CES 2016 is upon us, and one of the first Windows 10 laptops to be announced is the Lenovo Yoga 900S. With a carbon-fiber shell and a focus on lightness and long battery life, it’s aimed at those looking for a computer that scores highly on portability without skimping too much on power.
As with Lenovo’s previous Yogas, it features a folding screen you can flip all the way around so it’s flush against the keyboard. The screen doesn’t detach (as the one on the Surface Book does, for example) but you can use it as a tablet with the keyboard locked underneath. The previous Yoga 900 appeared three months ago, adding a lot more power for a little more heft, but the 900S heads back in the other direction.
The Yoga 900S felt both pleasantly light and thin in hand during our first brief encounter at CES this evening – and well it should, given that Lenovo is calling it the world’s thinnest convertible laptop, with a thickness of 12.7 mm (0.5 inches) and a weight of 998 g (2.2 lbs). That means Lenovo’s engineers have managed to shave off some 15 percent in thickness and around 11 percent in total weight compared with the original Yoga 900 we saw at the end of last year. The Yoga-like HP Spectre x360, in contrast, is 16 mm (0.63 inches) thick and weighs in at 1,440 g (3.17 lbs).
Then there’s Lenovo’s estimated battery life: 10.5 hours of local video playback (compared with 9 for the Yoga 900). We’ll have to wait to get some quality time with the Yoga 900S to see if Lenovo’s claims are on the mark, but the manufacturer is clearly touting long battery life as one of the key features of the convertible, and one of the reasons you might choose it over its predecessor.
Every laptop is a balance between power and portability and the Yoga 900S tips the scales towards the latter. It uses the new second-generation mobile Intel Core M7 processor rather than the i7 chips used in the Yoga 900, which should satisfy casual users but doesn’t represent the very best laptop CPUs you can buy. Various configurations are going to be available, with up to 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD storage space available.
The laptop will be offered with a screen size of up to 12.5 inches at a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels (that’s 221 pixels per inch). You get integrated Intel HD graphics, one USB 3.0 Type A port, one USB 3.0 Type C port with video out, and Windows 10 Home pre-installed. The familiar and rather stylish watchband hinge makes a reappearance too.
You can’t produce the world’s thinnest convertible laptop without making a few compromises with the internal components, but the specs of the Yoga 900S should cope fine with most daily tasks thanks to Intel’s latest and most powerful mobile first chip. If it’s caught your eye amongst the slew of laptops being announced at CES this year, the Yoga 900S goes on sale in March for a price of US$1,099 in either champagne gold or platinum silver.
Product page: Lenovo
