Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro Review: Refreshed With Faster Core M
by Brett Howse on March 13, 2015 8:00 AM ESTFinal Words
When looking at convertible laptops, Lenovo likely has the most prolific number of convertible devices and they fall under the Yoga line. When they came up with the Yoga hinge, it set the bar for convertible devices. It keeps the balance and usability of a traditional clamshell Ultrabook, but adds in the ability to use it in three additional touch modes. For the Yoga 3 Pro, Lenovo has refined this experience again, with a thinner, and lighter laptop. The watchband hinge is both stylish and functional. They have kept the high resolution display of the Yoga 2 Pro, but improved the overall efficiency of the device which allowed them to keep similar battery life with a smaller, and therefore lighter battery.
Moving to Core M may seem like a step backwards in performance. However when you compare most workloads to the outgoing Core i5 Yoga 2 Pro, the Yoga 3 Pro can hold its own against it, and even surpasses it in many benchmarks. Core M is more than just a lower power SoC. It is also about packaging. The size of Core M as compared to Broadwell-U is quite a bit smaller in all dimensions, including the Z axis, which allows for more space for other components around it, and a thinner overall device. When you look at the Yoga, and realise it is not just a notebook computer, the extra reduction in thickness is appreciated. It is still a bit big to use as a tablet, but it is better as a tablet than the outgoing model.
From left to right: Broadwell-Y (Core M), Broadwell ULT/ULX and Haswell ULT/ULX
The GPU side is certainly a regression though. Core M’s very restrictive TDP of just 4.5 watts means that the GPU is limited a lot quicker than Haswell-U or Broadwell-U GPUs are. It has the same basic architecture as the Broadwell-U GPU, and therefore it should have similar performance if given the headroom for this. Intel still has some work to do on the GPU side to make it more efficient, and they lag some of their competitors there, although less so with HD 5300 than the woeful Atom N2840’s Intel HD Graphics. They have made some headway here, but still have some more room to improve.
As a tablet, the Core M powered Yoga 3 Pro will run circles around other tablets when performing CPU tasks. The GPU is a bit behind, but it is ahead of the iPad Air already, so it is not a slouch. The CPU is miles ahead though, even when compared to the Apple A8X which is consistently the best ARM based tablet CPU.
The display, which was a defining feature of the Yoga 2 Pro, is a slightly different model of the Samsung RGBW IPS LCD. It offers the same great viewing angles and crisp text as before, but it also suffers from being uncalibrated. It would be nice to see Lenovo include an ICC profile, or better yet to switch to the Sharp IGZO display which has proven to be the current LCD to beat right now. The one real drawback of the Samsung display is the terrible black levels, which give a mediocre contrast ratio and is very noticeable when watching movies on the Yoga 3 Pro. A switch to a true RGB model like the Sharp would fix that glaring issue. The steady march of progress means that Lenovo sitting still on their display means that they have been passed by their competitors.
Lenovo has fixed their biggest issue with the Yoga 2 Pro though, and that was the wireless performance. The move to a Broadcom 802.11ac solution has moved them from the bottom to the top of our test, and it was sorely needed. My wife still owns and uses the Yoga 2 Pro every day, and her one major complaint is the wireless performance. The new model solves that and then some.
For 2015 though, Lenovo has some serious competition. If you are after a pure Ultrabook, the Yoga 3 Pro is likely not the frontrunner right now. Lenovo does have other offerings, such as the non Pro version of the Yoga, and the ThinkPad Yoga, which do come with Broadwell-U and would have better performance for heavier workloads. However I have yet to see a better convertible laptop yet. Other OEMs have taken the Yoga style hinge and incorporated it into their designs, and we will see more of these as time goes on.
