Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro Review: Refreshed With Faster Core M
by Brett Howse on March 13, 2015 8:00 AM ESTDisplay
The Yoga 3 Pro keeps the same display resolution as the Yoga 2 Pro, but the model number has been bumped from the SDC424A to SDC434A. The good is that this is already a high resolution display, with 3200x1800 pixels. The bad is that the Samsung made display is a Red Green Blue White (RGBW) subpixel arrangement, which can cause issues with color reproduction and contrast. Luckily Lenovo has sorted out the color reproduction for the Yoga 3 Pro, just like they did with the Yoga 2 Pro a few months into its life.
The higher display density can cause issues with some Windows apps, but overall it is less of a problem now. Hopefully Windows 10 will fix the last remaining issues with high DPI displays.
The Samsung display now has some competition as well. As we have recently seen, Dell launched the new XPS 13 with a Sharp IGZO 3200x1800 display. The Lenovo does come in a bit less expensive, but the Sharp displays have proven to be very good for brightness, black levels, contrast, and color reproduction.
To test our displays, we use SpectralCal’s CalMAN 5 software suite, with an X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter for brightness and contrast testing, and the X-Rite i1Pro spectrophotometer for color accuracy.
The Yoga 2 Pro was only able to hit 248 nits, and the Yoga 3 Pro can achieve 330 nits, which is a good improvement. However the black levels are very high, with 0.73 nits at maximum brightness, which leads to a mediocre 450:1 contrast ratio. The Dell XPS 13 was able to get over 1500:1, with a higher brightness as well. Lenovo needs to move away from the Samsung display if they can.
In the Grayscale sweep, you can see that the blue colors drop off quite substantially in the upper levels. This gives us an average dE of just over 5. It is not horrible, but not as good as we have seen from competing devices lately. Luckily this can be corrected through calibration. The White Point is ideal though, and the default gamma comes in close to the 2.2 that we are looking for.
The saturations on the Yoga 3 Pro are pretty good, with the display able to cover the sRGB gamut with the exception of the Blue range which cannot quite hit the 100% level. Still, it is a reasonable showing.
The GMB score is also reasonable, with the Yoga 3 Pro coming in just under 4. It is not the best nor worst display we have seen, but the bar has been raised and it would be good to see more devices having better quality displays. It seems like a broken record, since we have now pretty much moved away from TN panels on all premium devices, but we still have a ways to go.
The Yoga 3 Pro had no issues being calibrated, and we were able to run through our tests and clean up the scores a bit. Calibration on a device like this mostly just fixes the grayscale, but it can be a big improvement.
The grayscale result is much better once calibrated, coming in at just 1.34. All of the other scores have improved as well, with saturation now 2.337, GMB at 2.5013, and gamut at 3.6681. Once calibrated, the display behaves very well, although the contrast ratio cannot be corrected through calibration. That is really the one detriment to this display. The RGBW layout is not ideal and hopefully Lenovo will move to a different display for future models. The Samsung display just has very poor blacks, and it can be distracting when using the device for watching dark movies. Still, it would be a nice benefit if Lenovo would include an ICC profile for the display to correct what can be corrected.
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sonicmerlin - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
The Apple A8X and Tegra K1 have faster GPUs than the Core M. You're paying a huge Intel premium for the faster CPUs.ASEdouardD - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
I just saw and realized that. Pretty crazy when you think about it. The iPad is more powerful than the new Macbook.arsjum - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
You mean GPU-wise? Then, yes. The dual-core CPU in Core M is 2 to 3 times more powerful than A8X's three cores.ppi - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
For typical workload of tablets and ultrabooks (web, mail, light-to-mid office), CPU is more important than GPU.Frenetic Pony - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Yah, I'd wait for Skylake Core M to buy any device with it. Skylake apparently improves IPC, battery life, and comes with a completely overhauled GPU architecture. Right now Core M seems a bit underpowered for the devices carrying it.ppi - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Short bursts of activity are actually what you do with computer most of the time. Open document -> burst of activity. Open website -> burst. Swap application -> burst. Then reading, scrolling, editing is basically idle time for CPU waiting for user input.I am convinced 90%+ people in my company would be better served by Core-M system, rather than Broadwell-U, simply because they will hardly ever utilise the sustained Broadwell-U performance, but improved portability will make their life easier while travelling.
Sure, there are types of tasks that need sustained performance, but then ultrabook is probably not a good answer either.
Frankly, I was curious about feasibility of Core M until Apple introduced MacBook. As much as I dislike Apple, they never choose anything but top notch components. Core M however requires good passive cooling through chasis.
Nevertheless, I was also disappointed with battery performance vs all but Yoga 2. I wonder why, could it be display?
tim851 - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
> I am convinced 90%+ people in my company would be better served by Core-M system, rather> than Broadwell-U
Probably. The performance deficit of Core M gets exaggerated IMO. And that despite the well-established fact that the majority of use cases haven't needed a performance boost since forever.
Web, office, music, video. Even most photoshopping or coding tasks can easily be done on a Core M. The 13" or less sized displays of ultrabooks will be more of a usability problem than CPU speed.
> Nevertheless, I was also disappointed with battery performance vs all but Yoga 2. I wonder why,
> could it be display?
Considering the FHD XPS13 got 5.5 hours more battery life than the UHD model, I'd say: definitely.
mkozakewich - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
The promise years ago was that we'd be able to attach some kind of cooling solution for turbo performance. It seems that world has come, but... without the cooling solutions? I've tossed my Stream 7 into a freezer for a few minutes to restore performance while playing a game. I've also got some aluminum foil under the cover to transfer the heat through that air gap.In short, someone needs to release some kind of Peltier mat that you can lay these kinds of devices on. Imagine a stand with an angled cool surface.
Thorburn - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
The N2840 isn't an Atom, its a Bay Trail based Celeron.Thorburn - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Also its TDP is 7.5W, it has an SDP of 4.5W.