Lenovo YOGA 900 Laptop: Uber-Thin & Powerful

Lenovo just announced its next-generation YOGA laptop with the YOGA 900, a direct successor of the Yoga 3 Pro that was its thinnest laptop for 2015. The new YOGA 900 ultra-thin laptop is 14.9mm thick and weighs about 2.8 Lbs – according to Lenovo, this is the thinnest of its category. It is slightly more than the previous model, but Lenovo has made tremendous improvements in both battery capacity and computing power.

And this is definitely worth noting. Although I liked the YOGA 3 PRO design very much, the bottom-line is that it was simply not powerful enough to my liking, and the battery capacity seemed too small to justify a blanket recommendation.

The Lenovo YOGA 900 ($1199.99+) changes this deeply. With nearly double the battery capacity, and Core i7 CPU options (from Core-M before…), the difference is going to be huge. Even without running any benchmarks, it is clear that the comparison will be brutal for the YOGA 3 Pro and for similar Core-M based laptops. While we’re discussing internal hardware, let me throw some specs in here:

• Gen6 Core i5/Corei7 processors
• 16GB LPDDR3 max.
• 256GB or 512GB SSD
• 3” QHD+ 3200×1800 IPS display
• Improved keyboard with a dedicated Function key row
• Larger trackpad
• Dolby Audio Premium
• 2x USB 3.0 ports

To accommodate the performance upgrade, Lenovo has improved its cooling system, which they say is 30% better. Although Lenovo doesn’t clarify “how” they made it happen, it may be using the same technique developed for other Lenovo laptops where the heatsink’s total surface area is larger and connected to a better venting system. In any case, it’s not an easy one to design given how thin the laptop is.

From the outside, the general design feels very similar to the Lenovo YOGA 3 Pro. There have been some improvements of the excellent hinge system, but it’s not as obvious as the new color choices: Clementine Orange, Champagne Gold and Platinum Silver.

Of course, this YOGA computer offers the same multimode that Lenovo has invented: with a 360 degree rotation, it can be used as a tablet, a computer, and with different “stand” modes.

On paper, the Lenovo YOGA 900 instantly looks like one of the best Windows laptop, and we are looking forward to taking one for a spin. Lenovo has managed to preserve the look and feel and an extremely thin (and beautiful) 13.3 computer, but double the battery capacity along with the compute performance. –That- is impressive.

Hubert Nguyen
Categories: Computers
Tags: Laptops, Lenovo, Lenovo Yoga