Lenovo ThinkPad 8: Full Review - FASTER TECH NEWS AND REVIEWS

Design

The ThinkPad eight exhibits identical sleek, minimalist aesthetic that defines Lenovo's business laptops. the rear of the slate sports a powerful and swish black metal body with a ThinkPad emblem within the higher right corner. The dot higher than the "I" lights up red once you are operative the device, that may be a nice bit. To the left is that the lens system, ringed in red, and semiconductor diode flash. 2 tiny speakers sit on the lowest of the backside.

The top right fringe of the ThinkPad eight homes the ability button, volume rocker and a small USB three.0 connexion. The howevertons ar nearly too recessed for our tastes but give firm feedback.

A small SIM Card slot and small Mount Rushmore State Card slot sit behind a flap on the higher left fringe of the tablet; a small HDMI connexion sits below them. The electro-acoustic transducer jack is on the lowest edge.

Measuring 8.8 x 5.2 x .35 inches and weighing 14.4 ounces, the ThinkPad 8 is slimmer and lighter than the Toshiba Encore (8.4 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches, 15.3 ounces) but heavier than the Dell Venue 8 Pro (8.5 x 5.11 x 0.35 inches, 13.6 ounces) and Lenovo's consumer-orientedMiix 2 (8.5 x 5.2 x 0.3 inches, 12.2 ounces). However, the ThinkPad 8 has a larger, 8.3-inch screen, while those other slates pack 8-inch panels.

Display

Colorful and sharp, the ThinkPad eight undoubtedly has the most effective screen among the Windows eight tablets we've tested. in contrast to cheaper slates that feature 1280 x 800-pixel displays, this one offers a full-HD (1920 x 1200) panel. Text looked razor-sharp, each on the beginning screen's Live Tiles and once reading a NYTimes article within the Bing News app. a number of the text looked too tiny on YouTube's homepage.

When look the HD trailer for "Godzilla," we tend to might discern terribly fine details within the destruction, as well as the destroyed face and snapped off arm of the sculpture of Liberty. the nice and cozy color of Bryan Cranston's terrified face conjointly looked natural.

Registering 320 on our light meter, the ThinkPad 8's display isn't quite as bright as its rivals. The Dell Venue 8 Pro (377 lux) and Toshiba Encore (331) both scored higher, and Lenovo's own Miix 2 (534 lux) is much brighter.

Audio

The two speakers on the ThinkPad 8 delivered fair audio quality on our tests. When we listened to Imagine Dragons' "Demons," Dan Reynolds' piercing vocals had significant impact, but the sound turned harsh when he had to compete with the drums and guitar.

The slate notched 74 decibels on our audio test, which is well below the Dell Venue 8 Pro (88 decibels) and Toshiba Encore (79 decibels). Lenovo's Miix 2 was in the same ballpark as its business-friendly cousin, with 72 decibels.

You'll get the best results if you lay the slate flat on a table, which allows the speakers to reverberate. However, it's too easy to accidentally muffle the sound when you hold the ThinkPad 8 in portrait mode, whether you're playing games or watching a video clip.

Interface

Running Windows 8.1 Pro, the ThinkPad 8 offers Microsoft's dynamic Start screen, whose Live Tiles populate with updates. It's also fairly easy to move tiles around and resize them.

By swiping in from the left, you can quickly switch apps. But the real fun starts when you use Windows 8.1's split-screen Snap mode. Thanks to this feature, you can use two apps at once, something you can't do on an iPad. For instance, we pulled up our email on the right side and Skype on the left.

The Charms menu (accessed by swiping in from the right) presents Search, Share Start, Devices and Settings. The Search tool is particularly engaging, as you can search your apps, your PC and the Web all at once in a compelling graphic presentation.

It's fairly easy to get to the desktop (there's a dedicated tile), but it's not easy to get around with your fingertip on such a sharp display. For instance, the text is very close together when you right-click on the Start button.

