Lenovo Yoga 900 review

After launching the Yoga 3 Pro last year, Lenovo found a winning design formula, and it isn't deviating much with this year's refresh.. The Yoga 900 has a different numbering convention, but the convertible Ultrabook is an iterative successor to the Yoga 3 Pro, promising longer battery life, faster performance and improvements to a winning 360-degree swiveling hinge design.

Sporting Intel's sixth generation Skylake processor, the Yoga 900 ($1,199, £797, AU$1,705) comes with the same processing power as Microsoft's Surface Pro 4($999, £664, AU$1,420) and Surface Book ($1,499, £996, AU$2,131). All three devices utilize a convertible design, but instead of detachable displays like on the Surface line, Lenovo opted for a rotating hinge with the Yoga 900.

• Buy Lenovo Yoga 900 at Amazon for $1015.44

With a screen that rotates 360 degrees, the Yoga 900 competes most closely against the HP Spectre x360 ($1,099, £730, AU$1,563) and the 4K-equippedToshiba Satellite Radius 12 ($1,299, £848, AU$1,773)

Design

Clad in a silver metal shell, you'd be forgiven if you mistook the Yoga 900 for yet another MacBook Pro clone. But that's where the similarities end, and this immediately becomes apparent when you take a look at the rear of the Yoga 900 and notice the unique hinge.

Lenovo debuted its watchband hinge on last year's Yoga 3 Pro as a way to completely rotate the screen 360 degrees and convert the laptop to a tablet form factor. This year, the hinge has been improved. Constructed of 813 pieces of steel, the hinge also conceals a rear-facing vent, allowing hot air to escape out the back instead of down your lap.

Unlike the Yoga 3 Pro's power-sipping Core M processor, the more powerful Intel Core i series CPU requires active cooling. Internally, heat management is also controlled by a new metal alloy fan design, which Lenovo claims is 66% more efficient and 30% better at cooling than its predecessors.

Coupled with the silver metal lid and metal bottom plate, the watchband hinge gives the laptop a premium feel. Lenovo also offers the Yoga 900 in clementine orange, platinum silver and champagne gold.

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