Tag Archives: Tablets

Microsoft Just Raised Surface Prices $500: Here’s What Changed

Posted on by

The premium laptop market has spent the last few years in a quiet but intense competition. Apple keeps raising the performance ceiling with each new M-series chip, and Windows-on-Arm devices have been working to close that gap one generation at a time. The question for most buyers has stopped being which platform is faster on paper and started being which one actually earns the asking price when you sit down to use it.

The Surface Pro 12 and Surface Laptop 8 are Microsoft’s answer, both powered by Snapdragon X2 processors and coming with more performance, longer endurance, and more refined hardware than the generation before. They’ve also gone up significantly in price, starting well above where their 2024 predecessors landed, making these among the most expensive consumer Surface devices Microsoft has put out in the lineup’s 13-year history.

Designer: Microsoft

The Surface Pro 12 packs a 13-inch OLED PixelSense Flow display at 2880×1920 resolution, with a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate, 600 nits in SDR, and 900 nits at peak HDR brightness. Dolby Vision IQ is supported, and the panel is individually color-calibrated. It’s configured with either the Snapdragon X2 Plus or the X2 Elite, with up to 64GB of LPDDR5x RAM and a 1TB removable Gen 4 SSD.

The Surface Laptop 8 comes in 13.8-inch and 15-inch sizes, with the 15-inch getting the more notable display upgrade. That model gains a 262 PPI screen at 3,270×2,180 with Dolby Vision IQ and 600 nits in both SDR and HDR modes. The 13.8-inch arrives in a new Jade colorway and earned the top spot in DXOMARK’s integrated laptop webcam rankings. Both Laptop sizes gain a new haptic trackpad.

Both devices run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 chip family, delivering 80 TOPS of AI processing through the Hexagon NPU. On the Laptop, graphics performance is up by as much as 58% over the previous generation based on Microsoft’s 3DMark testing. Battery life reaches up to 20 hours on the 13.8-inch Laptop and 19 hours on the 15-inch, while the Surface Pro 12 is rated at 15.5 hours.

The price increases are hard to miss. The Surface Pro 12 starts at $1,499 and the Surface Laptop 8 at $1,599, which are $500 and $600 more, respectively, than what those lineups cost when they launched in 2024. The higher cost is largely tied to rising component prices driven by AI hardware demand, which has pushed up what it takes to build premium Arm-based PCs at this tier.

Both devices now offer a 24GB RAM option that didn’t exist on the previous generation, filling the gap between 16GB and 32GB for users who find the former too limiting but don’t want to jump all the way up. Storage on the Laptop scales up to 2TB, and all drives across both devices are removable PCIe Gen 4 SSDs, which is a meaningful detail at this price point.

To soften the sticker shock a bit, Microsoft is bundling a free Surface Pro Keyboard with Pro purchases made before June 30, while Laptop buyers get a free Arc Mouse and 50% off Microsoft Complete. Trade-in credits of up to $900 are also available for those looking to swap out an older device. Both are on sale now for consumers, with Surface for Business variants shipping on July 14.

The post Microsoft Just Raised Surface Prices $500: Here’s What Changed first appeared on Yanko Design.

This $399 Tablet Has 9 JBL Speakers and Works as a Bluetooth Speaker

Posted on by

Entertainment tablets have always been a bit of a compromise. They’re large enough to make video look good, but the speakers are almost universally disappointing, and most people end up propping them against a pillow or a water bottle to get a decent viewing angle. The hardware has gotten better over the years, but the experience still feels like it’s designed around the screen and nothing else.

Lenovo’s Tab Plus Gen 2 is built around a different set of priorities. It leads with audio in a way that most Android tablets don’t, pairs that with a display that can actually do the sound justice, and backs both up with a mechanical kickstand that rotates 360 degrees so the tablet can sit, stand, lean, or hang in whatever configuration makes the most sense for the moment.

Designer: Lenovo

The 12.1-inch 2.5K LCD display carries Dolby Vision and HDR10 support, a 120Hz refresh rate, and up to 800 nits in High Brightness Mode for watching in brighter environments. At 249ppi, the pixel density stays sharp at this screen size, which matters when you’re switching between films, reading articles, or navigating something that would look noticeably soft on a lower-resolution panel.

The JBL 9-unit Pro speaker system is tuned with Dolby Atmos and includes dedicated bass units that give the sound a physical weight most tablet audio simply doesn’t have. Dialogue stays clear, bass doesn’t disappear, and the whole thing scales with the content. Dolby Audio processing lets you switch between Dynamic, Movie, and Music modes depending on what you’re watching or listening to.

