Lenovo cuts sales on two small-screen Windows 8.1 tablets

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Lenovo is reportedly killing off its dreams of owning the small screen Windows 8.1 tablet scene.

PC World first caught wind of the news and Raymond Gorman, a Lenovo spokesperson explained the Chinese electronics firm was turning its back on small Windows tablets after the tepid sales of the ThinkPad 8 and Miix 2.

Now Lenovo is moving to end the sales of both 8-inch models while the company moves its remaining stock of ThinkPad 8 tablets to developing countries. Supposedly the tablet will be available to other markets including Brazil, China, and Japan.

Since mid June the ThinkPad 8 has been sold out on Lenovo's site and so we've contacted the company to find how new the decision to step away from small screen devices really is. We will update this story as soon as we hear back.

Flawed devices

In our own review the ThinkPad 8 was an amazing 1080-resolution, 8-inch Windows tablet fraught with issues that made it too unstable to use leisurely or productively.

The Miix 2, meanwhile, was almost the same story with a decent screen, but lacking in many other regards. These included processing power, storage, and a wasted Windows 8.1 experience.

Ultimately it seems the problem with these tablets smaller than 10-inches is they're too compact to make for an efficiently productive work environment. Meanwhile, smaller Windows 8.1 demands too much storage space and energy to run to work well with a small device.

Plus add in all the competition from the iPad Mini 2, Kindle HDX 7-inch, Nexus 7, Samsung tablets, and much more. Windows can't compete with Android and iOS when it comes to users looking for an entertainment device.

Mobile OS are just much more lightweight as well as designed to present video, books, and other media than a full-on desktop operating system.

It's for these reasons we can imagine why Microsoft may have decided to cancel the announcement of the Surface Mini at the very last minute.

Go big or go elsewhere

Although Lenovo is leaving small-screen windows tablets behind it still has plans to produce and sell 10-inch devices. "In North America, we're seeing stronger interest in the larger screen sizes for Windows tablets and are pleased with initial customer demand for the ThinkPad 10," Gorman reasoned.

Lenovo also plans to continue to sell the 10.1-inch version of the Miix 2. We're also happy to say the Lenovo 10 won top marks in our latest review as one of the most versatile business tablets around.

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