Gadgetory

what's up fries five fans i'm brian tong and this is a battle between two windows eight Ultrabook laptops with touchscreens that are unlike any other and you know what i'm just gonna call them touch tops it's a prize five punch out between the Lenovo yoga 13 and the Zeus Taichi 21 our judges for this fight are senior editor Dan the man Ackerman senior associate editor Scott the bottom line Stein and Brian can't go wrong Tom that will take all three judges blind scores and average the mounts the nearest tenth each round the final prize fight score will be an average of all rounds using the same system let's get this party started round 1 is design the yoga 13 looks pretty much like most lenovo laptops with its really clean lines and a soft textured body it brings a nice 13.3 inch display that's heavier in weight at three point four pounds but it really Wow's you with its flip around tablet design that goes all the way around this is truly one of the most unique designs you'll ever see now the asou statue 21 brings a tight compact design with a real classy black glossy lid and an angular body with beveled edges it weighs in at a lighter 2.8 pounds but there's a surprise the lid is also a screen that's right this guy has two 11.6 inch screens business in the front party in the back the two screen concept is great in theory but the outside of a laptop takes the most damage and it's a smudgy fingerprint magnet mess it's one of the rare times I'm taking function looks the yoga 13 takes this round with the floor and the Taichi 21 gets a 3.7 next round his features the yoga 13 brings a 1.7 gigahertz core i5 processor with 8 gigs of RAM a full size HDMI port 2 USBS and an SD card slot but let's be real its biggest feature is that the yoga 13 has more poses than Panda Express has menu options put it on your lap stand it on a table use it like a laptop read it like a book or wear it like a hat it's not called the yoga for nothing and this thing is flexible now the Taichi 21 in this price fight has been configured with a 1.9 gigahertz core i7 processor and 4 gigs of RAM you'll get micro HDMI a mini VGA port and 2 USB ports but the biggest feature here is its two screens in one design and almost no other laptop has had that feature but the inner screen doesn't have touch and it's a killer omission now sure it doesn't sound like a big deal until you use this guy and you get frustrated with the disconnected experience Windows 8 was made to be touched and on top of that using both screens is controlled by a clunky utility in the desktop that includes a mirror mode and dual screen mode that might be useful in only a handful of situations now seuss really swung for the fences here but decided not to round all the bases the Lenovo yoga 13 gets another 4 and the asou statue 21 gets a 3.3 so after averaging 2 rounds the yoga 13 has the lead the next round is performance the tight 21 is a more expensive configuration that brings a faster CPU and no surprise here it's faster in most of our benchmarks it's shined in the multimedia multitasking test and slightly edged out the yoga 13 in the Apple iTunes encoding test but it wasn't too significant of a performance leap in fact the yoga 13 actually took the Photoshop cs5 processing test showing that it's a solid performer our judges give the tie to 21 this round with a 4 and the yoga 13 gets a 3.7 round 4 is the all-important battery right in our video playback battery drain test the yoga 13 was the clear winner with 5 and a half hours of video playback which is solid for an ultrabook but not bad or great now the Taichi 21 ran for about an hour less at just under four and a half hours of playback and if you want to try using both screens at the same time it goes down one more hour to 3 and a half hours and that's if you even use both screens at the same time now the judges all agree here lenovo takes another round with a 4 and the asou sets a 3 so after averaging 4 rounds the yoga 13 still has the lead the final round that decides it all is value you'll be paying over 1 grand for either of these touch tops but with the yoga 13 that starts at $1,099 you'll be getting one of the best values in a Windows 8 laptop right now with its super versatility and solid performance the isuzu 21 still comes in at a price that's not outrageous starting at $12.99 for two screens but this product falls short because of the disconnect in the user experience and its execution with its dual screens there will be people who love its unique design but the yoga 13 is a better value right now in the final round lenovo takes this one with the 4 three and the suit I cheat gets a two point seven so let's average out all five rounds and in a prize fight where Lenovo jumped on top early a sous was still able to take around but it wasn't nearly enough and the Lenovo yoga 13 takes this battle for to three point three and is your prize fight winner both of these touch tops are bold new designs and it will really be interesting to see how this product category of all's now sous brought a real clever proof-of-concept and we'll see if the next-gen for them perfects that idea but right now it's the yoga 13 that takes the title of king of the Ring i'm brian tom thanks for watching we'll catch you guys next time for another prizefight