It changed into more than years in the past that Lenovo launched the promising ThinkPad Helix, a detachable tablet-computer hybrid that presented decent overall performance, lengthy battery life, and a slew of beneficial business-centric functions. The potential to apply the Helix as both a pill or a laptop, every pretty portable, made it a tremendous alternative to the bendy Yoga Ultrabook line for the worker on the cross.

The hybrid turned into obtained with blended critiques and in contrast to the Yoga, it failed to receive any updates till now due to a simple motive: the dearth of recent Intel silicon. The previous fashions packed in 3rd-gen Core processors, so when a year went with the aid of and it become time to release a brand new model, it made experience to wait until Intel’s low-electricity Broadwell Core M CPUs have been ready.

And so the brand new Lenovo ThinkPad Helix 2014/Core M changed into born. It uses the equal call as its predecessor, and largely the equal function set, however Lenovo claims it’s now 15% slimmer and will last numerous hours longer on battery. It’s also a good deal cheaper, with Lenovo shaving over $500 off the fee of the authentic to assist it end up a greater less costly and compelling option.

Aside from layout adjustments and an upgrade to Core M, numerous the ThinkPad Helix’s hardware stays the equal. On the the front you get the equal 11.6-inch 1080p show, and internally up to 8 GB of RAM and as much as 256 GB of solid state storage. The battery has contracted to 35 Wh (from 42 Wh) with out affecting rated battery lifestyles in any respect.

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The design of the ThinkPad Helix isn’t very inspiring, even though I can’t say I’m surprised thinking about it carries the ThinkPad emblem. It’s not the prettiest tablet going round, proposing a mainly grey and black layout that continues it firmly in the realm of business users. The recognition has surely been on keeping the construct purposeful, with a slew of ports, flaps and buttons you wouldn’t frequently see on other devices.

The eleven.6-inch display sits within the middle of the the front panel with fairly-sized bezels, allowing you to maintain the pill portion of the Helix without by chance touching the display screen. If you look intently you’ll understand this isn’t a trendy rounded rectangle, with sharper corners on the bottom facet than the pinnacle so it doesn’t look strange even as seated in both of the 2 keyboard docks.

On the front, the display is blanketed with the aid of smooth and swooshable smooth scratchproof glass, which extends over the bezels to a small plastic rim. This black plastic then joins a cheapish grey piece of plastic that wraps around the edges and top of the pill, presenting a housing for all the ports and the wi-fi radios. The back panel is product of a in addition-colored metallic, in all likelihood aluminium, which feels first-class however fails to offer a top rate look.

For a tablet this is in part made with metallic, I changed into amazed at the amount of flex in the frame. When putting a slight quantity of stress at the tablet I stated creaks and bends that I commonly wouldn’t see in other merchandise positioned beneath the identical load. Some regions, specially the pinnacle area, feel hollow. While the flexing and creaking isn’t sufficient for me to be definitely worried about a stress failure, it’s now not some thing I want to see in a product that have to be stable and properly built.

While not always a complaint I had about the design of the ThinkPad Helix, it ought to be stated that it’s not the thinnest or lightest tablet going round. A lot of that is all the way down to the sheer length of the show, which maintains the tool to a as a substitute hefty 795 grams; absolutely heavier than is comfortable for unmarried-passed use. At 9.6mm skinny it’s not ground-breaking in terms of thickness, however is capable of facilitate a very accessible feature.

That characteristic is a full-sized USB 3.0 port below a flap on the Helix tablet’s proper-hand facet. Few capsules include a full-sized USB port, notwithstanding how beneficial it's far to have a port that you could connect storage and peripherals to while not having an adapter. And when you do need an adapter, it’ll be for beneficial functionality such as Ethernet: Lenovo includes a USB-to-Ethernet adapter inside the box of some Helix models.

A 2d flap is placed just above the flap containing the USB port, underneath which you’ll locate each a micro-SIM slot (in supported devices) and a microSD card slot. Also along this side is the three.5mm audio jack, extent buttons, and a micro-HDMI port for without delay connecting to outside shows. Along the left side is a single port this is used for charging the Helix via a proprietary connector. Power and rotation lock buttons are discovered at the right facet of the top edge in a noticeably clean to reach region.

While most of the Helix tablet’s edges are curved to an volume, the lowest facet is largely flat to house a sequence of connectors that permit it to dock into the supported keyboards. There are 4 holes for alignment, several magnets, a choice of gold contacts and a bodily connector. The physical connector is reserved for the Ultrabook Pro keyboard with its HDMI out port, whilst the contacts are used for the basic keyboard.

The back of the pill functions a digital camera lens, which at the least on my assessment unit changed into barely misaligned with the real camera module under. Along the lowest of the returned panel you’ll discover two stereo audio system, which lamentably hearth faraway from your ears, however are exact in terms of their quantity output.

There’s additionally a fingerprint sensor placed near the proper-hand ports at the returned of the tablet. It’s an odd black rectangle that’s no longer well integrated with the relaxation of the Helix’s layout, but with a quick swipe over the curved sensor it works thoroughly. It’s without a doubt placed in a fantastic region for swiping at the same time as the usage of the pill (or laptop for that depend) in panorama mode, and because of that, it has a totally short getting to know curve.