The clones of Microsoft’s Surface Pro are not lacking: the Acer Switch 5, the Samsung Galaxy Book or the HP Specter x2. But it’s rather the Lenovo Miix that impresses us the most for its design, features, and accessories included. The mid-range model Lenovo Miix 520 perfectly fits this description. In appearance, it has not changed much compared to the model of last year, the Miix 510. Built on a 12.2-inch 1.920×1,200-pixel touchscreen, this detachable keyboard hybrid features an 8th generation Intel Core i5-8250U processor that gives it a good performance boost over the Miix 510 and even at the Miix 720 equipped with a 7th generation Core i7.
Design
The Miix 520 features a one-piece aluminum alloy body, and the flip-out stand interfaces with the main body using Lenovo’s signature watchband hinge, which comprises 256 individual pieces. Made from 280 individual pieces of stainless steel, the hinges provide strength and flexibility. Adjustable up to 150°, they help you find your perfect viewing angle for watching videos, typing or using the touchscreen. The keyboard has a 1.5mm stroke that provides comfort equivalent to that of a conventional laptop keyboard. This is all the more impressive given the finesse of this accessory. Still, if you have a heavy hit, you can feel a little rebound. The touchpad is not very spacious, which can be frustrating. The integrated kickstand offers numerous tilt possibilities and its hinges are firm. It has the advantage of not having to use the keyboard as a support to maintain the screen when watching videos. So, you can remove it to switch to tablet mode. The stylus is perfect for taking notes and a bit of drawing, but creatives who need good color accuracy will not find it. The screen is pretty bright but not very usable outside.
Lenovo Miix 520 notebook uses a 12-inch IPS screen with a display resolution of 1920 x 1200. The color reproduction degree is superb and the screen reaches a maximum brightness of 320nit which makes sure that this product can be seamlessly used under sunlight without any difficulty in seeing what’s on the screen. Well, the Lenovo Miix 520 is a lightweight product which has a thickness of 9.9mm. It weighs just 880 grams when the keyboard is detached as a tablet but with the keyboard, its weight is 1.26kg which is about the average weight of most top-notch laptops in the industry.
Hardware
The Miix 520 delivers unprecedented power for a 2-in-1. Featuring the latest up to 8th Gen Intel Core i5-8250U Quad-Core 1.6GHz Processor and up to 256 GB PCIe SSD storage, you’ll enjoy exceptional performance and responsiveness, plus lightning-fast boot-ups and transfer times, anywhere. In addition, with up to 8GB of memory Substantial high-bandwidth RAM to smoothly run your games, photos, and video-editing applications, you’ll be able to run more apps, larger programs, and bigger files—without fear of your Miix 520 lagging.
Features
In addition to the new Intel chip, Lenovo has evolved the rear camera sensor to 8 megapixels with autofocus and webcam (5 megapixels). Also new, long-range microphones to improve the use of the Cortana voice assistant. We tested a lot of PCs with the latest Intel processors and all showed a real performance boost. For the Miix 520, this is confirmed in the test benches, but in practice, the improvement is less spectacular. It has no problem to make photo editing or basic video, it can run games not too demanding. Similarly, you can work while listening to music or watching a video. It will only get used to the fans a little noisy when the machine is heavily stressed.
Connectivity offers the bare minimum: microSD card reader, USB-C port, USB 3.0, headset/microphone handset. The USB-C port is not Thunderbolt compatible, but you can connect a hub box to have a video output and install devices. Detail a little unfortunate, the support for the stylus is taken on the USB port and condemns access. Worse, when the stylus is stowed, it also hinders the USB-C port and the power plug. If you expect a record autonomy like that of the iPad, you will be disappointed. But anyway, Windows 10 hybrid PCs do not usually have a day of autonomy. Still, the Miix 520 really did not impress us with only 6h27 minutes to our endurance test.
Conclusion
Lenovo Miix 520 2-in-1 laptop, comes with a series of eight generation Intel Core series processors thus optimizing its performance. This laptop has many strong sides but its 9.9 mm slimness coupled with an 880g (without keyboard) weight is very attractive. Right now you can buy from Gearbest at $1009.99 in Pre-Sale