There’s also a built-in Bluetooth speaker mode that turns the Tab Plus Gen 2 into a standalone speaker you can control from your phone. That means you can set the tablet up in the kitchen, hit play on a playlist from across the room, and use it the same way you’d use a Bluetooth speaker, without needing a separate device sitting on the counter.

The 360-degree rotating kickstand handles four distinct positions: lean, theater, stand, and hanging mode. That covers everything from reclining on a couch to hooking onto a cabinet door in the kitchen, across both portrait and landscape orientations. When the tablet isn’t being actively used, a standby mode turns it into a digital picture frame, which gives it a purpose even when nobody’s watching anything.

AI Live Transcript handles real-time translation across more than 40 languages, which makes foreign-language content far more approachable without having to hunt for subtitles. AI Notes with Lenovo Notepad handles notetaking, and Smarter Reader makes navigating longer articles less of a chore. The 10,200mAh battery is rated for up to 15 hours of YouTube streaming, backed by 45W fast charging.

The Tab Plus Gen 2 starts at $399.99 and is available in Celestial White. It works with the Lenovo Tab Pen Plus and Lenovo Wireless Keyboard, both sold separately, and comes with a Sleeve Suite that includes a carrying sleeve and a shoulder strap for getting the tablet from room to room or out the door without digging around for a bag.

The post This $399 Tablet Has 9 JBL Speakers and Works as a Bluetooth Speaker first appeared on Yanko Design.

Lenovo Just Built a $499 Rugged Tablet You Can Run Without a Battery

Posted on by

Consumer tablets have gotten remarkably thin and capable, but the categories of people who actually use tablets on a job site, in a warehouse, or out in the field have largely been served by a different and considerably more expensive tier of hardware. Most rugged tablets come either from enterprise-only brands with steep price points, or from consumer devices pressed into duty they weren’t really designed for. The gap between those two extremes has rarely been addressed cleanly.

The Lenovo ThinkTab X11 is an attempt to close that gap. It’s the first device to carry the ThinkTab name, extending Lenovo’s Think portfolio into rugged Android territory for frontline workers in logistics, manufacturing, construction, transportation, and energy. Starting at $499, it lands well below what comparable enterprise-grade rugged tablets typically cost while bringing credentials that those environments actually require.

Designer: Lenovo

The most unusual thing about the ThinkTab X11 isn’t its durability ratings, which are genuine rather than decorative, but rather its battery design. The 10,200 mAh cell removes without tools, using a screwless mechanism that lets a worker swap a depleted pack for a fresh one mid-shift and keep going. That’s a design decision that most tablet makers abandoned years ago in pursuit of thinner profiles, and it matters enormously when a dead device means halting an entire workflow.

It goes further with a battery-less operating mode. When the tablet is mounted in a vehicle or bolted to a fixed workstation, it can run directly from DC power with no battery installed at all. This reduces heat buildup during continuous use, extends the long-term health of the device, and removes the battery’s natural degradation from the equation entirely for fixed deployments. Dual USB-C ports handle simultaneous charging and peripheral connectivity alongside all of that.

The rest of the hardware is built around the same operating logic. The 10.95-inch display runs at 90 Hz with up to 800 nits of peak brightness under high brightness mode, and it’s coated with Corning Gorilla Glass. The touch layer is calibrated to work with gloved hands and wet fingers, which matters on a construction site or loading dock more than any raw spec comparison might suggest. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 handles processing, with up to 12 GB of RAM and up to 512 GB of UFS 3.1 storage available.

The included rugged case brings MIL-STD-810H certification for drops and vibration, while the device itself carries an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. The case can be swapped out for a plain back panel when the environment is less demanding, which keeps the device from feeling like overkill in lighter contexts. Front-mounted NFC handles inventory scanning, access control, and field authentication without requiring the tablet to be flipped over.

The ThinkTab X11 ships with Android 16, guaranteed to receive two major OS upgrades reaching Android 18, along with four years of security patches. Lenovo’s ThinkShield security layer sits underneath the consumer-facing OS, giving IT departments the kind of centralized device management tools they already use for ThinkPads. An organization that runs the Think ecosystem at the desk can now extend the same infrastructure to the field, with the 256 GB model available at $579.

The post Lenovo Just Built a $499 Rugged Tablet You Can Run Without a Battery first appeared on Yanko Design.

