Tablet days are long gone, but tech companies believe, there is still an
untapped segment that could be leveraged. Lenovo, known for playing and toying
with computing, has announced the all-new Yoga Book, which is much more than a
tablet-laptop hybrid and a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Surface Book. The
Yoga Book, a 10.1-inch laptop-tablet hybrid that comes with either Android
Marshmallow or Windows 10, has no keyboard. None at all, in the first glance. In
fact, it’s “bottom” half, attached via Lenovo’s signature 360-degree watchband
hinge, is a touch-sensitive surface powered by Wacom. Weighing 1.52 pounds, the
Yoga Book is a giant touchpad, which lends a flat surface with the outline of
keys. You’ll definitely need practice (and may be auto-correction software) to
crack the typing accuracy.
What Lenovo calls “Create Pad”, can also be your canvas. Tap a button to the
top right of the keyboard and the outlines disappear, leaving you with a blank
canvas. Lenovo adapted Android 6.0 Marshmallow to automatically start recording
your doodles in the company’s default note-taking app once you put the stylus,
to the touchpad. When you start writing, a small window pops up on the bottom
right of the screen and captures your scrawls. Lenovo is also bringing the
old-school experience. With a little finesse and jiggling of the stylus’ nib
with the included pen cap, you can pull out the nib and replace it with an ink
cartridge to make a “real pen”. The first runs on Android Marshmallow for Rs
$499, which is also heavily customized. With note-taking capabilities built in,
the software has also been altered to act more like a desktop. Without making
any essential changes, Windows 10 version comes at a price of $549. Both
versions of the tablet have the same specs, including a 10/1-inch 1920 x 1200
display, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. With a metal casing and slim
silhouette, the Yoga Book comes with an Intel Atom x5 processor and has a
generous 8500mAh battery that should last for up to 15 hours of general use. The
company also unveiled a thin Yoga 910 convertible laptop, which has a full-sized
physical keyboard and bends all the way around to become a 14-inch tablet.
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