Lenovo announces Android Yoga Tablet costing £199

Firms claims device delivers 18 hours of battery life

MILAN: Lenovo has unveiled the Android-powered Yoga Tablet with a built-in hinged stand and 18-hour battery life. It will retail for £199 as it joins the ranks of firms that are preparing for the Christmas season.

Touted as the firm's "biggest launch of the year", the Lenovo Yoga Tablet was revealed at an event in Milan on Tuesday. The Yoga Tablet comes in 8in and 10in versions and has a built-in stand that supports Lenovo's multi-mode features seen in other Yoga devices, such as "stand mode", "tilt mode" and the rare "hold mode".

Lenovo is marketing the Yoga Tablet 10 on its design that has seen the most of the tablet's internal components moved into a cylindrical end. This is a unique design for Lenovo but not for the market, as it's reminiscent of the Sony Tablet S that was released in 2011.

"The designers were inspired by how you hold a magazine," said Lenovo's vice president of European marketing Jan Huckfeldt. "This feature isn't only enabling the 'hold mode' as we call it, but it comes with a number of additional benefits: you can easily pull out the stand and put the tablet up to watch a video, which is great for cooking or travelling on the train or plane," he added.

The Lenovo Yoga Tablet's cylindrical handle holds dual batteries, which Lenovo compared to those "typically found in laptops", offering 18 hours of use. The Yoga Tablet can also charge other devices, such as smartphones, via a USB "on-the-go" port.

Internally, the 10in and 8in models both have a 1.2Ghz MT8125 processor for WiFi versions and a quad-core MT8389 processor for 3G models, with 1GB RAM and 16GB or 32GB flash storage capacities.

However, the Yoga Tablet is let down by its relatively low 1280x800 resolution display, which looks much lower in quality than the Google Nexus 7, for example. The tablet also doesn't have the latest version of Google's mobile operating system, instead running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

On the rear is a 5MP camera and there's a front-facing 1.6MP snapper. There's also a micro SD card slot for expansion, neatly tucked around the back, under the stand. Lenovo's Yoga Tablet will cost £199 and £249 for the 8in and 10in WiFi models respectively.

For 3G models, the estimated prices are £229 and £279, respectively. The tablets will be available in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in November. There's also an optional Bluetooth keyboard cover available, which will retail for £79.