Ahead of IFA 2016, Lenovo has announced the Yoga Book: a unique thin and light tablet-laptop hybrid that includes compelling functionality for both productivity-focused and creative tasks.

The Yoga Book looks like a tablet split into two halves, connected by a signature watchband-style hinge. One half includes a 10.1-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS touchscreen display packing 400 nits of brightness, while the other half is an interesting touch-enabled slate that acts as both a keyboard and as a large stylus input.

The idea behind the touch-enabled slate is clever. When you want to use the Yoga Book as a laptop, the keyboard and trackpad appears to provide typical text entry. But when you want to use the device as a tablet, you can close the Yoga Book and hold it just like any other tablet, without the annoyance of physical keys on the opposite side to the display.

The slate has more uses than just a simple laptop or tablet, though. With 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity, the slate effectively becomes a graphics tablet when combined with the included 'Real Pen'. Draw on the slate with precision and your artistry will appear on the display.

The final cool feature included with the Yoga Book is the ability to write real notes with ink that are simultaneously digitized by the touchscreen slate. Place a piece of paper over the slate, use the included Real Pen (which packs ink inside) to write notes on the paper, and these notes are captured by the tablet in digital form.

The hardware inside the Yoga Book is standard for a device this thin. It's powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8550 'Cherry Trail' SoC, so it won't be dominating any performance benchmarks. There's also 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of storage plus microSD expansion, an 8-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front camera, plus internal LTE radios. The battery, an 8,500 mAh cell, is rated for up to 15 hours of usage.

The Yoga Book will be available in both Android and Windows 10 variants in October. Prices start at an impressive $499 for the Android variant, or $549 for the Windows 10 model, with both including the stylus and notepad accessories in the box.