A wafer-thin and ultra-light laptop with Intel's latest power-saving processor
The Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro is expensive but it has the latest technology, including a super-high-resolution screen, and is easily one of the thinnest and lightest laptops we’ve ever seen. Even with the lid closed, the entire laptop is only a tad thicker than its USB ports. It weighs just 1.1kg, rising to 1.3kg with its charger, so carrying it around all day is pretty much effortless.
There are two main reasons the Yoga 3 Pro can get away with such incredibly slender dimensions. The first is the slimline hinge, which resembles the metal wrrist strap of a men’s watch (see image below). It not only looks striking, but does away with much of the bulk you normally find in a laptop hinge. It is still as sturdy and flexible as those on previous Yoga laptops. You can fold the screen back entirely and use the computer as a tablet, stand it on its edges like a tent or position the keyboard so it acts as a stand for the screen.
The other reason is that the Yoga 3 Pro is the first laptop to use one of Intel’s latest energy saving processors, the Core M 5Y70. Code-named Broadwell, it’s so power-efficient and generates so little excess heat that the Yoga 3 Pro only requires one cooling fan and a reduced-size battery, which lasted an impressive 11 hours 19 minutes in our test.
The trade-off is performance. Paired with 8GB of memory the Core M 5Y70 was respectably fast in our image-editing benchmark test, but was noticeably slower than other similarly priced ultra-portable laptops when editing video and running multiple programs simultaneously. While it’s still faster than laptops running an Intel Atom, Celeron or AMD E-series processor, we think it would have done better if it wasn’t for the processor’s overly conservative use of its Turbo Boost feature. This temporarily increases the processor’s speed from 1.1GHz to 2.6GHz as and when needed. However, the laptop rarely used the feature, even when struggling with our demanding multiple-programs test. This at least ensured the laptop never overheated, cooled as it is by just a single small, very quiet fan.
The Yoga 3 Pro’s 13in screen has a whopping super-high resolution of 3200x1800 pixels. While there aren’t many Windows programs optimised to take advantage of so many pixels, some big names have recently signed up. Chrome and Corel Draw are just two of the recent arrivals. The more programs get optimised the better because standard programs either look very blurry or have unusably small text and controls. Regardless of this, the screen is very bright with great colour accuracy and excellent contrast.
The keyboard is one of the best w'e’ve used, with big keys that have enough travel and feedback for fast, comfortable typing. Annoyingly though, the top row of F-keys have been merged with the number keys. You have to press the Fn key to activate the F-keys which will irritate frequent users of keyboard shortcuts. While the touchpad is large and accurate, gestures such as swiping two fingers to scroll up and down felt very juddery. We were impressed by one small, but very useful design feature. The charging connector doubles as a USB 2.0 port -an efficient use of limited space on such a thin laptop.
The Yoga 3 Pro is an impressive demonstration of Intel’s new power-efficient Core M processors, but there are ultra-portable (albeit slightly heftier) laptops with even longer battery life that use Intel’s previous-generation Haswell processors. Unless you need the thinnest and lightest laptop possible, there are others that represent better value. Even so, we’re looking forward to seeing future Core M-based laptops.
VERDICT
Good battery life and a great screen, but the iffy touchpad and so-so performance hold this laptop back.
SPECIFICATIONS
1.1GHz Intel Core M 5Y70 dual-core processor • 8GB memory • 256GB SSD • Intel HD 5300 integrated graphics • 13.3in 3200x1800-plxel screen • 802.11ac/a/b/g/n • Windows 8.1 • 1.1kg (1.3kg with charger) • 12x299x228mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty