Conclusion
The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S occupies an important middle ground between the larger-sized Yoga 13 (which is simply too cumbersome to serve as a reasonable tablet for many people) and the ARM-powered Yoga 11 (which, in spite of its superior battery life and silent operation, is handicapped by its inability to run Windows 8 and native x86 applications). But the real question is: does it manage to balance the most critical aspects of a great convertible properly, or do the trade-offs of the higher-powered chipset outweigh the benefits?
The answer, as it turns out, is a rather ambiguous it depends. For all-day battery life, there are plenty of better options out there; the Yoga 11S unfortunately really doesn’t make the grade in that department. There are even better convertibles with the same power and ability to run full-blown Windows applications but with much better battery life, keyboards, and overall build quality—such as Lenovo’s own ThinkPad Helix (though it is considerably more expensive). And, of course, if you don’t really need tablet or touchscreen functionality, you could do much better choosing from the wider array of options available without the convertible design requirements.
But for $999 or less, if you want touch, you need more than Windows RT, and you aren’t looking to spend a fortune, the Yoga 11S is an acceptable compromise in many ways, with (as compared to the Yoga 11) a marginally higher weight and size, a sturdy (albeit plastic) case, reasonably good input devices, and snappy overall system performance thanks to its combination of a capable Intel ULV CPU and solid-state drive. It’s far from perfect—and arguably (depending on your needs), only marginally more appealing than the Yoga 11—but it’s yet another option for those who weren’t completely satisfied by the benefits of the Yoga 11 or 13, and in many ways, it’s the most well-balanced Yoga yet.
How much does it cost?
How much does it cost?
Ha! Thanks for pointing that
Ha! Thanks for pointing that out. I completely forgot to mention the number.
Our unit as configured was $999, though you can get the 11S for as little as $749 if you don't mind sacrificing some CPU and storage space. Though (as I mentioned in the article), if you're looking for an Ultrabook with great battery life on a charge, I would recommend comparing to some of the emerging Haswell models. Hopefully we'll see a refresh containing a 4200Y or similar later this year; that'd help a ton in that department. 🙂
-Steve
World wide web ought somewht
World wide web ought somewht morte piece of content like yours, congratulation
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is it good for gaming?
is it good for gaming?
In a word, no, though it can
In a word, no, though it can remarkably handle some light gaming in spite of its size and TDP.
Check out the Gaming Benchmarks page if you haven't already.
I just picked up a
I just picked up a refurbished model from Micro Center with the Haswell 4210Y about a week ago. I was curious about gaming as well. So, I went ahead and downloaded Steam to see what it could do. After much debate over starting with Torchlight 2, I decided to go right for Borderlands 2. I was not expecting much, but wow. I was able to play quite well with my level 51 commando playing through one of Captain Scarlett’s missions. I perceived no noticeable lag while playing, with the exception of longer load times when moving into new areas. It did produce some pretty impressive heat at the center of the rear exhaust area. I did have a warning message when I exited that I was almost out of memory and to save programs. I think this will resolved when I upgrade the memory to 8 gigs next week. I did not look to see what my frame rates were, but It looked pretty impressive. Very happy with this, I got it to have for entertainment while traveling for business each week. I was never impressed with any of the new tablets. They were just not powerful enough, but this little Ultrabook may be the best use of Windows 8 I have seen.