hey, how's it going guys? this is dave 2d, and this is the lenovo yoga book. starts at $500 for the android version. and if you want to pay an extra $50 you can get a windows version. same hardware, just the windows version is running windows.
Android authority, now i've used both of them pretty extensively. if you're going to get one of these, i would highly recommend the android version. now the build quality is top-notch. it feels very similar to something that would normally run you 800 or even up to a 1,000 dollars.
it has that watch-band hinge, good materials, not much chassis flex, it's very well built. the ports are limited, but it's expected given the size of the device. you get micro-usb, micro-hdmi, and micro-sd. so the internal storage is 64 gigs. you'll need to rely on sd cards if you need to store a lot of stuff locally. there's also a pair of speakers located on the sides. so, i had a pre-production review unit before. that one had really mediocre speakers. but this retail version is much improved.
surprisingly clear and loud. it makes the yoga book an excellent media consumption device. the 10.1 inch screen runs at 1920x1200. it has a good color gamut and it gets bright. it's not perfectly calibrated out of the box, but it's a really solid screen. the yoga book also comes with a stylus, but it doesn't work on the screen. you can't draw on it directly. so the stylus is a two-in-one pen/stylus. you can change the nib to either be a plastic tipped stylus or it can be a fully functional pen.
it comes with three pen refills and you can easily get more. now, it doesn't work on the screen, but it interacts with the create pad, which is this whole area down here. so, the create pad is the main feature of this product. it's the feature that drew everyone's attention when it was announced. it's a glass surface that could function as a full keyboard or as a wacom tablet for creative work. and they've designed it to keep the profile of the product super thin. so, you can use it like a regular art tablet for illustrations and artwork. it's a good tablet and feels very similar to a mid-tier wacom tablet. just a little bit smaller.
but there is a little bit of input lag. and you can also write on it, or put paper like the included notepad on top. and then use the pen to write on that paper. and it'll keep track of all your strokes, so that it has a digital record of anything that you write down. you do need to use the pen that they've included. you can't just use any regular pen. but even though it's a really cool feature... it's not something that i personally found myself ever using over the past two weeks. it's something that -- i mean -- it's cool to look at, it's fun to play with...
but unless you're someone that writes regularly, you probably won't use this very often. the keyboard function is the important thing for me. and i think that this is the feature that has to be awesome if it's going to be universally appealing. but i don't love it. okay, when you type on a regular keyboard, the physical feedback is really important. your fingertips kinda feel the different keys to help you figure out your location. even without looking at it, but on this keyboard, there's no sense of location. there is haptic vibration when you type.
and you can see the glowing keys with your peripheral vision, but that's it; it's like typing on a ipad. the keyboard learns your typing habits over time. but i have been using this for over two weeks at this point, and i still can't touch-type effectively on it. the track pad also isn't amazing. the glass surface isn't smooth. there's a lot of friction when you use it, and it only has a tap function for clicking, so there's no buttons to physically press.
my unit is running android marshmallow 6.0.1. it's supposed to be updated to nougat relatively soon. i kinda wish that it was running chrome, but that's another conversation. i prefer the android version over the windows version, just because android gives a better touch experience than windows 10 does right now, and also using this track pad in windows isn't ideal. the two mega-pixel web-cam looks like this, it's decent quality. and there's also a rear facing camera when it's in tablet mode if you want to use it. performance is more than sufficient.
it's an atom processor, with 4 gigs of ram. it's fan-less, so it doesn't generate much heat. even if you're stressing it out pretty heavily on benchmarks. atom processors aren't designed for any kind of heavy-duty stuff, like raw photo editing, but it'll handle light and moderate tasks without a problem. so, i can play a youtube video while having four or five chrome tabs open pretty comfortably. battery life is great. i was consistently getting around 9 hours of regular use. and that's a full day of battery life, so you can leave the charger at home.
okay, if you're a student that types a lot, or someone who needs a really good keyboard, you probably can't use the yoga book as your primary device. but if you're someone who just types occasionally and you want to have a device that you can use for creative work as well as some productivity work, as well as being awesome for media consumption, this is a really cool device. i mean, it's not for everyone. but i think that lenovo did a really good job on their first execution of this whole kinda genre of product.
i think that future versions of this could be awesome, especially work out the kinks with the keyboard, but as for right now, i would reserve this for people that would want to purchase it for media consumption primarily
and then productivity and creative work as a secondary thing. hope you guys enjoyed this video! thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it. it's been nice, i'll see you guys next time.
