LENOVO THINKPAD TABLET 2

Like squeezing a proper PC  into a sexy 10in rectangle

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Pressing hard with the digitiser pen doesn’t mimic your fingers, annoyingly, but you can use the button as a right click or to take a screen grab.

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We’d always go for the Tablet 2’s physical home button over the capacitive variety seen on some rivals. You’ll use it plenty, saving precious seconds.

LENOVO THINKPAD TABLET 2

For a device that’s supposed to be all about compromise, the Lenovo stands its ground like Dwayne Johnson in a tsunami. It’s sturdy, with a rectangular shape that has a hint of the Microsoft Surface about it, and although the plastic flexes a little, it feels as if it’ll survive a fairly hefty knock. Battery life is decent, lagging slightly behind the excellent Acer and HP, but still giving you enough juice to stretch to a day’s video, email and web browsing. And impressively, that’s despite the fact that Lenovo has pumped up the brightness on the Tablet 2’s brilliant 10.1in screen. It’s also despite the fact that its keyboard dock is of the Bluetooth variety, so there’s no extra juice coming from that direction. At least it physically docks to the tablet part, giving it a clear advantage over the Asus.


Don’t let the fact that the Tablet 2 warms up when it’s overworked (or when charging) worry you, as a stutter or two aside it’s the most capable device here. Browsing the web is a breeze and true multi-tasking with resizeable windows in the desktop mode is handled without a problem. It also packs in plenty of connectivity options – including a SIM card slot – and has two decent cameras on board. Add in the digitiser pen and you’ve got more than enough ways to use it on the go.

NEED TO KNOW

ERGONOMICS 
Oh you pretty thing The Tablet 2 is one of  the most attractive Windows 8 tabs yet, standing out from identikit slates with a black, blocky build and curved left-hand edge  to hide the digitiser. And at 580g, it’s lighter than the iPad 4.

SCREEN  
Bright young thing The Asus just steals  the crown on colour accuracy, but the  Tablet 2’s screen is the brightest here by a mile, makin it great for outdoor working. It’s punchy too, with top-notch contrast. It’s a fingerprint magnet, though.

PERFORMANCE
A real do-it-all Comparing dual-core Atom devices to the likes of full-sized Core i5 devices is like night and day. But of the four hybrids on test, the Tab 2 did the best job at masquerading as a fully-fledged portable PC. The digitizer is helpful and accurate, too.

TECH SPECS 

Display 10.1in, 1366x768 IPS, LED backlight
CPU Intel Atom dual-core  @ 1.8GHz
Storage 64GB SSD
Connectivity USB 2.0,  microUSB, mini HDMI, microSD, Bluetooth 4.0
Battery 10 (claimed)
Dimensions 262x164x19.3mm, 938g (inc dock)








 Us$705 / lenovo.com
 

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