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