Lenovo Miix 3-1030: the Queen gave birth on the night of either a son or a daughter
Hello Giktayms! Recently, Lenovo is increasingly pleasing us with unusual and high-quality devices. Nice laptops, good smartphones, unusual transformer tablets. Today's away is another hybrid. Not so long ago, we were considering a transformer from ASUS, which was more likely an Android tablet with an attached keyboard. Today we look at the same user cases, but from a different angle. Firstly, we are talking about another vendor’s device, and secondly, as a working environment, we will have a “classic” Windows 8.1 platform.
Or a couple of paragraphs for those who are too lazy to read another long, long post about a similar device.
In general, the problems with this device are the same as with ASUS. It is not clear where to start - the description of the device, and then search for whom such a thing might come in handy, or from target audiences, and then find out how much the tablet meets the needs of different user groups?
In the case of TF103CG, we chose the path when the user is more important, and the device adapts to the requirements of a person. Of course, in order to fully compare the capabilities of Windows-brother in terms of format, it would be necessary to approach the post on the same side, select the categories of users who might be interested in such a device, find out their needs, and test them in practice. The trouble is that the device from Lenovo differs from Asus Android-tablet so much that at first I want to talk about hardware and software.
By itself, the device manufacturer claims to be a Tablet PC with foldable keyboard case. That is, a tablet with a cover-keyboard, and not a netbook with a "tearing off" screen. The device looks like this: the tablet is completely tablet-type, the keyboard is thin and hidden in a rubberized case, contains nothing in itself and is connected through a set of spring-loaded contacts. Purely theoretically, you can use Miix-3 without a keyboard cover, but buy it only with a kit. This is the first key difference from the ASUS TF103CG: you can buy it with or without a keyboard module, but it looks more like a netbook from which you can detach the screen.
The second serious difference from ASUS is the presence (or rather, the absence) of connectors and ports on the tablet and keyboard itself. All that the Miix3-1030 can please us with is MicroUSB for charging and connecting an OTG adapter (it is, of course, not included), microHDMI for connecting external displays, and a slot for microSD memory cards (with support for XC cards up to 64 / 128 GB). As you already noticed, a full-sized USB is neither in the keyboard, nor in the “screen”, so Lenovo created a much larger “tablet” than a “netbook”, and the approach to it is completely different.
Specifications are difficult to characterize unambiguously. To get started, let's get acquainted with the filling of the device:
As you can see, the filling is more than worthy for both the tablet and the netbook, especially considering the fact that the device costs passive cooling and costs quite reasonable money. Questions only to the operating system: under what is enough two gigabytes of memory and how the browser will work with at least ten tabs running in the background of Skype, Word / Excel, Evernote, a terminal for access to the "big brother" or something else. But before you torment the piece of iron, let's get to know it better.
There are no complaints about the display. The text looks clear, the picture is juicy, FullHD-video is pixel perfect, that's just ... the rip of the same "Great Gatsby" in 1080p takes ten gigabytes. And on the device from the 52 GB available to the user, a little more than 40 is free. View details on ten inches? Pleasure is doubtful. So 720p video on this screen is beyond the eyes, only the eagles will notice the difference between the scaled video and the native 1080, which by ear distinguish oxygen-free copper in wires and see individual pixels on new iPhones from an arm's length. The display sensor is very accurate, but due to parallax it takes some getting used to, and the frankly weak factory calibration is easily fixed through the Windows control panel.
The Wi-Fi receiver is very powerful: where the phone was barely clinging to the network, and the macbook was constantly losing connectivity, Lenovo Miix 3-1030 confidently showed “three out of five sticks” and allowed you to steer another computer through TeamViewer without problems.
In actual use, the battery lasts for 5, maybe 6 hours of non-stressed playback of any content or browsing web pages. Under load (as a really heavy duty, I used the conversion of 720p 48 FPS-version of "The Hobbit" to 1080p, but with 24 frames per second), autonomous swimming time is drastically reduced to 2, maximum 2.5 hours. No one will fry 100% of the time at full capacity in a real user case, for example, when processing photos, so you can count on real 2.5-3 hours. It is not easy to drive the processor to throttling; it can be in TurboBoost mode almost all the time.
