- 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
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
- ASUS Zenbook UX31E
- 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.
- 11.6"
- Core i5 1.67 GHz Dual core
- 4 GB
- 128 GB SSD
Released July, 2011
Rated 100% by by Samuel-Chell (Jul, 2011)The 11" model is definitely a "spoiler," guaranteed to make you totally disregard any reputed short-comings of the Air in general (e.g., the absence of a DVD drive) and the smaller 11" Air in particular (it's plenty fast, its screen razor sharp and the keyboard fast and accurate, even to these tired eyes and less facile fingers).
Conclusion Which is better for you?
Features Key features of the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga compared to the Apple MacBook Air 4th Gen
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.
1.67 GHz
Intel Core i5 2467M
Rated 100% by by Monchichi (Dec, 2011)It is very very thin, light and easy to carry in my backpack so that I can take it to school everyday without any burden on my shoulders.
screen size
13.3"
11.6"
IdeaPad Yoga by The Verge (Nov, 2012)But still, It's neither the best nor the worst display I've seen on a device in this class, this size, or this price.
MacBook Air 4th Gen by K.-D.-Hess (Sep, 2011)Although small, the screen is clear and bright, and the full-size keyboard is as good as one from a bigger computer.
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.
MacBook Air 4th Gen by R.-V.-Laxmikanth--L.V.-Raghavendra** Screen/Resolution:. >> Higher resolution on the 13" Macbook Air which i believe was greater than the 15" regular MBP definitely looked good.
cpu speed
| 0 GHz | 1.7 GHz | 2 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.
MacBook Air 4th Gen by E.-Kim (Jul, 2011)I purchased the MBA 11" with standard 1.6 gHz Core i5 and am happy with this.
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.
MacBook Air 4th Gen by J.-McWhirter (Apr, 2012)I know it sounds nuts, but the new i7 Dual Core MBA with 4 GB of RAM seems to be as fast as my 27" i7 Quad Core iMac with 16 GB of RAM, when it comes to managing RAW photos in Lightroom, and editing RAW photos in Photoshop...I kid you not!
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.
MacBook Air 4th Gen by Nancy-J.-Bookfan (Jan, 2012)When it comes down to a choice between quicker processor or more RAM, I've been advised to always go with more RAM, and I find this to be good advice.
Performance Real world tests of Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga vs Apple MacBook Air 4th Gen
3DMark06 CPU
IdeaPad Yoga by LaptopMag (Nov, 2012)Click to EnlargeOn the PCMark 7 benchmark, the Yoga notched a 4,419 score, placing it well above the 3,156 ultraportable average.
MacBook Air 4th Gen by GatorowlI don't run benchmarks, and the benchmarks I've seen so far show that this computer is much, much faster than my nearly 4-year-old MBP, which is my most important performance requirement.
battery life
8 hour
5 hour
IdeaPad Yoga by TrustedReviews (Mar, 2013)Compared to the £850 Toshiba Satellite U920t, our Yoga offers a higher-resolution, better quality display, a far nicer keyboard and a lot more processing power, though it loses out when it comes to battery life and portability.
MacBook Air 4th Gen by E.-Kim (Jul, 2011)I am indeed able to use my 11" for about 6 hours with light usage, which is much better than Apple's claimed 5 hours.
cinebench r10 32Bit
IdeaPad Yoga by c|net (Oct, 2012)While Tegra 3 is a solid choice, it's already becoming a bit long in the tooth as newer CPUs from Qualcomm and Texas Instruments begin to surpass it in performance.
MacBook Air 4th Gen by R.-Chapman (Aug, 2011)I haven't read any benchmarks on the performance over time with the new MBA.
Differences What are the advantages of each
Advantages compared to the Apple MacBook Air 4th Gen
| 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 | |||
| Has a memory card reader | MMC, MMC Plus, MMC Plus HD, SD, SDHC, SDSC, SDXC | vs | None |
| Read and write data from a camera or phone memory card | |||
| Much faster turbo speed | 3 GHz | vs | 2.3 GHz (Intel Core i5 2467M) |
| More than 30% faster turbo speed; gain a temporary speed boost for computation-intensive applications | |||
| Significantly more RAM | 8 GB | vs | 4 GB |
| Twice as much RAM; run more applications and have more browser tabs open without slowing down the system | |||
| Significantly longer battery life | 8 hour | vs | 5 hour |
| 60% longer battery life; surf the web longer without having to plug in | |||
| Bigger screen | 13.3" | vs | 11.6" |
| More than 10% bigger screen | |||
| Higher resolution screen | 1600 x 900 | vs | 1366 x 768 |
| Around 40% higher resolution screen | |||
| Better CPU benchmark score | 31.54 | vs | 23.27 |
| Around 40% better benchmark score; the CPU performs better in various benchmark tests and will likely perform better in real-world applications | |||
| Much faster USB | 572 MB/s (USB 3.0) | vs | 57 MB/s (USB 2.0) |
| More than 10x faster USB; connect a high-speed external hard drive or other high-speed device | |||
| Better cinebench r10 32Bit | 8,516.7 (Intel Core i7 3517U) | vs | 5,891 (Intel Core i5 2467M) |
| More than 40% better cinebench r10 32Bit | |||
Advantages compared to the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga
| Has a light sensor | Yes | vs | No |
|---|---|---|---|
| Somewhat common; Automatically adjust screen brightness for environmental factors | |||
| Has a CD reader | Yes | vs | No |
| About half of laptops have a CD reader | |||
| Has a microphone jack | Yes | vs | No |
| Somewhat common; Can use an external microphone for superior audio quality | |||
| Has a DVD reader | Yes | vs | No |
| Somewhat common; watch movies and share large files on DVDs | |||
| More advanced architecture | x86-64 (Intel Core i5 2467M) | vs | x86 |
| A 64-bit architecture allows more RAM to be installed and accessed by the processor | |||
| Lighter | 1,080 g | vs | 1,500 g |
| Around 30% lighter | |||
Reviews Word on the street
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga | Apple MacBook Air 4th Gen |
Competition What else you should consider
 | 3 | ASUS Zenbook UX31E 3-way tie: Much more advanced architecture |
 | 4 | Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen 5-way tie: Has a memory card reader |
 | 7 | ASUS ZENBOOK UX31A 4-way tie: Is full HD |
