Lenovo just announced the latest flagship in its Yoga lineup of 2-in-1s. The Yoga 900 Convertible Laptop (yes, that's its full name) is the follow-up to 2014's Yoga 3 Pro, adding only a little weight and thickness in favor of more raw power.
Last year's Yoga 3 Pro was incredibly light and thin, but it ran an Intel Core M processor – weak compared to recent Core i series chips. At 16 percent thicker and 8 percent heavier than that 2014 model, the new Yoga 900 might sound like a step backwards in that respect, but it should provide a big performance boost, jumping to a 6th-generation (Skylake) Intel Core i7 processor. It also supports up to 16 GB RAM.
Considering how relatively minor the Yoga 900's downgrade in portability is, those sound like terrific tradeoffs.
![The Yoga 900 runs Windows 10 with (up to) an Intel Core i7 processor on the inside](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/41a8a78/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1586x927+0+0/resize/1440x842!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Farchive%2Flenovo-yoga-900-details-2.jpg)
The core Yoga experience remains, with the 360-degree hinge folding all the way from laptop to tablet, with a couple of less interesting stops (tent and stand) in between. The watchband-style hinge we saw last year is back, and this time Lenovo says it provides noticeably smoother rotation.
Display specs are the same as last year: 13.3 inches measured diagonally, with 3,200 x 1,800 (276 pixels per inch) resolution. Its 16:9 aspect ratio will look more elongated compared to rivals like Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pros and Microsoft's Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book.
Lenovo says the new model has 50 percent greater battery density than last year's model (it's listed at 66 W-h). But with an entirely different class of chip inside (more powerful, less battery efficient) that's to be expected. Lenovo is estimating "up to 9 hours of local video playback" (which the fine print says is with Wi-Fi turned off and brightness set at 200 nits).
Right now the Windows 10-running Yoga 900 starts at US$1,299 for a Core i7 CPU, 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD. Lenovo's press release, though, lists a $1,199 starting price, so perhaps we'll see some cheaper i5 configurations show up for order later on. Either way, you can pre-order now from the product page below for a scheduled October shipment.
Product page: Lenovo