The device, I repeat, is not positioned as a "laptop-transformer." This is a purebred, one hundred percent tablet with a keyboard case, like Microsoft Surface, and in this way we will consider it.
The delivery set is not just Spartan - the Spartans had a modest life, no frills, but they had everything they needed. Here is just some indecent minimum. The device, a cover, a docking keyboard, charging and a USB cable to it. Everything. No headphones for 10 cents, no OTG adapter, no adapter with MicroHDMI to a full connector, no rags to wipe the display, nothing. Device, keyboard, charging. Following!
The tablet itself is made of matte dark gray plastic, and glossy glass with an oleophobic coating. The design is very neat and nice, it’s not bad in the hand, and, oddly enough, its indecent weight is not felt at all: the manufacturer claims 550 grams, I measured 558.
By the way, the keyboard adds almost as much to the mass as the device itself weighs : 478 grams The edges of the tablet are completely flat, the power button and the volume swing barely protrude above the surface. Ports - on the left, when you look at the tablet in landscape orientation.
The keyboard case has a magnetized mount and two latches, is fixed in a single position with, again, magnetic magic and a triangular protrusion.
The material is extremely pleasant tactile, does not slip on any surface, resembles a rubberized fabric. Amazingly collects dust and dirt, while easily cleaned with a damp cloth.
If you enlarge the photo, it becomes clear that the surface of the cover is not a braid at all, but a natural rubber “molding”! However, tactile material is very, very pleasant.
Let's move on to the keyboard itself. Firstly, it is very thin. Secondly, a touchpad is located under it, so as not to remove your hands and not reach for the screen. Thirdly, some sadist did the localized layout. Of course, I understand that the main market is European and American, the alphabets there are smaller than ours, but this is not a reason to scoff at users. You can see all the jambs yourself.
The keyboard is not adapted to speed typing at all: instead of "Yo" you will regularly poke in Esc, closing chats, windows and resetting focus. The buttons themselves, most likely, do not have a scissor mechanism, which is why they go a little differently, pressing does not have a clear tactile feedback or any confident state. The ASUS TF103CG keyboard is about the same as the MacBook, that is, infinitely far. The maximum that you can do on this keyboard is to slowly type messages (like my mother with the index finger of your right hand) or pick the console. Hasty text input (say, 200 characters per minute) threatens with dropped letters and a large number of errors, with 10% of typos being evenly distributed across all buttons, another 10 will fall out on the letters "p", "p" and the remaining 80% on "t ".And eo very enraged. In general, everything is relatively good, but the letter "" ... always eternal; :) :)
In general, of course, I sniff. You can get used to the keyboard: click on it harder, take your time, remember that the "E" is not on the top left ... but it's all crutches, and if you have more than one device at home, remembering that the keyboard is special here is not an option . Do it normally - it will be normal, here is the way out; but in this case it refers to Lenovo and not to us. And, I almost forgot, it’s still very difficult to reach from shift to 6: not to say that the colon is a common punctuation mark, but it's still not nice.
The trackpad, by the way, works surprisingly well. Not a MacBook, again, but I don't want to spit on it either.
Everything is wonderful inside the tablet: the “guts”, of course, will not pull Crysis or GTA5, but they can cope with all everyday tasks with ease. Playing movies? No problem. Work with office programs? Easy. Forgive me, even Photoshop Elements do not cause any special complaints. Yes, not fast, yes, it’s better not to open more than one file at a time, and free up the maximum RAM by exiting other applications, but you can work.
Problems begin when Chrome is installed on the device in a full combat environment: a dozen plug-ins are not even required, a minimum in the person of Hangouts, AdBlock, ZenMate and Stylish is enough. Pages are displayed, the device more or less holds up to ten tabs, but it would be better to open heavy web applications like Google documents in single-tab mode. In general, Chrome very quickly squeezes out all the processor juices from the tablet and turns it into a leisurely vegetable. The problem is partially solved by installing MX Nitro , a browser based on the Chromium engine, but devoid of anything that could affect performance. Even tabs cannot be dragged and sorted in it. But the interface flies, sites are loaded instantly, and memory consumption is within reason.
Due to the fairly high resolution of the screen and the generally good matrix, working with the device is very comfortable. Scaling in Windows 8.1 tightened up quite well; over the past year and a half, many software manufacturers also took into account the appearance of HiDPI on the Windows platform and adapted the current software to new conditions.
