Lenovo ThinkPad Helix Review

Convertible laptops are becoming commonplace in the PC market and Lenovo has been one of the companies leading the push towards unconventional laptop designs.

At the high-end of Lenovo’s lineup is the ThinkPad Helix and while it is still running on last-gen components, the Helix is one of the fastest convertible laptops on the market.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Helix can be used as a standalone 11.6-inch tablet or as an 11-inch laptop. Either way, the device runs smoothly, although using the Helix as a tablet is a bit awkward.

Checkout the ThinkPad Helix here.

Surprisingly, the ThinkPad Helix only has a 128GB solid-state drive (in the base model), which is fast, but quite small for such an expensive device. Unlike some of other expensive tablet/PC devices, the Helix actually has moderately OK battery life.

When using the device as a laptop, the Helix lasts for around seven hours due to the fact that there is an extra battery in the keyboard dock.

One of the things that does standout right from the start is the Helix’s noise. When running a relatively small application such as Internet Explorer, you can definitely hear the fans on the laptop.

Once you start trying to do even more on the Helix, the fans really kick into gear and are audible even when standing a few feet away from the device.

Checkout the ThinkPad Helix here.

This is unfortunate, since taking advantage of the Thinkpad Helix’s Core i5 processor means running applications which make the laptop louder than many other convertible laptops.

As with all ThinkPad laptops, the Helix’s keyboard is amazing. Outside of a Macbook, I have yet to find a better laptop keyboard than a ThinkPad keyboard.

Despite being a smaller laptop, the Helix still comes with a full size trackpad, so if you prefer to use the trackpad instead of touching the screen, you will be all set.

When it comes to actual performance, the Helix is just about average. By no means is the device slow and in most applications, there is no way to tell that the laptop is running old hardware, but it’s not a great device for future-proofing.

With an already impressive battery life, the Helix will definitely shine through as one of the best convertible laptops on the market once it gets an upgrade to Haswell.

For now, it is still a good buy if you can afford it, but the $1,500 price tag is a bit high for most people.

Rating: 6.5/10

Cost: $1,477