Budget-friendly Tablet-laptop Hybrid

Many people look for a tablet that can be carried around easily and used for all the things others seem to enjoy so much on tablets –reading, gaming, browsing, communicating. At the same time, they want to be able to put that tablet to some productive work. It seems a bit much to find that one has to buy a laptop and a tablet, and lug them both around through the day or lace them in different spaces in everyday life.

Is the Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx the perfect work plus fun device? As ever, it’s a mixed bag. A tablet is enjoyable to use because it’s a form that is comfortable to use. When you want to read, it should mimic a book. When you want to play games, it should give you the screen space go at it. The Lynx is in a landscapey format, just as most Windows 8 tablets are to fit in the tiles and the desktop screens without distorting them. It’s wide when you hold it straight side up, long and narrow when held in portrait mode. That makes it less than ideal as a book reader.

You certainly won’t feel like curling up with it. Browsing through a magazine also doesn’t work out, as it’s too broad or too long. Browsing through a website however, fits more naturally on this form. You have less scrolling to do in its portrait mode. Gaming isn’t quite its forte as it isn’t meant for high-end games that need processing power, but it’s ok for watching videos or a movie, though the sound is a bit thin. As a tablet, it isn’t like the iPad, Galaxy Tabs, or any of the 7-inch and mini formats users love to carry around.

 

But the Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx does better as a notebook in two parts. The first is an 11.6 inch screen, mid-range in terms of resolution, not the best in terms of viewing angles, but adequate with brightness and colors. The screen was, in my experience, not as responsive as others I’ve come across and tended to stutter when I swiped. On the top, you have the power button and n the sides the screen rotate and slot for SD card. The back of this screen –or the tablet part – is textured, which is a good measure against it slipping out of your hands, but let me give you fair warning about its plastickiness. The tablet has a 2MP front facing camera, so you can video chat or conference. It doesn’t have a camera otherwise, as most tablets do, but then it’s width really doesn’t make it suited to taking photographs comfortably.

The second part is the keyboard dock. The tablet fits into it and the screen can then lean back about 45 degrees from the center point. There’s no Yoga style gymnastics for which Lenovo is known. The keyboard section hosts more ports making it look and feel quite like a laptop. The keyboard is a full one and not cramped, but doesn’t have the legendary comfort of the ThinkPad series. Key travel is a little less to keep the whole device thin – and that’s exactly what it is: thin and light. The duo gives you 16 hours of battery life, 8 on the tablet and 8 with the dock.

So now, you can put the two parts together when you want a laptop, and detach the tablet when you want to lean back and consume content rather than create it. It works with the full Windows 8, which means you can use Microsoft Office and other applications that you are accustomed to.

The IdeaPad Lynx (and don’t confuse it with the other IdeaTabs and ThinkPad tablets etc that are also worth considering) costs Rs 39,990.

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