Lenovo Miix 2 8 Review

Yes, you read the title correctly: Lenovo has indeed named a tablet 'Miix 2 8'. Somewhere along the line, Lenovo’s marketing department fell asleep and let this slip through. And so here's Lenovo's consumer version of an affordable Windows 8.1 powered tablet. Surely no company in their right mind would genuinely name a tablet headed to Western markets in such a confusing and nonsensical way, but alas, it’s the way things are.

Lenovo Miix 2 8 - $240 - $349

• 8.0”, 1280x720 IPS LCD (189 ppi)
• Intel Bay Trail Z3740 SoC
• 1.3 GHz quad-core CPU, HD Graphics, 2GB RAM
• 32 GB internal storage, microSD card slot
• 5 MP camera, 1/4” sensor, f/2.4 lens, 1080p video
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, 17.5 Wh battery
• Windows 8.1 + Microsoft Office
• 350 grams, 8.35mm thick

Even though Windows 8 has been out for some time now, it's been only since late last year that we started to see 8-inch Windows tablets headed to market. The Miix 2 8 isn’t geared up for high performance tasks, nor does it have top-end features, but its use of an Intel Atom x86-capable processor and 1280 x 800 display present very decent value for the tablet’s $240 asking price (originally it was $300).

We recently reviewed the similarly Windows 8-poweredToshiba Encore, but it's the Miix 2 that we've had on-hand for a longer period. Read on to find out how well Windows 8.1 functions on smaller-screened devices and whether the full Windows desktop is practical in this form factor. Plus, the Miix 8 2 has to compete with similarly-priced Android and iOS tablets that are more focused on media consumption.

Design

Every tablet on the market has the same base design, because there’s really not all that much you can do with a large display in a rectangular body. Yet every manufacturer manages to include something unique to make the tablet their own, including Lenovo for the Miix 2 8.

This particular device only comes in silver, with black bezels around the display, and the two complement each other nicely. Like nearly every tablet, the front panel is protected with glass smooth enough that your fingers simply fly across when you’re manipulating content on the display. The back is mostly constructed from metal (likely aluminum), which is patterned with tiny diamond shapes that gives it an extra layer of texture, making it feel even nicer. To allow the wireless radios in the device to function correctly, there’s also a strip of smooth, metal-colored plastic that runs along the bottom.

I’m always a fan of metal on tablets because it’s strong, feels great and often looks great, but the Miix 2 8 isn’t without oddities. There’s quite a noticeable gap between the metal back plate and the plastic mid-section, most prominent along the bottom of the tablet’s rear. In some ways it appears Lenovo has taken inspiration from the iPad for the Miix 2 8’s design, but Apple would never let this seam pass engineering quality control.

There are also a range of stickers inexplicably applied to the device out of the box, including a Windows 8 logo, Intel inside logo and product information. Typically you only see these sorts of stickers on laptops – and yes, they are removable – but they look out of place and dominating on an otherwise reasonably sleek tablet.

One thing I was really happy with as far as the Miix 2 8’s design goes is its size. The tablet is both thin (8.35mm thick) and reasonably light (350 grams), plus the overall profile of the 8-inch body makes it a very portable device. The 16:10 aspect ratio display also keeps the tablet from being too slim or odd to hold, yet is still great for widescreen content and snapping applications.

Everything on the Miix 2 8 is positioned to make portrait the default orientation. The capacitive Windows button is below the display’s bottom edge, and there’s a front-facing camera above, plus some cleverly hidden sensors and a Lenovo logo. The back panel has a prominent Lenovo logo as well, plus a camera in the very top left corner, and a speaker in the top right. Unfortunately there’s only one speaker on the Miix 2 8, but it’s reasonably powerful, if quite poor in terms of quality.

Apart from the 3.5mm audio jack on the top edge, all the other features of the Miix 2 8’s design are on the right side. At the top is the power button, then the volume rocker, a panel that hides a microSD card slot, and the microUSB charging port. The buttons are in a reasonable position, but like all tablets, they’re never quite at your fingertips all the time.

The design of the Lenovo Miix 2 8 is quite nice, and forgiving a few oddities in construction, is well suited to the smaller form factor of tablets. It doesn’t have that same premium feel as the Apple iPad mini, but I’d happily use it without complaint.

Display

For some bizarre reason, Windows manufacturers have once again fallen into the trap of including low-resolution displays, despite competitors at the same price points offering pixel-dense alternatives. The Lenovo Miix 2 8’s 8-inch TFT IPS LCD panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio may seem appealing at first, but the 1280 x 800 display resolution leaves a lot to be desired.

To start with, a WXGA resolution for an 8-inch display equates to 189 pixels per inch, which is substandard for a device on sale in 2014. The Miix 2 8 can just handle 720p content natively, but falls behind when you’re looking at high-resolution imagery or 1080p content. Text also suffers, with the display producing pronounced jagged edges at a comfortable viewing distance and reasonably visible pixels.

Before anyone complains that this tablet costs just $299, might I remind you of a few similarly-priced tablets on the market with higher-resolution panels. The 2013 Google Nexus 7 ($229) and 7-inch Amazon Kindle Fire HDX($199) both pack 1080p displays, or you can grab the $339 Kindle Fire HDX 8.9” with a 2560 x 1600 display. Admittedly neither of these devices have the exact same display size as the Miix 2 8, but then again LG’s G Pad 8.3 does pack a 1920 x 1200 panel for $329.

