The Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 Pro is a tablet like no other, it is big, thin, designed with a hinge that allows for easy holding and placement on a surface, and it has a projector built in to take it to the pro level of tablet. Lenovo have been consistent with what they are producing recently, constantly improving the user experience on their devices, this pro tablet has the name, but is it actually pro? Let’s find out.
Design:
Everything on the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro has been carefully thoroughly considered and you will notice that every part and feature is designed for a purpose. Take the cylindrical hinge for example, it houses the speakers, the power button and also serves as a stand. The hinge allows you to hold it comfortable as it gives you something to grip. The easy to kick out (with a release button) hinge allows you to stand it upright, landscape or slightly elevated for typing. It wasn’t obvious but, there’s also a square hole in the middle of the hinge for hanging, this was particularly handy for the pico projector.
Although the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro looks thin, it’s still 23mm thick at its bulkiest point where the subwoofer and projector are house however the rest of the tablet 9mm thick, and it weighs 948g, making it less attractive to anyone who wants a light tablet to carry around. I actually feel this tablet is more suited for home entertainment or something you would take with you for meetings as you can project your presentation unto a wall rather than the usual laptop display method. It isn’t something I’d be comfortable using on the Tube for example to read books.
Performance:
Under the hood, the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro sports a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z3745 processor coupled with 2GB RAM running the installed Android 4.4.2 Kitkat OS. Without boring you with all the technical findings, the real important result here is that the tablet works well, it is smooth, running multiple applications doesn’t affect its performance and ultimately, no lag when using the projector, watching movies and as awkward as it is to play games on the tablet, it works well also.
During tests, the benchmark scores doesn’t really reflect its try pro capabilities, but in the real world, it handles the pro-tasks very well such as editing documents, using Photoshop express or Lightroom app for editing photos. It comes with 32GB of built-in memory, enough to be able to store all your documents and media files; you can also expand this using a microSD card if you need more space, or rely on cloud storage options.
The projector is one of the main reasons I wanted to play with this tablet from Lenovo, you can project a 50in 16:9 image onto any surface at a range of 2m. After numerous tests in different lighting conditions, I found that the visuals projected are not as sharp as I hoped and it was more noticeable in a bright-lit environment. Taken into a dark room however, it looked better and couple with a pair of front-facing Dolby speakers and a subwoofer at the rear, it sounded and looked great when watching movies. The projector feature can be easily activated at the touch of a button, but the focusing feature can be quite sensitive. Baring in mind that the projector is not heavy duty and is a by-feature of the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro, it wasn’t disappointing, but rather something that came in handy when needed, for example when I need to show off a video on YouTube or watch the odd videos from the BBC or iTV Player. Oh, and did I forget to mention its wow factor when showing friends?
Even with the large size of the tablet 2 pro, it still includes an 8MP main camera, and a 1.6MP front facing camera. With the way the stand is built, it makes it easy for making video calls with the front facing camera. I didn’t find myself using the main camera much as the heftiness of the device doesn’t make it an attractive option, but it is there if needed.
The screen quality is not one to go unmentioned. It has a 2,560 x 1,440 IPS screen which is very clear, sharp and the colours are great, not over-saturated or washed out, making media consumption a pleasure and when browsing the web, the text is sharp and pleasing to the eyes. With a pixel density of 221ppi, it was hard to see individual pixels unless you squint, and the brightness is adequate. Thanks to it’s IPS panel, viewing angles is not a problem either, or lighting conditions.
When it comes to the battery performance, the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro comes with a 9,600mAh battery and on paper that is huge, in fact it’s bigger than what Apple placed in the iPad Air 2. It is not surprise that Lenovo have included such a huge battery considering it has a pico projector and made for media consumption, and Lenovo even clam that it should last for 15 hours, but with a heavy use, heavy screen brightness and using the projector feature, it barely made it to 10 hours. Lenovo also failed to use a fast-charging feature which would have been useful to getting it back up to speed as quickly as possible.
Conclusion:
Anyone looking for a tablet for media consumption, the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro could be the one for you with a large battery, sharp display, built in pico projector and an adaptive hinge to suit your viewing pleasure. The things to consider when thinking about purchasing the device here, is whether you want to be using it on the move for things like reading, as the size and weight doesn’t allow for that. If you want something to use at your destination such as home or office, then it fits perfectly in the bag and works well. For the price point also, you are saving money essentially, as if you were to buy a separate pico projector of the same specs, and a laptop, you would have to shed out more money.