What really pleases in the software is the universality of the new Windows promised by Microsoft: yes, it is a fully-fledged, one hundred percent ordinary desktop OS that can run any application that the tablet has enough hardware resources for, but it differs, say, from Windows installed on netbooks and ultrabooks in the details.
When the display is torn off the keyboard, the on-screen keyboard icon automatically appears in the tray. It can act as a pop-up window, as well as "prove" at the bottom of the screen, shifting the lower edge of the open windows above itself. When you close the "keyboard", the device does not lock immediately, like a laptop, but after a certain time interval (it can be configured in the control panel). In general, the interaction with the tablet does not cause the slightest sensation that we have a laptop “castrated” to the keyboard: the native software is imprisoned for a sensor and a similar user case by five points.
So what do we have in the bottom line? The tablet's performance turned out to be at the expected level: there are no problems with office applications, instant messengers, light browsers and content playback. With heavy web applications, the most troubles are: not the most effective (in terms of performance in limited conditions) languages, the complex architecture of monstrous Internet services such as Google Docs and the gluttony of the browser itself (i.e. Chrome) cause unpleasant delays in work, but you can live . It’s better not to mess with simply heavy applications (such as CAD systems or graphic editors): it will work, but it is rather an acceptable tool in case of emergency and extremely cramped circumstances than a comfortable workplace.
Pros and Cons
+ Looks Great;
+ Good screen;
+ Does not feel heavy, even despite the immodest 558 grams on the scales;
+ Extremely pleasant materials of the case, cover;
+ Great trackpad;
+ Good optimization of Windows 8.1 for a similar form factor:
+ A nice ratio of price, performance, build quality and screen characteristics;
- Awful keyboard that is addictive and does not tolerate high-speed typing;
- Only one angle of screen installation, it’s difficult to work on your knees;
- Zero grade;
- Lack of full-sized USB ports without OTG adapter.
In addition to the pros and cons of the device, there are clearly several aspects that are stuck "in between." Neither good nor bad:
»Battery. Under the gentle load for a Windows tablet, the results are pleasant, but classmates on other operating systems work longer.
»Maximum display brightness. You can work indoors, there may be problems in the sun.
»Weight with cover-dock-keyboard. Almost a kilogram! Yes, the thirteen-inch Macbook Air weighs almost the same, and it runs on battery all day!
»Charging. For ages from USB or a smartphone, half an eternity from a native charge. I don’t know what this is due to; I did not find other complaints on the Internet about slow charging.
By the way, there is such a modification on the Lenovo website :
With a normal dock, which has a USB port, and, hopefully, a completely different keyboard.
So we got to the burning question: who needs such a device. Lenovo Miix3 costs not very much: in our store it can be purchased for ~ 22 thousand rubles .
Content consumption is not a question. The device does an excellent job. Any film format, with any subs, any flask or some tricky format, pictures in TIFF and PSD, Word documents of any complexity. That's just with the reproduction of content almost everywhere is good. Perhaps, tablets on Android are not so omnivorous and Apple devices are somewhat limited, but working with them as with touch devices is, nevertheless, more pleasant.
Content creation is in question. Typing will not work quickly. Lectures with a missing T are still fun. You can work with documents, but Google Docs works better on Android as an application than under Windows 8.1 in a browser. Word and Excel - yes, no complaints.
Play on the device will not work: launching old toys may be prevented by a brutal resolution of ten inches, new ones will slow down. “Asphalt” from the Windows Store is exactly the same on both Android and iOS.
And so it turns out that the device, in general, is not bad, but for whom it is - it is not entirely clear. Have you come up with a user case? Do you know where to apply such a thing? Share in the comments.
Our previous reviews:
" Understanding the Wacom Art Chaos
"ASUS ZenFone 5, LG L90, HTC Desire 601 - dual-sim consumer war, part 1
» ASUS Transformer Pad
» Razer Kraken headsets
» Midland GXT-1050 radios
» NVIDIA SHIELD game console
» Testing AA Ni-MH batteries
» Sony Smartwatch 3
History tour
Or a couple of paragraphs for those who are too lazy to read another long, long post about a similar device.
