Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/19/review_lenovo_thinkpad_helix_corei7_convertible/
Lenovo ThinkPad Helix Ultrabook: Your new summer convertible?
Core i7 and a 10-hour battery life - but is it enough...
Posted in Tablets, 19th July 2013 11:03 GMT
Review Make it thin enough with a decent battery life, slap Intel’s latest Core series mobile chippery in there and it seems that just about any design can be described as an Ultrabook these days.
Has the marque lost its focus? These days there is a huge range of options from HDD to SSD, slimlime or slab-like - yet all for a price premium. Apparently, Intel wants Haswell models to wake from sleep in three seconds, so how cheaper HDD models will cope remains to be seen.
There are now high expectations of battery life to be met too. Yet for some manufacturers, these details won't be troubling them just yet if they stick to Ivy Bridge for now. Lenovo's ThinkPad Helix is a case in point, but it's no slouch and designed for the long haul too.
Lenovo ThinkPad Helix convertible Ultrabook
The ThinkPad Helix is another one of those convertible tablet-cum-keyboard affairs. Lenovo’s Yoga remained a notebook but its bend-over-backwards hinge allowed it to behave like a tablet. The Helix goes for full separation but at first glance you’d be forgiven for assuming it to be notebook-only.
Equipped with a 2GHz Intel Core i7-3667U vPro CPU, the tablet aspect is a tad lardy at 11.6mm thick and 835g but it does sport an 11.6in full HD display that relies on the Intel HD 4000 integrated GPU. It also has 8GB of DDR3L 1333MHz SDRAM and the review sample has 256GB Toshiba SSD stuffed into it.
Parting of the ways
The docking unit has a full-size keyboard featuring the timeless Trackpoint teat. It doesn’t skimp on the trackpad size either. The room for palm rests is made possible by the space needed for the inch-tall tablet hinge arrangement, which, in effect, adds more depth to the base.
The keyboard unit packs an extra battery too and, effectively, doubles the thickness and weight of this clamshell combo to 1.67kg and 20.4mm respectively. All told, it's certainly not the lightest Ultrabook I’ve ever handled.
That said, this additional 4-cell power pack enables the Lenovo Helix to clock up those hours and earn the Ultrabook and ultra pricey credentials. Yup, it’s £1,861 for this full spec model with Win8 Pro. Sure it’s a Core i7, but just how badly do you need a convertible with an 11in screen? For £1,600 you can have a 128GB SSD and Win8 or an equivalent 1.8GHz Intel Core i5-3427U CPU model for £1,340. Tempted?
Latching mechanism: push in to release from dock
Before we get into tablet mode, the base also features two USB 3.0 ports and a mini DisplayPort connector. Apart from the power input, that's it. Alas, the keyboard isn't backlit but the spacing is great and Lenovo slots in a row of function keys that double up with dedicated shortcuts to various settings on Windows 8 – very handy.
My only gripe with the keyboard is the positioning of the arrow keys, as I was constantly hitting the Page Down button by mistake. Other than that, everything else fell into place.
Not too chunky when closed, but a bit on the weighty side
There's one neat trick this combo pulls off, which is to allow the tablet to be docked in a presentation mode, so if you fold it down onto the keyboard, the screen remains uppermost. OK, so it's going to work out heavier this way than just using it as a tablet, but you do end up with more battery power.
When upright, presentation mode does seem a bit of a gimmick as only touch control is enabled. Still, I could see this might work nicely for navigation if linked to another screen mirroring the visuals.
Seeing double
I tried it with another monitor so that both displays were running at full HD and selected the extended desktop option. This choice gives you the traditional desktop on the external screen and the tiled view on the ThinkPad display.
Moving the mouse cursor between screens works fine in the normal notebook docking setup, but in presentation mode, the keyboard, Trackpoint and Trackpad are completely disabled and there's no way of navigating to the extended screen area - unless of course, you hook up a mouse and keyboard (yes, I tried it) which rather defeats the object. The lesson to be learned here is to stick to display mirroring if you're planning on some big screen action in presentation mode.
Whip it out, turn it round, slot it in again and, hey presto, Presentation mode
Regarding presentations, I wondered if the pen – that's neatly squirrelled away in a corner on the tablet – would be an improvement. Acting on this idea was the moment when I found out the digitiser didn't work. For some reason all the Touch-related control panels didn't include access to any pen options.
After a good nose around Lenovo’s drivers and support pages, I mentioned this issue to Lenovo’s PR in the hope of a solution. I was sent another Helix and all was well with the pen. It aligns fairly accurately – better than the Sony Vaio Duo – making it easier to navigate control panel checkboxes and suchlike on the full HD display.
Before the replacement ThinkPad Helix appeared, I’d started on testing its 3G SIM connectivity. There’s a full-size SIM card in the box enabling access to Lenovo’s mobile broadband service. Annoyingly, registering for this didn’t work. Instead, a message reporting that the “Provided device ID does not match” appeared.
Click to the next page on the Mobile Access app and you get a list of phone numbers for each territory. I gave it a try and a few option presses later had someone "escalating" my issue with the promise of an email resolution, eventually.
Various emails have thus far appeared one asking me to verify I exist and the other promising the problem is being worked on. Apparently I’m activated now, but on this blighted Helix, it doesn’t want to play.
The docking connector base has two additional fans to cool the Helix when used as a notebook
So, what next? See if it boots in Linux or discuss the tablet experience? You decide... OK, Linux it is then.
