You may have seen that we featured Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga 13 in this year’s gift guide. The 100 or so words we spent on it were certainly not intended to stand in for a review, even if our first impressions of the convertible Ultrabook were quite good.
As it turns out, we have two new notebook editors who are working on some of the most thorough coverage you've ever seen in this segment. One of the first platforms going under the knife (both literally and figuratively) is…you guessed it: the IdeaPad Yoga 13.
Although the complete story is going to have to wait until after our team gets back from CES 2013 in Las Vegas, we have a couple of shots under the hood, along with some initial impressions from the reviewer, who you'll meet soon.
He’s comparing the Yoga to Dell’s XPS 12, another convertible touch-based Ultrabook. Performance-wise, the Dell is apparently quicker, even with the same processor. However, Lenovo’s offering is appreciably quieter. The Yoga’s internals appear better-built, while the Dell’s exterior is nicer. We all agree that Dell’s mechanism for flipping the screen around to cover its keyboard in tablet mode is particularly nice. While propping the Yoga up in tent mode is cool, turning it into a tablet by rotating the swivel 360 degrees leaves you holding onto the keyboard around back. Some folks are going to find that to be a deal-breaker.
Either way you go, it’s impossible to ignore the innovation taking place as companies like Dell and Lenovo design around Windows 8’s touch paradigm and low-power Ivy Bridge-based platforms. In the days to come, expect coverage of Samsung’s Atom Z2760-powered ATIV Smart PC 500T, Samsung’s ATIV Tab (with Qualcomm’s APQ8060A inside), and initial looks at Acer’s W510.