A Closer Look and Specifications

We've reviewed quite a few Ultrabooks over the years here at PC Perspective. Let's take a look at some current favorites in order to gain some context for the Lenovo Yoga 700.

  Lenovo Yoga 700 Dell XPS 13 Lenovo Yoga 900
Processor Intel Core i5-6200U Intel Core i5-6200U Intel Core i7-6500U
RAM 8GB DDR3L-1600 8GB DDR3L-1866 8GB DDR3L-1600
Storage 256GB SATA SSD 256GB PCIe SSD 256GB PCIe SSD
Display 14" 1920×1080 Touch-enabled 13.3" 1920×1080 Non-touch 13.3" 3200×1800 Touch-enabled
Battery Capacity 45Wh 56Wh 66Wh
Price $899 $1,149 $1,199

When compared to some of the "higher-end" Ultrabook offerings like the Dell XPS 13 and Lenovo's own Yoga 900, it's easy to see why the Yoga 700 is so compelling. For $250 less than the Dell XPS 13, the Yoga 700 offers a great value. The only thing you are sacrificing for the price difference specification-wise is the drop down from a PCIe SSD to a traditional SATA interface as well as a 20% or difference in battery capacity.

The Yoga 900 is the most expensive machine in this comparison at $50 more than the XPS 13, and $300 more than the Yoga 700. For that price increase you are getting a bump from SATA to PCIe on the SSD, a Core i7 instead of an i5, a higher resolution screen, and an impressive 45% increase in battery size. Personally, I feel the only real appreciable increase here is in battery capacity. While things like the i7 and PCIe SSD are nice to have, most users won't notice the improvement brought by them.

Keep in mind that the increased resolution will provide a battery life hit when compared to the 1080p panels of the Yoga 700 and XPS 13. We'll touch on the full battery life comparisons a little later.

Beyond the raw hardware specifications, the Lenovo Yoga 700 provides what we have come to expect from notebooks in this class.

Available ports include Three USB 3.0 Ports (one is shared with the charging connector), a full-size SD card slot, as well as a Micro HDMI port.

One disappointment I've held with the Yoga line for many years is the decision to go with Micro HDMI as the only display output. While the Yoga 900 steps away from this trend with the inclusion of a USB Type-C connector, I would love to see the other Yoga machines with an alternative display option.

Micro HDMI is still extremely obscure at this point, and difficult to find the appropriate cables for. I would much rather see a slightly thicker machine with Mini DisplayPort, or Lenovo including an adapter to full-size HDMI in the box with these products.

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