Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2
Lenovo's
ThinkPad Tablet 2 is a Windows 8 Pro tablet with its own stylus aimed at
business users and mobile workers.The Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 is the
best-looking Atom Windows 8 tablet yet, and the optional keyboard dock is
excellent. All-day battery life makes it great for travel. Performance
and Battery Life: Put a
full version of Windows 8 on a tablet you're in for a bit of a juggle, just ask
the Microsoft Surface Pro. You've got two balls to keep in the air: processing
power and battery longevity. While the ThinkPad Tablet 2 often fumbles with the
former, it flourishes with the latter.
Unlike the Surface Pro
or the Surface RT, which are powered by an Intel i5 and an ARM processor
respectively, this tablet has an Intel Atom chip. You may remember this
processor from the netbook era of a few years ago, before tablets came along
and cleaned their clocks. Now the Atom is back to power Windows 8 slates, like
this and the Acer Iconia W510.The ThinkPad Tablet 2 handled web browsing well
enough, with Internet Explorer at least. Sites load at an acceptable speed, and
we were able to begin scrolling down the page almost instantly, before images
and video embeds finished loading. Google Chrome, as well as the Google app,
performed poorly though. There's an obvious need for a patch or two here.
The system had just
enough grunt for some light multitasking. Using Window 8's neat split-screen
feature, we could watch run a YouTube video while browsing news headlines in
the Bing Daily news app. We also enjoyed listening to music via the Music app
while playing some Angry Birds or Cut the Rope.
That's the limit of the
ThinkPad Tablet 2's gaming and multitasking abilities. The low-wattage Atom
processor is meant for battery life, not blazing speeds. Lenovo estimates the
battery life at 10 hours. We generally came in around 8 hours, after taxing it
with heavy web use and streaming video. That's not bad at all, enough to get
you through the average work day, or to watch several movies on a long
flight.While we enjoyed the battery life the Atom provided, it had us wondering
why it was paired up with Windows 8. What's the point of making a device with
wide compatibility if it doesn't have the horsepower to run the most important
legacy apps? Food for thought, especially if you're between this and the more
powerful but not as long lasting Microsoft Surface Pro, or just a regular old
laptop.
But, The Tablet 2 is
expensive, especially considering the small 64GB SSD, lack of USB 3.0, and
generally slow Atom performance.
The bottom line: This
Windows 8 tablet from Lenovo scores with great industrial design and battery
life, but adding practically required accessories makes the ThinkPad Tablet 2
very expensive for what you get.
System
configurations
Windows
8 (32-bit); 1.8GHz Intel Atom Z2760; 2GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 737MB (Total) Intel
GMA; 64GB MMC SSD Specifications
ProcessorIntel Atom
Operating
SystemMicrosoft Windows 8
Display Type10.1 in
Weight1.3 lbs
Price:
$679.00
VS Asus Transformer Book T100 The
Asus Transformer Book T100 runs full Windows 8.1, comes with a keyboard, has
great battery life, and is a steal if you can find it for $350.The Asus
Transformer Book T100 is a fairly low-cost 10-inch Windows 8 tablet that can
also function as a laptop thanks to its keyboard segment.So, the T100 looks
like a netbook, and offers the same typing experience as a netbook. And it
feels like one too: With the tablet docked so that it's in clamshell mode, the
whole thing weighs 2.4 pounds (the tablet itself comes in at 1.2 pounds). It's
just about as heavy as a netbook, and just as easy to carry in one hand, though
it will still feel heavy compared to a Surface 2 with a Touch Cover
attached.There is an upshot to the T100 only being able to handle average
computing tasks - battery life. It managed to keep going for 10 hours and 45
minutes on 3D Mark's Home Battery test, which runs through a cycle of opening
and closing applications and playing HD video files until no battery life
remains. It means that you no longer have to plump lots of money for a
Haswell-based laptop if battery life is high on the agenda to get hold of the
full Windows experience.The Transformer Book T100 is a great value given the
quality of the tablet and keyboard dock. It is as full-featured a hybrid as you
will find, at a decent price.
But, The cramped
keyboard feels like an old Netbook's used to; not as fast as zippier, larger,
more expensive Windows products; display not that vibrant.
The bottom line: The
Asus Transformer Book T100 revives the Netbook value proposition (and Netbook
usability issues) in a budget-price 10-inch laptop that doubles as a tablet.
You won’t love it, but for sheer bang for the buck, it’s hard to beat.
Specifications
Display type10.1 in
OSMicrosoft Windows 8.1
RAM2 GB
ProcessorIntel
Dimensions (WxDxH)10.4
in x 6.7 in x 0.93 in
Weight2.4 lbs
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