Will the Helix be enough?

So my current laptop for work is a Sony vaio z2. I have it hooked up to 3 monitors at work, mainly use it for a ton of web browsing, spreadsheets, and some minor photoshopping.

So far the z2 has been great, but i really like the idea of the Helix because I'm always going into meetings and bringing my ipad into them instead of the laptop,.and sometimes it's inconvenient due to it not having all my files i need on tap. With the Helix, I can just pull the tablet out without skipping a beat. Very cool!

The main thing I'm worried about is if the Helix will be as fast as the vaio z2, which at the time i bought it, was top of the line. Also I need it to be able to run 3 external monitors when I'm docked mode. I'm assuming I can do this because it's got usb 3, and I'll just need some adapters. Is this correct?

How will the Helix compare to the z2 in performance? I don't mind waiting for Haswell if needs be.

Any input is greatly appreciated!

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

It looks like the Helix uses a low voltage processor, so it may not be able to handle the same workload as easily as the Vaio you have. Since Intel is focusing mostly on lowering idle or mostly idle power consumption with Haswell, i don't think you'll see a big increase in computing power by waiting. You will likely, however, see an increase in graphics power and battery life.

 

I doubt the Helix will drive three external LCD panels. If that is a requirement, I would hold off until you can get that clarified.

 

Yup, wait until one of us gets one, still waiting for it to show on Lenovo's canadian website.

 

Performance will be equal to your current Sony Vaio Z2.

The major component that determines "day-to-day" useability performance is an SSD (Solid State Drive), which is vastly superior in performance to traditional HDD (hard disk drive) based storage. Both your Sony Vaio Z2 and this new Lenovo ThinkPad Helix use SSD storage technology, so you are covered there.

Technically, the processor in the Lenovo ThinkPad Helix is a bit slower than the Sony Vaio Z2. The Helix uses a ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) CPU to improve battery life, which typically has slower performance than a "full" mobile CPU found in your Sony Vaio Z2. However, this will not make any difference in your day-to-day usage, because your day-to-day usage is most impacted by whether your system has SSD vs HDD based storage.

Yes, and no.

Natively, the Lenovo ThinkPad Helix only has one Mini DisplayPort output on the docking station. (there is also a Mini DisplayPort on the Lenovo Helix unit itself, but that is not accessible while the unit is docked). So natively, using only the Lenovo ThinkPad Helix + Docking station, you can only connect one external monitor.

However, you can buy USB devices that allow you to add additional monitors, such as this:
Amazon.com: StarTech.com USB 3.0 to HDMI and DVI Dual Monitor External Video Card Adapter (USB32HDDVII): Computers & Accessories

With that type of device, you can actually run up to 4 monitor simultaneously:
1) Helix display itself
2) External display connected via docking station Mini DisplayPort
3) 2x additioanl displays connected via USB video card I listed above.

Again, be aware that the Lenovo Thinkpad Helix natively uses MINI DISPLAY PORT as its connection method. That means that if you want to hook up this device to a conference room projector or at-home HDTV, you will need the appropriate adapters:
MiniDisplayPort to VGA Adapter
MiniDisplayPort to HDMI Adapter
MiniDisplayPort to DVI Adapter

If you are in work-related situations where you need to connect to a projector, buy an extra MiniDisplayPort to VGA Adapter, keep it in your laptop bag, and never use it anywhere else (e.g. in your office or home). Buy that extra adapter, and keep it exclusively in your work bag, for use only for connecting to projectors in workplace meetings. It absolutely sucks to show up in a meeting, and realize that you're screwed because you don't have the right adapter to connect to the projector.

Nearly identical in day-to-day performance. You will not be able to tell the difference.

Do not wait for Haswell. At this point, it will take several months for Haswell to be released, and then several more months before products using Haswell show up in the channel. The benefits of Haswell will mostly be around lower power consumption, which won't really affect your use case (since battery life of laptops / tablets are mostly determined by the power consumption of the display, and not by the power consumption of the CPU).

 

for cpu comparion, you can check out CPUBenchmark.com: The Leading CPU Site on the Net

 

If you haven't seen it already, this is an interesting user review up now at NBR's sister tablet site - thinkpad Helix User review

 

That's all fine and well, but I'm still waiting for your review...

