Lenovo Yoga Book: A laptop without the keyboard

Lenovo does find ways to change the way we use our beloved laptop. From introducing a 360-degree flipping notebook, they now want you to have a laptop without a physical keyboard.

Lenovo-Yoga-Book-3

The Lenovo Yoga Book is a fusion of the company’s Yoga design, its pretty watchband hinge, and a slab of digitizer. This device is something you don’t see every day, well, for now. You get a conventional touch display with a large touch glass surface dubbed as the Create Pad.

Lenovo-Yoga-Book-2

The Create Pad functions similarly to a Wacom tablet wherein you draw with the included stylus. This also doubles as your virtual keyboard called the Halo Keyboard. It instantly shifts from being a typing space to a sketch with a tap of a button.

Lenovo-Yoga-Book-1

Specs-wise, the Yoga Book has a 10.2-inch touch display with a full HD resolution. Inside is an Intel Atom x5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. It weighs 680 grams and is just 9.6mm thick. Lenovo claims a 15-hour battery life. 

The included stylus is from Wacom with 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity and a 100-degree angle detection. You can replace the tip of the pen with standard ink tips, just like that of a conventional pen, and write on a paper above the surface to digitally transform it.

The Lenovo Yoga Book will come with either Android or Windows software. Pricing is at $499 and $549, respectively. A 4G model will come soon but with a much higher tag.

Source

The post Lenovo Yoga Book: A laptop without the keyboard appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines Tech News & Reviews.

Cherry Mobile Alpha Prime 7 Quick Review

Early this month, Cherry Mobile has announced a new affordable device that runs Windows 10 on a 7-inch tablet. Will the sub-Php5k Alpha Prime 7 be a good contender in the budget tablet category? Find out in this quick review.

Design and Construction

The Alpha Prime 7’s name isn’t a random number the company just implemented on the tablet. The number 7 stands for its display size (in inches) that’s fitted with a 1024 x 600 resolution. It has noticeable bezels with the top and bottom having extra space for holding the device in landscape mode. The device has on-screen buttons namely Back, Home, and Find which directly searches both the web and Windows.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-1

The back is made entirely of plastic which is segmented by black panels at the top and bottom. The material feels a bit cheap and tapping the case has that hollow sound that doesn’t add any premium value to it.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-4

Additionally, it has a 5-megapixel rear camera that’s accompanied by a single LED flash. The shooter is accented with a chrome trimming that blends well with the silver panel that dominates the rear.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-2

On its upper right side is where all the physical buttons are lined up. Here we have the power/lock screen button right below the volume rocker.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-8

Meanwhile, you’ll discover the ports and slots at the top of the device. The microUSB port and audio jack are here as well as the slots for SIM and microSD for expanding the storage. As seen on the photo, the last two are covered using a plastic flap to protect against unwanted ejection.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-6

The speaker grille is located at the lower right corner and is shaped like the signal strength you see on common mobile devices.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-3

Overall, we’re no fans of its build quality but for its asking price, you can’t really expect much. At 260 grams, it has a bit of heft to it but the general plastic implementation helped take some weight off of the tablet. Hold feel is pretty much the same as other 7-inchers and the slanting sides help it sit nicely on the hands.

OS, Apps, and UI

The Alpha Prime 7 runs Windows 10 Mobile operating system which could be a bit confusing especially to those that are used to operating iOS/Android devices. Here, the live tiles seen on its desktop counterpart are present as well as other pre-loaded apps like Skype, Word, OneNote, and Outlook.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-windows

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-ui

Out of the box, the system software occupies around 2.5GB out of the usable 7.28GB storage which could only hold a few movies and audio playlists. Good thing there’s a memory expansion slot up top so you can put more content into the tablet. Browsing through its UI, we would say that jumping from one app to the other was fluid but the time it takes opening the apps isn’t as fast as we’d like them to be.

