Gadgetory

novo has done it again have they made the world's greatest laptop not exactly but they have managed to use this hinge as a way to try to sell more Windows 10 devices this new yoga 900 has a faster processor better battery life even more keys on the keyboard but do you really need all of this flexibility with the yoga 900 lenovo has made all of the right updates from last year's yoga 3 Pro it has a faster processor a better keyboard and improved battery life it's also running on Windows 10 which is a markedly better experience than Windows 8 but just keep in mind the laptops ability to twist and turn is still little more than an occasional convenience the Lenovo yoga 900 13 inch laptop can be found for as low as 1099 right now but creeps up to $14.99 for a top-of-the-line model that's not a cheap laptop but Lenovo which is probably still best known for its laptops for business has always positioned the yoga at the highest end of its consumer laptops with the exception of the exposed metal hinge the yoga 900 is primarily made of magnesium alloy it achieves a premium feel it's good-looking it has a nice leathery palm rest nobody will think look at that cheap plastic laptop or look at that black box of a ThinkPad lenovo has even gone so far as stamping a yoga emblem on the top of it rather than the usual Lenovo branding its quad HD plus multi-touch display is rich looking and colors look bright and true to life it weighs 2.8 pounds and is also super thin measuring just over half an inch thick this is actually slightly heavier and thicker than last year's yoga 3 Pro laptop but when you consider all the stuff included in this one like Intel's new skylake based core i7 a notable upgrade from last year's Core M plus a claim of two extra hours of battery life it's forgivable all of the standard ports are there with the addition of a USB C port and the backlit keyboard now has a top row of function keys while it's always nice to have these extra keys there is something a little bit awkward about the keyboard layout now the shift button feels small and cramped and the Delete key feels just out of reach it's also worth noting that the first laptop I tested had a bad trackpad but the second unit is working just fine so overall the new Lenovo yoga 900 checks off almost all the boxes for a new laptop and improves upon last year's yoga 3 Pro and the areas you might expect should you consider buying it that depends in part on how badly you need or want a flexible laptop it looks cool it's great for brand recognition and the software automatically recognizes when you're switching between modes but in truth I almost never needed the full convertible capabilities of the yoga even when I was on an airplane there's a large bezel at the bottom of the display squeezing it into a 16 by 9 aspect ratio so it's good for stuff like Netflix but not your everyday stuff getting any productive work done in any mode other than standard laptop mode is kind of a joke in certain apps like Kindle just aren't optimized for it so it looks weird whether you're holding the tablet horizontally or vertically given that so many other PC makers are launching convertible Windows 10 pcs this fall including Microsoft's own surface book which has a detachable keyboard Lenovo yoga design feels a little less fresh than it has in the past so let's put it this way if you have $1,400 to burn on a laptop you definitely won't be unhappy with this newest yoga but you'll likely love it for the basics and not for bendiness