Lenovo ThinkPad pilates 11e Chromebook review: Lenovo delivers the flexibility of a pilates to its touchscreen Chromebook

The first and 2nd generation of Chromebooks we reviewed nearly all observed the exact same common formula. A flimsy synthetic human body, little, low-resolution display, underpowered Intel or ARM Central Processing Unit, and couple of if any frills. Combined with Bing’s Chrome OS, basically an online-only operating-system where hardware featuring become reached through Chrome Web browser, it had been an effective, if unexciting inexpensive way of getting a clamshell laptop.

Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 11e Chromebook

The Favorable

The Bad

The Bottom Line

The following trend of methods started initially to change it upwards somewhat, with Chromebooks such as the Acer Chromebook 13 switching to an Nvidia processor and GPU, and Lenovo adding flexible design, through the N20p , with a 300-degree hinge for a kiosk function, to this design, the ThinkPad Yoga 11e.

Since it shares a 360-degree fold-back hinge with the rest of the preferred pilates range, any might say the pilates 11e could be the very first Chrome OS tablet we have examined, as the display screen folds back once again to means a thick, chunky record, whilst preventing halfway in a kiosk or demonstration Cincinnati dating sites means.

This technique happens to be available in one configuration, a $455 build with an Intel Celeron processor, 4GB of RAM, a 16GB SSD, and a 1,366×768 screen. Which is reasonably limited over other Chromebooks, and near to everything you’d pay money for Lenovo’s excellent 11-inch pilates 2 , which has an entire 500GB disk drive and windowpanes 8. From inside the UK, the Chrome type of the pilates 11e was detailed as “just around the corner,” however the windowpanes adaptation is actually ?410, whilst Australian adaptation, with Chrome OS, outlay AU$740.

Additionally remember that this education-targeted rugged body is employed for more than just a touchscreen Chromebook. Lenovo is using it for a non-touch/non-Yoga Chromebook, and for Yoga and non-Yoga Windows 8 versions. That said, the Yoga-style Chrome OS version is certainly more interesting.

The ThinkPad pilates 11e feels a lot more upscale and well-thought-out than almost every other Chromebooks, which are directed clearly in the bottom end of the market. But with essentially the exact same inner components as those techniques, additionally the same efficiency limits of Chrome OS, it is also challenging justify the higher costs unless you need a particular importance of a Chromebook with an especially durable layout, versatile hinge, or a touchscreen.

Design and features

Semi-rugged notebook computers turn up once in a while, generally targeted at either professional users, the education market (where hardware must be student-proof), or especially awkward kinds which shed their own notebook computers or spill coffee in it on a regular basis. But up to now, we’ve perhaps not viewed any durable variations regarding the present generation of ultraportable hybrids, nor of raising roster of Chromebooks.

In cases like this, the monitor bezel is wide, the trunk section try stronger, in addition to hinges happen reinforced. Which makes the pilates 11e well-suited for active on-the-go type who happen to be specifically harsh on their equipment. But, it helps to make the system thicker and heavy than one could count on from an 11-inch ultraportable or Chromebook. The Yoga 11e are 0.87 inch-thick (22mm) and weighs in at 3.7 lbs (1.7kg), without the A/C adaptor. In contrast, Lenovo’s additional Chromebook the N20p try 0.7 inch-thick (18mm) and weighs best 2.8 pounds (1.3kg).

Visit around 270 to 300 qualifications and you also see what we should call a kiosk means, making use of the screen directed out of the backside of this program, and also the keyboard dish directed down, facing the dining table and acting as a stand. That is an excellent means for showing videos or PowerPoint document, including.

Fold the screen the whole way straight back, and you have a slate-style tablet, albeit a thicker, chunky one. The keyboard the touchpad include uncovered, protruding from the back on the record in this function, but deactivated. People find this distracting, nonetheless it hasn’t slowed up the constant flow of the latest Yoga systems or knockoffs from other PC producers.

That is an especially noteworthy function here, because although we’ve viewed a few other Chromebooks with touchscreens, this is basically the very first Chrome OS system we have now tested that works as sometimes a crossbreed or pill. We don’t expect many Chrome OS tablets soon, but it is an appealing concept, one that will depend on so just how touch-friendly the internet sites or internet equipment you’re utilizing were.

The keyboard and touchpad tend to be standouts for a Chromebook. Some Chrome OS notebook computers has superficial, clacky keys and tiny touchpads, here we get the advantage of Lenovo’s deep investment in program layout. The tips (stamped with lowercase emails in Chrome OS style) become large and satisfyingly solid, whilst glass-topped touchpad supplies exceptional two-finger scrolling.