Last year Lenovo extended its Yoga line to cover not just the company's rather clever folding hybrid Windows laptops, but Android tablets too. The designs weren't quite as ingenious as the IdeaPad Yoga, with its keyboard that flipped nearly 360 degrees to sit flat against the back of the display, but it still had a unique selling point (USP): A brilliant flip-out stand which could hold the tablet either tilted or upright.

It was a fabulous concept, but spoilt by a dated specification. The screen was a bog standard 1280 x 800 resolution effort, and the processor a lowly Mediatek quad-core CPU. Now, however, Lenovo has come back with the Yoga Tablet 10 HD+, enhancing the previous model with a full HD 1080p screen and a Snapdragon S400 SoC. Is this enough to make a great tablet from a great idea?

Design

The Yoga's design might be odd, but it's more practical than you might think. The actual tablet is fairly thin, with a cylindrical bulge at the bottom to accommodate the stand, then it slowly tapers off towards the upper edge. With the stand folded in the bulge makes a comfortable grip, particularly if you're holding the tablet in portrait mode which the position of the webcam encourages you to do. It's relatively light at just 626g, and it feels a bit like you're holding an A4 notebook or magazine. I could gripe about the unfashionably wide bezel or the cheap-feeling silver plastic back, but generally this is a solid, slim and well-designed tablet with an interesting USP.

That USP remains the stand. Grab the bulge, twist it and fold the stand all the way out and your Yoga sits up at a near-vertical angle, ideal for watching or -- with a Bluetooth keyboard -- doing some work. The hinge also allows for less vertical angles, though there comes a point where the tablet becomes unstable on the desk. You can also turn the tablet the other way around, and use the stand to prop it up at a roughly 30 degree angle. It's great for situations where you're looking down at the tablet, like when you use a seat-back table on a plane or train, and it's also good for typing with the onscreen keyboard.

I've regularly used an Android tablet with a Motorola Bluetooth keyboard as a makeshift laptop while away at conferences or events. In the past this has meant carrying a separate folding stand or using a folio case with one built-in. With the Yoga, all you need is the tablet and the keyboard, and that's it; you can work. True, it's not as neat a solution as Microsoft's Surface, but it's close.

The one drawback of the design is connectivity. You get a microUSB port for charging on the left-hand side and a headset socket on the right-hand side, but there's no HDMI output or anything else obvious. Look inside the recess where the stand is normally concealed, however, and there's a flap covering a microSD card slot. With just 16GB on the base model, you'll probably need it. And there is, of course, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and A-GPS built-in.

Screen and sound

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Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10 HD+: Not your average Android tablet [Review]