There’s an old joke about a doctor giving an elderly patient some good news and bad news. "Give me the bad news first," the old guy says. "OK, you’ve got cancer and you’re dying. Best case, you have a few years left." "Oh god, that’s awful," cries the old man. "What’s the good news?" "Well," says the doctor, "You’re in the best shape of your life, and your dementia means you won’t remember any of this in a few hours." And that is, essentially, the Windows laptop renaissance.
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Out of last years selection of fledgling Windows 8 convertibles, Lenovo’s Yoga was our favorite by far
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We’d been waiting on this one—the Zenbook is finally getting a refresh. And for whatever reason, Asus has decided to cover one of the prettier ultrabooks out there in a sheet of Gorilla Glass. Which, hey, sure.
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Convertibles as a whole aren’t the most sensible thing in the world. At this point, most are still rife with compromises, gimmicks, and odd decisions. Sony’s new Vaio Flip is too, but its gimmick—a screen that folds back on itself—also happens to make a whole lot of sense.
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Lenovo probably did Windows 8 the best of anyone so far with the bendy, twisty Yoga. Now it’s got the Thinkpad Tablet 2 and keyboard combo. If the Lenovo Yoga is a laptop that’s sort of a tablet, this is the tablet that’s sort of a laptop. More »
It used to be that “convertible PC” could mean only one thing: a laptop whose display swiveled around, folding down into tablet mode. Now that Windows 8 is here, though, the category has become a bit muddied. How else to describe our recent collection of reviews? In just the past few weeks alone, we’ve tested a laptop whose screen folds all the way back, an Ultrabook whose display flips inside the hinge and yet another with a slide-out keyboard. Anything goes — at least until consumers decide which form factor they like best.
But when Lenovo calls its new ThinkPad Twist a convertible, you can rest assured it’s using the old-school definition. As the name implies, it has a rotating screen that allows it to be used as a 12-inch slate. And, like all the business-friendly ThinkPads that came before it, it sports a well-engineered keyboard, a secondary set of touch buttons and, of course, that signature red pointing stick. Now, though, it runs a much more finger-friendly OS, and has a touchpad that can support all the new gestures in Windows 8. It’s one of several new touch-capable notebooks from Lenovo, but it’s the only one geared toward business users. So is this worth the upgrade from an older ThinkPad? And is it a better buy than Lenovo’s other Win 8 convertible, the IdeaPad Yoga 13? Read on to find out.
Gallery: Lenovo ThinkPad Twist review
Continue reading Lenovo ThinkPad Twist review: an old form factor gets new life with Windows 8
Ultrabooks have started to look the same. For a moment, so did Windows 8 convertibles. Then, along came Toshiba—a company still willing to make weird stuff. Just get a load of this strange little Satellite U925t convertible. More »
A Windows 8 PC that can be used in a tablet mode? Those will come a dime a dozen this fall. But what’s fascinating is how each PC maker has approached the challenge of mixing a touchscreen with a more traditional mouse-and-keyboard setup. For some OEMs, this means going the hybrid route, with 10- or 11-inch tablets that slot neatly into an optional keyboard dock. For others, it means a full-fledged PC with a slide-out touchscreen. And for a few, it means a laptop whose screen can fold down, leaving you with what can only be described as an oversized slate.
That’s how we would describe the Dell XPS 12, a 12.5-inch notebook whose screen flips inside its hinge, allowing you to use the machine in tablet mode or, if you prefer, with the screen facing away from the keys. (Yes, Dell is giving this form factor a second try.) It starts at a relatively steep $1,200 but then again, this is a fairly premium machine we’re talking about: it combines all the ingredients of an Ultrabook (lightweight build, Ivy Bridge processor and a solid-state drive) with a 400-nit, 1080p, Gorilla Glass touchscreen. So what’s it like to use this form factor? And how does it fare as a regular ol’ Windows 8 PC? Let’s see.
Gallery: Dell XPS 12
Dell XPS 12 review: with the launch of Windows 8, ‘convertible’ takes on a new meaning originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You probably know that Windows 8 comes in two different versions—Basic x86 Windows (this is what you use now) and Windows RT. They have similar names. They look the same. But there are serious differences between the two—ones you should know about before you plunk down your cold hard cash on a Microsoft tablet. More »
Well, that’s a form factor you don’t see that often. Of all the Windows 8 PCs we’ve seen so far, the Dell XPS 12 is tough to forget, if only because it’s the only one whose screen flips inside the hinge like an easel. We already got hands-on at IFA last month, but now we’re learning some key details — you know, like pricing and availability. Dell just announced that it will go up for pre-order today, starting at $1,199. (It will ship October 26th, the day Windows 8 launches.) That’s a princely sum indeed compared to some of the other Windows 8 ultraportables we’ve seen, but it’s important to remember that this runs not on an Atom processor, but an Ultrabook-grade CPU. And while you might assume that 12.5-inch display makes do with 1,366 x 768 resolution, it’s actually a dense 1080p panel. Hopefully we’ll get to review a final unit soon, but in the meantime feast yourself on a fresh round of hands-on shots below.
Gallery: Dell XPS 12 hands-on
Dell XPS 12 Windows 8 convertible priced at $1,199 and up, ships this month with pre-orders starting today originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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