Your Kindle Can’t Do This: BOOX’s Pocket E-Reader Now Takes a Stylus

Posted on by

Most dedicated e-readers exist at the opposite ends of a familiar spectrum. Closed-ecosystem devices like the Kindle keep things deliberately simple and locked in, while Android-based tablets offer full flexibility but grow too large to carry comfortably in a pocket. The gap between those two has always been somewhat underserved, especially for anyone who wants true portability alongside a genuinely open operating system.

BOOX’s Go 6 (Gen II) is the second generation of its most pocketable e-reader, arriving with upgrades that make that middle ground considerably more appealing. Built around a 6-inch, 300 ppi E Ink display and running Android 11 with full Google Play access, it’s aimed at readers who want their device to be both portable and versatile, without having to choose one over the other.

Designer: BOOX

The first thing you’ll notice about the Gen II is that it doesn’t look like a standard e-reader. The redesigned textured rear shell has a suitcase-inspired aesthetic that feels more deliberate than the plain black slab of the first generation. It comes in four muted color options: Plum, Stone, Shell, and Custard, all suggesting a device meant to slip into a bag and come with you wherever you go.

The screen gets a meaningful upgrade with this generation. The Gen II adds anti-glare (AG) glass to its 300 ppi E Ink panel, reducing reflections when you’re reading in direct sunlight on a patio or near a bright window. The adjustable front light handles both warm and cold color temperatures, letting you read comfortably at night without straining your eyes against harsh lighting.

The more surprising addition is stylus support, which is uncommon at this screen size. The Go 6 (Gen II) is compatible with BOOX’s InkSense Plus stylus, an active pen with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity that lets you annotate directly in books, mark up PDFs, or take handwritten notes on a screen small enough to fit in a jacket pocket. It connects directly to the device and charges via USB-C.

Running open Android 11 with a built-in Google Play Store means you aren’t locked into any one reading platform. BOOX’s NeoReader app handles 20 document formats natively, including PDF, EPUB, MOBI, and DJVU, and supports dark mode for lower-light reading. Install the Kindle app, Kobo, Libby, or anything else you’ve been using, and your existing library follows you without having to start over from scratch.

At 160 grams and 6.8mm thin, the BOOX Go 6 (Gen II) fits in a jacket pocket without making its presence felt. A microSD card slot supplements the 32 GB of built-in storage, and the USB-C port doubles as an audio jack for wired listening. The 1,500 mAh battery holds up well through long reading sessions, largely because E Ink uses so little power compared to a conventional backlit screen.

The BOOX Go 6 (Gen II) is still primarily a reader’s device, but the combination of Android OS, stylus compatibility, and anti-glare glass packed into a pocket-friendly body gives it a range that most devices at this size simply don’t attempt. It’s currently available for pre-order through the official BOOX store, arriving at a moment when the 6-inch e-reader category could use a reminder of what it can still do.

The post Your Kindle Can’t Do This: BOOX’s Pocket E-Reader Now Takes a Stylus first appeared on Yanko Design.

ASUS Just Returned to Tablets, and It’s Coming for the iPad

Posted on by

Android tablets have had a complicated few years. The iPad solidified its lead at the premium end, and Android alternatives often competed on price rather than experience, producing devices that were acceptable but rarely compelling. Demand for something that genuinely rivaled the best tablets in the room, not on price alone, but on the quality of the thing itself, has been there for a while. It just hasn’t always been answered.

ASUS steps back into the conversation with the Pad, an Android 16 tablet announced at Computex 2026. The company stepped away from the tablet category for several years, and this is its return, built around a 12.2-inch dual-layer OLED display and a chassis light enough and slim enough to suggest that sitting on the couch with it for three hours isn’t something to plan around.

Designer: ASUS

The display is the obvious starting point, because the choice of dual-layer OLED is a meaningful one. Where a conventional OLED pushes through a single emission layer, the tandem structure stacks two of them. The result is better brightness, longer panel life, and improved power efficiency without demanding that any of those things trade off against each other. At a 2.8K resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, and full DCI-P3 coverage, the screen is built for content that benefits from all of that.

The body that carries it measures just 6.5mm thick and weighs 523g, built from a magnalium chassis with a fiberglass back. Those proportions bring the Pad well within the range of a device someone would actually carry in a bag or hold over a long flight without a second thought. Four speakers tuned with Dolby Atmos back up the display with audio that punches harder than the form factor suggests.

