The good: The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 works as a laptop alternative, thanks to its always-attached keyboard and myriad useful ports, and its physical flexibility provides useful ergonomic options. Brightness shortcuts on the keyboard unearth a normally buried option in Windows RT.
The bad: As a tablet, the device is too bulky and heavy to hold in your hands, and its Web performance is slow. A full Windows 8 version with updated specs will be available soon for only $150 more.
The bottom line: The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 is a great laptop alternative that's unfortunately too bulky to completely replace your tablet.
The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11's keyboard is permanently attached to the tablet section and when in tablet mode, it’s bulky, heavy, and awkward to hold. Thankfully, if you’d rather lay your tablet down flat or simply watch movies on it, the Yoga 11’s flexible, dual-hinge, $649 body gives you a few useful positions to choose from. Also, in laptop mode, it makes for a pretty cheap ultrabook, as long as you don’t mind being saddled with Windows RT.
If the thought of buying a device with RT causes you to wake up in the middle of the night screaming, then you may want to wait for the Windows 8 version of the Yoga 11, called the Yoga 11S, coming this summer for only $150 more. The Yoga 11S will also include a higher-resolution screen and a faster non-ARM Intel Core i5 CPU. Or, if you find 11 inches of screen size to be lacking, the 13-inch Yoga 13 may be more up your alley.
Compared with the Microsoft Surface RT, the Yoga 11 is a better lap computer and offers more ports, including two full-size USB port and a full-size SD storage expansion slot. However, the Surface's Type Cover keyboard is more comfortable, its Internet performance consistently zippier, and it’s a lot thinner and a lot lighter as a tablet.
If you’ve made your peace with Windows RT’s offerings, the Yoga 11 serves as the best RT device next to the Surface. However, it’s a better laptop than a tablet, so its appeal will depend on what you're looking for.
// cnet
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