Lenovo ThinkPad Helix review

While most Windows 8 hybrids have sought to capture everyone’s attention, Lenovo’s ThinkPad Helix is happy to appeal to a more select audience: it’s the first one to take aim at the business user. With the body of an 11.6in tablet, the heart of an Ultrabook and a nifty keyboard dock, the Helix is Lenovo’s vision of a hybrid that’s destined for the boardroom.

At first glance, there’s no mistaking the Helix for anything but a traditional ThinkPad. It’s hewn from a slab of matte black, interrupted only by the occasional logo. There’s just the faintest hint of silver glitter in the matte finish, but with delicately tapered edges and a soft-touch rubberised feel to every inch of the chassis, this business-focused machine doesn’t draw attention to itself.

Business hardware is often synonymous with dull and boring design, but someone clearly didn’t tell the designers of the ThinkPad Helix. It isn’t as slender as Lenovo’s gorgeous ThinkPad X1 Carbon, but there’s a good reason for it: the Helix is actually a self-sufficient 11.6in tablet seamlessly mated to a keyboard dock.

The tablet itself weighs 848g – a little less than the 904g of Microsoft’s Surface Pro – and the keyboard adds another 822g to the total. That sounds a bit much, but it crams a lot in, adding an extra battery, a couple of USB 3 ports and a mini-DisplayPort output.

Features and design

With the tablet slotted in place, the Helix masquerades as an alluring 11.6in laptop. The full-sized keyboard lacks depth compared to the best ThinkPads, but it’s quite capable. The subtly scooped-out profile of the Scrabble-tile keys grips the finger, and the wide channels separating the keys make it easy to build up a rapid touch-typing cadence. Needless to say, it’s far superior to the Type Cover of the Microsoft Surface Pro.

The classic red trackpoint is set adrift in the keyboard’s centre, and there’s a huge, buttonless touchpad beneath. The only departure from standard ThinkPads concerns the trackpoint’s buttons, which are actually built into the top of the touchpad. Both work well, though, and as the touchpad is almost perfectly flush with the wristrest, Windows 8’s edge-swipes respond reliably to light flicks of the finger.

In laptop mode, the Helix’s display has a very limited amount of backward tilt, which leaves the display at a rather steep angle. It’s a compromise Lenovo has had to make to stop the Helix toppling backwards, whether on a desk or a lap – where it’s essential to gently counterbalance the tablet’s weight with your wrists – but it’s far from unworkable.

We had little trouble tapping out emails and reviews with the Helix sitting on our lap on a packed train or tube carriage – it’s certainly far more usable than the Surface Pro while out and about. Also, when you’ve finished working, you can flip the tablet around and dock it backwards, turning the keyboard base into an adjustable stand.

If you depress the small latch on the bottom left of the hinge, the tablet separates from the keyboard. Visually, it’s as plain and ordinary as tablets come, but it feels reassuringly sturdy, and it’s well appointed with features. Along the bottom edge, there’s a power input, a docking connector, a SIM card slot for the integrated 3G, a USB 3 port and a mini-DisplayPort output.

There’s also a 3.5mm headset jack on the right-hand edge, alongside the volume controls and screen orientation toggle, plus a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera. Best of all, Lenovo has squeezed in a stylus that stows away in the tablet’s top-right edge, something none of its peers have managed to do.

It all makes for a capable 11.6in tablet. Both touch and stylus input work without a hitch, with the stylus delivering reliable handwriting recognition and pressure-sensitive inking. The physical Windows button set in the tablet’s lower bezel is a welcome sight, too – we much prefer this to the capacitive buttons found on tablets such as Lenovo’s IdeaPad Miix or the Surface Pro. Our only complaint is that the stylus feels plasticky and lightweight compared to that of the Surface Pro, and may prove too thin for those with big hands.

