Laptops with a convertible form factor that lets them transform into tablets are not exactly new, but this breed of devices was lost in time a few years ago. With the release of Windows 8, that is suited for both laptops as well as touchscreen tablets, these Laptop and Tablet hybrids are back with a bang and the Lenovo ThinkPad Twist is one such convertible Ultrabook PC. Lenovo had launched this device last year and showcased this at an event in Mumbai yesterday. We had a chance to sample the Twist.

Design And Build

The Lenovo ThinkPad Twist, as the name suggests, comes with a twisting form factor. This involves the laptop's screen rotating 180 degrees parallel to the plane of the keyboard around a hinge and bending backward to form a tablet. In this case, it rotates only in the clockwise direction and there is a clear arrow marking around the hinge that indicates the direction in which it is meant to be rotated.

The build quality is very good, to say the least. The rotating hinge also has a sturdy build. Being mainly made for business users black colour is predominantly used. Lenovo has added a touch of style by putting a shiny metallic rim around the outer edges of the screen that goes well with the black colour. The exterior is made of magnesium alloy to make it light and rugged. The casing sports a matte finish that doesn't collect fingerprints and dust. At 1.6 kg, it is not exactly light for a laptop with a 12.5-inch screen size, but being just 2 cm thick, it looks fairly sleek.

Keyboard And Touchpad

It has a full-size island-type keyboard that's quite ergonomic. The concave keys make it very comfortable to type. In case you are wondering, Lenovo hasn't given up yet on the red pointing stick near the centre of the keyboard and the associated mouse buttons just below the spacebar. Lenovo believes that users still find it easier and faster to use this than a mouse or a touchpad. That said, there is an almost square touchpad below these keys that has a nice matte finish. Before I forget, I must mention that the keyboard is not backlit. Hence one would find it difficult to type in the dark on the same.

Display

The 12.5" IPS display sports pixel dimensions of 1366x768 and it is quite bright (company claim being 350 nit). The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass that also boasts of being resistant to smudges. In our observation, it is indeed true that the glossy surface is resistant to fingerprints as compared to an average touchscreen. The capacitive 10-point multi-touch screen is quite responsive to touch inputs and there is no noticeable lag.

One of the bad things is that the display is a bit too reflective and is very difficult to view in bright environments. Despite being an IPS panel it doesn't help as the viewing angles are severely restricted by these reflections. Another issue is that the bezels are a bit too large when compared to other such touch devices and it reflects poorly on the aesthetics. Speaking of aesthetics, while it is ok to have the Windows button at the centre of the bottom bezel, a couple of physical volume control buttons look really cheap. A power button and display orientation button are present on the outer side of the screen.

Hardware

The overall performance seems to be very snappy, thanks to the Core i3 CPU inside and 4 GB of RAM. It is also available with Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs, which should make it even faster. A spacious 500 GB hard drive is present within with HDD performance booster (something like an SSD that caches frequently used files to speed up performance). Intel Trusted Platform Module (TPM) built into the system keeps your data safe even in the event of theft of the unit.

Ports And Connectivity

All the ports and connectors are present on the keyboard part of the unit. There are two USB 3.0 ports (one on each side), HDMI port, Gigabit Ethernet port, and memory card slot. In addition to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, there is support for 3G data access, thanks to a full size SIM card slot.

Closing Thoughts

Since I got to spend only a few minutes with the unit, of the other things, I could only note that the boot-up time is around 15 seconds, but could not run any benchmarks. The speakers built into the device, just beneath where the screen comes into the resting position, carry Dolby Home Theatre V4 certification, so they should sound good. However, it was not possible to judge them in the noisy environment at the event so I will leave that to be decided when we receive a review unit. Running Windows 8 Pro, the base price of the Lenovo ThinkPad Twist is Rs 71,000, which is actually similar to the Core i5-based Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700 T1C with a slightly smaller 11.6" screen. We will do a detailed review of the ThinkPad once it arrives in our labs and share more info about the same with you.

Tags : Laptops, Lenovo, ThinkPad