Few laptops manage to turn heads like Lenovo's Yoga 3 Pro did when it landed back in January. Once your eyes clocked its six watchband-styled hinges, literally crafted from hundreds upon hundreds of pieces of metal, you knew that Lenovo had struck design gold.
The company has now launched the Yoga 900, the successor to the Yoga 3 Pro. Keeping the same design, it makes a number of key improvements both under the hood and on the outside. If you're thinking about picking up the newest Windows 10-powered 2-in-1 on the block, the Yoga 900 has two things going for it: slick looks, and ample power.
As you would expect from the company that has pioneered the 2-in-1 laptop form factor for six years now, the Yoga 900 can be rotated and folder into different modes — including laptop, tent, stand or tablet — depending on how you want to interact with the display.
On the outside, the Yoga 900 is virtually indistinguishable than the Yoga 3 Pro. Only with a trained eye would you be able to tell that it's the slightly thicker of the two, measuring 14.9mm against its predecessor's 12.9mm. Its design is as elegant as ever, with minimal decal or logo placement save for an uppercase silver YOGA in the lid's top-right hand corner and on the bottom-right hand side of the base.
Crafted from 813 pieces of aluminium steel, the six watchband-style hinges still jingle excitedly when you give the Yoga 900 a little shake. Although the novelty factor of seeing them for the first time has all but gone, you can still appreciate their construction — as you would an elegant Swiss timepiece. Lenovo has once again created a laptop that you can use at home but is equally suitable for the workplace.
The biggest difference between the Yoga 900 and the Yoga 3 Pro lies in its processor. The Yoga 3 Pro was the first laptop to feature Intel's power-sipping Core M chip. It allowed Lenovo to make the thinnest 2-in-1 laptop in the world, but it came at the cost of performance. The Core M5Y70 that came in the first wave of Yoga 3 Pro models was so sluggish that Lenovo swapped it for the M5Y71, a slightly faster variant, a few months after launch.
Thankfully, the Yoga 900 avoids Core M altogether in favour of the Intel's much more powerful sixth-generation Core i-series processors; hence the device's extra thickness over its predecessor. It's slightly weightier too, tipping the scales at at 2.8 pounds versus the Yoga 3 Pro's 2.6 pounds. It isn't a huge difference, but if you're dead set on using the Yoga 900 in tablet mode with the keyboard folded over, its extra weight and thickness only makes it more cumbersome.
The Yoga 900 can be equipped with double the amount of RAM as the Yoga 3 Pro, maxing out at 16GB, and storage is configurable up to a 512GB SSD. Of course, you'll have to shell out extra for the extra beef, as the entry-level model comes with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Intel's HD 520 takes care of graphics duties, so don't expect it to run demanding games with ease.
Alongside performance, Lenovo has looked to rectify the Yoga 3 Pro's other bugbear: battery life. According to its maker the Yoga 900 can go for 50% longer than its predecessor thanks to its 66Whr battery inside (versus the Yoga 3 Pro's 44Whr battery).
Where the Yoga 3 Pro managed between five and six hours with the display dimmed, Lenovo reckons you'll eke out up to nine hours of video playback this time around. The inclusion of a USB-C port means you'll be able to hook it up to an external battery pack to get hold of more power on the go.
Lenovo also claims to have improved the Yoga 900's speakers, which are now JBL branded. We can't say either way, as our pre-production model lacked both test files and an internet connection.
We can confirm that the Yoga 900's keyboard is shallower than the Yoga 3 Pro's, something you won't appreciate if you prefer keys with a decent amount of travel. They offer around the same depth as the Dell XPS 13's keys. Lenovo has at least given the Yoga 900 a dedicated row of function keys above the keyboard, which was sorely missing on the Yoga 3 Pro.
The Yoga 900's display is every bit as bright and vibrant as it was on the Yoga 3 Pro, sticking with that model's 3,200 x 1,800 pixel-resolution. Touching the display elicited snappy responses, and the tablet experience is enhanced by Windows 10's automatic switching into tablet mode with the keyboard tucked away.
Early verdict
The Yoga 900 is the result of a company learning from past mistakes and playing to its strengths. The switch to Intel's Core-series processors makes it the natural successor to the Yoga 2 Pro, while its attractive watchband hinge-centred design lends it heaps of the Yoga 3 Pro's fashionable appeal.
The extra thickness and weight feels worth it, and when you add in the keyboard's function keys, smoother trackpad and (potentially) improved speakers, the Yoga 900 feels like much more than an incremental upgrade.
On the other hand, it's a shame the keyboard's keys are a little on the shallow side, and whatever Lenovo says, that lid can't be opened with one hand. Both are flaws that may be fixed when the final version rolls around, but if they aren't then you'll may just have to put up with them.
from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/1GeO4Tz
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