Gadget review: Yoga is good for you

Taking a cue from its first Yoga tablet, Lenovo moves several notches higher in the performance and style categories with the Yoga Tablet 2

We thought that the era for voice-calling tablets was over. But Lenovo seems to be in no mood to believe this. And it shouldn’t; since the Yoga Tablet 2 is a prized item when it comes to the larger hand-held devices. If you liked the Yoga tablet, launched last year, you will love Yoga Tablet 2. The battery life is longer, the screen is sharper, and to top it all, it’s 4G LTE ready, and can make voice calls as well. But there’s more to grab the eyeballs. See for yourself.

The Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 in hang  mode

Design and user-interface: Yoga Tablet 2 is a beauty with its curves and edges. Its innovative design ensures it can be used in a hanging mode as well, apart from the tilt, hold and stand mode available in the older models. The body of the tablet has also been given a new look with the slightly darker colour of Platinum (only available colour) as compared to the silver edition of the first Yoga tablet. Lenovo has made several smart changes to the User Interface (UI) too, adding more colour to the Android 4.4 Kitkat OS. The home screen is also different, and the icons appear more vibrant. Though, everyone might not warm up to the new UI, but it’s a welcome shift from the older UI.

In stand mode

Display and sound: There has been a significant improvement in the 8-inch screen, in terms of pixel density (283ppi). With a resolution of 1920x1200, it’s also more comfortable to work around — the colours are more vibrant, pictures are crisper, and since the auto modes change both colour as well as brightness depending on how you hold the device and the ambiant light, viewing is less strenuous. The audio performance is on par, offering a decent performance for movie watching.

Memory and storage: Yoga Tablet 2 has 2GB RAM, which is sufficient to take the load off its customised UI, and heavy-duty tasks. While the external SD card support has been increased to 64GB, the in-built storage is limited to just 16GB, of which a little more than 10GB is available to users. The brain behind the Yoga Tablet 2’s awesome performance is a quad core 4th-generation Intel Atom processor, Z3745 that can function up to 1.86 GHz, depending on the requirements.

Camera: The device has two cameras — an upgraded 8MP rear camera with f2.2 aperture which is positioned at the same spot as in the first Yoga tablet, and a 1.3MP front camera. The quality of pictures is decent for everyday use.

Battery: The major change here is its 6400 mAh Lithium-ion battery, which it claims, can last up to 18 hours. With a combined usage for browsing and watching videos, the device lasted an entire day while being connected to Wi-Fi.
Overall, Yoga Tablet 2 comes across as the best 8-inch tablet, and beats the rest in terms of design, performance and styling. But then comes the question. What’s the practical ‘additional’ use of a voice-calling tablet in this era of phablets? Not much, especially if you bought one of the 5 or 6-inch devices. However, if you haven’t yet, and are looking for a bigger screen, drop everything and plumb for the Yoga Tablet 2.

Price: Rs 20,999
At: All major retail stores.
Rating: 8/10

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