It was 8 months ago when I purchased my Lenovo Yoga Tablet 8, an 8” Android tablet. I raved about the form factor, price ($206.99 on Amazon.com, £150.99 on Amazon UK, €153.06 on Amazon Germany), and all that jazz.

So how has the tablet worked out?

I mentioned in my previous post that I was going to test the battery life in my upcoming travels. I did:

1. I charged up the tablet overnight in Berlin
2. Watched video flying from Berlin to London
3. Watched video flying from London to San Francisco
4. The battery was at 54% when I checked into the hotel in the west coast of the USA

And that was before a firmware update that increase published battery life from 16 hours to 18 hours. I suspect that this device pulls power from dark matter in the universe. It is incredible, with only Kindle readers beating it.

The screen is not the best for viewing photos … but let’s be clear. The machine is CHEAP and works great for video.

I probably use this device more than any machine other than my PC at work. I travel with it, using it to keep myself entertained in hotels, airports, planes, etc. I keep it at my bedside locker, so I can check up on things when I hit the snooze button in the mornings. It has replaced my Kindle reader as my way of consuming books – the extra large battery doubles as a comfortable handle.

I’ve used a Micro-SD to expand the paltry 16 GB of inbuilt storage. Using a SD converter, I can quicky copy content from a PC/laptop onto the machine. Combined with the hotspot on my phone, I have easy Internet access. Throw in ProXPN and I am accessing Netflix USA while in Europe, and UK/Irish services while abroad. My Bose headphones give me perfect sound in a noisy environment.

The lightweight CPU has not been an issue for me. I don’t play many games – but Robocop, Plants VS Zombies 2, and the Angry Birds carting thing play fine.

I have a lot of good things to say about this device. I wish it was a Windows machine – I do have a Toshiba Encore tablet but the Yoga wins on battery life (against almost everything) and apps (quantity & quality VS Windows).

I strongly recommend this tablet to anyone needing an affordable mobile device, and who would like to complete their journey with some battery life left …. which is actually a big deal with airport security now.