Gadgetory

hey how's it going guys this is Dave 2d and this is my review of the yoga 3 Pro so for the past month that work I needed access to a hybrid device I needed a tablet at the job site but I wanted to have notebook capabilities so I went with this one now it's not a new device it came out in 2014 it was refreshed in the spring of 2015 but to explain why I went with the yoga 3 Pro here's my review let's start with the quick unboxing here you pop the lid and there's two flaps that you lift up which actually raise the whole device up out of the box it's kind of cool on the inside you have the notebook some QuickStart stuff and a two piece AC adapter the top of the device is aluminum it's got a smooth finish it's well made and it feels pretty premium and durable and it has a pretty prominent Lenovo logo here the bottom of the device has that same aluminum finish it's got four rubber feet here that aren't particularly grippy it just kind of raised the whole device up and there's two down firing speakers you can open up the bottom panel but really there's not much you can do in here the RAM is soldered on but you can kind of see how big the battery is I mean look at the size this thing it's like it's like a plate and you can also swap out the SSD for a bigger one or replace it if you need the AC charger is 40 watts it's a little different from your average adapter it's got a USB socket up on the front which you connect the cable to and the other end of the cable is also a male USB plug that you plug into your computer but it has unique shape so you can't plug in with just any USB port alright going around the device we have a yellow USB port that doubles as that charging port a second USB 3 port mini HDMI port and an SD card slot that doesn't go in very deep and on the right side we have a power button a reset button that's sunken in a screen rotation lock for tablet mode volume rocker which again for tablet mode and an audio jack and that third USB port so the specs on this model it's an Intel Core M running at 1.2 gigahertz 13 inch IPS touch panel with the res of 3200 by 1800 integrated Intel HD 5300 graphics eight gigs of ram 256 gigs of storage and this costs $1,100 right now directly from Lenovo which is about $400 cheaper than one originally launched okay let's take a look at some dimensions it's very similar in size and weight to the 13-inch MacBook Air it comes in under about half an inch thick and around 2.6 pounds so it's very thin and very light now thin and light notebooks our ultrabooks are pretty common in 2015 but hybrid devices like this tend to be a little heavier just from things like a beefier hinge and like extra materials for strengthening the chassis so as an example the spectre x360 weighs in at 3.3 pounds so when you use a harbor device like this as a notebook so if you use it on your desk or if using on your lap the extra weight doesn't really matter but when you use it as a tablet it's noticeable and when you're holding it as a tablet for like an hour on a job site it makes a huge difference and this is where the yoga 3 Pro shines in organics and usability the hinge kind of looks like a watchband has got a ton of moving parts but it keeps the whole mechanism compact so this lightweight hinge combined with a lighter plastic chassis and Core M Hardware keeps the whole device light and much more usable in the tablet mode than any other 13-inch flip screen hybrid and surrounding the keyboard area is a dimpled rubbery material so you get a little textured palm rest when you're typing which is nice and all but it's really nice when you're using it as a tablet because it gives you something grippy to hold when you're using it that's the other thing if you've seen my spec 2 review when you flip the screen around on that device your fingers would press the keyboard on the back it doesn't do anything bad but it's not comfortable but I'm to yoga they designed this keyboard so that a big section up top and on the bottom is just that rubbery grip so when you use it as a tablet your fingers have like a nice area to hold on to and you're not hitting keys so the engineering choices they made on the yoga 3 Pro really make it a comfortable device to use as a tablet and as a notebook the keyboard itself is decent key travel is good but it's not as responsive and springy as I'd like also it doesn't have dedicated function keys like you need multiple keystrokes to activate something like alt f4 or something kind of a bummer but that's the price you have to pay for a grip in tablet mode right they kind of remove the whole row of function keys the trackpad is ok it's a pretty standard Windows trackpad and it has an occasional skip or miss click when you're using tap to click but otherwise it's not bad the screen is nice its 3200 by 1800 so pretty high-res viewing angles are great because it's an IPS panel but if there was one complaints I had it would be the brightness it's not a dim screen by any means but if you're in direct sunlight it's not an easy screen to read especially because of the glare from the glossy finish the color accuracy is reasonable Spyder reads it as 96% srgb and 74% Adobe RGB all right let's talk performance the SSD drive is moderately fast it comes in at around 500 read and 430 right kind of in the middle of a bunch for SSDs the refresh processor for 2015 is a Core M clocked at 1.2 gigahertz I wouldn't consider it a powerful processor but navigating around Windows is snappy and smooth and any kind of work application like from the office suite runs really well in it the core M is capable of running fanless but they put a small slow spinning fan in here it auto that around 20 decibels but the whole system gets around 25 decibels under load so it's still really quiet I took a look at some thermals and even under load it still runs pretty cool it runs around seven or eight degrees cooler than a MacBook Air the speakers are down firing when it's used as a laptop but they kind of face towards you when it's a tablet I say kind of because it's obstructed by the screen but it still sounds pretty decent here's what they sounds like to be honest I haven't had any good gaming sessions with any devices running a core M processor and this one's no different playing at the native res isn't worth your time but you can kind of get some light gaming in at 1080p or lower so here's of the storm dota2 and csgo they're all kind of playable like you're going to get 30 40 frames per second with low settings but it's obviously not amazing for games the battery life is okay I was hoping for some really crazy numbers with that huge battery but I only got about five hours of regular use that's what screen at about 70 percent brightness playing games on battery I got a little bit less than two hours and watching some movies off the drive I got around six and a half hours alright so there's a lot of companies that manufacture hybrid two and one devices select the x3 six use from HP the dell tune ones the Microsoft Surface line there's a lot of options out there but a lot of companies don't do it right you either get a tablet that isn't very comfortable to use or a notebook that's difficult to use on your lap but the yoga 3 Pro is comfortable in either configuration it's easy to use on your lap its ergonomic to hold as a tablet I think they kind of nailed it and that's its biggest strength just pure functionality it's not the fastest device out there it's also a little bit on the pricey side but if you're looking for a hybrid device I would definitely consider this on your short list that's the end of the review hope you guys liked it if you did give me some thumbs and if you loved it give me some subs it's been nice I'll see you guys next time