The Yoga 3 Pro is at least as good as the Yoga 2 Pro, which is a compliment. After owning the Yoga 2 Pro for over a year, it is still incredibly handy to be able to flip the display around and use it as a touch device. The new Yoga 3 Pro improves the overall design, and makes it even thinner and lighter than the outgoing model. The Yoga 3 Pro is even thinner than the just announced MacBook, and although it is also a bit heavier, it does include a touch digitizer and Gorilla Glass over the display, all the while coming in at $1150, around $150 cheaper than the MacBook.. Apple has also seen that Core M, especially the just released 5Y71 model, is enough performance to not have any regression over Haswell-U which powered all of the Ultrabooks last year. If battery life is not your biggest concern, then the Yoga 3 Pro is certainly worth checking out. It offers incredible versatility due to the design, and it has made some nice improvements for the new model.
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coolhardware - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
I'm hoping Lenovo follows in Dell's footsteps and gets rid of the bezel around the screen along with big wasted area around the keyboard.Pretty sweet to get the same display size and pixel density:
13.3″ 75.59 square inche display (11.6″x6.5″) 3200×1800 16:9 Ratio 276.05 PPI
***all in a much smaller form factor!***
*Source for display specs: http://pixensity.com/list/laptop/
fokka - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
the thing is for the tablet mode it's nice to have some bezel to grip the whole thing, so going the minimal bezel route like the xps 13 wouldn't be the most comfortable thing on a device like a yoga 3 pro.that's the same reason we have the big wasted space around the keyboard: that's where you hold the device in tablet mode. i think they still should have given us at least a row of half-height function keys, but we see that a convertible is always a compromise.
fokka - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
agreed. the hinge might look nice to some and as long as it works it's fine by me, but if they go ahead and bost about it consists of over 800 parts, that just screams "over engineered" to me.i also don't see how a simple hinge has to look like a watchband, or a piece of jewelry and again: using 800 parts, when you could reach the same goal with just two is simply too much in my book.
Cook-e-Monster - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Hugely disappointing to see the keyboard get compromised like this. one of the most useful things about Lenovo is that they make good keyboards with intelligent layouts. Nixing the F-row and hamstringing the PgUp/Down and Home/End keys is probably a deal breaker for me.I really hope that there's a review coming for the recent HP Spectre. I think it (and the XPS) has Lenovo beat this year
Sushisamurai - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
I appreciate you linking the notebook bench link, but the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro isn't listed on your bench results yet (nor in CPU bench). I was also hoping there would be more of an in-depth discussion about the Core-M CPU and probably a few more "real life" use case results and short comings of the CPU, as this is Anandtech's first product review with a Core-M.I like how you included Dell's XPS 15, but for those unfamiliar with that model, I think you should have at least mentioned what CPU it was other than being a quad-core CPU. Without bench results, it's also hard to compare what core-M's performance is compared to other broadwell/Haswell offerings as the charts are comparing tablets and some Haswell-U's. I think it'd be an interesting dive to see what users would be sacrificing in terms of performance to go to Core-M (form-factor) versus intel's bigger mobile processors. I suppose I could wait for the bench results and pore over the charts myself, and since anyone can do that, that's not why we read anandtech.
Brett Howse - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
Sorry the Yoga 3 Pro was in Bench but not enabled for public viewing until after I posted. I just enabled it now.I did mention in the article that the Dell is a quad-core part. I have some more ideas as well to make that more clear but it's a backend thing.
Look for more Core M discussion soon. We had issues getting samples at the start since it seemed like a really slow release but we have some now. I've got a couple more Core M devices in my queue to look at.
Sushisamurai - Sunday, March 15, 2015 - link
Sweet. I'm looking forward to more core-M reviews. I think a lot of our readers are interested in reading what you guys have to say about the new MB apple released.Also, I'm aware other products' performance is listed in bench but it would be nice to include products that match the one you're reviewing in terms of size, form factor, and price - I felt that the products you included in your charts were heavily skewed to tablet comparisons, where we could have used some more comparisons for products in similar price ranges.
