The Yoga 2 11 isn’t just a Yoga-for-the-masses or an Ultrabook without the sticker. It’s a  look into the future of Ultrabooks

It’s a fanless, lightweight, convertible, touchscreen Windows PC and costs under 600 Euro. It’s the latest incarnation of the Lenovo Yoga 11 Ultrabook but it’s running a Baytrail processor. There’s four cores instead of two, and no fan. There’s a USB3.0 connector and a total weight of just 1.45KG. This is looking like a pretty smart 2-in-1. Notebookcheck have just given it an 80% rating in their review.

600 Euro isn’t exactly mainstream pricing for a little notebook. The Lenovo Ideapad Flex 10, a slightly smaller but lighter Baytrail-M (N3520) based laptop with ‘tent mode’ and touch is under 300 Euro but I would expect that 600 Euro to drop by 10-25% fairly quickly and for short-term offers to appear around 450 in the future.

In the detailed review at Notebookcheck we see that it has a 500GB HDD inside. Of course I’m immediately thinking of SSD upgrade possibility here but it’s a 5mm 2.5” SATA drive so options are limited. The performance of the Celeron Baytrail-M CPU is better than the one I’ve just tested on the Intel NUC so it’s in an acceptable area but the user experience would be vastly improved with an SSD.

A 35Wh battery returns about 5 hours of web-usage.

A fanless, lightweight, convertible touchscreen notebook at a consumer-friendly price is, in my opinion, exactly what the market needs in order to make notebooks interesting again. The Lenovo Yoga 2 11 shows some weaknesses in the processor department and a higher-resolution display would be appealing but this is still a capable device and with an SSD upgrade (and a $100 discount to pay for it!) could be a real winner.

Check out the full review and Notebookcheck.net

More information in our database.

The original Medion Akoya P2211T/P2212T has been around since the end of 2013 but the version available in Germany since the beginning of March and coming to Australia at the end of March has a faster CPU and 4GB of RAM. This 2-in-1 Windows 8 tablet has been getting good reviews and, because of the 399 Euro price (about US$ 460 in pre-tax equivalent,) it will probably sell well. Baytrail-T is doing well in the tablet space and Baytrail-M seems to be hitting the mark in the modern-netbook space too.

Full specifications and more here.

This 11.6-inch 2-in-1 update to the P2212T came to the ‘Aldi’ supermarket chain in Germany on the 6th March for just 399 Euros which puts it in line with the big-selling ASUS Transformer Book T100. Aldi are likely to have shifted many thousands of units across their German outlets in an offer this month, just like they did with their early netbook in 2008.

The 11.6-inch screen 2-in-1 is a FullHD model so it leans towards more mainstream use than the smaller ASUS T100 competitor. In sizing it sits side-by-side with the Dell Venue 11 Pro which is a lot more expensive.

Netbookcheck gave the original P2211T an 83% score in a detail review and a quick glance through the review reveals that not only is there 64GB eMMc flash storage on board (SSD) but there’s a 500GB drive in the keyboard and AC support on the WiFi. The battery is good for about 10 hours. The updated P2212T has 4GB RAM and the faster N2920 CPU.

The weight is a little disappointing. The tablet is 830 grams which is a lot heavier than a consumer will be confortable with for long-term consumption. Add the keyboard and you’ve got 1.7KG (3.75 pounds) which is 300gm heavier than the Dell Venue 11 Pro. It’s a unique product for the price through and perfect for 2-day conferences, weekend holidays, long journeys and even to be your ‘one’ PC.  ASUS will be watching closely but it’s Acer that are likely to be watching even closer as they plan the launch of their updated W5 2-in-1.

If you’re thinking of the single-PC solution though do be aware of the CPU and GPU limitations. This Celeron N2920 (Baytrail-M) at 1.8Ghz with 4GB is powerful enough to get you through web-based work, YouTube, Office and even some basic video and photo editing but there’s not much power in reserve here. The graphics power won’t let you play too many Windows PC games although you’ll definitely find something to keep you amused in the older PC and flash-based games. It also sips more power than the Baytrail-T (Atom Z3000 series) variants.

