Product Listing

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

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

Performance and Benchmarking

Performance and Benchmarking

One of the main characteristics of an Ultrabook, is supposed to be speed. In order to qualify as an Ultrabook, it’s got to have fast boot up and resume times. To do that, it needs an SSD in either a supporting role (as a cache for hybrid drives), or in the lead role as the machine's main storage drive.

Ultrabooks that have SSDs are almost always positioned as premium products, like how Lenovo chose to position the Ideapad Yoga. To help gauge the performance of the Yoga, we’ve included some Ultrabooks with almost identical specifications, and a couple with hybrid drives.

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 23 mm 326.5 x 213 x 19.9mm 3329 x 223 x 16mm
Weight 1.54kg 1.73kg 2.12kg 1.45kg 1.46kg

 

PCMark 7

PCMark 7 is our primary benchmark, which puts the notebook through several usage tasks, and allocates scores accordingly. In this benchmark, Ultrabooks with SSDs usually have a distinct advantage because an SSD’s higher throughput and speedier seek times allows notebooks to perform certain tasks much faster.

In this line-up, the Yoga’s scores are consistent with those achieved by other SSD sporting notebooks. Its performance scores are almost on par with the Toshiba U920t, which also sports an SSD, and is expectedly much better than the Samsung Series 5 Ultra Touch with its hybrid drive. However, the HP Envy 4 Touchsmart Ultra seems to keep up, likely due to the excellent implementation of its SSD cache and double the memory capacity.

While the Yoga’s PCMark 7 score is a fair bit behind that of the Intel reference Ultrabook (which uses a speedier and higher capacity SSD), it is consistent with other premium Ultrabooks (with SSD) that have been tested before. This means that the Yoga is definitely capable of handling all your daily tasks, just as long as they aren’t heavily related to gaming.

 

3DMark 11

Ultrabooks, especially the 13-inch units, always utilize the onboard Intel HD Graphics 4000 engine that come with the 3rd generation processors. This is the main reason why the Lenovo Ideapad Yoga has 3DMark 11 scores that are very similar to that of the other Ultrabooks. To be considered worthy for light gaming, the scores need to be at least two times higher (such as the results seen with AMD's Trinity platform for notebooks). You could still play a number of games on Intel's integrated graphics, but at very low settings. If you only indulge in flash games, Facebook games and other such games embedded online, those are not an issue for any modern notebook.

 

Far Cry 2

The benchmark tool from Far Cry 2 is used to gauge the Ultrabooks’ true gaming performance. Scores from each of the Ultrabooks are very similar to each other due to the fact that they utilize the same Intel HD 4000 onboard graphics. Here, the Yoga fell slightly behind the rest of the Ultrabooks, likely because it’s tweaked to consume less energy, which would also explain its excellent battery life as reported in our next page.

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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
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