<div><em>The Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 has respectable tech specs but there’s still a lot holding it back </em></div><div><strong><em>by Mala Bhargava</em></strong></div><div> </div><div>Lenovo may have been a little quiet on World Yoga Day, but the rest of the time the company doesn’t let up in launching variants in its line of Yoga hybrids and tablets. Each one is actually significantly different, no mean feat when everyone else has a hard time making one product distinct from another.</div><div> </div><div>The Yoga Tablet 2 I’m looking at today was actually launched sometime last year but has become available now. It’s a tiny 8-inch version in ebony black and it’s running Windows 8.1. The build is very solid and gun-metal-ish and there’s the cylindrical bottom that houses a heavy battery and the power button and 3.5mm earphone jack. The cylinder acts as the base for the tablet and on the back is the familiar Yoga kickstand which lets you stand it up or give it a comfortable angle if you put it down flat to use the keyboard. The cylinder also gives a grip on the left if you turn the tablet into portrait mode, but after a few minutes it’s really very uncomfortable to hold, so forget about putting the Kindle app on it to read for hours. The stand and cylinder gives this device a very nice look, but consider the ergonomics before you spend Rs 22,499 for it. Strangely, I actually found it easier to hold the tablet from the non-cylinder end, but then, the thumb will be plumb on the screen.</div><div> </div><div>The screen is actually a nice 1280x800 with good colours, angles and enough sharpness. But here’s the problem. With Windows, it’s not easy to scale everything, even after customising the font or display. Some dialogue boxes and checkboxes are painfully tiny. I would check out the Android version instead and use Microsoft Office, now available on the Play Store.</div><div> </div><div>But this tablet has one big trick up its sleeve. You can use any pen to write into a notepad or OneNote or whatever else you find. It’s slippery smooth and there’s no lag in the input and result as you write, but there’s no palm rejection so you have to hold the pen straight up at an awkward angle. Ok for short bursts of input, but not for long hours of work. So although this little tablet is meant to be a productivity device, there’s a lot holding it back, despite respectable tech specs. </div><div> </div><div>(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 10-08-2015)</div><div> </div>
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