The Lenovo ThinkPad Helix 2nd Gen ($1,549 as tested) is the latest version of the system that ushered in the business detachable-hybrid laptop category. The original ThinkPad Helix($274.99 at Amazon) was not only the first business system to feature a detachable keyboard, but the first to allow the tablet to be attached facing forward or backward for multimode use. Since then, however, the design has gone mainstream, as seen on systems like the Toshiba Portege Z20t-B2112( at Amazon) and the Editors' Choice Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 Series (7140)( at Amazon). These newer systems not only offer more refined takes on the detachable concept, but they do so while delivering better performance. The ThinkPad Helix( at Amazon) has come a long way, but can it keep up with the fast pace of the category it helped start?

Design and Features
With the ThinkPad Helix, you can remove the display for use as a standalone tablet, or connect it to the docking keyboard for a traditional clamshell-laptop experience. It also adds a literal twist—hence the Helix name—in letting you connect the tablet facing forward or backward. This allows for multiple-use modes, similar to those seen on the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 12( at Amazon), including Stand and Tent mode, in addition to Laptop and Tablet modes.

Design is on the plain side, with Lenovo's penchant for staid black-and-gray color schemes. But the construction is disappointing, despite the use of an aluminum internal frame with a polycarbonate and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic exterior. The tablet portion has a tendency to flex under very little force, and the various plastic parts that comprise the exterior shift and creak with the movement. The 11.6-inch display has 1,920-by-1,080 resolution behind a protective layer of Gorilla Glass, with support for 10-digit touch and an optional digitizer pen ($24.99).

The Ultrabook Pro keyboard is a dockable model with a dual-pointing device, for those who want Lenovo's TrackPoint in addition to the usual touchpad. There are three buttons along the top of the touchpad (Right, Left, and Scroll), perfect for using with the bright red TrackPoint. The touchpad itself has a clickable surface, with right and left click zones in the respective lower corners. It supports a few gesture controls, like two-finger scrolling, but for others, like swiping in from the edges, you have to use the tablet's touch screen.

The tablet portion of the Helix is outfitted with all sorts of features, but not a lot of physical ports. There's a single USB 3.0 port, a microSD card slot, a micro HDMI output, and a headset jack. Along the bottom edge of the tablet is a docking connector for attaching the Ultrabook Pro keyboard. The keyboard has a built-in Kensington Lock slot, a mini DisplayPort, one USB 3.0 port, and a secondary battery. The tablet portion measures just 0.4 by 11.9 by 7.6 inches (HWD), and weighs a svelte 1.81 pounds, but when docked with the keyboard and folded closed, the Helix measures 0.79 by 11.9 by 8.4 inches. The keyboard adds 1.98 pounds (for a total of 3.79 pounds), making it quite portable, but significantly heavier than the tablet part alone.

But there's more to connectivity than simply the plugs and jacks. The Helix is also equipped with dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and built-in NFC, along with an integrated fingerprint reader, and front- and rear-facing cameras (2 megapixels in front, 8 megapixels in back). Additionally, the Helix has several sensors not commonly found in laptops, like an accelerometer, a digital compass, a magnetometer, and a GPS receiver. Other features available through Lenovo include optional mobile broadband ($180).

For storage, there's a 256GB solid-state drive, with Opal 2.0 disk encryption. Preinstalled is a fairly significant amount of software, ranging from useful, business-ready tools, like Hightail cloud storage, Skype, and Evernote, to more frivolous apps, like Amazon Kindle reader and Rara Streaming music. Lenovo also includes its own apps, like SHAREit, for accessing files on the laptop and sharing them to smartphones and other mobile devices. The Helix is covered by a standard one-year warranty, with longer options available for purchase.

Performance
The Helix has a 1.2GHz Intel Core M-5Y71—the same processor used in the Dell Venue 11 Pro 7140 and the Toshiba Z20t-B2112—and pairs it with 8GB of RAM. The Core M processor line falls in between the low-powered, energy-efficient Intel Atom line and the higher-performance Intel Core i3 and Core i5 processors generally found in notebook PCs. As such, it's not ideal for processor-intensive tasks, like photo editing, but you will find that it does just fine at tasks like taking notes in a meeting and getting day-to-day work done, whether it's in the office or on the road.

In PCMark 8 Work Conventional, the Helix scored an uninspiring 2,083 points. While I expected to see performance lagging behind the likes of the Intel-Core-i5-equipped Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 12 (2,923 points), it was also substantially slower than similarly equipped systems, like the Dell Venue 11 Pro 7140 (2,586 points) and the Toshiba Z20t-B2112 (2,607 points). That said, it's not unheard of to see these differences between Core M systems—the similarly outfitted Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro only scored 2,094 points in the same test. Similar results were seen in Handbrake and Photoshop, where the Helix again brought up the rear in test results (5:00 and 6:59, respectively).

It also lagged behind similarly equipped competitors in graphics tests. The Core M processor relies on Intel's integrated HD Graphics 5300 solution for rendering visuals and graphics, but it's underutilized in the Helix, as seen in results for 3DMark Cloud Gate (3,074 points) and Fire Strike Extreme (214 points). While the graphics processing will do quite well for streaming media or loading up graphics-heavy websites, it's definitely not meant for rendering games or 3D models, and may be noticeably slow in some multimedia tasks.

See How We Test Tablets

While overall performance lags behind the competition, battery life isn't bad at all. The tablet portion alone lasted 9 hours 26 minutes in our battery rundown test, which is easily long enough for a full day at the office, and when paired with the second battery in the docking keyboard, battery life stretched to 13:32. The only system to do better—either as a tablet, or with an extended battery in the keyboard—is the Dell Venue 11 Pro 7140, which lasted 9:41 with the tablet only and 15:58 with the added battery in its keyboard. The Toshiba Z20t-B2112 came in a distant third, with only 7:06 battery life for the tablet, though it does have better endurance with the keyboard attached (14:08).

Conclusion
The Lenovo ThinkPad Helix 2nd Gen is a significant improvement over the original Helix, with better battery life, competent performance, and a better docking keyboard design. But even with these improvements, a lot can change in two years, and the new Helix falls short of the market's current expectations. Unfortunately (or fortunately), there are some very good competitors, like the Toshiba Portege Z20t-B2112 or the Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 Series (7140), which offer similar features with better performance. The Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 (7140), in particular, keeps its top spot as our Editors' Choice not only for better performance, but for longer battery life and sturdier construction.

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