In general, the problems with this device are the same as with ASUS. It is not clear where to start - the description of the device, and then search for whom such a thing might come in handy, or from target audiences, and then find out how much the tablet meets the needs of different user groups?
In the case of TF103CG, we chose the path when the user is more important, and the device adapts to the requirements of a person. Of course, in order to fully compare the capabilities of Windows-brother in terms of format, it would be necessary to approach the post on the same side, select the categories of users who might be interested in such a device, find out their needs, and test them in practice. The trouble is that the device from Lenovo differs from Asus Android-tablet so much that at first I want to talk about hardware and software.
Lenovo Miix 3-1030
By itself, the device manufacturer claims to be a Tablet PC with foldable keyboard case. That is, a tablet with a cover-keyboard, and not a netbook with a "tearing off" screen. The device looks like this: the tablet is completely tablet-type, the keyboard is thin and hidden in a rubberized case, contains nothing in itself and is connected through a set of spring-loaded contacts. Purely theoretically, you can use Miix-3 without a keyboard cover, but buy it only with a kit. This is the first key difference from the ASUS TF103CG: you can buy it with or without a keyboard module, but it looks more like a netbook from which you can detach the screen.
The second serious difference from ASUS is the presence (or rather, the absence) of connectors and ports on the tablet and keyboard itself. All that the Miix3-1030 can please us with is MicroUSB for charging and connecting an OTG adapter (it is, of course, not included), microHDMI for connecting external displays, and a slot for microSD memory cards (with support for XC cards up to 64 / 128 GB). As you already noticed, a full-sized USB is neither in the keyboard, nor in the “screen”, so Lenovo created a much larger “tablet” than a “netbook”, and the approach to it is completely different.
Iron
Specifications are difficult to characterize unambiguously. To get started, let's get acquainted with the filling of the device:
| Model | Lenovo Miix3-1030 64GB |
| CPU | Intel Atom Z3735F, 4 cores, 1.86 GHz |
| RAM | LPDDR3 2GB |
| Built-in memory | 64 GB |
| Memory expansion | MicroSD XC, up to 128 GB |
| Wireless interfaces | WiFi b / g / n, Bluetooth 4.0 |
| Display | 10.1 ", 1920x1080, IPS |
| Multi touch | Capacitive, up to 10 touches |
| Battery | 25 W * h |
| operating system | Windows 8 / 8.1 |
As you can see, the filling is more than worthy for both the tablet and the netbook, especially considering the fact that the device costs passive cooling and costs quite reasonable money. Questions only to the operating system: under what is enough two gigabytes of memory and how the browser will work with at least ten tabs running in the background of Skype, Word / Excel, Evernote, a terminal for access to the "big brother" or something else. But before you torment the piece of iron, let's get to know it better.
There are no complaints about the display. The text looks clear, the picture is juicy, FullHD-video is pixel perfect, that's just ... the rip of the same "Great Gatsby" in 1080p takes ten gigabytes. And on the device from the 52 GB available to the user, a little more than 40 is free. View details on ten inches? Pleasure is doubtful. So 720p video on this screen is beyond the eyes, only the eagles will notice the difference between the scaled video and the native 1080, which by ear distinguish oxygen-free copper in wires and see individual pixels on new iPhones from an arm's length. The display sensor is very accurate, but due to parallax it takes some getting used to, and the frankly weak factory calibration is easily fixed through the Windows control panel.
The Wi-Fi receiver is very powerful: where the phone was barely clinging to the network, and the macbook was constantly losing connectivity, Lenovo Miix 3-1030 confidently showed “three out of five sticks” and allowed you to steer another computer through TeamViewer without problems.
In actual use, the battery lasts for 5, maybe 6 hours of non-stressed playback of any content or browsing web pages. Under load (as a really heavy duty, I used the conversion of 720p 48 FPS-version of "The Hobbit" to 1080p, but with 24 frames per second), autonomous swimming time is drastically reduced to 2, maximum 2.5 hours. No one will fry 100% of the time at full capacity in a real user case, for example, when processing photos, so you can count on real 2.5-3 hours. It is not easy to drive the processor to throttling; it can be in TurboBoost mode almost all the time.
Appearance, equipment, usability
The device, I repeat, is not positioned as a "laptop-transformer." This is a purebred, one hundred percent tablet with a keyboard case, like Microsoft Surface, and in this way we will consider it.
