Gadget Review: Lenovo scores again with the Yoga 900 laptop

When Lenovo first unveiled its hingelike design with the Yoga 3 Pro premium laptop in early 2015 it won the war as far as flexibility went But in a pricesensitive market like India where premium equals brandloyalty the company knew it would need more than just flexible design to gain considerable market share Its next offering Lenovo Yoga 900 is heavily upgraded both in hardware and processing power while maintaining similar design But does it only look good or does it work good as wellWhat we likeProcessor and Memory 810 Some of the major upgrades in the Yoga 900 include 64bit dual core Intel processors based on the latest Skylake sixth generation architecture it replaces the Broadwell and Haswell CPUs There are multiple processor options available but our review model came with the topoftheline Intel Core i76500U processor clocked at 25GHZ with Intel 520 integrated GPU and 4MB cache The rest of the configuration remains the same as the Yoga 3 Pro including 8GB LPDDR3 1600 RAM and 512GB SSD internal storage from Samsung Connectivity 910 The good news is that Lenovo has been generous when it comes to connectivity on the Yoga 900 Despite its slim form it has managed to fit in a 4in1 card reader a USB 20 port which also doubles as DC IN to recharge the device two TypeA USB 30 ports and a typeC USB 30 port There is no HDMI port on the device however one can use the typeC port to connect a second display It has a 35 mm 18inch headphone and microphone combo jack As for wireless connectivity the Yoga 900 comes with Intel 8260 WiFi chip with support for ac bands and Bluetooth 40 Performance 810 We are impressed with the Core i76200U CPU Intel 520 GPU and the 8GB RAM combo In fact one should be able to play several of midrange PC games We tried the Yaiba Ninza Gaiden Z and it ran smoothly at 1080p at this configuration However we experienced several crashes and screen freezes while using the Microsoft Edge explorer we recommend other browsers Battery 810 Another major upgrade that Lenovo has brought up in the Yoga 900 is its battery It comes with a 66WH battery and lasts nearly 152 hours longer than the Yoga 3 Pro depending on applications running in the background Display and design 810 The Yoga 900 features a 133inch QHD 3200x1800 IPS glossy display with multitouch which is great to work with The 360degree hingedesign offers flexibility as well as a solid build Despite having an allmetal exterior the device is nonslippery The interiors are made of plastic with a smooth dotted texture around the edges that adds to the grip The area around the palm rest gets a leatherlike texture which prevents any slipups while passing on the laptop or carrying it in the open mode There are no physical volume controls on the device but it does have a screenlock button The keyboard now gets a dedicated Function row offering more control to the various device functions A change we like a lotWhat we dontMultimedia 610 The device comes with a 720p front camera at 30fps which is decent for video chats As for audio it gets two JBL stereo speakers placed under the device with redesigned metallic grills You have to lift up the notebook to get the maximum sound from the speakersWeight and build 710 The Yoga 900 is also heavier at 129kg and slightly thicker at 145mm when compared with the Yoga 3 Pro We dont mind it that much but we hoped it to be lighter than the Yoga 3 ProOS version and Apps 710 We are also no fans of the Windows 10 Home OS version For a device priced above a lakh and aimed at power users it should have come with Pro edition of the Windows 10 OS Simply because the Pro edition comes with several more security and connectivity features such as BitLocker an encryption software that allows users to fully secure their drives from potential hackers The Pro Edition also support Remote Desktop function We also didnt like the tonnes of the utility apps that Lenovo has packed into the device