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Lenovo's new Yoga Book replaces the keyboard with an e-ink screen
Last year, Lenovo surprised us with a novel concept. What if there was a laptop the size of a tablet with a touch-sensitive surface in place of a keyboard? That notion birthed the Yoga Book, a tablet-digitizer hybrid that had a 10-inch display on one side and a smooth, flat surface facing it. Long story short, we were excited about the premise, but ultimately disappointed by the terrible typing experience on what the company called its Halo keyboard.
Lenovo's new Yoga Book actually has dual screens
ASUS may be turning heads with its concept dual-screen laptop here at Computex 2018, but let's not forget that other companies have tried similar things before. (ZTE's Axon M, anyone?) Lenovo, for one, isn't going to let ASUS hog the spotlight, and unveiled its second-generation Yoga Book at Intel's keynote at the show.
The bottom line: Our quick verdict on the Lenovo Yoga Book
There's nothing quite like the Lenovo Yoga Book. It's a small, lightweight clamshell device running your choice of Android or Windows 10 as an OS. Take a tour of the hardware and you'll find a 360-degree hinge, a screen and, uh, no keyboard. That's right, instead of where the keyboard deck would be is a flat-touch sensitive surface that doubles as a digital notepad and sketchpad. It works as a keyboard too, except the buttons, as it were, are all virtual, ready to disappear when you're done using them. The design is nothing if not inventive, and Lenovo deserves credit for that, but it's almost ahead of its time. That or just not very well executed. While digital artists might enjoy the doodling features, our reviewer was never able to master the keyboard. Even when she learned to type accurately, she could never do so quickly. And that's a problem for a $500-plus device designed for being productive on the go. For that, you may as well buy, you know, a laptop.
Lenovo's futuristic Yoga Book is a novelty item not worth buying yet
At a time when Apple, Microsoft and Google are pairing their new tablets with keyboards, Lenovo has done the unthinkable. It's completely ditched a true keyboard for a digital sketchpad, trading snappiness, travel and actuation for a smooth, futuristic touch surface. The idea is to offer a note-taking experience that's so effective you'd feel comfortable leaving the keyboard behind. The Lenovo Yoga Book, available in Android ($500) and Windows ($550) versions, is inventive. But Lenovo claims that the Yoga Book is the "ultimate tablet for productivity and creativity," and that's where the company is wrong. Despite plenty of well-intended enhancements, such as multi-window support in the Android model, Lenovo still failed to make device that truly facilitates productivity.
Lenovo's Yoga Book is part tablet, part sketch pad
Let's face it: Tablets are on the brink of death, and it's difficult to get excited about a new slate these days. And even though tablet-laptop hybrids are taking off, that market is cornered by Surfaces and iPad Pros. So I wasn't prepared to be as thrilled as I was by Lenovo's latest offering. The Yoga Book, based on my experience with a preview unit, is not merely a mimicry of Microsoft's Surface Book; it has impressively innovative features and a well-thought-out interface that make it a solid hybrid in its own right.
