I’ve just posted detailed hands-on information about the excellent Lenovo Yoga 710 11-inch 360-degree convertible and as I read my colleagues review of the Yoga 300 11 I wonder why they bothered. This 360 convertible weighs about 40% more, has less battery life and a very poor screen. Granted, it’s got a useful choice of ports but hey, when the screen is this bad, who’s going to want to use them? At 400 Euro the Yoga 300 11 (Lenovo Yoga 300-11IBR) with Intel Celeron N3050 and 4GB RAM isn’t even that cheap. The […]

I’ve had some time with a production sample of the Lenovo Yoga 710 and while I can’t bring you a full review there’s a lot I can tell you about it. The Yoga 710 is an 11.6-inch ultramobile Windows convertible (laptop-style with 360-degree hinge) running on a Core M CPU. Bloggers had unlimited access to it at CeBIT earlier this month and were able to draw a lot of conclusions. Here’s my summary review. The Lenovo Yoga 710 is incredibly slick, has a great screen and the keyboard is working very well, at […]

When the Lenovo Yoga Tab Pro 3 turned up I was excited to see the bright screen, long battery life figures, LTE and that projector, which of course no-one needs…but everyone can, somehow, justify. Here’s a summary review of this interesting and well-designed 10-inch Android tablet. Yes the Lenovo Yoga Tab Pro 3 is the one with the projector that you’ve probably heard about already. This isn’t a laptop or 2-in-1 mind, despite the Yoga branding. Details: All the Lenovo Yoga’s, specifications and reviews. My daughter already loves the Yoga Tab […]

The iPad Pro 9.7. I had to laugh a little when I saw it on the Apple event stream. Pen, keyboard, ultramobile and ‘the future of PCs.’ Maybe. Maybe not. Over the years of writing at UMPCPortal there’s one thing that’s for certain – 10-inch screen sizes don’t work well for keyboards and therefore don’t fulfill the full set of user requirements for a PC.Despite that, the iPad Pro 9.7 is one pretty impressive UMPC. At 437 grams it’s potentially one of the most powerful ‘PCs’ per kilo you can […]

I tested the Acer Aspire Switch 10E last year. It cost about $300 and was quite usable. Today I have a lower-cost version of that in my hand. At $179 it’s the cheapest Windows detachable on the  market and It makes sense that I  do a few usability tests with it while I have it. The Acer Aspire One S1002. Surprisingly there’s a reasonable build quality here, charging over Micro USB or DC-in and a separate HDMI and Micro SD card port. There’s a full-size USB 2.0 port on the keyboard. The […]

Vodafone gave me the new Samsung Gear S2 Classic 3G smartwatch and a free data contract at CeBIT yesterday. Why? Because the Samsung Gear S2 Classic 3G is eSIM-enabled and Vodafone Germany have just started supporting eSIM devices, ahead of the final GSMA standard. eSIM enables smaller connected devices and faster (cheaper) provisioning. Here we are with  the first commercial eSIM product, and process, out of Germany. eSIM does away with the little bits of plastic that contain your carrier profile and the fiddly little holders that take up too much space in […]

I don’t know how Lenovo did it but they have. The Lenovo X1 Tablet keyboard is amazing, and an engineering highlight. It’s got that classic Thinkpad feel of silky key-tops and solid, confidence-inspiring mechanics. There’s a touchpointer, mechanical mouse buttons and a touchpad. There’s even a backlight. Video overview, including the Lenovo X1 tablet itself, below.

It feels I’ve waited years for a consumer-grade docking solution that includes a graphics card. The Acer Graphics Dock a, theoretically, universal Thunderbolt USB-C graphics dock (Nvidia GeForce, details below) brings it all together and while 300 Euro sounds expensive, it’s a good start for a consumer-grade docking station and shows the way for the future of dockable ultramobile PCs. Acer Graphics Dock hands-on at the end of this article. Update 15 March: I quoted a GTX 940M in the video. That information is incorrect as there is no GTX 940M. We’re […]