find it necessary to see the copied result immediately, you can of course also completely fold the convertible, so that the screen is behind the notepad.
The software must support all of this, of course, and Lenovo offers users a standout choice here. The Yoga Book is released in both an Android and a Windows version. Initially, the development of the hardware started with Android as the operating system in mind, especially since, according to Lenovo, it is familiar to more and more young people, especially in areas such as Asia and South America. Research soon showed that Windows was also very popular with part of the target group and that made the company decide to release two versions. Android has been overhauled for this, so that it is possible to run apps in windows, just like you can in Windows.
Both variants are the same inside and out, with a 10.1″ IPS screen with a resolution of 1920×1200 pixels, an Intel Atom Z8850 quad-core at up to 2.4GHz, 4GB of memory and 64GB of flash storage. slot it is possible to add more memory and an optional SIM slot makes it possible to be online on the go. Windows variant Finally, the price is also different: The Android model costs 499 euros and if you want Windows, you have to pay 599 euros.
Finally
It became clear from our short hands-on session that although the Yoga Book is quite the odd man out, this duck does exactly what its owner claims and not without merit. But who is waiting for this? Lenovo thinks it will mainly appeal to students and young professionals with the Book , two groups that it expects to take notes often and want to share them with fellow students or colleagues. With the halo keyboard and stylus, the Book offers something for everyone when it comes to input and we can imagine with a little imagination that a product like this could be quite useful in the peer banks.
Lenovo itself brazenly says that for productivity tasks the Book can easily compete with Apple’s iPad, offering more functionality for a similar price. That’s a bold statement and it remains to be seen whether the group of people who have turned to the iPad for light productivity tasks can be persuaded to opt for a Book. Perhaps we can find out later this month, because the Yoga Book should be on store shelves sometime in September.