A MediaTek Dimensity 8300 chip handles the performance side, paired with 8GB of LPDDR5x RAM and storage in 128GB or 256GB configurations. A micro TF slot extends that to 1TB, keeping the device practical for anyone loading it with locally stored video or large files. The 9,000mAh battery charges to 50% in 30 minutes at 45W, and Wi-Fi 6E keeps the streaming side of things moving.

Software runs Android 16 with a handful of genuinely useful additions. ASUS GlideX handles cross-device connectivity, letting the tablet function as a secondary screen or swap files with a nearby laptop. Google Gemini integrates directly into the experience for AI assistance, while Circle to Search lets users search from anything visible on screen without disrupting what they’re doing. Face Login handles security without a passcode step.

Accessory support rounds out what the Pad can do when the watching stops. ASUS Pen 2.0 enables handwriting and sketching, and Bluetooth keyboard support turns the tablet into something closer to a light laptop for longer text work. A protective case with a multi-angle origami stand ships in the box, meaning the setup is functional out of the packaging without anything additional to buy. Availability and pricing haven’t been confirmed yet, but the ASUS Pad is shaping up as a considered answer to a market that doesn’t always reward patience.

The post ASUS Just Returned to Tablets, and It’s Coming for the iPad first appeared on Yanko Design.

Acer Made Android Tablets in 3:2 Because 16:9 Wasn’t Built for Work

Posted on by

Android tablets have long defaulted to 16:9 screens, a ratio optimized for video that leaves them awkward for anything resembling actual work. Documents get letterboxed, web pages feel narrow, and the creative canvas ends up shorter than it should be. That works well for watching but not for producing, which is why the 3:2 display, long favored by productivity-first Windows devices, has been largely absent from Android.

Acer is changing that at Computex 2026 with the Iconia Duo lineup, three new Android 16 tablets that debut the brand’s 3:2 aspect ratio across three different price points. Alongside them, two new pairs of smart glasses push the mobile experience off the screen entirely: the AR Vision GR0 for immersive wired display and the GI0 for wireless, hands-free AI assistance on the go.

Designer: Acer

Acer Iconia Duo S14

The flagship of the three is the Iconia Duo S14, built around a 14.2-inch 2.8K OLED display running at 120 Hz with 100% DCI-P3 color coverage. A MediaTek Dimensity 8300 SoC handles the processing, and DisplayPort in and out ports let it feed a larger screen during presentations or act as a portable monitor. At just 6.2 mm thin and 0.73 kg, it doesn’t exactly feel like a compromise.

Acer Iconia Duo S14

The 12.2-inch Iconia Duo S12 carries the same 2.8K OLED panel at 600 nits and adds nano-texture glass with anti-glare and anti-fingerprint properties, housed in an aluminum alloy chassis that makes it noticeably more premium to hold. The Iconia Duo D12 brings the same 3:2 format at a 2400×1600 resolution with a 90Hz refresh rate, starting at $399 for buyers who don’t need OLED.

Acer Iconia Duo S12

All three run Android 16 and support an optional Active Stylus, magnetic kickstand, and detachable keyboard, letting them shift from a drawing canvas to a laptop-like workstation with the right accessories. A microSD card slot in each model accepts cards up to 1 TB for local storage of large creative files, and battery life reaches up to 10 hours across the lineup.

Acer Iconia Duo D12

The AR Vision GR0 takes the display off the tablet entirely. The wired glasses connect to any phone, laptop, or tablet and deliver dual micro OLED FHD screens simulating a 172-inch screen from 6 meters away, with a 50,000:1 contrast ratio. They’re compatible with Android, iOS, and Windows, weigh just 69 g, and include a detachable light shield and a myopia magnetic lens option for prescription wearers.

Acer AR Glasses GR0

The GI0 heads in a different direction. Rather than a display, these 46 g AI glasses integrate a 12 MP camera and Google Gemini for real-time translation, AI captions, and voice-activated queries through three onboard microphones. They connect wirelessly over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi via the Acer AspireSync app, and they’re light enough to wear all day without thinking about them.

Acer AI Glasses GI0

The Iconia Duo S14 starts at $699 in North America in September 2026, the S12 at $549 in August, and the D12 at $399 also in August. The GR0 arrives at $499.99 and the GI0 at $299.99, both heading to EMEA in Q4 2026 and Australia in Q3. Together, they cover a broad stretch of mobile productivity, from an accessible Android tablet to a wearable AI companion.

The post Acer Made Android Tablets in 3:2 Because 16:9 Wasn’t Built for Work first appeared on Yanko Design.