It feels like Lenovo have been making strides in the mobile and tablet space for a few years now but, if anything, the Miix 720 should cement them as a serious contender when it comes to buying your next hybrid 2-in-1 tablet.
The Miix 720 combines sleek and polished design choices with some equally solid technical specifications to deliver a portable PC experience that’s every part the equal of comparable offerings from Microsoft or Acer.
Even if it’s not perfect, every part of the Miix feels like it’s carrying a glossy luster that can often elevate the experience of using the hybrid from good to great. Every corner of the product experience here is designed to lend credulity that this isn’t just Lenovo’s answer to the Surface but a confident one.
Design-wise, the Miix builds on a fairly traditional hybrid design sensibilities. It’s a slim, flat display that puts everything roughly where you expect. The headphones, USB and charging ports run along the left edge while the volume and power buttons are confined on the right edge (alongside the versatile Thunderbolt port).
Meanwhile, Lenovo have stuck the heating vent obliquely along the top edge and their ever-appealing Lenovo-designed hinge on the back. Peeling away the back-cover to put the Miix into stand mode here is hardly a revolution but it remains an undeniably welcome part of the package.
The Miix 720 features a a 12-inch Quad-HD display that looks sharp when static and seamless when used to watch video. The speaker doesn’t quite match it tit for tat but, for most purposes, it proves adequate. Music sounds audible for the most part but there’s nothing too special to be found here. All told, the form-factor and feature-set of the Miix 720 feels more-or-less exactly what you expect – but rarely more than that.
The hybrid also comes with a nifty detachable keyboard. We found this to be the only element of the Miix 720 that doesn’t quite live up to the high standards of the rest of the package. The process of magnetically binding it and the tablet together is quick and easy but the reality of typing on the keyboard can leave something to be desired over long stretches.
While it works for the most part, there are a few function key placements that feel odd and often led to me running into issues. Our dissatisfaction doubled with the touch pad – which we found a little sluggish and sometimes even outright unresponsive.
When it comes to the operating system, the Miix 720 runs on Windows 10. If you’re new to hybrid PCs, this basically means it’s a tablet that you can do almost anything you’d do on your traditional laptop or desktop. In fact, the specs of the Miix 720 are such that it feels like one of the most-powerful-yet-portable entries in the category yet.
On a technical level, this hybrid strikes a great balance and ticks all the right boxes. The model we were sent was powered by a seventh-generation i7 Intel processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of on-board storage. Though the most powerful configuration of the hybrid available and the version we spent our time with, it’s worth noting that this isn’t the only one available.
All told: the Miix 720 isn’t exactly going to supplant your high-end media workstation but if you’re looking to replace an aging laptop, it doesn’t get much better than this for oblique on-the-go computing.
Conclusion
Although Lenovo might not be the A-lister brand you think of when you think of high-quality portable personal computing, the Miix 720 makes a solid case for why they should be. It shores up nicely as a product that rises to meet your expectations rather than narrowing them – which is often exactly what you want out of something with a premium price like this.
It’s no revolution but it’s a nice, clean refinement of the hybrid formula Lenovo’s rivals would do well to take note of.
