Lenovo IdeaTab Lynx review

Hybrid notebooks are no longer confined to the high end category and that is precisely where Lenovo is angling towards with its IdeaTab Lynx that comes priced just under Rs 40,000. Lynx comes with an 11.6 inch IPS display with standard display resolution of 1366x768. The display offers crisp, bright content detail with good quality viewing angles thanks to the IPS panel on the Lynx hybrid. Packed under a 1.8 GHz Intel Atom chipset and 2 GB RAM, it is clearly not the most powerful notebook hybrid in the market and for its pricing Lenovo could have added few more goodies to make it a better value-for-money package.

Weighing at 640 grams, Lynx is easy to carry. With front 2 MP HD camera and in-built microphone, the Lynx lines up as a viable on-the-go device for video calling. Running on Windows 8 operating system with touch optimized display, it operates both as a tablet and laptop (via keyboard dock attached). The touch response of screen is good and we did not observe any responsive issues worth mentioning. Equipped with microSD card slot and dual USB 2.0 ports you can add up to the internal storage capacity of the notebook that stands at a meagre 64 GB of eMMC. Other than that, Lynx is fitted with a micro-HDMI port and micro-USB port.

The two- in-one deal
By detaching the display from the keyboard dock, Lynx becomes a full-fledged 11.6 inch Windows 8 tablet that comes with a micro-USB slot underneath the display panel, which doubles up as a medium to connect external 3G dongle for on-the-go connectivity. Lynx packs hardware that can meet basic PC usage requirement i.e. surfing the web, watching movies and some light-hearted gaming. However, if you are an avid gamer, Lynx is not the best option for you and with a 3DMark score like 459 it would be hard to recommend it for gaming. With PCMark 7, Lynx scored 1444 which validates our belief of the device making for a basic usage option. One can compare these scores with that of HP Envy X2 hybrid (PC Mark: 1432 and 3DMark: 570) and Acer Iconia W510 with score of 1305 on PCMark 7 while 3D Mark 11 did not run.

In terms of Lynx being a tablet, an 11.6 inch form factor does not really work for us. It is hard to hold it even for short while; also the build of the display is based in such a way that people are more inclined to make use of the keyboard dock in most cases. Even then, we would like to highlight that the tablet form Lynx offers all basic connectivity, including the much elusive 3G dongle support via USB-to-microUSB cable.

In terms of battery life, Lenovo claims that Lynx has 8 hour each life of both display as well as docking board. During our Battery Mark test, IdeaTab Lynx results read at life of 4 hours 30 minutes. Besides that, we made day-long use of the Lynx as our primary device for work, music, web surfing, movies etc. during which the Lynx lasted a little over 9 hours without charging.