I have to say that for all the faffing about with the Helix in other areas, getting it to run on Linux is hands down the easiest experience I’ve had on a Windows 8 machine. As usual, go to the Settings > General > Advanced Start and following I reboot I chose the Boot Menu option.
Here, the LaCie USB stick loaded with Pen Drive Linux was showing and I could select it from the touchscreen too. Reboot again and we’re away... just make sure you’re using the docking keyboard as you’ll need to press enter to get Ubuntu up and running.
Bear in mind, there’s no touch option at the Ubuntu instal level and, as a tablet, there’s just one USB 2.0 port which you’ll need for the installer drive.
Touchscreen savvy Boot Menu choices
In the dock, Ubuntu 13.0.4 performed admirably, with touchscreen control and access to all the various networking options – Lenovo thoughtfully provides a USB 2.0 10/100 Ethernet adapter and a DisplayPort to VGA adapter too.
Incidentally, hooking up an external DisplayPort monitor worked on Ubuntu without a hitch; that is until you start poking around on the touchscreen in extended desktop mode. Then, oddly enough, the cursor flies off from the touch display in front of you and ends up in the extended area, working as though the touchscreen has become a massive track pad for the external monitor.
Easy peasy: getting Ubuntu 13.0.4 configured was trouble-free
Regardless of whether you’re running Ubuntu or Windows, there’s one aspect of this convertible combo that you can’t ignore, and that’s the screen tilt angle.
Considering this machine comes from the same folk that created the Yoga, the restricted, almost upright screen/tablet positioning seems a remarkable gaffe. While writing on Word 2013 was aided by the spaciousness of the 1920 x 1080-pixels resolution, in close proximity I was inclined to push the Helix away from me slightly to get a better view, which was less than ideal.
Packing heat
Another niggle is the power button, located on the side of the tablet edge. This is too recessed and stiff for my liking. I could never be sure if the Helix was about to fire up or if I’d not pressed it hard enough.
Yet talking of starting up, the Helix takes around eight seconds to boot from cold to the login screen and manages a Windows Experience Index figure of 5.5. From sleep it's awake as soon as the lid tablet hinge is upright.
With the PCMark 7 benchmark it notched up a score of 4792 in balanced mode and a fairly meagre increase to 4842 in high performance mode. Running PowerMark to test battery life for the complete combo went some distance, clocking up five hours 36 minutes under load, such is the endurance of a dual battery pack and seems in line with Lenovo’s claims of eking 10 hours out of it with some energy-saving tricks.
Edge connectors: vents and latching slots also adorn the Helix tablet
As a tablet, the Helix is flattened off on one edge to facilitate the docking along with access to the USB 2.0 port, SIM card slot and DisplayPort connector. It’s a design not too far removed from the Atom-powered Lenovo ThinkPad 2, which also featured a rather more basic Bluetooth keyboard stand.
There are ducts and speakers along the base too, but alas, no SD card slot and for some, the lack of HDMI will come as a disappointment That said, mini DisplayPort can handle audio on some Apple devices. It’s unclear if the Helix can do the same but with an HDMI adapter you might get lucky.
Either way, if you want audio you’ll not be too thrilled with the speakers on offer, which are a bit weedy but thankfully not too brittle. The Dolby Theatre v4 control panel makes some improvements but you’ll need to be running VLC Player and take advantage of its audio output level boosting to get a decent volume out of the Helix. Still, there’s the mic/headphone combo jack socket option if you’re keen on personal listening.
A good read: portrait mode on the full display works well for browsing
The Helix has two cameras, a 2Mp webcam and a 5Mp snapper on the back. It will even record 1080p video to match the screen, but playback on VLC revealed it was captured at 12fps.
The audio isn’t great either, rather too bubbly and tweety for my liking. If you nose around the Sound settings and turn off Enhancements, this improves matters. These treatments are designed to suppress background noise but tend to be a bit overzealous. As for the stills, zoom in on the image detail and it’s all a bit messy, but the camera autofocus is responsive so it’s OK for snaps.
As on the ThinkPad 2, the Helix has Sugarsync pre-installed for alternative Cloud coverage, although I’d guess most logging in with a Microsoft account would have, until recently, relied on SkyDrive.
There’s the usual crop of Lenovo apps too, including System Update which takes care of all the various machine-specific extras. This comes in handy if you do a System Refresh which erases just about all the non-MS apps. I had to resort to this with the sickly Helix one as I couldn’t get Office 365 to install. I got there in the end, but on Helix no.2 it installed on first try.
Double Helix: but which one is the evil twin?
Admittedly, having spent so much time battling with what can only be described as a faulty PC, my Helix experience was somewhat soured, but I certainly got to know it. Again, the lefty issue of an off-centre trackpad plagued my usage with accidental right-clicks. Having no physical click-area divisions here, it was more of a problem than usual.
The Reg Verdict
Being a Core i7 machine it's definitely a fast mover but it does get quite warm even with modest demands. But then again, we've been having a bit of a heatwave here in Blighty so environmental conditions are not exactly the norm. As convertibles go though, there are quite a few if-onlys... the screen tilt being the one that grates the most, especially when knuckling down to some serious typing.
Still, it seems like Lenovo has the right idea with this combo and a more laid-back revision with a Haswell processor would be hard to ignore. One thing that can't be overlooked, though, is the price. And with last year's chip in there, even though it is a Core i7, and a BTO Sony Vaio Duo 11 with identical spec for £500 less, the cost of the Helix seems like a big ask. ®