Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 Pro review – the 1st projector tablet

Aside from its huge 13.3in screen, the versatile Yoga Tablet 2 Pro stands out from the crowd thanks to Lenovo’s characteristic bulge at the bottom, which contains a miniature projector to turn any wall into a screen, a pair of stereo speakers and a hinge, so your tablet can stand up by itself.

The latter is most useful for watching films hands-free or to display recipes in the kitchen, but you can also fold it out flat to hang the tablet on a hook, or even fold the hinge in and use the tablet’s bulge to make it easier to hold. Its size and near-1kg weight makes it unlikely you’ll use it one-handed for any great length of time, however.

Tablet maximus

The Tablet 2 Pro is the largest Yoga model we’ve seen, and it also has the highest-resolution screen. Its big 13.3in display has a 2,560×1,440-pixel resolution; we’re used to seeing 2,560-across screens on premium tablets such as the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet, but on a display this size, the resolution equates to a lower than average  220ppi; the 8.3in, 1,920×1,080 Tesco Hudl 2 has a 265ppi screen, for example. Nonetheless, the screen is sharp and clear, and while you can see the pixels making up various letters, you have to get your head pretty close to the screen.

Our objective tests didn’t flatter the display. Its brightness figure of 387cd/m2 is above average, but coverage of 71.1% of the sRGB colour gamut is more like the kind of figure we’d expect from a budget tablet display. The visualisation produced by our calibration software showed the screen fell well short of the gamut in the red part of the spectrum. A contrast ratio of 625:1 is also nothing to shout about, although we were happy with the screen’s performance in our subjective tests, where it was able to show a decent amount of detail in dark areas without blowing out the highlights. The screen is also around 40% larger than a 10in tablet, so Lenovo is bound to have had to save costs somewhere.

You can also hang the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro on a wall

Popcorn time

Lenovo has gone all out on the tablet’s film-watching capabilities. As well as stereo speakers in the front and what Lenovo rather optimistically calls a subwoofer on the back, there’s even a projector on the right side of the bulge. We were impressed with the difference the speakers made to films; dialogue, sound effects and even music had much more depth and presence than when put up against a normal tablet, which made voices sound thin by comparison.

The tablet’s built-in projector is just about good enough for sharing a film with friends

We were initially sceptical about the projector, but after messing around with it for a while we began to see the point. The lens is set to project upwards, so you’ll be able to put it on the floor or a low table and project the tablet’s screen at a comfortable height. Auto-keystone adjusts the shape of the projected image depending on where you place the projector, but you can disable this in the tablet’s settings.

In a darkened room we found we could project a 32in image on to a white wall without losing too much brightness. We didn’t think there was much advantage for one person over watching the film on the tablet’s own screen, but it may appeal if you want to watch a film with a friend – and the tablet’s speakers are loud enough to cope without you needing external speakers. Another possible use is for makeshift presentations.