Camera

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-camera

Equipped with a 5-megapixel main shooter, the Alpha Prime 7 takes decent shots but nothing to write home about. Details are seen when ample lighting is provided but take it indoors and you’ll notice a rather soft focus and images with digital noise populating your shots. It has HDR for better exposure and has manual settings to adjust ISO, shutter speed, white balance, exposure, and focus individually. We have some sample shots below:

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-sample-shot4 cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-sample-shot5 cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-sample-shot3 cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-sample-shot6 cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-sample-shot1

Performance and Benchmarks

We conducted our usual benchmark tools (for Windows Mobile OS) to get an idea of the capabilities of its internals. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to run Basemark OS II since there were errors after installing the software but got AnTuTu and WP Bench to work. Below are the scores:

  • AnTuTu Benchmark v6 Beta 5 – 27,053
  • WP Bench – 232.06

After days of fiddling with it, we noticed that the touch display sometimes doesn’t register input well especially when trying to unlock the screen. It would take us about 2-4 times of swiping up before we could successfully access the device. Additionally, we experienced slight lags every now and then when trying to go back the home screen or delays when opening certain apps, as previously mentioned.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-benchmarks

Apart from that, typing on its keyboard was easy thanks to the big keys made possible by having a spacious screen. Playing games was also pretty amusing but don’t expect it to run graphics-heavy titles as it has limitations regarding display resolutions. Speaking of resolution, watching HD videos resulted to choppy and interrupted playback so be sure to scale down your video files before loading it unto the device.

Battery Life

With its 3200mAh non-removable battery, it resulted to 5 hours and 21 minutes of continuous playback with airplane mode activated, brightness and volume set to 50%, and battery-saving feature off. As for its normal usage, we were able to use it for an entire day with constant app updates on Wi-Fi and light gaming.

Conclusion

Cherry Mobile’s Alpha Prime 7 is indeed affordable at Php4,999. For that price, you have a timid list of specs like a quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of internal storage that you can expand using an additional microSD card. The device isn’t a powerful workhorse moreso if you render productivity tasks on a daily basis, but will be enough to give to the kids for their games and some casual browsing.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-5

Cherry Mobile Alpha Prime 7 specifications:
7-inch 1024 x 600 capacitive touchscreen display
1.1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 quad-core CPU
Adreno 304 GPU
1GB RAM
8GB Internal Memory
5-megapixel rear camera
2-megapixel front facing camera
Micro SIM
4G LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
GPS w/ A-GPS
Bluetooth 4.0
Windows 10 Mobile
3,200mAh non-removable battery
189.7 x 102.8 x 9.3mm
260g

What we liked about it: 

  • Affordable
  • Manual settings for camera

What we didn’t like:

  • Touch display sometimes doesn’t register input
  • Laggy performance every once in a while

The post Cherry Mobile Alpha Prime 7 Quick Review appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines Tech News & Reviews.

Cherry Mobile Alpha Prime 7 Quick Review

Early this month, Cherry Mobile has announced a new affordable device that runs Windows 10 on a 7-inch tablet. Will the sub-Php5k Alpha Prime 7 be a good contender in the budget tablet category? Find out in this quick review.

Design and Construction

The Alpha Prime 7’s name isn’t a random number the company just implemented on the tablet. The number 7 stands for its display size (in inches) that’s fitted with a 1024 x 600 resolution. It has noticeable bezels with the top and bottom having extra space for holding the device in landscape mode. The device has on-screen buttons namely Back, Home, and Find which directly searches both the web and Windows.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-1

The back is made entirely of plastic which is segmented by black panels at the top and bottom. The material feels a bit cheap and tapping the case has that hollow sound that doesn’t add any premium value to it.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-4

Additionally, it has a 5-megapixel rear camera that’s accompanied by a single LED flash. The shooter is accented with a chrome trimming that blends well with the silver panel that dominates the rear.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-2

On its upper right side is where all the physical buttons are lined up. Here we have the power/lock screen button right below the volume rocker.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-8

Meanwhile, you’ll discover the ports and slots at the top of the device. The microUSB port and audio jack are here as well as the slots for SIM and microSD for expanding the storage. As seen on the photo, the last two are covered using a plastic flap to protect against unwanted ejection.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-6

The speaker grille is located at the lower right corner and is shaped like the signal strength you see on common mobile devices.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-3

Overall, we’re no fans of its build quality but for its asking price, you can’t really expect much. At 260 grams, it has a bit of heft to it but the general plastic implementation helped take some weight off of the tablet. Hold feel is pretty much the same as other 7-inchers and the slanting sides help it sit nicely on the hands.

