| 11.6-inch laptops are about to have their heyday. As tablet and laptop converge into one, it seems like this is the only size that makes sense for both uses. At 2.8 pounds and nearly two-thirds of an inch thick, the Yoga 11 is still pretty huge for a tablet and a little small for a laptop, but at least youre not stuck trying to use a 10-inch laptop or a 13-inch tablet. |
| The massive bezel around the Yoga 11s display and keyboard makes me think the device could be considerably smaller, but in fairness theres no real evidence thats the case; at 11.8 inches its almost exactly as wide as the 11.6-inch MacBook Air. Its not nearly as elegantly designed as the Air, though: Lenovo took a much more rugged approach, from the leathery black palmrest to the soft-touch metallic exterior. Its comfortable without being particularly sleek. There are few decorations anywhere on the device, save for a Lenovo logo in the corner of the lid once you peel off the Energy Star sticker on the inside, its about as minimalist a laptop as youll find. My review unit is a silvery gray on the outside and all black on the inside, but theres an IdeaPad 310-like orange model that is infinitely more eye-catching. Either way, though, its a simple and understated device. | | Pry open the Yoga 11 and youll be greeted by its 11.6-inch, 1366 x 768 display. Its a pretty good screen, with solid viewing angles and nice color reproduction, and a blindingly bright maximum setting. Its really nothing special, though, and I continue to look forward to the day that 1366 x 768 displays of any size are a thing of the past. Its okay for a laptop, but when you hold the device close in Tablet mode the relative lack of pixels starts to show. The screens very responsive to touch and gestures, more so than the 13-inch model its a perfectly adequate display, its just nothing to get particularly excited about. That sums up the Yoga 11s whole aesthetic, actually: good at every turn, almost never exciting or enticing. | | On the outside, the Yoga 11 seems more or less like a normal laptop: theres a power button on the front, which is weird, but the two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI jack, and full-size SD card slot are all fairly standard ultrabook fare. So are the two speakers, which blast decent-but-tinny audio out its sides. But the Yoga 11 quickly shows its something different. |
|
|
