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My spouse and I recently got identical Lenovo tablets. I got mine for reading sheet music, but of course can't pass up the chance to see how close it gets to be

My spouse and I recently got identical Lenovo tablets. I got mine for reading sheet music, but of course can't pass up the chance to see how close it gets to being a laptop replacement. It's the first device that was close enough to leave my laptop at home on a recent trip... and travel 2 pounds lighter. Don't know if it's unique to Lenovo or part of Android in general, but these tablets do support the windowing feature. It's Android 13.

tredre3 2y ago
> Don't know if it's unique to Lenovo or part of Android in general So-called Productivity Mode is a Lenovo thing and I agree it's actually decent. I know that Android has some windowing support built-in but it's basically unusable (hence why this announcement is good news).
mattlondon 2y ago
You've always been able to do split screen (i.e. 50/50, 25/75 etc but not floating windows) even on phones, FWIW.
- wongarsu 2y ago
  Lenovo tablets have split screen, floating windows over fullscreen applications, and the option to put all applications into windows kind of like in the post. Though admittedly split screen is the most useful of those
- KeplerBoy 2y ago
  Always is a bit of a stretch. The split screen feature came with Android 7 in 2016.
kmarc 2y ago
Wait until you try Samsung's Dex. It could replace my Linux laptop, with my tmux/vim dot files environment
- mschuster91 2y ago
  Now if DeX would actually be performant... unfortunately Samsung just loves putting dogshit SoCs and flash into anything that is not the Galaxy Phone lineup, not to mention their own pre-installed bloatware and general Android bloatification causing further performance issues.
  - criddell 2y ago
    > Now if DeX would actually be performant Well, that all depends on what you were expecting. It works about as well as I figured it would (including the pre-installed bloatware), so in my eyes, it’s performant.
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    > unfortunately Samsung just loves putting dogshit SoCs and flash into anything that is not the Galaxy Phone lineup But DeX is only available on the highest performing devices in the Galaxy lineup :) I don't have any performance complaints on my S23 with Snapdragon chip. But they are too frugal with memory. Tabs and apps often have to reload in DeX.
- kimbernator 2y ago
  The fact that Dex has not made a bigger splash is entirely on Samsung's marketing department. I agree it's not -fully- there as a replacement for computers, but I remember owning an s20 for over a year before even knowing it was a thing. When I tried it I thought "finally." We carry these things with us everywhere and they are more than capable (hardware wise) for what 99% of time spent on desktops/laptops can do, especially in the corporate world. The limitation is the form factor. I'm really just floored that there hasn't been a bigger push to turn our smartphones into our computers.
tomcam 2y ago
How big are the tablets? For me only the 13” iPad works because it’s my only option for full size. But my eyesight is defective.
- analog31 2y ago
  Ours are 11 inch. To make matters worse, the aspect ratio is 5:3, meaning that typical sheet music (based on 8.5x11 paper) uses only part of the screen. I'm a jazz bassist, so I'm mostly reading chord symbols when not just playing from memory. Having the sheets on stage lets me consult rehearsal markings and jog my memory as needed. Sometimes it stays in my bag, or at the edge of the stage, until I need it. The one band I play in that has more complicated charts is entirely paper based, and will be for the foreseeable future. My kids both play classical, and they have 13" iPads -- there's pretty much no avoiding it nowadays. But after shelling out for them, I decided that I didn't need that much technology.
  - tomcam 2y ago
    Thanks for the reply. I don’t understand the downvotes. I am always baffled when statements are downvoted.
    - analog31 2y ago
      Probably for being a jazz bassist. I'll just threaten to play a solo if they downvote me again. ;-)
    - tomcam 2y ago
      * statements of fact
ntac 2y ago
I did the same thing - replaced my laptop with a tablet for a trip. Lenovo P12. It I thought the windowing was great. The whole experience would have been great, except for one thing which made it unusable for my purposes. Android has that clipboard editor popup that can't be disabled. When using Emacs within Termux, every time I hit ctrl-k, I got that damn popup which blocked a significant amount of the screen for ~10 seconds.
- walterbell 2y ago
  Can the Lenovo tablet run a customizable Android variant?
freedomben 2y ago
Is it one of the Lenovo Chromebook tablets? I encountered one the other day. It was pretty damn nice actually, I may end up buying one for myself.
- analog31 2y ago
  It's Android, and it was 200 bucks from Lenovo, including a pen. Part of my reason for being cheap is that I've seen more than one tablet get destroyed, while playing music. One got blown over by the wind at an outdoor gig, the other somehow got knocked around in my instrument case and the screen cracked in half.