OS, Apps, and UI

The Alpha Prime 7 runs Windows 10 Mobile operating system which could be a bit confusing especially to those that are used to operating iOS/Android devices. Here, the live tiles seen on its desktop counterpart are present as well as other pre-loaded apps like Skype, Word, OneNote, and Outlook.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-windows

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-ui

Out of the box, the system software occupies around 2.5GB out of the usable 7.28GB storage which could only hold a few movies and audio playlists. Good thing there’s a memory expansion slot up top so you can put more content into the tablet. Browsing through its UI, we would say that jumping from one app to the other was fluid but the time it takes opening the apps isn’t as fast as we’d like them to be.

Camera

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-camera

Equipped with a 5-megapixel main shooter, the Alpha Prime 7 takes decent shots but nothing to write home about. Details are seen when ample lighting is provided but take it indoors and you’ll notice a rather soft focus and images with digital noise populating your shots. It has HDR for better exposure and has manual settings to adjust ISO, shutter speed, white balance, exposure, and focus individually. We have some sample shots below:

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-sample-shot4 cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-sample-shot5 cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-sample-shot3 cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-sample-shot6 cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-sample-shot1

Performance and Benchmarks

We conducted our usual benchmark tools (for Windows Mobile OS) to get an idea of the capabilities of its internals. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to run Basemark OS II since there were errors after installing the software but got AnTuTu and WP Bench to work. Below are the scores:

  • AnTuTu Benchmark v6 Beta 5 – 27,053
  • WP Bench – 232.06

After days of fiddling with it, we noticed that the touch display sometimes doesn’t register input well especially when trying to unlock the screen. It would take us about 2-4 times of swiping up before we could successfully access the device. Additionally, we experienced slight lags every now and then when trying to go back the home screen or delays when opening certain apps, as previously mentioned.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-benchmarks

Apart from that, typing on its keyboard was easy thanks to the big keys made possible by having a spacious screen. Playing games was also pretty amusing but don’t expect it to run graphics-heavy titles as it has limitations regarding display resolutions. Speaking of resolution, watching HD videos resulted to choppy and interrupted playback so be sure to scale down your video files before loading it unto the device.

Battery Life

With its 3200mAh non-removable battery, it resulted to 5 hours and 21 minutes of continuous playback with airplane mode activated, brightness and volume set to 50%, and battery-saving feature off. As for its normal usage, we were able to use it for an entire day with constant app updates on Wi-Fi and light gaming.

Conclusion

Cherry Mobile’s Alpha Prime 7 is indeed affordable at Php4,999. For that price, you have a timid list of specs like a quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of internal storage that you can expand using an additional microSD card. The device isn’t a powerful workhorse moreso if you render productivity tasks on a daily basis, but will be enough to give to the kids for their games and some casual browsing.

cherry-mobile-alpha-prime-7-review-philippines-5

Cherry Mobile Alpha Prime 7 specifications:
7-inch 1024 x 600 capacitive touchscreen display
1.1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 quad-core CPU
Adreno 304 GPU
1GB RAM
8GB Internal Memory
5-megapixel rear camera
2-megapixel front facing camera
Micro SIM
4G LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
GPS w/ A-GPS
Bluetooth 4.0
Windows 10 Mobile
3,200mAh non-removable battery
189.7 x 102.8 x 9.3mm
260g

What we liked about it: 

  • Affordable
  • Manual settings for camera

What we didn’t like:

  • Touch display sometimes doesn’t register input
  • Laggy performance every once in a while

The post Cherry Mobile Alpha Prime 7 Quick Review appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines Tech News & Reviews.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 family coming to PH

Lenovo Philippines gave us an invite to attend the local launch of its Lenovo ThinkPad X1 family consisting of the Carbon, Yoga, and Tablet models. More details about the products and the event after the break.

lenovo-thinkpad-x1-carbon-1

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon features a 14-inch 2k (2560 x 1440) display with optional Full HD IPS, full-sized, spill-resistant, backlit keyboard, 4G LTE-A modem, integrated speakers with Dolby audio, HD webcam and Touch Sensor Fingerprint Reader. The body weighs 1.18 kg and measures 0.65 inch thin.

