Ergonomics and Input Devices

Clicking the built-in touchpad was a bit too hard, it required a conscious effort to do it, and the right-click proved especially hard. We also tried using a Bluetooth mouse, and it worked well. Don't forget that you also have a touchscreen to play around with.

The rest of the keyboard is relatively good. The tactile feeling is good, and we have no complaints about the layout. There are some handy features like a dedicated touchpad-off button and a weird “.com” button, which you find on many Android keyboard, but not a lot of physical keyboards.

Also, swiping the touchpad from the right gives you the same Windows 10 action center panel as swiping the screen, which can be a useful shortcut.

Let’s not forget that this is a touch-enabled device, so you can also use the display for input. We did not experience any issues with the capacitive 10-point digitizer. It’s fast and reliable, nothing to report here. The really big deal is Microsoft’s effort to iron out a few kinks in the way Windows deals with touch input, and Windows 10 is a move in the right direction (although Win 8.1 wasn't bad either).

Ergonomics are not an issue. After all, this is a Lenovo clone, and Lenovo knows a thing or two about notebook design. We already pointed out that this is not a tablet, which means the lid is thin and light. This is good news for anyone who plans to use the A1 in their lap.

A lot of hybrids and 2-in-1s have relatively thick and heavy displays, burdened by batteries, which means they tend to be “top heavy” and poorly balanced. Long story short, a lot of them have a tendency to roll over because of their light keyboards.

If you get the light just right, you should be able to see the outlines of the PCB and two batteries in the base. We are dealing with hard, semi-transparent rubber here, so if you've got some really powerful lighting, you could see through it like an X-ray. It might not sound reassuring, but trust us, the device feels quite robust and you never get a feeling that the chassis is too thin or flexible.