Product Listing

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 - Power of a Tablet; Portability of a Notebook

By James Lu - 20 Feb 2013
Launch SRP: S$1199

Performance, Battery Life & Portability Index

Performance

As we were unable to install any of our usual notebook benchmarks on the Yoga 11's Windows RT OS, we'll be using Sunspider Javascript, which is normally part of our tablet and smartphone testing procedures. This test measures browser speed performance on Javascript tasks and is a good measure of content consumption speeds. We'll be comparing the Yoga 11 to other Tegra 3 processor Windows RT devices, as well as a few other tablets and an Intel Core i5 Ultrabook (Lenovo's own IdeaPad Yoga 13).

Device Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 Microsoft Surface ASUS VivoTab RT Sony Xperia Tablet S Toshiba Regza Tablet AT300 Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1  Apple iPad
(4th Gen)
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13
CPU NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core
1.3GHz
NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core
1.3GHz
NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core 1.3GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core
1.4GHz
NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core 1.2GHz Exynos 4 Quad quad-core
1.4GHz
Apple A6X dual-core 1GHz Intel Core i5-3317U (1.7GHz)
GPU 12-core GeForce 12-core GeForce 12-core GeForce 12-core GeForce 12-core GeForce Mali-400MP PowerVR SGX543MP4 Intel HD4000
RAM 2GB 2GB 2GB 1GB 1GB 2GB 1GB 4GB
OS Windows RT Windows RT Windows RT Google Android 4.0.3 Google Android 4.0.3 Google Android 4.0.4 Apple iOS 6 Windows 8 Pro

Performance was about average on the Yoga 11 for a Tegra 3 Windows RT device, sitting between Microsoft's Surface and ASUS' VivoTab RT. As expected, the Yoga 13's Intel Core i5 processor and Windows 8 Pro OS was vastly superior. As for actual user experience, the Yoga 11 was sufficient in most tasks and we didn't notice any lag while web browsing on Internet Explorer 10, with content loading fairly quickly and no issues with scrolling or zooming in.

 

 

Battery Life

We tested the Yoga 11's battery life by looping a video with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels on the unit. The test is performed under specific parameters:

  • Screen brightness and volume at 100%
  • Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on
  • Constant data streaming through email and Twitter
     
Specifications/Device Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 Microsoft Surface ASUS VivoTab RT Sony Xperia Tablet S Toshiba Regza Tablet AT300 (3G) Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Apple iPad
(4th Gen)
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 Sony Vaio Duo 11
CPU NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core
1.3GHz
NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core
1.3GHz
NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core 1.3GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core
1.4GHz
NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core 1.2GHz Exynos 4 Quad quad-core
1.4GHz
Apple A6X dual-core 1GHz Intel Core i5-3317U (1.7GHz) Intel Core i5-3317U (1.7GHz)

Display Size

11.6-inch 10.6-inch 10.1-inch 9.4-inch 10.1-inch 10.1-inch 9.7-inch 13-inch 11.6-inch

Resolution

1366 x 768 pixels 1366 x 768 pixels 1366 x 768 pixels 1280 x 800 pixels 1280 x 800 pixels 1280 x 800 pixels 2048 x 1536 pixels 1600 x 900 pixels 1920 x 1080 pixels

Dimensions

298 x 204 x 15.6 mm 274.6 x 172 x 9.4mm 262.5 x 170.9 x 8.3mm 239.8 x 174.4 x 8.8 - 11.85mm 260 x 178.9 x 9.0mm 262 x 180 x 8.9mm 241.2 x 185.7 x 9.4mm 333.4 x 224.8 x 16.9mm 320 x 119 x 17.85mm

Weight

1.27kg 680g 525g 585g 595g 600g 652g 1.54kg 1.3kg

*Note that both the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 and Sony Vaio Duo 11 notebooks were tested using a different benchmark (PowerMark), however, we have found the scores to be fairly similar and are comparable for the purpose of this article.

The Yoga 11's battery life was quite impressive but fell short of Lenovo's 13-hour claim, lasting just over nine and a half hours, which was still much better than any of our other machines - be it a tablet or notebook. We suspect that battery life could be drawn out even further with a reduction in screen brightness and audio.

We weren't able to fully test the 'weeks of battery life' claim from Windows RT's 'Connected Standby' mode, however, leaving it in 'Connected Standby' overnight resulted in only a 5% drain in battery life, and it did indeed continue to receive data through email and Twitter, so there may be some credence to these claims.

 

Portability Index

Unfortunately, the Yoga 11's portability index score is very poor when compared to tablets due to its restrictive weight and size. However, it was quite favorable when compared to other notebooks thanks to its long battery life.

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5.5
  • Design 8
  • Features 5
  • Performance 6
  • Value 4
  • Mobility 8
The Good
Excellent build quality
Easy notebook to tablet conversion
Great keyboard
Superb battery life
The Bad
Too bulky and heavy to be used as a tablet
Restricted Windows RT and limited apps
No USB 3.0 ports
Average screen resolution
Too expensive
Appeals only to a niche user group
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