The ThinkPad Twist is Lenovo’s newest ThinkPad in ultrabook form and it dons Windows 8: its touchscreen swivels to one side and can be turned to face the person in front of you. (A slightly different range of twisting is possible with the Twist’s cousin, the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13.)
Tablet mode
We got a sneak peak at the Twist last December 4 at Lenovo’s bloggers meet on ultrabook adoption among small and medium scale businesses (SMBs) yesterday:
Standard mode
Same keyboard and trackpad as the other ThinkPads. So serious-looking.
Swivel sideways for a "wider" audience.
From hereon there will be no more complaints filed under "viewing angles".
Because you may want the person in front of you to play Angry Birds. You could also show him Google Maps without lifting the notebook to face him.
First impressions:
The swivel-screen, which also bends back and flat against the keyboard, feels like a gimmick at first, but then the magnesium alloy and firm-grip feel of the Twist allow you to disregard handling the unit as though it was fragile.
The keyboard, as usual, is superb. I was never really a fan of the sturdy-1980s-Casio-calculator look of the ThinkPad series, but you can say nothing about the keyboard.
The touch screen is great for reading, since you can swivel or bend it to your comfort-reading posture and reading distance: I straightened the screen flat on the table, so it leveled with the keyboard, and then propped it on my lap, so that the screen was at my almost eye-level.
I had not tested the ten finger input since I had thought the unit was fragile, and I was wrong.
Windows 8 is superb on a touch screen. I kept forgetting about the trackpad.
Responsive trackpad, and within ThinkPad design concepts, looking exactly like a ThinkPad: hulking, brutish, ugly, but this laptop would probably survive the Zombie apocalypse right after nuclear winter.
The complete seriousness and sturdy look of the ThinkPad seems incongruent with a posh, stylish, responsive Windows 8 UI.
Thinking about it, the touch interfaces available seemed overkill: trackpad, touch screen, “nipple.” But with Windows 8 touch screen UI “hanging up” on some touch screen hybrids, overkill is good.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Twist is a Windows 8 Intel-powered convertible notebook with touch interface features and a multi-posture screen (mult-hinged). Lenovo is targeting the pro-sumer, SMBs, small offices, home offices, and the higher educaiton segment.
Lenovo ThinkPad Twist Specs at a glance:
Up to 3rd Gen Intel Core i7 Processor
Windows 8
Up to 8 GB DDR3 RAM
Up to 500 GB hard disk, with performance booster for SSD-like speeds
12.5″ HD 350 nit IPS multitouch display, accepts ten finger touch
Full size Windows 8 enhanced keyboard
20mm thin at 1.58kg – a certified Intel ultrabook
Tough Magnesium Alloy construction, with Gorilla glass
4 modes allows for content creation and consumption (Notebook, Stand Mode, Tablet, and Tent Mode)
Full legacy support with classic desktop/Start menu
Irwin Allen Rivera loves his wife's cooking so much he's now twice the man he used to be. His English essay placed 3rd at the 2012 Palanca Awards. His philosophical-horror story is included in Philippine Speculative Fiction 8 (2013). He was managing editor and lead writer of Sites and Symbols 2 (2005), a coffee-table book about buildings in UP Diliman - his alma mater (BA Philosophy; MA Creative Writing continuing). He worked at the UP Diliman Information Office before shifting to web content writing full-time. His sudden fiction, "Notwithstanding Pigs," initially a Friendster testimonial, appeared in Philippines Graphic (2006) and in Very Short Stories for Harried Readers (2007).