The 11.6in, Full HD touchscreen is a stunner, though. Brightness and contrast aren’t as high as on the Surface Pro’s display, but at 403cd/m[sup]2[/sup] and 806:1, it isn’t a million miles behind. Colour accuracy is noticeably superior, and its combination of an almost-perfect colour temperature and accurate colour reproduction make for images that teem with lively yet realistic colours and ample detail. Most crucially of all, the viewing angles make for colours which remain true from almost any angle.

Performance

Scratch the matte black surface and you’ll discover a familiar assortment of Ultrabook-class hardware. The cheapest model, priced at £1,340 inc VAT, partners a Core i5-3427U with 4GB of DDR3L RAM and a 128GB mSATA SSD, while the £1,600 unit ups the specification with a Core i7-3667U, 8GB of RAM and a 180GB SSD. If you want mobile broadband on top of that, it’ll cost you a further £170.

In either case, it’s disappointing that the latest Intel Haswell CPUs haven’t made the grade, but performance remains spritely. Our review unit had the faster of the two specifications, and achieved a score of 0.64 in our Real World Benchmarks. That’s slower than you might expect from such a nippy processor – we suspect the limited cooling abilities of the Helix’s slender chassis are preventing the Core i7 CPU from using Turbo Boost to its maximum potential.

Despite the last-generation hardware, the Helix performed remarkably well in our suite of battery tests. On its own, the tablet survived 6hrs 47mins away from the mains in our light-use battery test – nearly an hour longer than the Surface Pro. With the keyboard dock attached, it lasted 9hrs 59mins.

Best for business?

For all the Helix’s talents, there is still room for improvement. The docking mechanism is the first quibble: it works fine, but it’s a long way from design perfection. Once docked, the tablet is held securely, but you have to make a concerted effort to align the two guide tabs every time you slot it into place.

A further niggle, albeit a very minor one, is that the little plastic flap at the rear that covers the mechanism feels a tad cheap and out of place on such an expensive device – we wonder how long it would take for someone to accidentally snap it off while yanking the Helix out of a packed laptop bag.

By far the Helix’s biggest stumbling block is its price. With even the base model coming in at £1,340, the Helix costs £430 more than a comparably specified Surface Pro with the optional Type Cover. It’s easily the match of the Surface Pro in tablet terms, and it completely eclipses its rival by providing a genuinely usable laptop mode, but it’s staggeringly expensive by any yardstick.

For the select few who can afford it, the ThinkPad Helix makes a convincing case for the business hybrid. Our advice is to wait patiently for a second-generation, Haswell-equipped Helix, but if you’re lucky enough to have an IT budget that can cope with the expense, this multi-talented machine is sure to impress.

Warranty
Warranty	3 yr return to base
Physical specifications
Dimensions	296 x 187 x 18mm (WDH)
Weight	1.670kg
Travelling weight	2.0kg
Processor and memory
Processor	Intel Core i7-3667U
RAM capacity	8.00GB
Memory type	DDR3L
SODIMM sockets free	0
SODIMM sockets total	0
Screen and video
Screen size	11.6in
Resolution screen horizontal	1,920
Resolution screen vertical	1,080
Resolution	1920 x 1080
Graphics chipset	Intel HD Graphics 4000
DisplayPort outputs	1
Drives
Capacity	180GB
Spindle speed	N/A
Replacement battery price inc VAT	£0
Networking
802.11a support	yes
802.11b support	yes
802.11g support	yes
802.11 draft-n support	yes
Integrated 3G adapter	yes
Bluetooth support	yes
Other Features
Wireless hardware on/off switch	no
3.5mm audio jacks	1
SD card reader	no
Pointing device type	Touchpad, trackpoint, touchscreen
Integrated microphone?	yes
Integrated webcam?	yes
Camera megapixel rating	5.0mp
TPM	yes
Battery and performance tests
Battery life, light use	6hr 47min
Overall Real World Benchmark score	0.64
Responsiveness score	0.76
Media score	0.70
Multitasking score	0.47
Operating system and software
Operating system	Windows 8 Pro 64-bit
OS family	Windows 8