Lenovo ThinkPad Twist review: A great business tool - gridercovest

Lenovo's ThinkPad Gimmick is the latest in a string of Windows 8-running tablet-laptop hybrids, and it's a little different from the competition. Mainly, it's a business-homeward-bound lozenge-laptop (excuse me, lozenge-Ultrabook) intercrossed that stays true (assort of) to the ThinkPad line's traditional, if somewhat uninteresting, aesthetic.

Like strange tablet-Ultrabook hybrids, the Twist has a unique right smart of converting itself from a tablet to a laptop and back again. This time the screen is involved to the bottom of the laptop with a unwed, sturdy rotating flexible joint. You butt rotate the laptop's screen 180 degrees, and then crease it backward to use it as a tablet. This isn't a new concept – we actually first adage this style of convertible tablet-laptop elbow room back in the precocious 2000s when Microsoft was trying to make pre-iPad tablet computers a thing – but it's implemented much advisable than what we've seen earlier.

The Thinkpad Twist mounts its reveal on a rotating flexible joint.

Our review model, which costs $899.99 as designed, has a 3rd-generation Intel Substance i5-3317U central processing unit, 4GB of RAM (3.82GB functional), and a 500GB HDD spinning at 7200rpm alongside a 24GB SSD caching drive. The Twist also has improved-in Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and a slot for a SIM card, for users who want to comprise connected

Carrying out

In PCWorld's WorldBench 8 tests, the ThinkPad Twist scores 47 out of 100. This means that it's 53 percent slower than our examination model, which is No surprise – our testing model has a third-propagation Intel Substance i5 background processor, 8GB of RAM, and a discrete Nvidia graphics add-in. The Twist's score isn't great – it's on the lower side of the systems we've tested that have the same processor. For example, Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga, which has the said i5-3317U processor and 4GB of Read/write memor, scores 60 out of 100 happening WB8. Likewise, the Dell XPS 12 Convertible Touch, another convertible tablet-laptop hybrid, score 64 out of 100. The score differentials are probably because those early systems ship with SSDs instead of rotating hard drives.

The Twist also falls short in our individual performance tests. For instance, in the PCMark 7 productivity exam, the Twist scores 1099, which is just a trifle behind the Yoga's 2115 and the Duo 12's 2187. Although the Twirl does have a 24GB SSD iron heel drive, it takes longer than other convertible Ultrabooks to start up – 13.4 seconds, which is almost twice as longstanding as the Yoga's 7.9 seconds and the Duo 12's 8.8 seconds. It is quicker, however, than laptops that do non have SSD boot drives, such as the Toshiba Satellite P854t-S4310 (22.7 seconds) and the Acer Aim V5-571P-6499 (21.3 seconds).

Graphics performance on the Ric is right about where we carry it to fall, considering it's an Ultrabook with no distinct nontextual matter card. In our Dirt showdown examination (supreme quality settings, 1366 by 768 pel resolution), the Twist managed 28.8 frames per second, which is on par with the frame rates of both the Yoga (30.1fps) and the Duo 12 (33.3fps) in the same test.

We managed to squeeze out just three hours and 15 minutes of battery life with the Twist, which is not very good considering the class. Other tablet-Ultrabook hybrids typically find leastwise five hours (the Yoga got five hours and 37 minutes, while the Duo 12 got quaternity hours and 39 minutes), and some, such as the Samsung XE500T1C-A01, get American Samoa much as nine hours.

Design and Usability

The Lenovo ThinkPad Convolute looks alike a sleeker, sexier version of traditional ThinkPad laptops. Lenovo has been careful to keep its ThinkPad line visually similar, keeping the traditional ma black finish and carmine accents, though it has been updating the look in harmful ways.

The Twist has a straight, smooth cut across ready-made of soft, rubbery physical. In the frown left corner there's a silver Lenovo logo, and in the lower right recession there's a traditional ThinkPad logo. The ThinkPad logotype's "i" has a cherry dot, which is actually a light that pulses when the computer is turned on. The continue is very naive, and thither's a thin silver line around the edge.

Inside, the Wrestle looks a trifle cluttered. There's another ThinkPad logo (with another pulsing, red-dashed "i") in the lower right corner of the wrist rest, which is made of the same soft, rubbery material as the cover. The glossy 12.5-inch touch screen is surrounded aside a thick bezel, and in that respect are a pair off of buttons located below it: the Windows 8 button for switch back to the home screen, and volume controls.

