We’ve just reviewed the Lenovo Yoga 11S and found it to be an exciting and yet productive sub-notebook with usage modes that go way beyond what a standard clamshell can achieve. The Haswell update is shipping too so you can now expect longer battery life but what’s really needed is a re-design around that platform in order to shave some weight off and make it more usable as a tablet. There are hints that it’s already happened.
In documents going through the FCC it looks like Broadcom is testing a new wireless chipset with a “Lenovo Yoga 2 11.” Images are available…
The under-side is certainly different. Speakers are located in the middle and the fan output has been moved. (Original on right. FCC image aspect-ratio appears somewhat squeezed.)
There’s a tiny spacebar with two extra, unknown keys either side of it. (Original on right)
Looking at the internal image you can see the yellow-covered fan or heat-pipe. The 4500Mah battery could indicate a smaller, 2-cell, 32Wh capacity. That would make sense for a smaller device and with Haswell-Y series on board you probably won’t lose anything in battery life over the original 11S with Ivy Bridge.
Soldered ram (top-center under the metal casing) makes sense but a 2.5-inch SATA SSD? For the smallest design we’d expect an NGFF mSATA part although this could be a cost-reduction move, especially when there’s evidence of a Pentium-based version.
No doubt all will be revealed at CES in just three weeks. If Lenovo can get the Yoga 11 2 under 1KG and under $699 a lot of people will be happy.
Source: FCC, Via Liliputing.
The small spacebar is most likely due to a Japanese kayboard.
Thanks MrNoodle
I thought the Haswell 11s was already on sale at Best Buy in the US. Google throws up a few search results, with one stating “4th Gen Intel® CoreTM i5-4210Y”.
Could there be another version?
Eww, 32WHr battery. Get it away! 5-6 hours of battery life if Ivy Bridge class, it should be 7-8 hours at least. Are we jumping backwards now? And from Lenovo devices, they don’t exactly have the most power efficient designs either. The Yoga 2 Pro achieves only 6 hours on Haswell and a 54WHr battery. Even the original Yoga was deficient needing 54WHr to the same as others did with a 47WHr.
I am seriously looking for a 2.5lb or under Convertible with Digitizer and Core chips. They are really making it hard. I was looking forward very much to the XPS 11 for that, but it seems the stylus really sucks.
Hi, I’m scratching my head as to why MacBooks Air 11″ are so much more power efficient than any ultrabook. For example, with the same Core i5-4250U, they are capable to sip 1,5W at Idle something really far away from anything in the PC world (the best i’ve seen is 3,5W at Idle). And i repeat, it is with the same Haswell processor. Battery runtime surfing with wifi is 10h20 with a machine weighing 1,1kg. So, what are they doing right ? If you tell me it’s Windows, i’m not so sure because the Yoga RT with a Tegra was rated with an exceptional battery life of 13h.
It is partly due to Windows. Oh, and Yoga RT has a slow ARM chip so its not comparable. Even in the x86 space, Bay Trail is better than Haswell in battery life.