tredre3 2y ago

> Don't know if it's unique to Lenovo or part of Android in general So-called Productivity Mode is a Lenovo thing and I agree it's actually decent. I know that Android has some windowing support built-in but it's basically unusable (hence why this announcement is good news).

mattlondon 2y ago

You've always been able to do split screen (i.e. 50/50, 25/75 etc but not floating windows) even on phones, FWIW.

wongarsu 2y ago
Lenovo tablets have split screen, floating windows over fullscreen applications, and the option to put all applications into windows kind of like in the post. Though admittedly split screen is the most useful of those
KeplerBoy 2y ago
Always is a bit of a stretch. The split screen feature came with Android 7 in 2016.

kmarc 2y ago

Wait until you try Samsung's Dex. It could replace my Linux laptop, with my tmux/vim dot files environment

mschuster91 2y ago
Now if DeX would actually be performant... unfortunately Samsung just loves putting dogshit SoCs and flash into anything that is not the Galaxy Phone lineup, not to mention their own pre-installed bloatware and general Android bloatification causing further performance issues.
- criddell 2y ago
  > Now if DeX would actually be performant Well, that all depends on what you were expecting. It works about as well as I figured it would (including the pre-installed bloatware), so in my eyes, it’s performant.
- wkat4242 2y ago
  > unfortunately Samsung just loves putting dogshit SoCs and flash into anything that is not the Galaxy Phone lineup But DeX is only available on the highest performing devices in the Galaxy lineup :) I don't have any performance complaints on my S23 with Snapdragon chip. But they are too frugal with memory. Tabs and apps often have to reload in DeX.
kimbernator 2y ago
The fact that Dex has not made a bigger splash is entirely on Samsung's marketing department. I agree it's not -fully- there as a replacement for computers, but I remember owning an s20 for over a year before even knowing it was a thing. When I tried it I thought "finally." We carry these things with us everywhere and they are more than capable (hardware wise) for what 99% of time spent on desktops/laptops can do, especially in the corporate world. The limitation is the form factor. I'm really just floored that there hasn't been a bigger push to turn our smartphones into our computers.

tomcam 2y ago

How big are the tablets? For me only the 13” iPad works because it’s my only option for full size. But my eyesight is defective.

analog31 2y ago
Ours are 11 inch. To make matters worse, the aspect ratio is 5:3, meaning that typical sheet music (based on 8.5x11 paper) uses only part of the screen. I'm a jazz bassist, so I'm mostly reading chord symbols when not just playing from memory. Having the sheets on stage lets me consult rehearsal markings and jog my memory as needed. Sometimes it stays in my bag, or at the edge of the stage, until I need it. The one band I play in that has more complicated charts is entirely paper based, and will be for the foreseeable future. My kids both play classical, and they have 13" iPads -- there's pretty much no avoiding it nowadays. But after shelling out for them, I decided that I didn't need that much technology.
- tomcam 2y ago
  Thanks for the reply. I don’t understand the downvotes. I am always baffled when statements are downvoted.
  - analog31 2y ago
    Probably for being a jazz bassist. I'll just threaten to play a solo if they downvote me again. ;-)
  - tomcam 2y ago
    * statements of fact

ntac 2y ago

I did the same thing - replaced my laptop with a tablet for a trip. Lenovo P12. It I thought the windowing was great. The whole experience would have been great, except for one thing which made it unusable for my purposes. Android has that clipboard editor popup that can't be disabled. When using Emacs within Termux, every time I hit ctrl-k, I got that damn popup which blocked a significant amount of the screen for ~10 seconds.

walterbell 2y ago
Can the Lenovo tablet run a customizable Android variant?

freedomben 2y ago

Is it one of the Lenovo Chromebook tablets? I encountered one the other day. It was pretty damn nice actually, I may end up buying one for myself.

analog31 2y ago
It's Android, and it was 200 bucks from Lenovo, including a pen. Part of my reason for being cheap is that I've seen more than one tablet get destroyed, while playing music. One got blown over by the wind at an outdoor gig, the other somehow got knocked around in my instrument case and the screen cracked in half.