Lenovo’s Yoga range started life as an idea for an Ultrabook. Instead of giving consumers a regular thin-and-light laptop, the Chinese company added a twist of innovation to the mix. All Ideapad Yoga laptops could have their displays flipped right the way around, converting a laptop into a sturdy tablet that ran Windows.

Now, the company’s added the Yoga mechanic to its Android tablets in the form of the Yoga 8 and Yoga 10 – the number for each model also denoting respective display size, in inches. Our test model on review is an 8-inch model, but despite its smaller size the company still claims a whopping 18 hours of usable battery life – more than even the Apple iPad, which is regarded as the benchmark in the segment.

It’s not just talk, either. In the day and a half that we’ve been using the Yoga 8 it’s not yelped about needing a wall socket, yet. When unpacked it had a 76% charge. As these words are written it’s on 27%. Let’s call that 50% drain over two work days, which included download music and apps, checking email, browsing the web, reading news, and testing out the 3G radio. To call that impressive is like saying Saturday’s Lotto jackpot is pocket change. But our full review will delve deeper into this and we’ll see how the lithium polymer battery handles abuse from constant use and watching movies.

In the meantime, the major things about the Yoga 8 that have impressed us are the speakers, the display, and its design.

Packed with tech from Dolby, the stereo speakers built into the cylindrical part of the Yoga deliver usable audio. With Dolby’s pseudo-surround effects turned on there’s a certain airiness to the audio. It’s got a tad more definition to it as well, but it won’t rattle your cups when turned up all the way.

The 8-inch display might only have an average 1280 x 800 resolution, but it’s crisp and, more importantly, very bright. We’ve been using it at its medium brightness setting, but at the highest it’s too bright for use in a dark room – and might even stand up in direct sunlight.

Finally, the design. Lenovo’s stashed that high-capacity battery in the cylindrical spine of the Yoga. As a result, all the weight sits there and it’s lovely to hold in one hand. It also feels lighter than its quoted 400g weight. Everything else is also part of that tube: a power button at one end and a headphone jack at the other. Then there’s the flip stand – the part that earns this its Yoga stripes – that lets it be propped up in two different positions.

So far, so good. But a week’s full use awaits, and we have high hopes that this will be our favourite small tablet.