Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10 review

In a tablet market in which standout quality or price are the only surefire ways of distinguishing oneself from the pack, Lenovo seems convinced its Yoga Tablet 10’s novel physical design will do the work for it.

Unusually for an Android tablet, the Tablet 10 comes with an integrated, hinged stand: a thin, metal blade that folds out from its cylindrical spine, which can be used to prop the tablet up at a steep or shallow angle.

We’re impressed with the design of both the tablet and hinge. The stand feels robust and tightly engineered, and the body of the tablet is slim, with a silky, patterned texture that feels pleasant under the finger. The battery is held in the tablet’s bulging, cylindrical spine, which has two benefits: with the stand folded out of the way, it acts as a grip; and it also allows Lenovo to cram in a high-capacity battery.

In this case, it’s a huge 9,000mAh unit, which powered the Yoga Tablet 10 to an impressive 15hrs 25mins in our looping video test – second only in terms of stamina to the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9in.

That isn’t the end of the clever touches, however. In the box is a battery-powered Bluetooth keyboard, which clips to the front of the tablet’s display and doubles as a slimline screen protector. Sensibly, this sports a rubber grip underneath to prevent it from slipping on a desk, and a touchpad for more accurate cursor control.

Alas, it isn’t the highest-quality piece of kit. Because it’s so slim, it feels flimsy and plasticky. The touchpad is small, and its built-in buttons are frustratingly unresponsive. We’re also less than impressed with the non-standard charger port, which is found just above the keyboard, under a fiddly plastic flap that will prove a challenge for those without long nails or a cocktail stick to hand.

Still, ports and connectivity are surprisingly good for a tablet in this price range. There’s a 3.5mm audio jack, micro-USB – which is used to charge the tablet – and a handy microSD slot hidden just behind the stand. Elsewhere, there’s single-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4 and a 5-megapixel rear camera, which takes reasonably sharp snaps.

The Yoga Tablet 10’s display is decent, but it isn’t a showstopper. Resolution is a low 1,280 x 800, and stretched across a 10.1in screen delivers a low pixel density of 148ppi, with pixellated text and images as a result. On the other hand, brightness is excellent, measuring 495cd/m² (brighter than the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9in at 470cd/m²), and the 900:1 contrast ratio lends its colours dynamism. The colours aren’t particularly convincing, though, with skin tones taking on a sickly, yellowish tinge.

If the screen is below par, the quad-core 1.2GHz MediaTek 8125 CPU is even more underwhelming. It scored an unimpressive 326 and 1,091 respectively in the single- and multicore Geekbench tests, and was similarly sluggish when we ran the SunSpider JavaScript test, clocking in at 1,333ms, a clear step behind Kindle Fire HDX 8.9in’s score of 704ms. This is all reflected clearly in real-world use by the Tablet 10’s inability to multitask deftly. With only one app updating in the background, the processor became noticeably overstressed, browser-based tasks suddenly labouring under increased loading times.

Gaming ability is likewise below par. In the GFXBench 2.7 T-Rex HD test, it gained a score of 4.8fps, a long way behind modern tablets such as the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9in, which scored 14fps. This is most clearly illustrated in the Tablet 10’s skipping and faltering frame rate while playing demanding 3D games such as Asphalt 8: Airborne, a task that ultimately proved too much for it.

The design, battery life and price all contribute to a tablet of great flexibility and much potential, but the Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10 ultimately falls short. The flimsy feeling keyboard, off-colour, low-resolution display and sluggish performance mean we can’t recommend it.

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