The first big product that Lenovo is launching under the celebrity auspices of Ashton Kutcher is a tablet with a design that Sony abandoned. The Yoga Tablet has a large cylindrical grip along the length of the device, which can be better for one-handed reading.
It's also better at making your tablet less sleek and slim overall, which is probably why Sony discontinued its Tablet S line in favor of the chiseled rectangular design of its Xperia smartphones.
See also: 10 Best Apple iPad Stands
However, Lenovo may think it's improved upon the concept in its 8- and 10-inch Yoga Tablets, introducing a mini inch-long stand that folds out from the back along a hinge in the grip. The stand props the tablet up when you want to, say, sit back and watch movies. And when you want to lean in and do some serious tapping or swiping, just rotate the tablet 180 degrees into "tilt" mode, and let the top of the display rest on the stand, similar to a drafting table (or a Fox News workstation).
It's actually not a terrible idea, but it lives and dies by the details — some of which Lenovo gets face-palmingly wrong. I went hands-on with the two Yoga Tablets, and found myself frustrated and irritated more times than I should have in the scant minutes I had with them.
The first thing wrong is the camera app. Using the tablet in "hold" mode (which is to say holding the gadget along the grip) would seem to be ideal for snapping pics with one hand. Seemingly. Unfortunately, Lenovo decided to put the shutter along the bottom of the camera UI, requiring two hands to actually take photos. I almost slapped my head on this one.
Then there's the stand itself, which has a small indentation, apparently for your fingernails to dig in and pull it out; that's actually irritating in itself, but the 10-inch model makes it worse by having a tight hinge that makes it feel like you might lose a nail as you rotate the stand (in fairness, this could have just been on the specific unit I handled).
The thing that really bothered me about the Yoga Tablet, however, is a single cosmetic detail. I'm honestly bothered that I'm bothered by it, but here it is: The Lenovo logo is upside-down when it's in tilt mode. Lenovo made the unfortunate choice of choosing a color that really pops for the logo, so there it is, screaming at you from the top of the screen in all its inverse glory — no matter what you're doing.
I can almost forgive the performance, despite it being pretty lousy. The two models have virtually the same specs, running Android 4.2 with a 5-megapixel camera in back and a 1.8MP camera in front. Lenovo went for a MediaTek processor (the McDonald's of chipmakers), so it sometimes had to think for a second before responding to my taps. The display is merely 1,280 x 800, which just doesn't cut it in the age of full HD and Retina everything. On the 8-inch model it's livable, but the 10-inch Yoga Tablet is just plain fuzzy. Storage is a bare-minimum 16GB, but there's an microSD card slot if you want more.
For what Lenovo's asking — $249 and $299 for the 8-inch and 10-inch, respectively — you can do much, much better. Google's Nexus 7 has far superior specs for the same starting price, and Amazon's 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX gets you in the high-performing Snapdragon 800 club for just $229.
The only reason you'd ever want a Yoga Tablet is if you fall in love with the grip and what it offers. After my speed date with it, I'm ready for a booty call with the iPad Air.
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Images: Mashable, Christina Ascani
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