As expected, Lenovo has announced a better-specced Yoga Tablet 10 at this year’s MWC. The original Yoga Tablet suffered both from performance issues as well as a glaringly sub-par display, and the new Yoga Tablet 10 HD+ looks like Lenovo has fixed both these flaws on what was otherwise a very interesting tablet.
The new Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10 HD+ replaces the budget MediaTek chipset with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 1.6GHz quad-core processor and crucially, the introduction of a new 1920 x 1200 IPS display. The software’s been updated too, now running on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean compared to Android 4.2 previously. Lenovo’s also promising an OTA update to Android 4.4 KitKat for the Yoga Tablet 10 HD+, and that’s definitely good news.
Other improvements in hardware include 2GB of RAM (from 1GB), a larger 8MP rear camera (from 5MP) – all these at the expense of only about 10g in weight. The other hardware aspects remain the same – 16/32GB onboard storage with support for 64GB microSD cards, stereo front-facing speakers, 1.6MP front-facing camera, and the 9000mAh battery that’s good for up to 18 hours of use.
It’s a good thing, too, that Lenovo decided to stick with the same design for the Yoga Tablet 10 HD+. The aluminium chassis feels great as before, and the cylindrical kickstand provides exceptional grip with one hand – perfect even for a 10-inch tablet. One noticeable difference is round the back, where there is now a plastic flap that covers the microSD and SIM card slots.
As for the new display, it is perhaps not the best around, but for a budget-oriented tablet it is perfectly fine. Besides, anything is better than the display on the original Yoga Tablet. The new Yoga Tablet 10 HD+ has much better viewing angles, with better colour saturation and crucially, no yellowish tint that plagued the previous model.
The new Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10 HD+ will roll out in the US in April at a retail price of $349 – a $50 increase from the RRP of the original Yoga Tablet 10. But all things considered, it isn’t too bad a deal for a mid-range tablet. Let’s see how much the tablet will be priced when it eventually makes its way to Malaysia.
