Lenovo
Yoga 3 Pro
Lenovo has
swapped the Intel Core M5Y70 on the original Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro for a newer
Intel Core M5Y71. The latter has a slightly higher base/boost clock speed
(1.1/2.6GHz vs 1.2/2.9GHz) so you get a bit more oomph. This hasn't trickled to
the UK UK
Sticking to higher resolutions
gives you more desktop real-estate to edit multimedia files and snap documents
side-by-side. In some scenarios it can be a real productivity boon, but overall
the resolution still feels like overkill at 13 inches.
One option is to lower the
resolution to 2048 x 1152 (16:9), a notch under the native resolution, which
keeps everything looking sharp while remaining readable with magnification set
to 100%.
The display's 300 nits is
sufficiently bright for indoor use, but slightly too dim for outside conditions.
It's an IPS panel with very good viewing angles - a crucial factor for a device
designed to be used in many positions. The Yoga 3 Pro is one of the most portable Ultrabooks around, coming in
17% slimmer and 14% lighter than the Yoga 2 Pro, by Lenovo's measurements.
It weighs just 2.62 pounds,
making it lighter than the 13-inch MacBook Air's 2.69 pounds, and it's slightly
thicker along the middle of the left and right edges, as opposed to the tapered
design of Apple's machine.
It's roughly the same weight as Samsung's Series 9 900X3C, and only the ageing Toshiba Portege Z930/Z935 and Sony Vaio Pro 13 come in lighter in the 13-inch category, at 2.50 pounds and 2.34 pounds respectively. THE BOTTOM LINe The Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro has a breakthrough design, but requires careful consideration of the trade-offs required,particularly battery life VS Microsoft Surface Pro 4
There's a new reigning king of
Windows tablets and its name is the Surface Pro 4. Building on everything the
last iteration got right, this new slate introduces a larger screen more
sensitive touchscreen perfected for everything from penning documents to
painting images. Thanks to a newly redesigned island keyboard, tapping away on
the Type Cover feels almost as good as a real laptop and the glass trackpad
feels simply superb. Internally the Microsoft's latest also features a faster
processor and storage, all in a shell that's actually lighter and thinner than
the Surface Pro 3. Overall, these improvements make the Surface Pro 4 an
affordable Windows tablet that really can replace your laptop.The Surface Pro 4 fits a larger screen
with a higher resolution into a slightly slimmer body than last year's model.
The pen and keyboard cover are also improved, and this is one of the first
mobile systems shipping with Intel's latest processors. Design
The
Surface tablet line set out its basic design rules with the very first
generation of products and has largely stuck to its guns since. What we've
seen, instead of wholesale reimagining, is a steady march of improvements to
the display and chassis, helping the product feel just a bit more premium with
every generation.
The earliest Surface Pro models
were 13mm thick, while last year's Surface Pro 3 shaved that down to 9.1mm.
This year, we're down to 8.4mm, despite increasing the size of the screen. Both
the Surface Pro 3 and Surface Pro 4 are 1.7 pounds (771 grams) by themselves,
or 2.5 pounds (1.13 kg) with their keyboard cover and stylus pens attached. One
of the biggest improvements to last year's Surface Pro carries over here: the
highly adjustable kickstand, which can be adjusted to nearly any angle between
22 and 150 degrees. The kickstand, which runs the entire width of the system,
is stiff enough that it will stay where you put it, and hardly moves at all,
even when using your fingers or the pen on the touchscreen.
Missing from the black bezel
surrounding the screen this time around is the capacitive Windows logo touch
button. In previous Surface models, this moved around from the long edge to the
short edge of the system, but always served the same purpose: to take you back
to the Windows 8 tile interface. As we're now operating in the Windows 10
world, having a physical home button isn't necessary, although the Windows 10 "tablet
mode" is still very similar to what Window 8 looked like.
Performance Microsoft
is offering the Surface Pro 4 in sixth-generation Intel Core M, Core i5 and
Core i7 options. The M version comes with Intel HD graphics 515, while the i5
comes with slightly more powerful Intel HD graphics 520. The top i7 variant
comes with Intel HD graphics 540. Adding further complexity to the mix, you can
also load the Pro 4 with 4GB, 8GB or 16GB of RAM. I tested the Core i5 model
with 8GB of RAM.
The model benchmarked fairly well. The Surface Pro 4 ran
in with a 6,727 multi-core Geekbench score. On the graphics intensive 3DMark:
Cloud Gate, it scored a solid 6,019. Neither scores are groundbreaking, but
they put the Pro 4 on a par with most top-end 2015 convertible tablets and well
above its 2014 predecessor. By comparison, the Surface Pro 3 scored 3,491 in
Geekbench.
The benchmarks proved accurate with real-world use, and
the Surface Pro 4 delivers solidly impressive performance. Using the unit as my
primary tablet and laptop, I didn’t notice any serious performance jitters. The
Surface loaded web pages instantly, ran applications smoothly, and proved
capable of playing Steam games, such as Deathwatch: Tyranid Invasion and
Divinity Original Sin, chug free – if the graphics settings weren't maxed.
Battery life Microsoft touts a battery life
of up to nine hours of video playback – that's the same figure given for the
Pro 3 so there's no official benefit on this front. We're still testing batter
life and will add our results very soon. But,Microsoft still
refuses to include the Type Cover keyboard by default, forcing a separate
purchase. Battery life still isn't enough for
a full day. The
Bottom Line A host of small refinements cements the Surface Pro 4's position as
the best-in-class Windows tablet -- so long as you're prepared to pay extra for
the required keyboard cover accessory. Spec sheet
- CPU: 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-6300U
(dual-core, 3MB cache, up to 3GHz with Turbo Boost)
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 520
- RAM: 8GB LPDDR3
- Screen: 12.3-inch, 2,736 x 1,824
PixelSense display (Contrast ratio: 1,300:1, 100% sRGB color, 10-point
multi-touch, 3:2 aspect ratio)
- Storage: 256GB SSD (PCIe 3.0)
- Ports: 1x USB 3.0, mini DisplayPort,
microSD card reader (UHS-I), headphone/mic jack
- Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi (2 x 2
MIMO), Bluetooth 4.0 (Low Energy)
- Cameras: 8MP rear-facing, auto-focus
camera (1080p HD); 5MP front-facing, 1080p HD camera
- Weight: 1.73 pounds
- Size: 11.5 x 7.93 x 0.36 inches (W x
D x H)
·
Price;$889.99
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