Lenovo ThinkPad Helix review: A versatile but expensive Ultrabook/tablet hybrid

Lenovo’s ThinkPad Helix is nothing if not versatile. This 11.6-inch Windows 8 Pro touchscreen tablet can operate as such, dock to a razor-thin keyboard to become a dual-battery notebook PC, and then flip with acrobatic ease to become a desktop presenter.

ROBERT CARDINLenovo's ThinkPad Helix is one of the best laptop/tablet hybrids we've seen so far.

The Helix also boasts a 128GB solid-state drive, which boosts its performance on tasks involving data transfers between storage and memory (boot, return from sleep, and application launches, for example). The presence of the SSD played no small part in the Helix’s respectable Notebook WorldBench 8.1 score of 285, which was nearly three times better than that of our reference system (an Asus VivoBook S550CA, which augments its mechanical hard drive with a 24GB SSD cache). The Helix also earned an outstanding PCMark 7 storage test score of 5308, one of the best results we’ve seen. (WorldBench 8.1 consists of a suite of synthetic and real-world benchmarks, of which PCMark 7 is one element.)

A 128GB SSD helped the ThinkPad Helix deliver a good benchmark performance.

In configurations that use both the tablet and the keyboard, we saw impressive battery life of 6.5 hours thanks to the presence of a battery in each component. The Helix’s longevity dropped to just 2 hours when operating as a tablet with a single battery.

In most tasks less dependent on hard-disk access, the Helix still performed solidly, if not as brilliantly. Outfitted with an Intel Core i5-3337U mobile CPU (based on 2012’s Ivy Bridge architecture) and 4GB of DDR3/1333 memory that it must share with the Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics hardware, our review unit suffered most in gaming tests.

All this power and versatility doesn’t come cheap. Our review unit, the least expensive of the available configurations on Lenovo’s website, carried a $1679 price tag ($1427 after an instant rebate) as of August 5, 2013. Conventional touchscreen Windows 8 laptops are widely available for less than $1000.

In usability, the Helix generally lives up to Lenovo’s reputation for well-built portables. The black soft-touch case feels good when you’re handling the tablet, and the keyboard boasts Lenovo’s signature, pleasing contours and snappy action. For pointing, you get to choose among a responsive touchpad with multitouch support, a red eraserhead joystick button, and of course the digitizing touchscreen. Separating the keyboard takes only a second or two and doesn’t require a reboot. In our tests the touchscreen responded well to swipes.

ROBERT CARDINSeparate the Helix's display from its keyboard, and you have a fully functional Windows 8 tablet.

The integrated high-def webcam produced smooth-looking video on Skype calls, and its low-light technology worked well. The integrated microphone picked up my voice well, but the Helix’s audio is very disappointing. Even when I turned it all the way up, I could barely hear the voice of Skype callers, and music on YouTube videos was positively faint. This problem could be a deal-breaker for someone who needs to make presentations on the road.

I have a few other quibbles as well: Although the Helix maintains the sub-0.75-inch thickness appropriate for an ultraportable, the machine is heavy for its display size, weighing a full 3.6 pounds with the keyboard and 1.8 pounds without it.

Lenovo provides a plastic stylus that slides into a slot on the tablet, but I didn’t enjoy using it because it was imprecise—a real issue on the 1920-by-1080-pixel widescreen IPS display. That resolution on an 11.6-inch display made for good-looking videos on YouTube and Skype, but it also resulted in very tiny type on many websites, including a few that use Flash or other technologies that don’t support pinch and zoom. I sometimes found myself squinting, and using the stylus to select radio buttons (fingertips being too blunt an instrument) was generally a hit-or-miss affair.

In tablet mode, you get one Mini DisplayPort connection, one USB 2.0 port, a SIM-card slot for optional mobile broadband, and a combo headphone/microphone jack. The keyboard dock adds a pair of USB 3.0 ports and a Mini DisplayPort connection. But I missed having an SD Card reader, and depending on a USB dongle for ethernet connections is a bit of drag (the Helix does support both 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi).

The ThinkPad Helix deserves kudos for its innovative design, and a business user in search of a laptop-tablet convertible with good performance might find the high price tag palatable. (And if money is no object, you can upgrade to a faster processor, add more solid-state storage capacity, and tack on on the aforementioned mobile-broadband feature.)

If a high-performance tablet is all you need, note that Microsoft recently slashed the price of its 128GB Surface Pro to $899. But that tablet’s screen is an inch smaller, and you’ll need to add $130 to get the Type Cover keyboard (which, in addition to being inferior to the Helix’s, lacks a trackpad).

