Lenovo 13-Inch Yoga Tablet 2 Pro: A Business Slate with a Built-In Projector

Just tap a dedicated button on the side of the slate to toggle the projector on or off. Credit: Lenovo

Tired of fussing with cords and projectors when you want to show a business presentation? Lenovo's new tablet could streamline the process. The Yoga Tablet 2 Pro sports a built-in projector that can blast videos and images onto any wall, with no extra setup required. It also boasts a huge 13.3-inch display that's as big as a standard laptop screen, giving you tons of room to work on. And don't worry about that big display draining your battery; the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro comes with a laptop-grade battery to help it last through the end of the workday. Plus, it has an integrated kickstand, which lets you prop the device up for typing sessions when paired with a Bluetooth keyboard. The Yoga Tablet 2 Pro will be available at the end of the month with an affordable $499 price tag. Read on for five features that will make it good for work.

Projector

Showing a slideshow or presentation during a business meeting isn't always easy. Even if your presentation is ready to go, you'll have to find a way to send it to a larger monitor or projector so your whole group can view it at once. The Yoga Tablet 2 Pro lets you sidestep those concerns, since it packs a built-in projector, located on the side of the slate's cylindrical battery. The projector's 40-50 lumen, 854 x 480 resolution display can blast images, videos and more straight onto any flat surface, to create a picture that's up to 50 inches when measured diagonally. Setup is simple; just tap a dedicated button on the side of the slate to toggle the projector on or off. Projected images are sharp and clear, and the focus of the image can be adjusted using a small dial on the side of the tablet. No other tablet makes it this easy to share the content on your screen with a small audience.

Lenovo says the tablet can last for about three hours of playback on a single charge, so it should have more than enough juice to complete your slideshow and finish out your workday. The Yoga Tablet 2 Pro also features large front-facing speakers that can emit loud, clear audio if you want to show a video during your presentation.

Kickstand

You can pair just about any tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard, but how are you supposed to prop it up while you type? The Yoga Tablet 2 Pro makes typing sessions a breeze with a flexible built-in kickstand. The kickstand folds out from the slate's cylindrical battery so you can prop the device up on any flat surface. And it has a fully adjustable hinge, so you can adjust your viewing angle as needed. That's a big perk; kickstand-equipped tablet cases generally allow for only one or two viewing angles.

In addition to standing the tablet up, you can also lay your tablet flat and use the kickstand to raise one edge a few inches off your desk, giving you a better angle for viewing media while using the touch screen.  

Battery Life

That big cylinder along the edge of the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro isn't just for decoration. It houses the tablet's massive 9,600-mAh battery, which Lenovo promises will let the tablet run for up to 15 hours with typical use. The big battery is also what lets the slate project video for such a long period of time (up to three hours at a stretch). We haven't had a chance to test the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro's battery for ourselves, but it seems primed to become the longest-lasting standalone business slate ever; other tablets, such as Dell's Venue 11 Pro, can last about as long when attached to a keyboard dock that includes a supplementary battery. Long battery life is essential for business users who depend on their mobile devices to last through the end of the workday and beyond. 

Large display

Most tablets are highly portable, but don't offer enough screen space to really work on. That's why the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro's big 13.3-inch display is such a boon for business users. It's even bigger than the screen on Ultrabooks like Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air. Overall, it strikes a pretty good balance between portability and productivity, especially for users who need to perform screen-intensive tasks like editing spreadsheets on the go. The big display is also extremely sharp, with a quad HD resolution of 2560 x 1440. 

On the flipside, the device's big screen make it less portable than smaller slates. And at 2.09 lbs., it's pretty hefty; the 12-inch Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is just 1.76 lbs., in comparison. In other words, the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro's big screen and beefy battery are big bonuses, but only if you can handle the extra bulk. 

Solid specs

Business users can expect pretty speedy performance from the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro. It features a zippy 1.86GHz Intel Atom processor -- the same chip that powers the updated 8-inch and 10-inch Yoga Tablet 2s – with 2GB of RAM, for snappy multitasking. Other hardware highlights include 32GB of onboard storage, expandable to 64GB via the microSD card slot. There's also the option to buy the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro with 4G LTE capabilities, for a persistent Internet connection.