Apps

Lenovo bundles a complete of thirteen native and third-party apps with the ThinkPad eight. Lenovo's Companion app is barely price gap, serving principally as a promotional portal for different apps, with some tips besprent sure things like connecting your laptop via DLNA and creating tax filing easier.

Lenovo's Settings app is marginally better; you'll use it to try and do things like check power standing and alter Cool Mode (which throttles the speed), also as assemble camera and audio settings. Lenovo Reach (in Beta) could be a client cloud service that permits users to access cloud-based files and apps across Windows, humanoid and iOS devices. This includes not solely files, however conjointly photos and digital media.

On the desktop aspect, you will find Lenovo resolution Center, that you'll use to watch system health and security, also as register the pill. you'll conjointly access on-line support and appearance up guarantee data.

Third-party apps embody Skitch bit, Evernote bit, Accuweather, Kindle, Zinio, Norton Security and therefore the rara music service. We've ne'er detected of go away, however this app helps you access your files across devices, send files and track downloads.

The Windows Store stocks over one hundred,000 apps, as well as everything from Facebook and Photoshop categorical to the "Halo: Spartan Assault" game. The iPad offers over 475,000 apps, however it's nice to envision the choice rising for Windows eight.1.

Performance

Powered by Intel's 1.46-GHz Intel Z3770 quad-core Atom processor, 2GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC memory, the ThinkPad 8 turned in slightly better performance scores than its closest rivals on some tests.

For example, on PCMark 7, which measures overall performance, the ThinkPad 8 notched a score of 2,554, compared to 2,263 for the Dell Venue 8 Pro and 2,496 for the Toshiba Encore. The Mixx 2 netted 2,384.

To further gauge productivity performance, we ran our OpenOffice spreadsheet test, which matches 20,000 names to their addresses. The ThinkPad 8 took 16 minutes and 32 seconds to complete this task. That's not brisk, but it beats the Venue 8 Pro (20:36), Mixx 2 (20:22) and Toshiba Encore (21:02).

In terms of graphics prowess, the ThinkPad 8 was in the same ballpark as the Venue 8 Pro. The slate scored 8,884 on 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme, compared to 8,830 for the Dell. However, the Toshiba Encore (9,746) and Miix 2 (9,739) both scored higher.

The ThinkPad 8 offered mixed performance in everyday use. Swiping between apps felt swift, and returning to the home screen from most apps took less than a second. However, launching the camera from a cold start took close to 3 seconds, and the ThinkPad 8 changed screen orientations slowly when we flipped the device from portrait to landscape mode. This is typical of Windows 8.1 devices.

After we updated the Lenovo Settings app, the ThinkPad 8 refused to let us sign in, presenting an error message. Fortunately, resetting the device (using the paperclip-sized hole between the Power and Volume keys) solved the issue.

Battery Life

The ThinkPad 8's endurance falls short of other Windows 8 tablets. The device lasted 7 hours and 4 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test, which involves continuous surfing over Wi-Fi on 40-percent brightness. That runtime is not only considerably less than the tablet average (7:42), but also trails the Dell Venue 8 Pro (8:18), Miix 2 (8:26) and Encore (8:35) by more than an hour.

Camera

The ThinkPad 8 features an 8-megapixel camera with flash, offering more resolution than the 5-MP shooters on competing Windows 8 tablets. In an outdoor shot of intricate stonework, the slate captured a fair amount of detail, even in the shadows. The blue sky looked quite crisp, and we could easily make out individual twigs on a nearby tree.

The camera also did a nice job with an indoor close-up of our wireless Apple keyboard (complete with grime). A 1080p video we shot on our office building roof looked smooth and clear as we panned around.

The 2-MP, front-facing camera performed fairly well in our testing. When we took a selfie near a window, the ThinkPad 8 faithfully captured our multi-colored, striped tie and dark gray shirt. However, some parts of the image looked fuzzy.