Review: Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga 11S strikes a compelling pose

August 07, 2013

Few Windows hybrids highlighted the compromises inherent in straddling device genres as thoroughly as the original Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11. Physically designed as a “notebook first” hybrid, yet sporting a tablet-oriented ARM processor and the neutered Windows RT operating system, it was nothing short of an elegant piece of convertible hardware crippled by its slate-friendly software. Someone at Lenovo must have been listening to our complaints, because just a few months later we’re reviewing the IdeaPad Yoga 11S, a follow-up that ditches its predecessor’s mobile processor in favor of a full-blown Intel Core i5 chip. More important, this Yoga runs the full-blown version of Windows 8. So does this dreamed-of refresh cure what ailed the original IdeaPad Yoga 11? Largely, though the $999 Yoga 11S introduces a few new compromises of its own. More laptop than tablet Considering its Intel Core i5-3339Y processor and 8GB of RAM, no one will confuse the Yoga 11S with a slate; of course, no one will mistake it for a graphics powerhouse, either. Its reliance on the integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 hardware caused the laptop to chug through our graphics-focused tests, while the merely passable 1.5GHz clock on the Ultrabook-class processor kept the Yoga 11S firmly in the middle of the pack (at best) in the rest of PCWorld’s battery of benchmarks. On the plus side, the Yoga 11S’s solid-state drive delivers lickety-split boot and wake times. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2045948/review-lenovos-ideapad-yoga-11s-strikes-a-compelling-pose.html#tk.rss_all