 

"Negatives out of the way first....... screen backlight bleed is the worst I have had on any device I have owned with the possible exception of my first iPad"

Oh well. I stopped reading at that point.

 

Including more context would be beneficial.

"Negatives out of the way first....... screen backlight bleed is the worst I have had on any device I have owned with the possible exception of my first iPad (see list above) which was my first piece of disappointment. with that said, backlight bleed does not bother me much and I rarely look at a black screen, except during initial boot. While it is pretty bad, that is not a showstopper for me by any means."

And then he goes on to say, "The screen is beautiful...seriously."

 

While I'll agree that quite a few people couldn't care less about backlight bleed, I honestly fail to see that such a defect - wait, maybe it's a "feature" in Lenovo's book - is acceptable on a $2K hybrid which was released with a delay and is essentially hyped by its maker to be "all things to all people", at least to a degree...

I've returned stuff to both IBM and Lenovo for this type of imperfection in the past and would most certainly not hesitate to do the same now...obviously, YMMV.

It's honestly rather pathetic that an excellent and genuinely attractive concept - which Helix undoubtedly is although I'd personally never buy one - is marred by what seems to be a severe lack of "real world" QC on Lenovo's part...

 

I don't even think it's a lack of QC. I think it's just a choice of a a cheap and crappy screen, so the can keep costs low. How many times do you see a laptop / device with absolutely stunning technical specifications on paper, but then gets killed because they put in a poor-quality screen for cost-saving purposes?

Case in point: Lenovo Y400. Absolutely beautiful product on paper, with the amount of innovation and GPU power they were able to cram into that machine with 2x GeForce 650M / 750M GPUs in SLI configuration. The laptop word has never see that before, and it is a brilliant idea.

BUT. They put a 14" 1366x768 TN panel on that laptop, to keep it cheap. What a waste. If that laptop had a 1600x900 or 1920x1080p IPS panel, I'd pay up to $2000 to own one.

 

Yeah, it's a conscious choice. (I hope plenty of context was provided this time.)

Let's repeat the party line: "ThinkPad is meant for business. You should be happy there is a screen."

 

I agree with all of your points and will add another. This seems to be the new norm for Lenovo. It's not even new anymore. It's really been happening since the sale by IBM. They are most interested in driving volume, not making truly excellent products. Everything in their product lines are "good enough".

I am not their target market, except for my corporately supplied assets. I influence the machines we pick from, but in the end those decisions come down to price, global support, fulfillment SLA, etc. Excellence doesn't factor in with the exception being the grade we give all suppliers on their execution.

 

Of course. Because a 11,6" 1920x1080 IPS screen with 350nit is really, really "crappy" and "cheap".

Well, "Backlight Bleeding" is a common issue with newer IPS screens. Also, the "amazing" rMPB screen suffers under this ( http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1396772). I though Apple would make "truly excellent products"? At the end, it is just a really small issue. Other than that, the Helix appears to be a excellent product.

 

If only I had one....

But my thoughts on the one I got to play with are I've held a Helix... (Pictures inside) - Lenovo Community

 

my biggest complaint is the price (expensive) and the lack of availability. Backlight bleeding worries me a little bit and then he mentioned the screen is beautiful. Anyway I am looking forward to a productivity tool rather than a piece of art.

 

I'm wondering what the DPI % is on that screen. I'm guessing it needs to be at 150% or more.

Regarding price, we seen this before. Early reports on price ended up being wrong.

The initial orders I placed for the X1 Carbon were more the exception than the rule. My early orders were priced really well. I have not seen the EPP price that low since.

I am sure economics took over with demand keeping the price high.

 

That figures. As soon as I write the above, the X1 Carbon goes on sale. The current EPP price is as low as I've ever seen it.

 

I have being using a Thinkpad Twist (S230U) for the past a couple of months and I have set it to power saver mode which limits the Core i5-3317U CPU to 798mHz speed, and I have to say it's perfectly adequate to perform most everyday tasks, I can even stream Youtube 1080p video to a TV at that speed. I hate its fan though, it's on way too often and when it does it sounds like a vacuum.

 

That was my point exactly. The screen sounds BEAUTIFUL when you read paper specs. But if you see it in-person, and realize that it was poorly implemented with backlight bleed, then it's a disappointment.

 

I don't have a helix yet. It seems that you don't have it either, and you read the first sentence by Bergman and stopped. If you had bothered to read further, you would have found he mentioned the screen is beautiful.

 

Have you seen it in person yet? I'd like to see some pictures of how bad the backlight bleed is, which I don't see in the review thread.

 

I'll reserve final judgment until I can use one and more people have done so and reported on it, but if I were to assign a 1-10 rating on the TPCR review, I would give it at 7.5 and altogether I think it amounts to a disappointment for a much anticipated, much delayed product. I couldn't agree more with Thors (which is not unusual!) about the direction Lenovo corporate is taking. I think it's "business laptops" segment is a tinier and tinier portion of the company and is receiving less and less R&D, marketing and other resources. This is mostly my opinion but I have read a number of articles to back it up. Lenovo has Big ambitions and Thinkpads are but a blip on their radar.

The best news here is that there is a widening gap in the market for the likes of (get ready to call me crazy...) Samsung, Asus and even the (new?) Acer to fill! There is nothing exceptional about what the Helix does than any of these mfrs could not replicate it at a lower cost. Somehow we can all learn to live without the squishy black plastic exterior and the "legendary" keyboard, if we can just get our work done with the latest technology - including manufacturing/quality technology - at a reasonable price and acceptable quality.

 

True, the other notebook manufacturers could do something like the Helix, the problem is that no one is doing that right now. As far as I can see, for the moment, there are two options for those wanting a hybrid with pen input and an adjustable angle dock: the Helix or the Ativ Smart PC Pro 700T. The latter only comes with a 128 GB SSD max, 4 GB of RAM (again, seriously, RAM is still cheap), but it has a microSD slot which the Helix doesn't have bringing the storage capacity at 256 GB if you have a 128 GB SDXC. From a quick look on google, seems like there is also backlight bleed on the Ativ 700T.

I'd really like to see the display on the Helix in person too, but in Canada, you can pretty much forget it. No one is carrying it in stock (physically) right now as far as I can tell and there is only model available for order on the web: i5, 180 GB and 4 GB of RAM (grrr!, if it was 8 GB, I'd already be one of the suckers owning one) for ~1800 CAD.

 

I hear you tijo but I have to say I think some are a little overly focused (pardon pun) on the screen. In a sea change in 2 short years, the world is awash in very good to outstanding LCDs from 4-15" so why so much attention to a $75 part in a $2,000 computer? I do agree that, if it is not at least very good by today's standards, shame on Lenovo and they don't deserve a small portion of their asking price, just as a punishment! That said, I think "backlight bleed" (another term for "backlight" when behind a translucent screen background!) is highly overrated as a "defect." In the vast, vast majority of cases in which it has been cited, it has also been exonerated as something "not noticeable on any actual content!" Or do I have that all wrong?

 

If it turns out like that, I won't mind it really, I've had laptops with not completely even backlighting and it didn't bother me in the past. It also seems like it's a tradeoff for the higher brightness on IPS displays or am I getting it wrong? To be honest, I'd just like to see it in person and decide for myself, but that ain't gonna happen in the land of Canadia it seems. It looks like getting a hold of a 8 GB unit is going to be hard already and still waiting for it to show on Lenovo's website too, it's in stock at ncix.com, but on lenovo's website, nada.

 

As someone mentioned in the Lenovo Forums (a Lenovo business-partner), they will deliver all orders which were made through the channel first, it is likely to appear on lenovo.com in June, because the supply will stay "tight" in May.

Lenovo has two sales divisions, one for the channel, and one for the own website. It seems the channel has priority.

 

I see, thanks, that's a bummer, at that point, waiting for a Haswell model will be tempting.

 

Ah, my friend, we part company on the issue of backlight bleed. To me, bleeding of the backlight is normally a symptom of a larger "fitment" or "Quality Control/Quality Assurance" issue. If I'm paying a small fortune for a device like the Helix, I want to be sure that all of the parts are properly fitted. Bleed from the backlight normally signals that the display is not properly seated or the manufacturer has exceeded its tolerances. Either way, it is a defect and I would return a unit that bleeds.

