Lenovo Yoga Book Hands-on, First Impressions

Lenovo has just launched its latest Yoga device for the Philippine market and this particular notebook is the one we’re eying for a while now. Here’s our initial impression of the Lenovo Yoga Book.

To begin with, the Yoga Book is a fusion of a Wacom tablet and a PC. The form factor is similar to the usual Yoga line-up of Lenovo with its watchband hinge and 360-degree flip display. It’s a well-built device made out of magnesium aluminum alloy. It measures at just 9.6mm with a weight of 690 grams. It’s like a tablet but with more functionality.

There’s a 10.1-inch IPS display equipped with a Full HD panel or 1920 x 1080 pixels. According to Lenovo, the display has a 70% coverage of the color gamut and it’s pretty bright at 400nits max. It’s a touch panel that recognizes both finger and pen inputs.

The notebook doesn’t have a physical keyboard. Instead, it’s got what Lenovo calls the Halo Keyboard. Why is that? Because the keyboard lights up when you want it to and dims when not needed. The typing experience is alike with an on-screen keyboard. There’s haptic feedback to give it a bit of a buzz while keying your input.

Turning the Halo Keyboard off will give you a flat matte black touch surface that’s powered by Wacom. This portion is called Create Pad by Lenovo and it does what it says. Here you’ll input your sketch and writing using the included pen just like on a usual Wacom tablet. The pen is quite intuitive as its tip is swappable depending on your need.

You have the option to use the usual active tip like on a Wacom tablet or swap it with a real pen ink. By putting on a piece of paper on the Create Pad, you can easily write on it like you would on a real notebook. Your input is instantly converted digitally as you write. With a casual writing test, it works pretty well with no sign of delay.

Powering the Yoga Book is the Intel Atom x5-z8850 processor. It’s paired with 4GB LPDDR3 RAM and 64GB of expandable storage. With these specs, it’s not exactly a powerhouse for rendering and heavy editing. It’s more of a productivity 2-in-1 notebook that’ll please the fans of pen writing.

Ports on the device are very limited due to its thinness. There are just a micro-USB and a micro-HDMI port. No full-size USBs or even a Type-C despite it being a late 2016 device. Although, it has a 4G LTE modem built-in for mobile internet connectivity.

Lenovo Yoga Book key specs:
10.1-inch Full HD (1920 x 1200) IPS display
Intel Atom x5-Z8550 processor
4GB LPDDR3 RAM
64GB internal storage
Expandable via micro SD, up to 128GB
8MP autofocus rear camera
2MP front camera
4G LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11ac
Bluetooth
8,500mAh battery (13 hours usage)
Windows 10 / Android 6.0 Marshmallow

The Lenovo Yoga Book retails for Php28,999 for the Windows 10 versions while a cheaper Android version is available for Php23,999. From October 15 to November 15 the Yoga Book is exclusively available at PC Express stores with nationwide availability afterward.