Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro – Premium Convertible Laptop

Lenovo’s Yoga 2 Pro was one of the best selling and best equipped convertible Windows 8 devices this year. Now it has the successor – the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro. It offers several improvements and noticeable design change, while still maintaining the 13.3-inch high-resolution screen and 4-mode convertibility with laptop, tablet, tent and stand modes available.

The 3200×1800-pixel IPS wide viewing angle and multitouch display is mounted on a new hinge, which is the main design highlight of the Yoga 3 Pro. The ‘watchband’ hinge comprises of 800 metal elements and six attachment points instead of usual two. This enables a greater stability of the screen in different usage modes. With a weight of 2.6 pounds and thickness of only a half inch, the Yoga 3 Pro is 14 percent lighter and 17 percent thinner than the previous-generation of the device. With these dimensions, it is also one of the lightest and thinnest 13.3″ laptops ever.

The LCD lid and the bottom of the notebook are made of aluminum in gold, silver, or orange color, while for the interior Lenovo has used a soft-touch matte gray finish with dotted pattern on it. The keyboard has ergonomically shaped AccuType keys with backlight, while the trackpad has integrated click buttons.

The screen and computing are powered by the long-awaited Intel Broadwell Core M series processor with the Intel HD 5300 integrated graphics. The device is one of the first available PCs with it. The included Core M 5Y70 is a dual-core power-efficient chip running at speed of up to 2.6 GHz. Detailed reviews are not available yet, but according to the first benchmarks of the CPU, it beats the current Intel Atom processors by a wide margin, while having the same power consumption of 4.5W. Judging from the benchmarks, the 5Y70 roughly has similar performance to the lower-end Intel Core Haswell series parts such as the i3-4030U which consumes 15W. Overall, the Broadwell chip is an excellent choice for the daily chores and can also serve for some occasional professional photo and video editing.

Another big benefit of the Core M is that it enables fanless designs, thanks to the power-efficiency and low heat.The Yoga 3 Pro in particular isn’t a fanless laptop. It has a small and quiet CPU fan.

The convertible is available in a couple of different configurations, with only a few differences between them. In particular, storage capacity of the built-in solid state drive, chassis color, and Windows 8.1 version. And of course, the pricing.

All models ship with 8GB of memory, which is more than sufficient for all the tasks an average user might throw at the laptop. DVD optical drive is not included. Understandable and not expected in a 0.5″ notebook. Furthermore, the new Yoga has JBL stereo speakers, a front webcam, the latest and fastest 802.11AC Wi-Fi wireless, Bluetooth, two USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port which is also used for charging, a 4-in-1 media card reader, micro HDMI output, and a combo audio jack.

According to Lenovo, the battery life on the Yoga 3 Pro is up to nine hours.