Watch movies in bed with this tablet

Watch movies in bed with this tablet

A projector is probably one of the last features you would expect to find on a tablet. But Lenovo evidently thinks otherwise because its new Yoga Tab 3 Pro 10 is its second tablet to have an integrated projector.

Its first attempt was with last year's Yoga Tablet 2 Pro, a large 13-inch Android slate that weighs close to 1kg. This year's attempt comes in a more portable 10 inches. Although it is not exactly lightweight at 665g, the Yoga Tab 3 Pro 10 is easy to hold with one hand because its cylindrical spine is like a rolled-up magazine.

This spine houses a beefy 10,200mAh battery that lets the Yoga last an impressive 11 hr 20 min in our video-loop battery test.

This design also enables the integrated kickstand, which pops out when you push the button at the back of the tablet. You can adjust the angle of the tablet by rotating this kickstand by up to 180 degrees.

The kickstand has a hole in the middle, which can be used to hang the tablet on a hook. This Hang mode is one of four different usage modes suggested by Lenovo. There is also the Stand mode, where the tablet is supported upright by its kickstand; and Tilt mode, where the Yoga is lying almost flat on the table at a slight angle. The fourth mode is the handheld mode.

The Tilt mode is probably the one you would use most often with the Yoga's integrated pico projector. This Digital Light Processing projector is found on the kickstand, so you can adjust it, unlike the previous version which had the projector at one end of the cylindrical spine. On the new Yoga, one end of the spine has a button to turn on the projector while the tablet's power button is at the other end.

Being able to rotate the projector is especially useful if you like watching videos in bed. Adjust the projector to point at the ceiling - and fall asleep while watching a movie.

The projector can produce an image of up to 70 inches in size. It is rated at 50 lumens, which is dim compared to the thousands of lumens produced by a typical projector. To get a good and clear image with the Yoga's projector, the room has to be sufficiently dark.

Overall, I found the projector usable, though the image is not as crisp as the tablet's own 10-inch in-plane switching display. This display looks lovely. It is bright, colourful and has excellent viewing angles. It is sharp, too, with a 2,560 x 1,600-pixel screen resolution.

This screen also supports a stylus. You do not need to buy one because it works with any conductive object. A Lenovo app called Sketchpad lets you scribble things on top of the current screen. However, your scribbles appear on the screen a split second after you write. This latency makes the Yoga less than ideal for tasks like sketching or note-taking.

I was impressed with the Yoga's speakers. Made by audio company JBL, these four speakers are at the front of the tablet, just below the screen. They easily fill the room with their sound, making the Yoga an excellent multimedia device.

Unlike the previous model, which has a custom interface made to look like Apple's iOS, the new Yoga runs a mostly stock version of Android 5.1. Lenovo has mainly tweaked the Android notification and settings pulldown shade and added a handful of its own proprietary apps, including one for the projector and a photo gallery.

The Yoga supports the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, though the range did not seem as good as my Nexus 5 smartphone. In my bedroom, the Yoga would have a single signal bar compared with three on the Nexus. The Yoga does have LTE support, though this feature was not available on my review set.

TECH SPECS

PRICE: $799
PROCESSOR: Intel Atom x5-Z8500 (2.24GHz)
RAM: 2GB
DISPLAY: 10.1 inches, 2,560 x 1,600 pixels
CAMERA: 13 megapixels (rear), 5 megapixels (front)
STORAGE: 32GB, microSD expandability up to 128GB
BATTERY: 10,200 mAh

RATING

FEATURES: 4/5
DESIGN: 4/5
PERFORMANCE: 3/5
VALUE FOR MONEY: 3/5
BATTERY LIFE: 5/5

OVERALL: 4/5

Verdict: Tablet with a distinctive projector feature and outstanding battery life.


This article was first published on December 23, 2015.
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