Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsYou're going to lose the stylus nib and you won't be happy when you see how much that costs...
Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2018
I was waffling between this tablet, and the Lenovo with the projector integrated into the tablet. In the end I chose the Yoga Book and I now regret this purchase. And I really, really, really wanted to like this tablet.
The single biggest problem with the Yoga Book is with the accessories. You're given the "Real Pen" which is real-cheaply-made plastic and you have to go through this janky process to switch out the stylus nib with a nib that spews ink. First thing you're going to want to do is buy ink nibs that spew a decent amount of ink because the Lenovo nibs (you get 3) aren't that great. Actually, they're pretty bad. And expensive relative to other nibs being sold with the same features.
And, once you switch out the stylus nib, you're going to lose or misplace it because there's no retention system designed into the pen allowing you to store the nib you're not using. (Lenovo could have greatly improved the use-engineering that went into this "real" pen. As it is, I find the pen clunky and awkward to use. It's thicker than my preferred gel pens and as such distorts my handwriting.) Lenovo doesn't sell replacement stylus nibs btw - they only sell the replacement pen - so every time you lose a nib, be prepared to shell out $40 for another hollow plastic nib holder that can't store a second nib for convenience. Good luck, too, finding a third-party replacement. Nib or pen. (If you know of a replacement pen, that's not Lenovo, please leave a comment!)
Lenovo also dives deep into your pockets for replacement paper. Because it's a non-standard size and comes attached to a magnetic pad, you're going to pay almost $1/sheet of paper. Or, just buy a block of replacement Amazon pads for about 8-bucks and lose an inch or two of writing surface. The magnetism that holds the pad to the tablet is nice but it's not a must-have feature. I use plain paper tablets and since I'm writing at a table or desk, don't really need to have the pad clamped down magnetically, and re-aligning the pad to the screen only takes a second.
The native note-taking application by Lenovo, Note Saver, is a long way from what I would call functionally usable. Feature-starved would be another apt description. And because it's a native app from Lenovo, you cannot un-install it once you find a (almost any other) better app. I'm currently using Squid that I purchased off the play store as a replacement; optimally, I'd like to use Nebo for their awesome OCR but the Yoga Book version is still under development, I learned, after reaching out to them with an inquiry.
Another complaint is that, when in laptop mode, and you power-on, the screen isn't in what you could call a steady position. The hinge is pretty and unique but it doesn't prevent bad data-entry because of the wobble you get when you're trying to tap in your pin code on the touch screen.
As far as the rest goes, it's a decent Android tablet. I bought it for the ability to digitize my notes b/c, as a developer, I take copious notes when developing a new bit of software and I thought it nice to have the ability to pdf the notes and embed them into Jira tickets. That works well with the Squid app, btw, but would still wish Lenovo had better note-taking software with OCR support. I mean, if you're going to make this type of tablet, wouldn't you expect that kind of application to be a key feature?
Anyway, if I was rating this tablet for it's android-ness, it'd have about 4-stars. However, I bought this tablet b/c of it's self-professed and over-extended marketing hype as the be-all/end-all answer for note-taking. It's not because, without a fully-featured note-taking app, it's like buying a convertible that doesn't allow you to lower the top. Yeah, it's a car, and it runs, but...
And, when you combine the ongoing costs of replacement pens and paper, it becomes pretty obvious that you perhaps you should wait until they come-up with better engineered software and more-reasonably-priced accessories.
UPDATE (8 months later)
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The YB still lacks decent business-level handwriting-recognition software. I've quit using the YB completely (I do pull it out to dust it every few weeks) and am holding it reserve for the next time my Google Pixel (10" tablet) dies.
There's better tablets on the market -- you really don't need the gimmicky keyboard or strangely and super-expensive replacement pens and paper.
Lowering to 1 star.