The laptop sports a full-size, spill-proof, island-elan keyboard with slim, circinate keys. The keyboard is comfortable to type on, though the keys are a little slippery. In the centre of the keyboard there's a small red TrackPoint. The TrackPoint's corresponding trio buttons are located directly below the keyboard, above a small matte touchpad. The touchpad has no discrete buttons, and is instead clickable itself. Both the TrackPoint and the touchpad are comfortable as input devices, and offer smooth, right pointing and easy clicking.

Like other tablet-Ultrabook hybrids, the Twist can be used in several different ways. You can open it astir and use it as a laptop, or you canful twist the screen around to consumption it as a tablet. The sieve, which is attached to the tooshie of the laptop computer by a small, sturdy hinge, only twists one way of life, and lonesome 180 degrees. In tablet mode, you can tilt the CRT screen backward and use the bottom of the laptop as a stand, operating room you can tilt the screen each the way rearward (flat), and use the Twist as a typical pad of paper.

The Twist is a routine heavy at 3.48 pounds to wont as a pad of paper, so you probably won't be using it like that very frequently. But still, it's a nice option to have.

Lenovo also advertises a "camp out" fashion, which is when you wrick the screen, tilt it back, then tie-up the laptop on its edges to make a tent-like structure. While this mode works comfortably with the Yoga, which has balanced parts, information technology's not very potent with the Wriggle. The Twist's screen is much slimmer and light than the bottom part of the laptop computer, and so propping it up in tent mood does not seem very sturdy.

The Twist offers improving decent port survival, considering information technology's a tablet-Ultrabook hybrid. It has a Gigabit Ethernet port, which is very useful for business travelers and not something you ordinarily realize on Ultrabooks. It as wel has 2 USB 3.0 ports, a Miniskirt-DisplayPort and a Miniskirt-HDMI port, a 4-in-1 bill reader, and a Kensington mesh slot. There's a combined headphone/microphone mariner, and the business leader button is placed on the right side of the CRT screen, on with a test lock in button for when you'Re in pad modal value.

Screen and Speakers

The Twist around sports a glossy 12.5-inch IPS touch screen with a native resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. This resolution behind look a trifle dated on larger screens, but it's just fine on the Twist's screen, and images and textual matter look sharp and crisp. Overall, the Gimmick's sieve is nice-looking: it's bright, at 350 nits (the average screen brightness for a laptop is between 200 and 250 nits), which means that you'll be able to use it outside or in bright situations. Supererogatory brightness is ideal, since the Twist is meant to double as a tablet.

The Twist's screen offers up excellent demarcation and off-bloc screening angles; the only small put out I had with the screen was that colors sometimes seemed a little inactive. For lesson, whites now and again looked a little xanthous, especially when the brightness wasn't pumped.

As a touchscreen, the Twist's screen works very well. IT's responsive and accurate, and multi-touch gestures are unruffled – more on equality with a pill than with a laptop computer. It's similar to the Yoga's touchscreen, which is too responsive and smooth.

Video looks and sounds pretty mediocre along the Twist. HD streaming video plays back fairly smoothly, just I did realise much of artifacting and noise in conscionable about every part of every scene – whether I was observation the enlivened My Little Pony serial, or the dark, action-packed Pointer series.

Audio on the Twist is…interesting. It's been a long time since I've heard laptop speakers that are just kind of blah – non instantaneously awful, but also non in any way good. Here's the affair: first, the speakers seem to be located in the keyboard, which is vindicatory kind of weird. Second, though the sound gets pretty loud (and doesn't warp, level at the highest book), it's fair very vapid. On that point doesn't appear to be some bass operating theater treble happening, then complete audio sounds unexciting, and a micro echo-y. This isn't too some of an consequence if you're just watching a quick clip, but it's decidedly an issue if you wishing to listen to music.

Bottom Line

Although the Lenovo ThinkPad Twist has its flaws, it does what it's designed to do very well. That is, it's a rattling business-orientating lozenge-Ultrabook hybrid, and it's a great choice for a business enterprise exploiter.

The Twist's carrying out is a half-size on the low lateral for systems in its class, but it's nothing to be overly concerned about. The twisty screen is particularly usable if you'atomic number 75 working with somebody and you want to quickly show them what's going on on your screen (assuming they're sitting on your left-of-center – the screen solitary twists cardinal way). And course, the spill-proof keyboard and raiseable data option are great for traveling business people.

Don't vex me wrong – the ThinkPad Twist has some issues, and it's not designed for entertainment. But if you're just looking a business tablet-Ultrabook hybrid, past this laptop computer is definitely worth a look.