Lenovo has taken the convertible notebook concept to its logical conclusion with the newly announced Yoga Book. The 10.1-inch sized tablet looks like a Yoga notebook, but replaces the traditional physical keyboard with what Lenovo calls the Halo Keyboard.
As far as specifications go, the Yoga Book is far from impressive. It’s powered by an Intel Atom X5 processor with 4GB RAM. There is also 64GB of storage, which is about adequate for a tablet running on Android 6.0. The display is a 10.1-inch IPS display with Full HD resolution, and the tablet has enough battery life to last for 15 hours. Interestingly, Lenovo also has a Windows 10 version of the Yoga Book available for the more productivity minded.
Hardware is not the big deal here; instead, that goes to the new Halo Keyboard. A touch surface that displays the outline of a keyboard when needed. This allows the foldable tablet to retain the functionality of a full sized keyboard, while making it even thinner while closed.
The Halo keyboard can also be turned off to convert the surface into a drawing tablet. That is a full sized Wacom-style drawing tablet attached directly to the Yoga Book. As far as typing goes, Lenovo claims that the keyboard projection is also capable of providing haptic feedback to make it feel more like a real keyboard.
Accompanying the Halo keyboard is the confusingly named Lenovo Real-Pen; which happens to be a stylus that is also a pen. Essentially, the dual use stylus is capable of being fitted with regular ink tips and functions like a normal pen. However, it also digitises anything written on a piece of paper covering the Halo keyboard.
The real-pen accessory has 2048 pressure levels and can be used at a 100-degree angle. More importantly, it’s ability to function like a regular pen means that it doesn’t need to be charged in order to be used.
The Lenovo Yoga Book is set to be released in September, with prices beginning from €499 (about RM2300) for the Android version and €599 (about RM2700) for the Windows version.
