Performance, Battery Life, and Conclusions
Performance
Since we haven't taken a look at a lot of low-end Windows tablets, we decided to compare the Android version of this tablet to other similar tablets we've reviewed.
Taking a look at some general performance and GPU benchmarks, it's clear that you should not be buying the Yoga Book for its stellar computing capabilities. Performance is right in line from the Dell Venue 8 7000, which came out in early 2015, and is completely outclassed by modern Android handsets such as the Mate 9.
We see a more competitive story when we look at graphics performance. The Intel HD 400 graphics in the Yoga Book manage to compete well with, and sometimes best the Mali-T880 graphics in the Kirin 950 found in the Mate 8.
Battery
While performance isn't necessarily a strong suit of the Yoga Book, battery life is a different story.
Running our web browsing battery test on the Windows Yoga Book with a screen brightness of 180 Nits, we were able to achieve a runtime of 9 hours and 3 minutes. This is incredible for a device with a 32 Wh battery. When compared to full-fledged notebooks like the Dell XPS (2016) at just under 8 hours of battery life, it is quite impressive to have a machine as small as the Yoga Book, running full Windows that you can throw in your bag and not worry about the battery life of.
Pricing
With the pricing of the Windows version ($499 on Amazon) and the Android version ($470 on Amazon) of the Yoga Book, it becomes hard to recommend the Yoga Book to a lot of users.
Adding in the unique input methods and the challenges they can present to the device makes the Yoga Book a hard sell for a lot of users.
However, I do think the Yoga Book makes sense for a certain segment of users. With a great stylus, long battery life, and a super portable form factor, the Yoga Book could be a great machine for artists or avid note takers to carry everywhere with them. With the lack of a major price difference, I would recommend the Windows version of the Yoga book, due to the more robust app ecosystem of desktop Windows applications.
Overall, I hope that Lenovo doesn't abandon this concept and continues to use the Yoga brand to innovate in the often stagnant PC arena, but for most of our readers this device just isn't a great fit.
Since we can write on the
Since we can write on the actual screen this is pointless.
Exactly.
Ironic that the
Exactly.
Ironic that the reason you use to deem this niche product “pointless”, is the EXACT “point” of its existence altogether.
It’s for users that, for whatever reason, aren’t not satisfied with the more popular digitizer/stylus input method.
What I need is seamless pen
What I need is seamless pen support in OS (or Windows?) not going backwards.
Looks pointless to me too,
Looks pointless to me too, needs the chicklet keyboard back.
As someone who bought the
As someone who bought the yogabook week one (After seeing it at IFA when it was announced). I do love mine, but it took a long time, at least 2 months before i came reliant on it.
As a university student, handwritten notes synced to OneNote is awesome, the fact that I can send off notes to classmates for projects etc.
The keyboard took me the longest to get used to, literally months of daily usage. In the end I turned the sounds and vibrations off and learnt roughly where it all went. Ivstill isn’t perfect, as a right pinky shift user, I usually hit # instead of shift, ending in loads of unintended hashtagging on twitter.
It’s not perfect, the I/O is pitiful, it takes forever to charge, it doesnt last anywhere near hte 12 hours that LEnovo Claim and the screen does not look like 400 nits in anyway shape or form.
Though i’ve gotten very used to a sub 1cm roughly 700g laptop, and I dont really want to trade it in.
Thanks for your insight, I
Thanks for your insight, I have been eyeing this Yogabook since it was announced as well. Playing with the Android one at Walmart, it seems nice but i just dont know about the keyboard :-(.
I’d avoid the Android one a
I’d avoid the Android one a all costs, it’s just not worth the $50 savings.
I have been using the Android
I have been using the Android version of this device for many months now.
The noise and vibrations for the key press are incredibly annoying an frustrating.
I think 95% of people will have a hard time with the keyboard. Its important to not rest you fingers on the home keys. This is best done when you wrists are off the table. I didn’t have a huge learning curve because I was taught to touch type by a real school teacher who used to hit my wrist with a wooden ruler when my wrist wasn’t parallel with the keyboard.
For the Android version, the CPU is quite slow. My cellphone has benchmark numbers that were twice as fast. The screen resolution is quite low for a tablet. I really hate holding it in portrait mode because its heavy and the hinge is annoying because it digs in to your palm.
On the Android side of the world, the only other device similar to it is the Pixel C. That costs more and weighs more. If Nougat actually had better support for multiple windows then I would have bought that.
Although I could easily imagine having huge problems with right clicking with the track pad in the Windows version of this device, I think that problem can be solved by using a Bluetooth mouse. Frankly, I always us a mouse with my Yoga Book when working on a table. It just seems a nicer way to interact.