The delivery set is not just Spartan - the Spartans had a modest life, no frills, but they had everything they needed. Here is just some indecent minimum. The device, a cover, a docking keyboard, charging and a USB cable to it. Everything. No headphones for 10 cents, no OTG adapter, no adapter with MicroHDMI to a full connector, no rags to wipe the display, nothing. Device, keyboard, charging. Following!
The tablet itself is made of matte dark gray plastic, and glossy glass with an oleophobic coating. The design is very neat and nice, it’s not bad in the hand, and, oddly enough, its indecent weight is not felt at all: the manufacturer claims 550 grams, I measured 558.
By the way, the keyboard adds almost as much to the mass as the device itself weighs : 478 grams The edges of the tablet are completely flat, the power button and the volume swing barely protrude above the surface. Ports - on the left, when you look at the tablet in landscape orientation.
The keyboard case has a magnetized mount and two latches, is fixed in a single position with, again, magnetic magic and a triangular protrusion.
The material is extremely pleasant tactile, does not slip on any surface, resembles a rubberized fabric. Amazingly collects dust and dirt, while easily cleaned with a damp cloth.
If you enlarge the photo, it becomes clear that the surface of the cover is not a braid at all, but a natural rubber “molding”! However, tactile material is very, very pleasant.
Kostyl driven design
Let's move on to the keyboard itself. Firstly, it is very thin. Secondly, a touchpad is located under it, so as not to remove your hands and not reach for the screen. Thirdly, some sadist did the localized layout. Of course, I understand that the main market is European and American, the alphabets there are smaller than ours, but this is not a reason to scoff at users. You can see all the jambs yourself.
The keyboard is not adapted to speed typing at all: instead of "Yo" you will regularly poke in Esc, closing chats, windows and resetting focus. The buttons themselves, most likely, do not have a scissor mechanism, which is why they go a little differently, pressing does not have a clear tactile feedback or any confident state. The ASUS TF103CG keyboard is about the same as the MacBook, that is, infinitely far. The maximum that you can do on this keyboard is to slowly type messages (like my mother with the index finger of your right hand) or pick the console. Hasty text input (say, 200 characters per minute) threatens with dropped letters and a large number of errors, with 10% of typos being evenly distributed across all buttons, another 10 will fall out on the letters "p", "p" and the remaining 80% on "t ".And eo very enraged. In general, everything is relatively good, but the letter "" ... always eternal; :) :)
In general, of course, I sniff. You can get used to the keyboard: click on it harder, take your time, remember that the "E" is not on the top left ... but it's all crutches, and if you have more than one device at home, remembering that the keyboard is special here is not an option . Do it normally - it will be normal, here is the way out; but in this case it refers to Lenovo and not to us. And, I almost forgot, it’s still very difficult to reach from shift to 6: not to say that the colon is a common punctuation mark, but it's still not nice.
The trackpad, by the way, works surprisingly well. Not a MacBook, again, but I don't want to spit on it either.
OS and performance
Everything is wonderful inside the tablet: the “guts”, of course, will not pull Crysis or GTA5, but they can cope with all everyday tasks with ease. Playing movies? No problem. Work with office programs? Easy. Forgive me, even Photoshop Elements do not cause any special complaints. Yes, not fast, yes, it’s better not to open more than one file at a time, and free up the maximum RAM by exiting other applications, but you can work.Problems begin when Chrome is installed on the device in a full combat environment: a dozen plug-ins are not even required, a minimum in the person of Hangouts, AdBlock, ZenMate and Stylish is enough. Pages are displayed, the device more or less holds up to ten tabs, but it would be better to open heavy web applications like Google documents in single-tab mode. In general, Chrome very quickly squeezes out all the processor juices from the tablet and turns it into a leisurely vegetable. The problem is partially solved by installing MX Nitro , a browser based on the Chromium engine, but devoid of anything that could affect performance. Even tabs cannot be dragged and sorted in it. But the interface flies, sites are loaded instantly, and memory consumption is within reason.
Due to the fairly high resolution of the screen and the generally good matrix, working with the device is very comfortable. Scaling in Windows 8.1 tightened up quite well; over the past year and a half, many software manufacturers also took into account the appearance of HiDPI on the Windows platform and adapted the current software to new conditions.