Contributing Editor Yardena (Denny) Arar is a San Francisco-based freelance writer, avid online shopper, media junkie, consummate foodie, and proud possessor of a private pilot's license.
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Xerox Mobile Scanner: A Versatile Companion for Business Travelers

If you need to digitize printed documents or photos while on the go, the Xerox Mobile Scanner fits the bill--and it does so with a twist. About the size of a roll of aluminum foil and weighing about 1.5 pounds, this $250 (as of March 8, 2012) sheet-fed scanner can turn printed items into PDFs or JPGs, and then send them wirelessly to a PC, a mobile device, or the Web in a matter of seconds.

It can do all of that for up to 300 pages (according to Xerox) without being connected to electrical power, assuming that you've fully charged its internal battery. And it doesn't need a preexisting Wi-Fi network either, as it can create a direct connection to any other Wi-Fi-enabled device.

Created by Visioneer (which offers a similar but not identical product under its own brand), the Xerox Mobile Scanner innovates primarily in its use of an Eye-Fi SD Card--a gadget best known for both storing images and functioning as a Wi-Fi adapter, enabling the wireless transfer of images captured by a digital camera.

The Eye-Fi card that comes bundled with the Xerox Mobile Scanner was created for the product. It can store up to 4GB of scans, so you don't have to transfer them right away. When you're ready, you simply launch the free software on the intended destination (a Windows or Mac computer, or an iOS or Android mobile device) to initiate the wireless transfer.

Setup takes only about 15 minutes once you've charged the device--which does take several hours--by running the included USB cable between the scanner and either an AC adapter (also included) or a computer. After that, you connect the USB cable to the PC (if it isn't already connected) and then, with the Eye-Fi card inserted in the SD Card slot located by the USB port, power on the scanner. The Eye-Fi card appears as a drive on the computer, with its installation software in separate folders for Windows or Mac.

Running the installation software prompts you to create an Eye-Fi account, which you'll need to use the wireless features. The account is free, but Eye-Fi offers premium upgrades such as the ability to store your scans indefinitely on Eye-Fi's servers so that you can access them with any browser (the basic account stores the scans only for a week).

After you create the account, you can input Wi-Fi network settings and specify where you want scans to go--for example, to your PC or to a supported Web service such as Facebook. Alternatively, you can use a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connection (Wi-Fi Direct) with a mobile device, as opposed to an existing Wi-Fi network. The Wi-Fi Direct option is very useful for people on the go since once you set it up, you can transfer scans to a mobile device in multiple locations without having to change Wi-Fi network settings repeatedly. All you need to do is install a free iOS or Android app that will enable the Wi-Fi Direct connection with the scanner.

You don't have to transmit scans wirelessly, however. You can instead store them on the SD Card or on a USB flash drive, or you can scan to a computer using the USB cable.

Scanning is fairly straightforward. The device has only two hardware buttons, a power button and a function button meant primarily for cycling among the three available scan formats (color JPG, color PDF, or black-and-white PDF, all captured at 300 dpi). The power state is indicated by a green LED, while blue LEDs next to small icons show which scan mode you've chosen. To scan a document you insert it face up and flush left into the paper feed slot. The device can scan items as small as ID cards or business cards, or as large as standard letter paper. It takes only about 10 seconds to scan a single sheet.

Xerox throws in a few popular scanning utilities on DVD: Nuance Paperport document management, OmniPage optical character recognition software for turning scanned text into editable copy, and NewSoft Presto BizCard for scanning and organizing business cards. You also get a padded canvas case, plug adapters for different countries, and a calibration sheet that Xerox recommends using as part of a monthly maintenance routine.

I had only minor quibbles with the Xerox Mobile Scanner, mostly stemming from the rather skimpy printed documentation (a quick-start guide). For instance, you have to go to the online manual to learn how to set up the Eye-Fi card and understand the error codes, which appear in the form of flashing LEDs.

The printed guide also fails to mention the device's airplane mode (which turns off the Eye-Fi card's wireless capability), and how to access it: You hold down the function button after selecting the black-and-white PDF scanning mode. I inadvertently put the device into airplane mode while trying to set up the Eye-Fi to work with my iPad, which led to extended tech support sessions. Better documentation and/or a more intuitive design might have avoided the problem.

That said, however, the Xerox Mobile Scanner generally delivers on its promise of quickly creating scans in popular formats and moving them wirelessly to PCs, mobile devices, or the Web. While smartphone cameras can do some of this work for smaller documents, business travelers with more serious scanning needs should find the Xerox Mobile Scanner a versatile and useful tool.

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