Overall we’re talking about a lot of PC value here. The Medion Akoya P2212T update is the best of the variants if you can find it. 4GB RAM is going to be worth spending money on if you plan to use this as PC for more than just web browsing.

The bigger story here though is that Windows 8 touch 2-in-1’s have reached mainstream markets and, together with the 8-inch tablets it’s not difficult to work out that they are selling like the netbooks did too. Across the tablet and ‘modern netbook’ space the Baytrail platform appears to be hitting consumer requirements at the right price.

Note: Not all P2212T’s have the new CPU and RAM configuration. We have seen one P2212T in Switzerland being offered with the N2910 and a P2212T with N2920 and 2GB RAM in Denmark. Double-check on specifications before buying.

UK: P2211T: 349 pounds. P2212T not currently available.

DE: P2212T: 399 Euro (Aldi. Now difficult to find.)

Australia: $599 (Aldi, 26th March)

PC World have an English language preview of the Australian model here.

At MWC last week I had my first chance to go hands-on with the Dell Venue 11 Pro. Yes, it’s been on sale for a while, I know, but it’s one of the devices I just haven’t got round to testing yet. I wish I had done this earlier because it’s a nice bit of kit with an excellent keyboard. It feels high quality and the tablet isn’t too heavy.  Video hands-on below.

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Yes it’s a bit late, but we did get our hands on some exciting devices at last month’s CES 2014 in Las Vegas and have some video for you to see.

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The Lenovo Miix 2 10 is a 2-in-1 Windows 8.1 tablet with a keyboard dock, not a laptop with detachable tablet! You’ll find out why in the detailed Lenovo Miix 2 10 review below along with details on performance, battery life, usability and quality. We’ve also included a comparison with the ASUS Transformer Book T100.

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A lot of you have asked about the differences between the Lenovo Miix 2 10 and the ASUS Transformer Book T100 so I’ve been onto Intel Germany and they’ve helped us out with a T100 for us to test with. All your questions will be answered soon!

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You might get the impression that I like the Lenovo Miix 2 10 when you see how much time I’ve spent with it recently. I’ve just produced 3 new videos, in addition to the unboxing video and there’s lots of testing going on. The truth is that I am really enjoying this tablet-first device. Like the ASUS Transformer T100 I think it’s going to be a big seller as a secondary PC that extends from the sofa to the desktop and includes the holiday, car and hotel in between, both for business and pleasure.

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The Lenovo Miix 2 10 is now available in Europe and, lucky for us, in stock near the UMPCPortal office. Here’s an unboxing of the little fella which, so far, seems to be excellent value for money. An 18-minute unboxing and overview demo is available below.

I paid 369 469 Euros at Conrad in Bonn and got the 64GB version with 1090×1200 screen, keyboard dock and Z3740 CPU and so far everything is working nicely. For those that know the Acer W510, a popular 2-in-1 based on Clovertrail in 2014, this beats it in most areas,most notably in browsing speed.

Total weight is 2.3 pounds. The tablet weighs about the same as the W510 at 606 grams / 1.34 pounds. Battery capacity is 24Wh, not much compared to the Acer W510 but good enough for 6 hours of Web work by my reckoning.

As for the keyboard dock it seems OK. There’s a slightly abnormal layout due to the lack of a function key row and it’s going to need some time to get used to but the keys seem to be accurate. The mousepad is OK but there’s no multi-touch. I’m writing this article on the Miix 2 10 right now.

Screen angles are good but the screen could be a little flat in terms of color. Auto-brightness works but it doesn’t seem to be that bright at max settings.  1920×1200 is a very high density that could catch you out in desktop mode with some programs. The attachment to the base is easy to use but of course, only at one angle.

Charging is via USB or power port on the tablet. The dock has two USB2.0 ports.

The speakers are loud and accurate on the tablet and the additional speaker on the dock adds a little bit of lower-end range, but not much. It’s not what I’d call Bass.

That’s it for now. I’ll get to work on the full review so stay tuned. Feel free to ask questions below.