Lenovo is getting ready to launch its smallest Windows tablet yet. The Lenovo Miix2 is due out by the end of October, and it’ll feature an 8 inch screen, an Intel Bay trail processor, and Windows 8.1 software.

It’s expected to sell for around $299.

Update: The Lenovo Miix2 is now available for $299.

Lenovo Miix2

The Lenovo Miix2 features an 8 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel IPS display, Intel’s latest Atom quad-core processor for tablets, 2GB of RAM, and at least 32GB of storage. You’ll also be able to opt for models with 64GB or 128GB. There’s also a microSD card slot of you need extra space.

The tablet has a 5MP rear camera and 2MP front-facing camera, and optional accessories include a $20 cover case that comes with a stylus — but it’s a capacitive stylus. The tablet doesn’t have an active digitizer.

Lenovo’s Miix2 measures 8.5″ x 5.2″ x 0.32″ and weighs 12.3 ounces. Lenovo says the tablet should be able to get up to 7 hours of battery life.

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18 replies on “Lenovo launches Miix2 8 inch Windows 8.1 tablet for $299”

  1. If they’re not offering an active digitizer then they should have put a mouse in the bezel. I even find using Android with a mouse to be useful (mostly mouse hover actions that most of the sites I visit make use of and also due to my inacurate fat finger where I, for some reason, don’t like zooming in and tapping). Even more so on Windows’ desktop side.

    1. Can you post a link showing off a mouse in the bezel? I keep hearing people say that but can’t find anything about it online and am a little confused by what you mean. Thanks!

      1. https://www.pocketables.com/images/old/6a00d83451c9ec69e20120a80871ce970b-pi.jpg

        Basically the same function as a trackball mouse that you manipulate with your thumb…

        Made popular by devices like the traditional Black Berry Phone, right after they dropped the traditional trackball and before they moved fully to touch screens, and UMPCs (5″ to 7″ mobile PCs that ran Windows) that either put them in the keyboard or in the bezel on the side of the screen… Usually with right/left mouse click buttons on the opposite side.

        So, like a touch pad, it gives you mouse control on the go… and usually in a position you would be using the device normally while carrying it… without taking up a lot of space as you just cover it with your thumb and use rolling motions to move the cursor and you can tap it for mouse clicks…

        While they already have bezel sensors for swipe gestures that can be used to add mouse clicks, gesture controls, etc. like a touch pad…

  2. Terrible resolution of 1280×800. Is that a misprint or is Lenovo and Intel unable to provide 1920×1080 that are available for a growing list of seven/eight inch $200-$250 tablets?

    Along with the meager 2GB memory option and lack of fast SSD/drive capability, buyers will probably discover they are quickly hit by performance and upgrade roadblocks.

    1. There’s nothing automatically terrible about the resolution on a small 8″ screen and it is a budget model anyway that’s running Windows!

      Those other so called $200-$250 tablets all provide lower specs in everything else besides the screen resolution! So let’s not pretend there aren’t any trade offs!

      Besides, the reality is Windows desktop is still hard to use on a small screen and high resolution just makes it harder to use! While plenty of people are just fine with less than 1080P on even larger screens!

      There are in fact many other factors that determine whether a screen is good or not, the resolution is only one factor! You can have 2560×1600 on a 4″ screen and it can still be terrible if it doesn’t provide good specs on the other aspects of image quality.

      So let’s not confuse marketing hype with any actual issues on quality! Unless you intend to stare at the screen only inches away then you usually never need the resolution to be very high and things like viewing angles, contrast ratio, color saturation and accuracy, etc all generally matter more for image quality!

      Never mind that going for high PPI tends to bring with it increase in power consumption, greater graphical load on the system, and higher costs. The technology is improving but there are still trade offs and not every product will make the same trade offs but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still a good product option!

  3. Please, Lenovo, make an active digitizer an option. I’d willingly pay $100 extra (especially if it’s Wacom). Without it, desktop applications and handwriting recognition border on being unusable.

    1. I agree i am hoping they launch a 10 inch tablet with this option! I need a little sketchbook to sketch out rough ideas..at $450 something like that would be a winner!

      1. Asus T100, Dell Venue pro 11 and HP OMNI 10 are what u would want Buzz !

        1. The T100 doesn’t have a wacom digitizer, the dell has synaptics which while similar requires a pretty fat pen that needs a battery and no pressure sensitivity, and the HP OMINI 10 also doesn’t have a digitizer, at the moment i am relying on Lenovo to deliver here.
          I am so tempted to just buy the Asus T100 but lacking the digitizer is putting me off. I really hope these tablets don’t have locked bootloaders so I can run android when I don’t have serious work to do.

          1. Also many tabs dont have USB host and HDMI out. Very important for me

            Lenovo still hasnt announced Miix 2 10 incher

          2. Seems to be less emphasis on physical video out ports as they start to push wireless streaming options like Miracast…

            While USB host is usually easily provided with a OTG cable or plug adapter, but what’s really rare is enough power output to support running hard drives, etc from the USB port without needing an external power source.

            The larger Windows tablets are pushing for full size ports, but not all of them provide enough power output… though that should be less a issue as they continue to push USB 3.0 ports…

            Also, many docks provide proper ports even if the tablet itself doesn’t…

          3. Well, if you can live with a fat pen that needs a battery there are 3rd party add on pens that provide pressure sensitivity… WACOM even makes one of those too for the iPad…

            I’d prefer an optical mouse in the bezel as something you don’t have to worry about losing or misplacing and lets you rest your hands in the normal holding the tablet position while using…

    2. I’m not paying $100 unless there’s also a silo for it in the tablet. I’m looking at you Dell with your fat battery powered stylus.

  4. Not sure getting 4GB of RAM, 7 hours of battery life and Haswell for $300 is realistic. I do agree it SHOULD have 4 GB of RAM. Glad it comes with a microSD card slot but would love to see some of these tablets offered with TWO microSD card slots.

  5. For $300 it should include 4GB RAM, more than 7 hours battery, and a Haswell CPU. Too bad the 14nm Broadwell is pushed out to next year. It might have been even better.

    1. Nice sentiment but totally unrealistic…

      1) Even the lowest power Haswell Y-chip for fan-less designs is still too powerful for a tiny 8″ tablet to remain fan-less!

      2) Haswell is a Core series processor and as such is priced too high to ever expect it to be in any device this cheap! It’ll cost around $200 for just the processor!

      3) These are mobile devices and as such they use mobile type RAM and storage, meaning there is no widely available 4GB for them to offer yet! Companies like Samsung only started making them a few months ago and it easily takes a year or more before you can expect to really see them used in mainstream products, let alone budget ones!

      Bay Trail also has a issue with MS, in that they won’t provide proper 64bit drivers for Bay Trail until early 2014 and that means they’re limited to 32bit support for now and thus less reason to push up to 4GB of RAM until the rest of the industry can catch up and support it…

      4) 8″ tablet doesn’t give much room for a good size battery and thus only a really low powered solution like ARM or Intel’s ATOM could provide such long run times… Haswell is a improvement but it’s still uses too much power to expect such run times without a sizable battery to back it up.

      Maybe, when Broadwell comes out and possibly delivers on the up to 30% improvement on power efficiency over Haswell but till then there’s still a significant distinction between mobile processor battery life and what you can expect from a Core processor…

      Btw, Broadwell was always scheduled for late next year to early 2015… what has been pushed was just the expected start of production but it takes months to a year for that to hit full capacity and actually get shipped into final products… Really, Haswell just came out a few months ago, they’re not going to just replace it that quickly!

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