Compare with...

  • Apple MacBook Pro 8th Gen
  • Sony VAIO S Series
  • Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
  • Apple MacBook Air 4th Gen
  • Apple MacBook Air 5th Gen
  • 13.3"
  • Core i7 1.7 GHz Dual core
  • 8 GB DDR3-1333
  • 128 GB SSD
Announced January, 2012
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.
Rated 80% by by TrustedReviews (Mar, 2013)
 
$2,280
  • 15.4"
  • 2.7 GHz Quad core
  • 8 GB
  • 512 GB SSD
Released June, 2012
Think about it this way: where the Retina "best" setting fits each pixel of a 1280 x 800 image perfectly onto four pixels of a 2560 x 1600 screen, each pixel of a 1440 x 900 image fits imperfectly onto 3.6 pixels of the display, so it’s a little bit blurrier.
Rated 78% by by The Verge (Nov, 2012)
 

Conclusion Which is better for you?

83%
85%
View Details
100%
96%
95%
87%
View Details
78%
84%
View Details

Winner

LenovoIdeaPad Yoga

89
88

Features Key features of the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga compared to the Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display

GHz1.7

Intel Core i7 3517U

Side view of Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga
For any 13-inch laptop, battery life is key, and even more so for an ultrabook, which is specifically designed for use on the go.
Rated 82% by by c|net (Nov, 2012)
Front view of Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display

2.7 GHz

Its resolution is 2,880x1,800 pixels, providing a level of detail never seen on a laptop before.
Rated 84% by by c|net (Jun, 2012)

screen size

13.3"
15.4"
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.
IdeaPad Yoga by The Verge (Nov, 2012)
The Video card is also a Major bonus, the degree of technology they have invested in this area if commendable, you can run the most demanding games in relative ease, all in such a small package with such a beautiful display, its like peanut better meets jam all over again.
MacBook Pro with Retina Display by Frank-Hanna (Jan, 2013)

screen resolution

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga
Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display
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.
IdeaPad Yoga by LaptopMag (Nov, 2012)
Its 5.18 million pixels is quadruple the resolution of last-generation’s baseline 1440 x 900 MacBook Pro, and even a huge leap over the previous "high-res" option at 1680 x 1050.
MacBook Pro with Retina Display by The Verge (Jun, 2012)

cpu speed

0 GHz
2.7 GHz

1.7 GHz
3 GHz
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.
IdeaPad Yoga by LaptopMag (Nov, 2012)
I gave my boyfriend my 2011 MacBook pro with a OCZ 256g SSD Octane 4 with the intel i5 2.4 GHz I think my other computer worked better however I loved my other computer so... I still give it 4.5 the screen's amazing.
MacBook Pro with Retina Display by RossRichard (Jul, 2012)

processor

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga
Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display
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.
IdeaPad Yoga by TrustedReviews (Mar, 2013)
At a starting price of $2,199, the Retina MacBook Pro is in a different tier of product than other recently spec-bumped Airs and Pros, but it also offers a mix of design and features that can't be duplicated in other Mac laptops: a quad-core processor in a body that's svelte (but not quite ultrabook-thin), discrete graphics, a super high-res display, and - new to any MacBook - HDMI.
MacBook Pro with Retina Display by c|net (Jun, 2012)

memory

0 GB
8 GB

8 GB
8 GB
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.
IdeaPad Yoga by TrustedReviews (Mar, 2013)
At least the basest model has 8GB of RAM to start...So from a pure laptop perspective, this one was a hit they shot right out of the park.
MacBook Pro with Retina Display by John-S.-Dean--John
 

Performance Real world tests of Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga vs Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display

battery life

8 hour
7 hour
Under the hood, this Yoga can offer up to a Core i7 CPU, up to 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, putting it at the top of the convertible game in terms of power – yet Lenovo still claims battery life of up to eight hours.
IdeaPad Yoga by TrustedReviews (Mar, 2013)
I decided to try this one out because of its superior build quality, better battery life, amazing screen, great apple support and how light and thin it is.
MacBook Pro with Retina Display by Amazon-Reviewer29
 

Differences What are the advantages of each

Advantages compared to the Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display

Has an accelerometer Yes vs No
Somewhat common; Detects movement for interactive apps
Longer battery life 8 hour vs 7 hour
More than 10% longer battery life; surf the web longer without having to plug in

Advantages compared to the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga

Much higher resolution screen 2880 x 1800 vs 1600 x 900
More than 3.5x higher resolution screen
Has a microphone jack Yes vs No
Somewhat common; Can use an external microphone for superior audio quality
Much sharper screen 220 ppi vs 138 ppi
Around 60% sharper PPI; enjoy photo-realistic, crisp images
Is full HD Yes vs No
Somewhat common; the screen is large enough to display 1080p video without scaling
Much faster processor 2.7 GHz vs 1.7 GHz
Around 60% faster processor; run computation-intensive applications, such as photo editing, faster
Much bigger screen 15.4" vs 13.3"
Around 20% bigger screen
Much more storage capacity 512 GB vs 128 GB
4x more storage capacity
More cores Quad core vs Dual core
Twice as many cores; run more applications at once

Reviews Word on the street

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga

Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display

Rated 80%
Read the review (Mar, 2013)
Packed into its flexible chassis, the Lenovo Yoga 13 has some tasty specs: its 13-inch IPS screen may not offer a Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) resolution, but at 1,600 x 900 pixels it’s significantly higher than many affordable rivals and offers 10-finger touch.
Rated 80%
Read the review (Jan, 2013)
Rated 90%
Read the review (Jul, 2012)
Not only is everything incredibly sharp with nary a pixel to be seen, but because the panel is of the IPS rather than TN variety, viewing angles are also as close to perfect as laptops get.
Rated 68%
Read the review (May, 2013)
Rated 77%
Read the review (Nov, 2012)
It's a good display, to be sure — the 13.3-inch IPS panel's 1600 x 900 resolution is a notch above many ultrabooks, and its color reproduction and brightness are both as good as I'd expect.
Rated 78%
Read the review (Nov, 2012)
Rated 90%
Read the review (Jun, 2012)
Apple sells a MagSafe-to-MagSafe 2 convertor that’ll let you use your old 85W brick, but as of this writing, there’s nothing to help original MagSafe-compatible MacBooks work with the new adaptors.
Read the review (Jan, 2013)
Rated 82%
Read the review (Nov, 2012)
Read the review (Oct, 2012)
The Yoga 13 has a great, premium feel at a semipremium price, and most importantly, the folding hinge design doesn't compromise either aesthetics or mechanics when it's used in clamshell laptop mode.
Rated 84%
Read the review (Jun, 2012)
This is the biggest change to the Pro's aesthetics since it adopted the now-familiar aluminum unibody construction in 2008.

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