Lenovo has become something of a name in the Android tablet arena, perhaps not for offering the best of the best, but more for offering quality experiences without the associated price tag. With their Yoga brand, Lenovo introduced two Android tablets last year that certainly broke the mold, with a kickstand that was designed to make these portable displays much more versatile. As well as this, the Yoga pair of 8-inch and 10.1-inch tablets had some of the best battery life on the market and now, they’re back with new and improved models that have improved processors, Full HD displays and that same design with some new tricks up its sleeve.
The Yoga 2 pair come in either 8-inch or 10.1-inch versions, both with the same Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080. On the inside, both of these are packing a quad-core Intel Atom Z3745 which can reach clock speeds up to 1.86 Ghz and there’s 2GB of RAM backing this up and 16GB of expandable storage in both Yoga 2s. With stereo front-facing speakers powered by the likes of Dolby and Wolfson, the new Yogas should sound pretty sweet as well. With the new and improved kickstand, which can now lie parallel to the tablet at 180-degrees in a new mode aptly dubbed ‘hang mode’. There’s a new notch in this kickstand that can be used to well, hang it on hooks and such. This actually seems like a pretty useful feature, making the Yoga 2 even more versatile than the first-generation. Imagine being able to hang the Yoga 2 in the kitchen as you cook, or hung up in the garage as you work on the bench, some good possibilities for this. This joins the three other ‘modes’ that Lenovo has for the Yoga 2, the hold, the tilt and the stand mode. Basically, the Yoga 2 is the tablet to look for if you want a stationary little friend.
There’s Android 4.4 KitKat running here, with Lenovo’s skin on top, which isn’t anywhere near as light as it used to be, but it’s far from obnoxious. How quickly Lenovo will be updating these pair to Android L is something we’ll need to wait and see, but I doubt it’ll be a quick turnaround.
There’s an 8-megapixel around the back of the Yoga 2 and a 1.6-megapixel camera around front. While not great for video calls, the inclusion of dual-band WiFi might help, and there’s the usual inclusion of Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS as well. There’s word of a 4G version launching as well, but that it won’t be available for the US, sadly. The 8-inch Yoga 2 measures 210 mm x 149 mm x (2.7 – 7.0) mm and weighs just 419g, while the larger version comes in at 255 mm x 183 mm x (3.0-7.2)mm and weighs 619g. Battery life is one of the bigger sales points here, and the Yoga 2, in either the 8-inch or 10.1-inch form are rated for 18-hours of battery life thanks to the large battery housed in the hump that makes a nice grip.
You’ll be able to purchase the Yoga 2 in either the 8-inch or 10.1-inch versions starting October 9th from Lenovo’s own website for $249.99 and $299.99, respectively.
