Last Thoughts

I am torn over the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro. On the one hand, information technology'south the ideal Ultrabook with tons of utilize cases and a fantastic grade cistron. On the other hand, it doesn't live up to my expectations for a device of this price, leaving me feeling a footling disappointed.

I love the form factor. The Yoga 3 Pro is slim, sleek and sexy, featuring a classy aluminium vanquish and Gorilla Glass-protected brandish, complemented past an 800-piece watchband hinge that looks fantastic (some may disagree). It's also 1 of the lightest Ultrabooks going around, making it very portable and the perfect selection for the user always on the move.

Although the keyboard layout of the Yoga iii Pro could use a few tweaks, I enjoyed typing this review on it, and more often than not had no issues using the touchpad. The display is fantastic, providing crisp and articulate imagery via its large resolution, and great color reproduction. Windows display scaling nevertheless needs some piece of work so we can all fully enjoy the benefits of a loftier resolution screen, something I hope Microsoft is putting a lot of accent on fixing in Windows 10.

One of the unique aspects of the Yoga 3 Pro is its power to fold into a number of different usage modes. While I spent most of my fourth dimension using the Yoga equally a laptop, being able to transform it with ease into a tablet, or use the base of operations as a correspond the touchscreen, opens upwardly a whole range of interesting uses for the device. Using the Yoga as a tablet or stand is great for content consumption by yourself or with others, while the laptop mode notwithstanding allows the device to exist used as a content creator.

Where the Yoga 3 Pro lets me down is Broadwell. Intel'south new 14nm Cadre G processor for low-power devices does have a reduced TDP compared to Y-series Haswell parts, but it's come at the expense of operation. Sure, the performance isn't significantly lower than a 15W or 11.5W Haswell office --which from a perspective is impressive -- but ideally I'd similar to come across no reduction in performance moving to a new generation in the aforementioned course cistron.

The Yoga three Pro provides proficient enough performance for about tasks, and then long as you're not planning on playing whatsoever intensive 3D games. The attribute of Broadwell and the Yoga 3 Pro that I found most disappointing notwithstanding is battery life. Despite the new Intel chip inside, the Yoga 3 Pro lasted five - 6 hours on regular usage, which is less than the Yoga 2 Pro and non all that impressive for an Ultrabook. If you're spending $1,200 on a laptop similar this, I'd be wanting at least eight hours of life.

And that brings me to the price: $1,199 for the 256 GB model, and $1,399 for the 512 GB model. This is a piffling expensive for a 13.3-inch Ultrabook, but far from bad value because the multiple benefits the Yoga provides. Bombardment life, and to a lesser extent performance, are 2 reasons why the Yoga iii Pro isn't an automatic recommendation, but if you can look past these downsides you'll exist left with a mostly great device from Lenovo.

Pros: Excellent form factor, it'due south so slim and then low-cal. Watchband hinge facilitates multiple use cases. 3200 x 1800 IPS display is crisp and vibrant when Windows scales correctly.

Cons: Bombardment life isn't great for a $i,000+ Ultrabook, especially considering information technology's powered by Broadwell. Cadre M likewise disappoints with performance to an extent.