The Yoga 2 11 isn’t just a Yoga-for-the-masses or an Ultrabook without the sticker. It’s a  look into the future of Ultrabooks

It’s a fanless, lightweight, convertible, touchscreen Windows PC and costs under 600 Euro. It’s the latest incarnation of the Lenovo Yoga 11 Ultrabook but it’s running a Baytrail processor. There’s four cores instead of two, and no fan. There’s a USB3.0 connector and a total weight of just 1.45KG. This is looking like a pretty smart 2-in-1. Notebookcheck have just given it an 80% rating in their review.

600 Euro isn’t exactly mainstream pricing for a little notebook. The Lenovo Ideapad Flex 10, a slightly smaller but lighter Baytrail-M (N3520) based laptop with ‘tent mode’ and touch is under 300 Euro but I would expect that 600 Euro to drop by 10-25% fairly quickly and for short-term offers to appear around 450 in the future.

In the detailed review at Notebookcheck we see that it has a 500GB HDD inside. Of course I’m immediately thinking of SSD upgrade possibility here but it’s a 5mm 2.5” SATA drive so options are limited. The performance of the Celeron Baytrail-M CPU is better than the one I’ve just tested on the Intel NUC so it’s in an acceptable area but the user experience would be vastly improved with an SSD.

A 35Wh battery returns about 5 hours of web-usage.

A fanless, lightweight, convertible touchscreen notebook at a consumer-friendly price is, in my opinion, exactly what the market needs in order to make notebooks interesting again. The Lenovo Yoga 2 11 shows some weaknesses in the processor department and a higher-resolution display would be appealing but this is still a capable device and with an SSD upgrade (and a $100 discount to pay for it!) could be a real winner.

Check out the full review and Notebookcheck.net

More information in our database.

As we expected, the new Yoga 2 11S is going to be one for the masses. It’s been spotted for $499. The Pentium N3510 doesn’t have some of the features of the Core processors and there’s a spinning hard drive but in this market, maybe that’s not important. The Lenovo Yoga 2 11 could be a great mass-market subnotebook.

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Lenovo’s first 11-inch Yoga device ran RT on an ARM-architecture. We ignored it. The second 11-incher was the 11S with Core CPU options. It’s still available with Haswell and a rather impressive power/battery life ratio. The latest Yoga 2 11 is more consumer focused and used the Baytrail-M platform. It’s a difficult one to position between an UltraMobile and an Ultrabook because on one hand it’s Baytrail (Pentium branded) and on the other it weights 2.9 pounds. It’s much like the new Sony Vaio FIT 11A flip.

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Lenovo’s first 11-inch Yoga device ran RT on an ARM-architecture. We ignored it. The second 11-incher was the 11S with Core CPU options. It’s still available with Haswell and a rather impressive power/battery life ratio. The latest Yoga 2 11 is more consumer focused and used the Baytrail-M platform. It’s a difficult one to position between an UltraMobile and an Ultrabook because on one hand it’s Baytrail (Pentium branded) and on the other it weights 2.9 pounds.

From the Press Release:

Lenovo continues to refine the consumer-friendly features of the Yoga line with YOGA 2, a thinner and lighter model at an affordable price point. It folds back 360o, providing four devices for the price of one. Plus, it features unique app recommendations for each of the four usage modes – Laptop, Stand, Tent and Tablet. YOGA 2 provides the ultimate flexibility between work and play for up to 6 hours of battery life on a single charge.

– Crystal clear HD Display with IPS technology which support 178° wide view angle ?

– Dual-hinge design allows for 360o rotation with four unique modes: Laptop, Stand, Tent and Tablet

– Lenovo Picks: a concierge-like service that dynamically recommends apps for the mode you are currently using  ?

– Lenovo Transition automatically switches open applications like PowerPoint to full-screen mode when the PC converts from normal notebook to tent, stand or tablet modes ?

– Lenovo Voice Control enables users to execute simple commands by speaking to the YOGA 2  ?

– Lenovo Motion Control allows users to quickly flip through photos, presentation slides, e-books and more with simple gestures

– Integrated stereo speakers supporting Dolby® Home Theater v4™ certification for immersive surround sound when watching movies and listening to music

Specifications: (will vary by region.)

• Processor Up to Quad Core Intel® Pentium® processor
• Operating System Up to genuine Windows 8.1
• Display/Resolution 11.6” HD (1366×768) , 178o wide-view display with 10-point touch
• Video Graphics Integrated Intel HD Graphics
• Memory and Storage  Up to 4GB RAM (2GB configuration also available); up to 500GB HDD storage
• Sound Integrated stereo speakers supporting Dolby Home Theater v4 for immersive surround sound Integrated
• Comms 1 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0, Micro HDMI-out, 3-in-1 card reader
• Connectivity Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity
• Camera 1.0 Megapixel 720p Camera Battery Up to 6 hours
• Weight  2.9 pounds Dimensions 298x 206.5x 17.2 mm 11.7 x 8.1 x 0.67 in

After writing down those specs it almost feels like it doesn’t fit in either the ultra-mobile or the Ultrabook category. Yoga Netbook perhaps? Let’s wait for pricing.

The Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro has launched. It’s lighter, it runs Haswell and it’s still got a nice big battery inside. Weight is down to 1.39 Kg which isn’t incredibly light but seeing as the Yoga 13 was heavier, the Yoga 2 Pro could improve on its popularity. A very high resolution screen (3200×1800) tops the specifications. We’ve had some hands-on time. Check the video out below.

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