Product Listing

Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 13 - If You've Got it, Flex it

By Leo Boon Yeow - 26 Dec 2012
Launch SRP: S$1899

Battery Life and Portability Index

Battery Life and Portability Index

A measure of an Ultrabook’s worth these days is siding more towards its battery life as its raw compute performance doesn't really change a whole lot as seen on the previous page. That’s because many Ultrabooks have the similar hardware components. Once you factor that along with the reason why Ultrabooks were introduced in the first place (which is to promote highly portable computing), you'll realize that battery life and weight play a huge role. So on this page of our review, we put the Yoga against some of the latest Windows 8 Ultrabooks in the market (including another convertible variant from Toshiba), as well as an Intel (Ivy Bridge) reference Ultrabook, which runs on Windows 7.

Test Notebooks Compared
Specifications
/Notebook
Lenovo Ideapad Yoga Samsung Series 5
Ultra Touch
HP Envy 4
Touchsmart Ultra

Toshiba Satellite U920t

Intel Ultrabook
(Ivy Bridge)
Processor Intel Core i5-3317U
(1.7GHz)
Intel Core i5-3317U
(1.7GHz)
Intel Core i5-3317U
(1.7GHz)
Intel Core i5-3317U
(1.7GHz)
Intel Core i5-3427U
(1.8GHz)
Chipset Intel QS77 Intel UM77 Intel HM77 Intel UM77 Intel UM77
Memory 4GB DDR3  4GB DDR3 8GB DDR3 4GB DDR3 4GB DDR3
Storage 128GB SSD 500GB HDD with 24GB SSD Cache 500GB HDD with 32GB SSD Cache 128GB SSD 256GB SSD
Video Intel HD Graphics 4000 Intel HD Graphics 4000 Intel HD Graphics 4000 Intel HD Graphics 4000 Intel HD Graphics 4000
Battery 54.7WHr 45 WHr 52WHr 37.7WHr 47 WHr
Dimensions 333.4 x 224.8 x 16.9mm 315 x 218 x 16.8 - 19.8mm 342.2 x 237.1 x 23mm 326.5 x 213 x 19.9mm 3329 x 223 x 16mm
Weight 1.54kg 1.73kg 2.12kg 1.45kg 1.46kg

 

 

Battery Life

As you can see, the Yoga triumphs over all the other Ultrabooks, even the Intel reference Ultrabook, which is supposed to be the ideal Ultrabook, put together with some of the best parts that Intel can get their hands on.

A large part of the Yoga’s dominance here, could be attributed to its much larger battery capacity. This brings the Yoga’s weight up to a little over 1.5kg, which makes it just a tad heavier than the usual 13.3-inch Ultrabook (usually about 1.4kg). In comparison, the Samsung Series 5 Ultra Touch is the heaviest of the lot by quite a margin (the HP unit in this comparison is a 14-inch laptop). As such, we’d gladly take on the extra 100 grams or so for the Yoga’s extra battery life that helped it pull through nearly an hour longer than most others in this comparison.

For users who require an even lighter and portable machine, they should consider other more compact convertible Ultrabooks such as the Sony Vaio Duo 11. However, not all convertible Ultrabooks are created equally and their design purposes would differ. The Sony is designed to promote tablet-like usability that transforms into a notebook mode (and so does the Toshiba Satellite U920t to a certain extent), whereas Lenovo Yoga's primary purpose is for notebook-like usage but doubles up as a tablet. As such, it's important to figure out what you intend to do with your mobile device before splurging on just any convertible Ultrabook.

 

Power Consumption

Even though the Yoga has the best battery life out of the bunch of Ultrabooks, its power consumption is hardly the lowest. It’s marginally worse off than the U920t, but that's because the U920t has a smaller screen and is of a lower resolution. The Yoga on the other hand had an impressive IPS display panel, is brighter and sharper (more power-hungry) than the usual 1366 x 768 pixels resolution panels found on less premium notebooks. The extra battery juice required for a much better screen is a compromise we’re sure plenty of consumers wouldn’t mind making - especially in the Yoga's case, its configuration actually yielded top-notch battery life as well.

 

Portability Index

Our portability index ratio basically takes into consideration a few elements like a notebook’s size, mass and battery life, and gives you a ratio that tells you whether or not it’s worth your time to carry it around. The ratios are best compared within a similar class of products since the mentioned factors will vary greatly for each class of notebooks.

Due to the Yoga’s slightly heavier weight (just above 1.5kg), its portability index isn’t as high as its battery life would suggest. However, it’s still way ahead of some of the latest Ultrabooks out in the market. But, like we mentioned before, there are those who would gladly sacrifice some portability for much better battery life, making the Yoga perfect for these folks. Even if not for that fact, for a convertible Ultrabook, the Yoga has a good portability index.

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
9.0
  • Design 9.5
  • Features 8.5
  • Performance 8.5
  • Value 9
  • Mobility 8.5
The Good
Well designed
Easy conversion from notebook to tablet
Scratch resistant body
Accutype keyboard
Excellent Battery Life
The Bad
Only 1 USB 3.0 port and 1 USB 2.0 port
IPS display could be higher resolution
Screen could use an anti-glare coating
No backlit keyboard
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.