Powering the device is a 6th generation Intel 7-6600U with vPro CPU like the ThinkPad Yoga, Samsung PCIe NVMe SSD storage, Windows 10, and a battery that can last up to 11 hours.

lenovo-thinkpad-x1-yoga-1

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga features a 14-inch 2K (2560 x 1440) touch screen display with optional OLED variant. It features a spill-resistant full-sized, backlit keyboard with the keys that retract automatically when not being used as a laptop. It weighs 2.8lbs and comes with a dockable rechargeable stylus pen.

Powering it is a 6th generation Intel 7-6600U with vPro CPU, Samsung PCIe NVMe SSD storage, optional LTE-A, and a battery that can last up to 11 hours.

lenovo-thinkpad-x1-tablet-2

Additionally, the ThinkPad X1 Tablet will remind you of Microsoft’s Surface line. It has a 12-inch 2K (2160 x 1440) IPS display, built-in kickstand, USB Type-C, and powered by an Intel Core M processor. It weighs 1.75 lbs and measures 0.3-inches thin.

Its best feature is it allows users to purchase modules such as the Productivity Module to increase battery life up to 15 hours, Presenter Module which has a built-in pico projector and HDMI port, and 3D Imaging Module with rear-facing Intel RealSense camera. You can also attach a ThinkPad keyboard with TrackPoint and use a stylus.

The launch event will happen next week, June 21, 2016. Stay tuned for the local price and availability.

The post Lenovo ThinkPad X1 family coming to PH appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines News & Tech Reviews.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 family coming to PH

Lenovo Philippines gave us an invite to attend the local launch of its Lenovo ThinkPad X1 family consisting of the Carbon, Yoga, and Tablet models. More details about the products and the event after the break.

lenovo-thinkpad-x1-carbon-1

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon features a 14-inch 2k (2560 x 1440) display with optional Full HD IPS, full-sized, spill-resistant, backlit keyboard, 4G LTE-A modem, integrated speakers with Dolby audio, HD webcam and Touch Sensor Fingerprint Reader. The body weighs 1.18 kg and measures 0.65 inch thin.

Powering the device is a 6th generation Intel 7-6600U with vPro CPU like the ThinkPad Yoga, Samsung PCIe NVMe SSD storage, Windows 10, and a battery that can last up to 11 hours.

lenovo-thinkpad-x1-yoga-1

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga features a 14-inch 2K (2560 x 1440) touch screen display with optional OLED variant. It features a spill-resistant full-sized, backlit keyboard with the keys that retract automatically when not being used as a laptop. It weighs 2.8lbs and comes with a dockable rechargeable stylus pen.

Powering it is a 6th generation Intel 7-6600U with vPro CPU, Samsung PCIe NVMe SSD storage, optional LTE-A, and a battery that can last up to 11 hours.

lenovo-thinkpad-x1-tablet-2

Additionally, the ThinkPad X1 Tablet will remind you of Microsoft’s Surface line. It has a 12-inch 2K (2160 x 1440) IPS display, built-in kickstand, USB Type-C, and powered by an Intel Core M processor. It weighs 1.75 lbs and measures 0.3-inches thin.

Its best feature is it allows users to purchase modules such as the Productivity Module to increase battery life up to 15 hours, Presenter Module which has a built-in pico projector and HDMI port, and 3D Imaging Module with rear-facing Intel RealSense camera. You can also attach a ThinkPad keyboard with TrackPoint and use a stylus.

The launch event will happen next week, June 21, 2016. Stay tuned for the local price and availability.

The post Lenovo ThinkPad X1 family coming to PH appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines News & Tech Reviews.