Otherwise, good read, thank you for your hard work.
sandineyes - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
I actually bought a Yoga 3 Pro (my first laptop in over 10 years) during the holiday season, and eventually returned it after a few weeks. My thoughts:-The build quality on this thing is pretty poor for such an expensive device. The panel on the back of the screen on mine flexed quite a bit, as if it didn't fit perfectly. Similarly, there is a piece of plastic below the display that looks like it is fit into a rectangular slot, and that wiggled around too, as if it was glued poorly or something. It also shows usage very poorly; no amount of hand washing prevented it from looking like a mess after using it. I had a chance to touch a MBP while I owned this, and that felt markedly better made.
-The screen is not very good. It wasn't really that much of a problem, and the article mentions it getting better in the refresh, but mine was pretty poor. It was also my introduction to HiDPI Windows and all the caveats that come with that. I am also used to my 16:10 desktop monitor, so I'm probably a bit biased. But seriously, we need more 16:10 laptop screens that aren't on Macs.
-It generally felt fast enough, but mine could not handle HD streaming on Amazon Instant Video (tried Chrome and latest IE). The video would start stuttering, making it un-watchable. Netflix didn't have this issue, and neither did a 1080p video stored locally when used with VLC. I don't know if the refresh has this issue, but it made Amazon Instant Video a last resort.
-The battery life is terrible. I am not really used to laptops, so for me the 5 hours of life I managed out of the thing felt very oppressive. And although this is a minor issue, the included charging cable is too short.
-The last laptop I owned had physical click buttons; my index finger worked the pad, and my thumb rested on the left click button. Based on the Yoga I cannot see how people have adapted to use these new-fangled track pads with no buttons. It is like we've actually regressed in technology over the last 10 years when it comes to this. Getting click and drag to work on these damn things is real challenge.
-Make sure you keep that Harmony software installed; otherwise the computer won't properly deactivate the keyboard and track pad when in stand mode.
-This computer makes me want more, better hybrids to exist. Because of the utility of stand mode, I do not think I can ever buy a normal laptop or a tablet. The light weight of this thing is also a plus, but I think that is more a benefit to tablet mode, which isn't that useful in comparison to the other modes.
fokka - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
thanks for your quick review, it's interesting to hear some real life caveats, even if you didn't use the latest model.i also share some of the same complaints about at least some of the current ultrabooks. i recently got to test an asus zenbook (ux301la) and while it looked stunning with its white glass finish, it only stood on three of its rubber feet and kept wiggling, as you moved your hand to and from the palm rest. even the (buttonless!) glass touchpad made a slight squeaking sound, when you moused around on it.
it seems to me that many manufacturers have a problem converting those nice press renders and incredibly high specs into really usable products that don't show some serious flaws after a short amount of time.
many people say this machine (e.g. a zenbook), or that laptop (e.g. the new xps 13) offer incredible build quality, but still i have to see one laptop model to offer such a continuously high build quality as apple does with their whole macbook line. a shame, since i'm really not a fan of osx.
i'm also not the biggest fan of hi dpi screens, especially when the effect is made obsolete due to the use of a pentile matrix. it seems we're just wasting money, energy and gpu cycles, hell, even usability (->scaling), just to have one more spec to boast about. and all this on the machines that are conceptually the worst place to start the dpi-revolution: battery and performance limited mobile devices.
"The screen is not very good." ...if people sum up a screen with those (your) words, i think we can agree that this specific panel was a poor choice on a somewhat premium device like the yoga 3 pro.
and a new $$$$ laptop not managing 1080p playback on one of the biggest VoD services... i think i have seen enough of core m for one day, even if that specific problem turns out to be driver related.
kyuu - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
Considering that you can go to the HP website right now and get the Spectre x360 with 1080p touch, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, a Core-i5 5200U, a much larger battery and what looks like much better build quality all for under $1000, I'm afraid Lenovo needs to do more than this refresh to keep the Yoga line competitive. You can even upgrade to a QHD display for only another $100, if you prefer resolution to battery life. Hopefully you guys get in a Spectre x360 for review in the near future.And if you don't care about a 360-degree hinge and a touchscreen, then the Dell XPS 13 knocks it out of the park.