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- Powerful enough for daily tasks
- Comes with a detachable keyboard
- Kickstand design
- Disappointing battery life
- Comparatively low resolution
- Terrible keyboard and trackpad
The Lenovo Miix 510 is a 2-in-1 laptop to rival the Microsoft Surface Pro 4. On paper, its a much better deal, thanks to the inclusion of a detachable keyboard and stylus pen – and a cheaper price point.
Is this 12.2in Windows 10 laptop a worthy competitor, or does it fall short of its promise?
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Lenovo Miix 510 review: What you need to know
The Miix 510 is significantly cheaper than the Surface Pro 4, at £850 including a detachable keyboard. Thats a saving of £192 versus the Surface Pro 4 with Type Cover.
But thats not the entire picture. The Miix 510 keyboard feels flimsy and unpleasant to type on, and the display doesnt match the resolution or colour accuracy of the Surface Pro 4. This makes the Miix 510 hard to recommend, despite the attractive price. If youre in the market for a sub-£1,000 2-in-1 laptop, get the Microsoft Surface Pro 4. If youre looking for a cheaper 2-in-1 laptop with a bundled keyboard, get the Asus Transformer 3 Pro for £700 instead.
Lenovo Miix 510 review: Price and competition
The Miix 510 is available from Lenovos website for £650 with a Core i3-6100U processor, or for £850 with a Core i5-6200U – the latter being the model at hand.
Identical specs can be found on the £917 Microsoft Surface Pro 4, but that doesnt include the £125 Type Cover keyboard. The Asus Transformer 3 Pro is also similar, and can be found for £700 on Amazon and £999 through Tesco.
While not identical, the 2-in-1 £999 Core i5 HP Envy x360 is another option to consider.
Lenovo Miix 510 review: Design and build quality
The laptop is solidly built with an aluminium unibody design. That promises great durability, and the attention to detail is impressive. The rear kickstand is attached with a Watchband Hinge, made up of 280 individual pieces of stainless steel and providing 150 degrees of flexibility when using the laptop. Unfortunately, the bottom of the kickstand isnt rubberised, so its apt to slide around on your desk.
At 900g, the laptop is rather heavy without its detachable keyboard, and attaching it pushes the weight up to 1.25kg. By comparison, the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 weighs in at only 786g without its Type Cover attached – something to consider if youre regularly on the move.
The Miix 510 features speakers on both edges for true stereo. These have a limited power output, but you can improve matters by enabling Dolby Audio through Windows 10s Sound settings. If youre looking to play music or movies through the laptop, consider investing in a separate Bluetooth speaker – see our pick of the best for inspiration.
At the right-hand side of the laptop sit a power button, volume rocker and a 3.5mm audio jack. At the left theres USB 3.0 and a Type-C port. Note that this cant be used for charging: youll have to use Lenovos proprietary charger to give the Miix 510 some juice.
Finally, 2-megapixel front and 5-megapixel rear cameras make the Miix 510 ideal for Skype calls and casual snaps.
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Lenovo Miix 510 review: Keyboard, trackpad and pen
One of the Miix 510s key selling points is the inclusion of a keyboard. But this isnt really much to shout about.
To be fair, its a good size, and the keys have a good travel distance before being actuated. Even so, its not pleasant to type on. Theres noticeable flex, so if youre a heavy typist itll cave under pressure. I also found the built-in trackpad would inconsistently jump about while I was navigating web pages, or fail completely to respond to my movements and clicks.
If you want to use the Miix for regular typing, Id suggest the Logitech K400 Plus Wireless Touch Keyboard for £25 as an alternative to the bundled keyboard. It might not be an all-in-one solution, but itll give you a much better typing experience.
As well as the keyboard, you also get the Lenovo Active Pen. This works very well: its great for 3D Paint and Windows Ink, two features that have been a focus of Microsofts recent Windows 10 updates.
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Lenovo Miix 510 review: Performance
Partnering the 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-6200U. Lenovo includes 8GB of DDR4 RAM at 2133MHz. Thats plenty for all your multitasking needs on Windows 10 Home 64-bit – which is just as well, as theres no option to upgrade the RAM further.
Even though I was testing the more expensive Core i5 model, I was disappointed by its benchmark scores. It achieved a measly 30 overall in the Expert Reviews benchmarks, putting it effectively on par with the Asus Transformer 3 Pro, which managed a score of 31. For comparison, the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 with its Intel Core i5-6300U scored a much stronger 44.
In the cross-platform Geekbench 4 benchmarks, the Miix 510 achieved a single-core score of 2,892 and 5,682 for multi-core operations.To put that in context, the Huawei MateBook X, a non-convertible laptop with the newer 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-7200U managed a score of 3,806 and 7,371 respectively.
Although the Miix 510 didnt excel in our benchmarks, it has plenty of power to churn through daily tasks. Browsing, watching movies and typing an essay arent a problem. Its when youre looking to do any video editing, or push the processor to its limits, that youll find the Lenovo unable to keep up.
Its a similar story with the integrated GPU. Intels HD Graphics 520 is fine for watching movies and very light gaming, but if you start gaming on the laptop, its limitations immediately become apparent. Hitting just 30.6fps in GFXBench Manhattan and 21.5fps in GFXBench Car Chase, this isnt a laptop thats made for games.
It gets a little hot around the top of the casing too – but CPU temperatures stay low at around 65 degrees, which is well within its thermal threshold.
For storage, meanwhile, you get a blisteringly fast 256GB PCI-E Samsung SSD. With disk write caching disabled, the Miix 510 delivers 1,325MB/s sequential read and 1,068MB/s write rates. Copying files to and from the laptop is a painless experience.
At only 5hrs 40mins, the Miix 510s battery life falls short of many rivals. It does beat the Asus Transformer 3 Pro by quite some margin, but overall its unimpressive. If youre looking to take this computer on a long haul flight, youll need to make sure youve got access to power.
Lenovo Miix 510 review: Display
The Miix 510s 12.2in multi-touch display works flawlessly on Windows 10. Its not as sharp as the Surface Pro 4s, though. That systems stunning 2,736 x 1,824 resolution delivers 267ppi across its 12.3in screen. The Lenovos much lower 1,920 x 1,200 resolution translates to just 185ppi, meaning text doesnt look as sharp.
The screen is also rather dull, with only 89.6% sRGB gamut coverage. Next to the Surface Pro 4s 97.5% sRGB coverage, the Lenovo falls short in offering a vibrant display. An average Delta E of 2.73 also means the laptops screen isnt particularly accurate. If youre planning on editing images or videos with the Miix 510, consider using an external calibrated monitor.
On the plus side, the screen is nice and bright. I measured a maximum brightness of 334cd/m2, which means its bright enough to be used in direct sunlight. And with a 0.16cd/m2 black level and 1006:1 contrast ratio, dark scenes in movies are accurately reproduced.
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Lenovo Miix 510 review: Verdict
The price is tempting, but the Lenovo Miix 510 falls short in a few areas. It hasnt got particularly good battery life, its screen is rather drab, its far from the fastest laptop in its class, and its detachable keyboard isnt pleasant to type on either.
If youre looking for 2-in-1 computing on a budget, youll be better off with the cheaper Asus Transformer Pro 3 for £700 – or, spend a little extra for the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 at £917.
