Lenovo's Yoga 3 Pro laptop/tablet hybrid makes a bid for the best on the market, although a few minor annoyances hold it back from greatness.
Features and Design:
If you're not familiar with how the Yoga line works, it starts off as an ordinary thin laptop, but the lid and display fold back a full 360 degrees to form either a thick tablet, or a stand/kiosk device when only folded partway back. This has been the cornerstone of the Yoga's design ethos. For the Yoga 3 Pro, the hinge still folds back a full 360 degrees, taking the chassis from a traditional clamshell laptop to a folded over tablet, with many possible stops along the way. The difference is that the new hinge is a single mechanism running the full width of the system. Instead of two hinges, typically plastic or aluminum, this new hinge has the look and feel of a long section of watchband material, with six points of attachment across the 13-inch display. It's a cool design choice, and adds to the laptop's premium design. The keyboard retains much of what we love about Lenovo keyboards, including the slight outward curve to the bottom edge of each key, which makes it harder to accidentally miss a keystroke. But, in order to make the system as thin as it is, compromises were required. The keys are especially shallow, with a little bit of a plastic clack to them. The clickpad-style touchpad works well for two-finger gestures, but if you're used to the Mac's touchpad, it will take some time to re-adjust. The Yoga 3 Pro is built around a better-than-HD display. The 13-inch screen has a native resolution of 3,200x1,800 pixels. That's better than standard 1080p screens, but we're seeing more and more true 4K display, so these better than 1080p displays aren't as impressive as the 4K laptops. Even with that said, the screen still looks fantastic .
Performance and Quality:
The variations available from Lenovo share the same display, CPU, RAM, and other features. The only differences are in the chassis color, and the size of the internal SSD flash drive. The default $1,300 configuration, also the one available at Best Buy and other retailers, has a 256GB SSD, while an upgrade to 512GB is $1,500. Under the hood is Intel's Core M-5Y70 CPU, which is clocked at 1.1GHz (turbo boost to 2.6GHz). As I've mentioned, it's based on Intel's Broadwell architecture, which brings the benefit of allowing manufacturers to make their Ultrabooks fanless (and thinner and quieter as a result). The Yoga 3 Pro isn't fanless, but it still runs very quiet. You'll occasionally hear its internal fan whirring away under heavier CPU or graphic-intense workloads. Unfortunately, the move to Broadwell has had a negative impact on processing power compared to the Yoga 2 Pro. The system runs cool most of the time. When it does begin to warm up under heavier loads, heat is concentrated to the top right-hand corner of the base, and I never found it to heat up to the point where it was annoying. The Yoga 2 Pro's middling battery life was one of the main pain points of last year's outing, and poor performance has once again reared its head on the Yoga 3 Pro. The move from Haswell to Broadwell was expected to increase efficiency, and while Lenovo states nine hours of continuous use, you won't hit that unless you use the machine very conservatively. On the plus side, charging times aren't so bad. Set Lenovo's charging assistance software to Normal Mode and juice is restored up in around 2 hours 30 minutes. A second option, Conservation Mode, will top up from empty in around four hours but is less taxing on the battery level, which Lenovo feels can help extend battery life if frequently used.
Final Thoughts: The Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro is a great device, even with all the concerns with the battery, I still found the device to be very convenient. If you're in the market for an ultrabook, give the Yoga 3 a shot.
+Shockingly Thin and Light
+Speedy Performance
+Gorgeous Screen
-Short Battery Life
-Lackluster TouchPad
S&S Rating: 8.5/10 @whatsPlay