Strangely, nearly all 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablets feature 1280 x 800 displays, like the switch to Windows somehow forces manufacturers to lower the display resolution (it doesn’t). In my eyes this isn’t a good thing, and I can’t wait to see all OEMs embrace pixel-dense displays as the norm, regardless of the OS they’re running.

If you can look past the display resolution, the Lenovo Miix 2 8’s panel is actually quite reasonable. Colors appear reasonably saturated yet also balanced, although gamma seems a little off the mark, and there’s little-to-no color banding when looking at gradients. Black levels aren’t the best I’ve seen, and the backlight does visibly pass through when displaying dark items, but whites appear strong and accurate.

Brightness is very good from the display, and thanks to its IPS nature, it’s reasonably easy to read outdoors, thanks to few layers between the glass and panel itself. You also get automatic brightness adjustments, which aren’t the fastest on the Miix 2 8, but work quite well. All this is complemented by great viewing angles, which allow you to easily read the display at off-angles, such as when the device may be laying on a desk.

If it wasn’t for the low resolution of the Lenovo Miix 2 8’s display, I’d say this is one of the better panels I’ve used on this class of tablets. Instead it’s merely average, just one key feature away from being awesome.

Performance: Intel's 'Bay Trail' Atom Z3740

Once again, the Lenovo Miix 2 8 makes use of Intel’s ‘Bay Trail’ Atom Z3740 SoC, which includes a 1.33 GHz quad-core ‘Silvermont’ CPU with a 1.86 GHz Turbo boost, an Intel Gen 7 HD Graphics GPU clocked at 667 MHz, and a dual-channel LPDDR3 memory controller. The SoC is paired with a dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n modem and Bluetooth 4.0.

I spoke further about the Z3740 in my Asus Transformer Book T100 review, and like I expected, the performance from the Lenovo Miix 2 8 is largely the same. Navigating Windows 8.1’s ‘Metro’ interface is smooth and perfectly hardware accelerated, and launching applications is reasonably fast. Web browsing performance is also quite good, not as speedy as a ‘Haswell’-powered machine, but nevertheless very acceptable for a tablet.

It is definitely possible to game on the Lenovo Miix 2 8, especially if you are just playing titles from the Windows Store. The Intel HD Graphics GPU, rendering to the 1280 x 800 display, is roughly as powerful as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 or Apple A7 GPU rendering to 1080p or above, so mobile-friendly titles generally run quite well. I did experience some micro-stutter in games like Asphalt 8, which wasn’t present when playing the same game on the Transformer Book T100, but the game is definitely still playable.

As the Miix 2 8 features an x86-64 capable processor, it’s running Windows 8.1 with full desktop capabilities. General performance around the desktop UI is great, and the Z3740 is even capable of running some apps such as web browsers and Office without a struggle. However it’s definitely not a suitable platform for running professional apps such as Photoshop or Lightroom, as the Silvermont CPU cores simply aren’t powerful enough. Also, forget running most desktop games unless you can put up with horrible frame rates.

All of this is of little consequence though, because there is one major issue with the Lenovo Miix 2 8: touchscreen responsiveness. During my time with the tablet, around half the time I went to use it, the touchscreen simply wouldn’t work after powering the display on, leaving me unable to get past the lockscreen. After a series of turning the display on and off, and waiting several minutes, eventually something would kick into gear and the touchscreen would work again, but issues like this are simply unacceptable.

The problem also rears its head on a regular basis when using the on-screen keyboard. I consistently struggled to type at a reasonable pace, as the Miix 2 8 did everything from failing to register key presses, to inputting random special characters and even switching apps, as if the gesture was somehow being activated as I typed.

The whole cacophony of touchscreen-related issues makes the Miix 2 8 an incredibly frustrating tablet to use. There are periods where I forgot about the dodgy digitizer, but as soon as I opened an app like Twitter to compose a tweet, I found myself cursing again as I had to reduce my typing speed to a snail’s pace to actually get key presses to register correctly.

It's not like I got a defective unit either: over the course of several weeks Lenovo sent out three Miix 2 8s, including one brand new retail model ordered through the Lenovo store. All of them had identical touchscreen issues, ruling out one-off issues with the model I was using. I’m hoping that there might be a software fix for the problem currently in development, but there are no guarantees.

For what it’s worth, I ran a few benchmarks on the Lenovo Miix 2 8 to compare it to other tablets on the market. As expected, it matches the Transformer Book T100, which has the same Z3740 SoC inside, and on CPU performance, beats top-performing ARM processors.

Interestingly, in 3DMark the Lenovo Miix 2 8 posted a significantly higher score than the T100, despite the test being screen resolution independent. In GFXBench though, offscreen results for the T-Rex HD benchmark on the Miix 2 8 and T100 are the same, with differences showing in the resolution-dependent onscreen benchmark. The Miix 2 8 has to render to slightly fewer pixels, and so posts a higher score in this test.

Internal storage in the 32 GB Miix 2 8 is quite limited: the storage partition is just 21.5 GB in size with 10.1 GB free after Windows 8.1 is installed. Luckily there’s both a 64 GB model (for $40 more) and a microSD card slot in the device; you can’t install Store apps on the microSD card, but it does provide a cheap way to add more storage for your media.

Lastly, I found Wi-Fi performance from the Miix 2 8 to be quite good. Streaming a 1080p video from my local media server was no trouble on either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz 802.11n networks, indicating good throughput performance for media-related tasks. You don’t get 802.11ac radios, but these routers aren’t very prevalent in houses at the moment, so it’s of little concern.

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