- Conclusion Get the lowdown
- Features How they compare
- Performance Real world benchmarks
- Differences Technical showdown
- Reviews Word on the street
- Competition Others to consider
- Discussion Answers and opinions
Compare with...
- Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display
- Apple MacBook Air 4th Gen
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
- Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen
- Acer Aspire S S7
- 13.3"
- Core i7 1.7 GHz Dual core
- 8 GB DDR3-1333
- 128 GB SSD
Announced January, 2012
by LaptopMag (Nov, 2012)Plus, the price of this touch converible undercuts the competition.
Rated 71% by by The Verge (Jul, 2012)If you're willing to carry a mouse, headphones, and wrist guards in addition to those video and Ethernet adapters, and install the OS from scratch, it's a nice, capable, and thin machine.
Conclusion Which is better for you?
Features Key features of the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga compared to the ASUS ZENBOOK UX31A
GHz1.7
Intel Core i7 3517U
Rated 80% by by TrustedReviews (Mar, 2013)While no match for the ThinkPad range, its keyboard is pleasant enough to type on and its touchpad is lovely, while that 1,600 x 900 IPS screen supports 10-finger touch.
2.6 GHz
by LaptopMag (May, 2012)A 3rd-generation 1.9-GHz Intel Core i7-3517U processor, 4GB of RAM, and 256 GB solid state drive under the hood really make this ultraportable fly.
screen resolution
IdeaPad Yoga by LaptopMag (Nov, 2012)Add in a comfortable keyboard and a sharp 1600 x 900-pixel display and you've got a lightweight convertible that can go from business to party in less than a second.
ZENBOOK UX31A by Thucydides--Thucydides (Jul, 2012)The 1080p resolution makes it very sharp, and the screen has a very high maximum brightness.
cpu speed
| 0 GHz | 2.6 GHz  | 3 GHz |
IdeaPad Yoga by LaptopMag (Nov, 2012)Our $1,099 review unit of the IdeaPad Yoga features a 1.7-GHz Intel Core i5-3317U CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and an Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU.
ZENBOOK UX31A by Lawn-Mower (Jul, 2012)It fits the bill in terms of processor speed, size, weight and the screen is to die for.
processor
IdeaPad Yoga by TrustedReviews (Mar, 2013)The specific processor in question is the dual core Intel Core i7-3517U, which hums along at 1.9GHz by default but can turbo clock up to 3GHz.
ZENBOOK UX31A by LaptopMag (May, 2012)That's impressive endurance given that this configuration uses a faster Core i7 processor and the older UX31 had a Core i5.
memory
| 0 GB | 8 GB | 8 GB |
IdeaPad Yoga by TrustedReviews (Mar, 2013)Oddly for a machine sporting such a nice chip by default, 4GB is the maximum amount of RAM on retail models - the Lenovo Yoga 13 doesn’t seem to be available from the company’s UK site right now, where specs tend to be configurable and the Yoga should take up to 8GB.
ZENBOOK UX31A by Rob-Kerr (Jun, 2012)I think this is really a shame, since I'd gladly have paid more to get more RAM as an insurance policy against what I might want to use the machine for in the future.
Performance Real world tests of Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga vs ASUS ZENBOOK UX31A
Differences What are the advantages of each
Advantages compared to the ASUS ZENBOOK UX31A
| Much faster internal storage | 0.1 ms (SSD) | vs | 10 ms (HDD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100x faster random access time; faster boot times and shorter application load times | |||
| Has a touch screen | Capacitive | vs | None |
| Very few laptops have a touch screen; interact with the screen using your fingers | |||
| Has an accelerometer | Yes | vs | No |
| Somewhat common; Detects movement for interactive apps | |||
| Significantly more RAM | 8 GB | vs | 4 GB |
| 2x more RAM; run more applications and have more browser tabs open without slowing down the system | |||
| More cores | Dual core | vs | Single core |
| Twice as many cores; run more applications at once | |||
Advantages compared to the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga
| Has a microphone jack | Yes | vs | No |
|---|---|---|---|
| Somewhat common; Can use an external microphone for superior audio quality | |||
| Is full HD | Yes | vs | No |
| Somewhat common; the screen is large enough to display 1080p video without scaling | |||
| Significantly faster processor | 2.6 GHz | vs | 1.7 GHz |
| Around 55% faster processor; run computation-intensive applications, such as photo editing, faster | |||
| Significantly higher resolution screen | 1920 x 1080 | vs | 1600 x 900 |
| Around 45% higher resolution screen | |||
Reviews Word on the street
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga | ASUS ZENBOOK UX31A | ||
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screen
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13.3", 1.7 GHz, 8 GB, 128 GB SSD | Rated 80% by by TrustedReviews (Mar, 2013)In fact, our only real complaint about the IdeaPad Yoga 13’s screen – aside from the inevitable reflections caused by the protective Gorilla Glass at its front - is that a little dark detail gets lost at the gloomiest end of the greyscale, meaning you may miss a few subtleties in dark moments of movies or games.
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13.3", 1.7 GHz, 8 GB, 128 GB SSD | Rated 80% by by TrustedReviews (Mar, 2013)Just in case you haven’t come across it before, the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 is essentially an Ultrabook whose screen/lid section flips around 180 degrees onto the back of its base to turn into a tablet.
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13.3", 1.7 GHz, 8 GB, 128 GB SSD | Rated 80% by by TrustedReviews (Mar, 2013)Since its initial announcement, we’ve seen a smaller 11.6-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 (yes you guessed it, the final number refers to screen size), and even an ARM-based Lenovo Yoga running Windows RT on Tegra 3.
brightness
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13.3", 1.7 GHz, 8 GB, 128 GB SSD | by LaptopMag (Nov, 2012)Its brightness of 281 lux is enough to beat the 237 lux category average and the Acer Aspire S7 (215 lux), but it's well below that of the XPS 12 and the UX31A, which measured 434 and 423 lux, respectively.
design
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13.3", 1.7 GHz, 8 GB, 128 GB SSD | by LaptopMag (Nov, 2012)It easily outpaced the 7:23 ultraportable average, but that wasn't enough to beat the UX31A, which finished with 4:59.
Competition What else you should consider
 | 3 | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Newest on the market |
 | 4 | Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 5-way tie: Has a memory card reader |
 | 5 | Acer Aspire S S7 Fastest processor |
 | 6 | ASUS Zenbook UX31E 3-way tie: Much more advanced architecture |