One of the most impressive things about the Surface Pro I had, was the build quality (I returned it at the end of the 30 day trial period mainly due to the fact that none of my office's HP printers had yet been provided W8 drivers). In addition the excellent build quality, there was "0" light bleed. Everything fit perfectly. The same is true of my Fujitsu Q552. No bleed at all. Lenovo should easily be able to duplicate the Surface's and Fuji's QA/QC in its Thinkpad line.

 

I bought a refurb'bed Fuji Q552 so I could wait for Haswell. Looking forward to seeing some new Hybrid designs from Computex.

 

Well, I make it a habit never to disagree with Bronsky - just because I'm usually wrong! - but in this case I have a question for you?
Even if it implies a quality defect, would you say that in 95% of the cases backlight bleed in any way diminishes the user experience on actual content viewing? The reason I've never considered it a defect is the former league leaders, the Sony Z screens, have always had bb as defined by seeing uneven levels of light coming through, say the Windows 7 splash screen, so it is varying shades of gray rather than jet black, as mostly all black content appears on these high contrast, high color spectrum. I can see how the SP may qualify for extra accolades in screen mounting (I had one and never noticed it, but that's because I've always ignored the great "bleed!" So many, many other aspects of design and manufacturing issues that bother me so much more.

Reading all the less than glowing comments in the lined review here, does this model still strike you as the one worth paying over $1,500 for?

 

I doubt very much that anyone notices bleed other than on boot-up. I'm talking about the bleed that is apparent at the edges of the display where the screen fits into the bezel. I think that the fitment at that point is fairly important as it is an indication of how well the device is put together. I tend to keep my devices for a couple of years generally and use them every day for work. The tablets get a lot more abuse than my notebooks do, if only for the fact that I toss the tablet in my briefcase and take it everywhere I go. I'm always looking for the best built device I can get for the $$.

At the moment, I'm stuck with W7, since my office uses the P1xxx series printers and a Minolta Bizhub scanner/network printer. Neither of them have W8 drivers yet. You would think that MS would make sure HP had a set of W8 drivers ready to go. The HP site says the drivers are coming in early 2013. Nothing yet.

If I had the drivers, I would probably have kept the Surface Pro I was using. I'm not all that interested in the Helix at that price. Thinkpads are funny, however, and it's hard to say what the price will be once it is for sale on the B&N site. Ever since I bought my HP Slate 500 almost 2 and a half years ago, I've used a tablet as my travel device. I prefer a matt display and 16:10 ratio, but there is really nothing out there in an I5 Ivybridge that meets all of my requirements. I do miss the power of my Surface and its slim profile when folded in my briefcase. I'm hoping that gen2 of the hybrids address the shortcomings of the first gen devices. I'm passing on the Helix.

 

two more things that make helix different: longest battery life among ultrabooks, and additional cooling in the keyboard so that the cpu runs at faster speed when used with a keyboard.

 

Makes sense about the bb around the edges, though I've been fortunate enough not to encounter it. I have no doubt hybrids will get much better in the next 1-2 seasons. They have to; it's all anyone will buy! I'm still fine with laptops except I really want a tablet to write on with a stylus (Galaxy Note 2 will have to do for now) and I've been this close to buying an Atom hybrid like your Fujitsu. How do you like it? Is the cpu ever so slow it annoys you?

 

The Atom ... well it's an atom. The N2600 is dual core, but has all of the classical limitations of an Atom such as the inability to perform out-of-order calculations, 2GB RAM, 32 Bit software and the like. But, the real weakness of the Atom is the Intel Graphics drivers for the GMA 3600 IGPU. That is where the bottleneck is in the device.

That being said, I picked up my Fuji Q552 refurbished from the Fujitsu Ebay store for $340. It is the only 10" tablet, other than the Panasonic Toughbook Tablet that has a real matt display. Combined with its 400 nits IPS display, it is generally usable outdoors. I use it as a field notebook quite a bit and have been impressed with the display. Still, it's not much more than an interim device (when I replace it, it will retire as a chart plotter for my sail boat). I'm waiting for Gen2 of the Surface, hoping for decent battery life from Haswell.

 

@Bronsky. How accurate was the stylus on the surface?

 

Mine was very accurate. I loved the inking on the Surface. I had none of the corner drift some experienced.