Lenovo yoga 900
The
Lenovo Yoga 900 keeps the slim watchband-style hinge from last year's version,
and adds major upgrades to performance and battery life. Even the lowest-cost
version includes a big 256GB SSD. Dispplay It has a bright, super-sharp multi-touch display, with
a resolution of 3200 x 1800 pixels ("QHD+"). It has a thick bezel
running along the bottom, giving it a 16 x 9 aspect ratio, which is great for
watching video but makes just about everything else a little awkward. Position
another 13-inch laptop next to the Yoga — whether it’s a MacBook (16:10) or the
new Surface Book (3:2) — and the Yoga’s display will look slightly compressed
in comparison.
The Yoga 900 weighs 2.8 pounds and measures 0.59 by 12.75 by 8.96
inches. All of the standard ports are there, with the addition of a USB Type-C
port. It is slightly heavier and thicker than last year’s Yoga
3 Pro laptop. But it never felt heavy to carry around. And when you consider
the new stuff included in this one, it’s forgivable.
That "stuff" includes Intel’s sixth-generation Core i5
or i7 Skylake processor, a new chip touted for its speed, efficiency and
graphics support; along with an Intel HD Graphics 520 GPU. The previous Yoga
model got dinged for slowness; that wasn’t my experience with this one. In
everyday use, the Yoga 900 was more than capable of running multiple apps,
switching between tasks, and streaming video without any stutters.
The Yoga 900’s battery life is definitely improved
over last year’s Yoga 3 Pro, but compared to other laptops in this class, it’s
still not the best. In a Verge battery test, the Lenovo Yoga 900 lived up to
the company’s claim of nine hours. During a more normal day of use, running
multiple apps, checking email, and browsing the web with some battery-saving
settings turned on, it was inconsistent. Some days it lasted around five and a
half hours, and other days closer to seven and a half. In either instance it
doesn’t match the new Surface Book or recent MacBook Pro models. Performance
This is where the 900 really does the
job. As mentioned previously, the review model I was using was the top-end
version of the 900 series. As you'd expect, Windows 10 ran perfectly smoothly
in both Tablet and Desktop mode, with programs loading extremely quickly and no
sign of any slowdown or crashes.
Whether or not you have the
super-boss level version of the Yoga 900, with the new i5 and i7 processors
backed up by SSDs and at least 8GB of RAM in each model, this device is
sufficiently equipped to deal with pretty much anything you throw at it – short
of hardcore gaming.
In terms of exact configurations, you
can choose between the Intel Core i5-6200U or i7-6500U processors, 8GB of RAM –
which can be upgrade to 16GB – and either a 256GB or 512GB SSD.
The integrated Intel HD Graphics 520
also does enough for the average user. The 900 scored fairly well on the PCMark
8 test, clocking in at 2,403. This puts it ever so slightly ahead of the
Surface Pro 4’s 2,396 and somewhat behind the Dell XPS 13 Skylake’s 2,543.
In the Geekbench multi-core scores,
the 900 beat both the Surface Pro 4 and theXPS 13. While the 900 had a score of 6,786, the
Surface came in at 6,727 and the XPS at 6,242.
In 3DMark: Fire Strike test, the 900
scored a respectable 834. This puts it in the range of the Surface Pro and XPS
13 (Skylake), with scores of 853 and 838 respectively. And in the Cloud Gate
test it came in at 5,860, behind the Surface Pro with 6,109 and the above the
XPS 13 with 5,844.
Essentially, you won’t notice much
difference between the Yoga 900 and similar Ultrabooks. The device is more than
capable of handling most tasks, but it obviously isn't a gamer’s dream in terms
of graphical performance.
But,Because of the change to more powerful processors, the body
adds a little thickness. A few keys on the keyboard suffer from awkward
placement.
THE BOTTOM LINE Lenovo clearly listened to feedback about last year's
high-end Yoga, keeping the excellent overall design but boosting the specs to
match other premium 13-inch laptops. Specifications
·
Processor: 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-6500U
(dual-core, 4MB cache, up to 3.1GHz with Turbo Boost)
·
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 520
·
Display: 13.3-inch QHD+ 3,200 x 1,800
IPS display, 10-point multitouch, 300 nits brightness
·
Storage: 512GB SSD
·
Memory: 16GB LP-DDR3 RAM
·
Camera: 720p front-facing
·
Ports: 2 x USB Type A 3.0, 1 x USB
Type C 3.0 with video out, 1 x DC input with USB 2.0 functionality, 4-in-1 card
reader, audio combo jack.
·
Weight: 2.84 pounds
·
Size: 12.75 x 8.86 x 0.59 inches
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