Hidden text
But the creators of Skype both kicked the bolt and kick it. Even the new version with zooming turned on looks soooo ...
What really pleases in the software is the universality of the new Windows promised by Microsoft: yes, it is a fully-fledged, one hundred percent ordinary desktop OS that can run any application that the tablet has enough hardware resources for, but it differs, say, from Windows installed on netbooks and ultrabooks in the details.
When the display is torn off the keyboard, the on-screen keyboard icon automatically appears in the tray. It can act as a pop-up window, as well as "prove" at the bottom of the screen, shifting the lower edge of the open windows above itself. When you close the "keyboard", the device does not lock immediately, like a laptop, but after a certain time interval (it can be configured in the control panel). In general, the interaction with the tablet does not cause the slightest sensation that we have a laptop “castrated” to the keyboard: the native software is imprisoned for a sensor and a similar user case by five points.
Brief Summary
So what do we have in the bottom line? The tablet's performance turned out to be at the expected level: there are no problems with office applications, instant messengers, light browsers and content playback. With heavy web applications, the most troubles are: not the most effective (in terms of performance in limited conditions) languages, the complex architecture of monstrous Internet services such as Google Docs and the gluttony of the browser itself (i.e. Chrome) cause unpleasant delays in work, but you can live . It’s better not to mess with simply heavy applications (such as CAD systems or graphic editors): it will work, but it is rather an acceptable tool in case of emergency and extremely cramped circumstances than a comfortable workplace.
Pros and Cons
+ Looks Great;
+ Good screen;
+ Does not feel heavy, even despite the immodest 558 grams on the scales;
+ Extremely pleasant materials of the case, cover;
+ Great trackpad;
+ Good optimization of Windows 8.1 for a similar form factor:
+ A nice ratio of price, performance, build quality and screen characteristics;
- Awful keyboard that is addictive and does not tolerate high-speed typing;
- Only one angle of screen installation, it’s difficult to work on your knees;
- Zero grade;
- Lack of full-sized USB ports without OTG adapter.
In addition to the pros and cons of the device, there are clearly several aspects that are stuck "in between." Neither good nor bad:
»Battery. Under the gentle load for a Windows tablet, the results are pleasant, but classmates on other operating systems work longer.
»Maximum display brightness. You can work indoors, there may be problems in the sun.
»Weight with cover-dock-keyboard. Almost a kilogram! Yes, the thirteen-inch Macbook Air weighs almost the same, and it runs on battery all day!
»Charging. For ages from USB or a smartphone, half an eternity from a native charge. I don’t know what this is due to; I did not find other complaints on the Internet about slow charging.
By the way, there is such a modification on the Lenovo website :
With a normal dock, which has a USB port, and, hopefully, a completely different keyboard.
The target audience
So we got to the burning question: who needs such a device. Lenovo Miix3 costs not very much: in our store it can be purchased for ~ 22 thousand rubles .
Content consumption is not a question. The device does an excellent job. Any film format, with any subs, any flask or some tricky format, pictures in TIFF and PSD, Word documents of any complexity. That's just with the reproduction of content almost everywhere is good. Perhaps, tablets on Android are not so omnivorous and Apple devices are somewhat limited, but working with them as with touch devices is, nevertheless, more pleasant.
Content creation is in question. Typing will not work quickly. Lectures with a missing T are still fun. You can work with documents, but Google Docs works better on Android as an application than under Windows 8.1 in a browser. Word and Excel - yes, no complaints.
Play on the device will not work: launching old toys may be prevented by a brutal resolution of ten inches, new ones will slow down. “Asphalt” from the Windows Store is exactly the same on both Android and iOS.
And so it turns out that the device, in general, is not bad, but for whom it is - it is not entirely clear. Have you come up with a user case? Do you know where to apply such a thing? Share in the comments.
Our previous reviews:
" Understanding the Wacom Art Chaos
"ASUS ZenFone 5, LG L90, HTC Desire 601 - dual-sim consumer war, part 1
» ASUS Transformer Pad
» Razer Kraken headsets
» Midland GXT-1050 radios
» NVIDIA SHIELD game console
» Testing AA Ni-MH batteries
» Sony Smartwatch 3