Despite its unusual design, Lenovo's Yoga Tablet 8 is a stylish and high quality device
4.5 out of 5 stars
Lenovo’s 8-inch Yoga tablet is one of the best Android tablets I’ve used, combining a slim frame with a sharp screen and speedy processor.
At first I wasn’t sure about the cylindrical bulge down one side of the tablet, which houses the battery, the power button, the headphone jack, a 5-Megapixel camera and front-facing speakers, as well as the mechanism for a kickstand. But the result of this design feature is that the rest of the tablet is extremely slim, tapering from 7.3mm down to just 3mm at the thinnest point. This, together with that aluminium frame, makes the Yoga 8 feel like a quality device.
The bulge also makes it more comfortable to grip than most tablets. The majority of the device’s 400g weight falls into your palm rather than your fingers, preventing your wrist from getting tired when reading or browsing the web.
The kickstand is discreetly tucked away at the back, and flicks down so you can either stand the tablet upright to watch videos or video-chat using the 1.6M front-facing camera, or lie it down in ‘tilt mode’ for typing or gaming. Unlike some the folding cases that come with other tablets like the iPad and Kindle Fire, the Yoga’s stand is both sturdy and stylish.
The large on/off button at one end of the bulge is a nice feature, meaning you don’t have to scrabble around with tiny buttons to wake the device up when you get an email or app notification. The only other button is a volume control on the side, giving the tablet a sleek and un-fussy appearance.
Sound quality is good too. Lenovo has added Dolby Digital Plus software to get the best from the front-facing speakers, adding depth and resonance to music and audio.
Some reviews have criticised the display, which has a resolution of 1,280x800 pixels, (like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3), but I didn’t find this a problem. The screen appears sharp and the colours vibrant, and the narrow bezel around the edge makes the most of the 8-inch screen. The 178-degree viewing angle is also impressive.
The Yoga 8 is very nippy, with 1.2GHz processor. It is also worth noting the ‘up to 18 hours’ battery life, which translates to at least a working day’s worth of heavy use.
You could argue that this is just another Android tablet. Lenovo has customised the Android operating system, giving the icons a slightly cartoonish appearance, and removed the app menu, but essentially it looks the same as Google's 'vanilla' version of Android. I personally find this preferable to the more heavily customised approach that Amazon takes with its Kindle Fire range.
Lenovo has also added a 'Smart Side Bar', which allows you to create app shortcuts and media content and adjust settings from the home screen. This can aid navigation, but I found myself launching most apps from the home screen.
The design itself is a matter of taste. Some people will prefer the more balanced design of the Google Nexus 7 or Samsung Galaxy Tab. However, the Yoga tablet solves a lot of the basic usability problems of classic tablets and, for the price, it is a stylish and highly functional device.
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