Lenovo's Latest Hybrid Laptop Is Just as Bendy, But Packs a Super-Efficient Chip

The Yoga 3 Pro is one of the first laptops to offer Intel’s next-generation “Broadwell” CPU---it has a dual-core Intel Core M-70 system on a chip---which is designed to deliver Core i5-like performance with much lower power consumption.
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Lenovo

How interesting is Lenovo’s super-bendy Yoga 3 Pro laptop? Interesting enough to inspire a trilogy of really awkward Ashton Kutcher poses. But if you look beyond those photos and its versatile hinge, the new Windows 8.1 convertible laptop will back up its pliable hardware with state-of-the-art components.

The Yoga 3 Pro is one of the first laptops to offer Intel’s next-generation “Broadwell” CPU---it has a dual-core Intel Core M-70 system on a chip---which is designed to deliver Core i5-like performance with much lower power consumption. And because Broadwell is built to run without a fan, the 13.3-inch Yoga 3 Pro is also dead-silent and superslim.

It’s about the thickness of a USB 3.0 port, and the new convertible laptop has two of them. The Yoga 3 Pro also has a built-in SD card reader, an HDMI-out port, and stereo JBL speakers. This machine is just half an inch thick and weighs 2.63 pounds---thinner and lighter than the 13-inch MacBook Air.

It doesn’t get quite as much juice, though. According to Lenovo, the new laptop grants up to 9 hours of battery life per charge of its battery. That’s a solid two- to three-hour improvement over its predecessor, the Core i5-powered Yoga 2 Pro. Like its predecessor, the Yoga 3 Pro has a sharp 13.3-inch IPS display with QHD+ resolution (3200 x 1800). It’s a touchscreen, which will prove useful when that screen is flipped all the way back in tablet mode.

Compared to previous models, the new Yoga convertible also has a metallic “watchband-inspired” hinge that lets you position the screen sturdily across a 360-degree range. The hinge secures the screen nicely, but the exposed aluminum-and-steel gears mean that you’ll want to make sure your ponytail is clear of the Yoga 3.

At $1,300 for the lowest-end configuration, it’s on the pricier side, but that higher cost of entry gets you a 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM standard. The highest-end setup, which bulks the storage up to a 512GB solid-state drive, will go for $1,700. The Yoga 3 Pro will be available in silver, gold, and orange and ship by the end of October. It’s available for preorder on Lenovo’s website and Best Buy now.