Lenovo is bringing its popular Yoga line of hybrid PCs to the mainstream market with its new Yoga 2 11 and Yoga 2 13. A variation on the 13-inch Yoga 2 Pro that we awarded 4 stars in our review back in November, the hybrids will cost $549 and $999, respectively, when they launch later this month. We went hands-on with both the Yoga 2 11 and 13 and liked their lightweight, flexible designs and useful preloaded apps.
Like previous generations of Yogas, the Yoga 2 11 and 13 can flip and transform into one of four different modes, including laptop, stand, tent and tablet. This time around, however, the notebooks can detect which mode you're using and give you a list of apps that work best with it via the Yoga Picks app.Two of the more impressive apps to make their way from the Yoga 2 Pro to the Yoga 2 11 and 13 are Yoga Chef and Yoga Photo Touch.
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With Yoga Chef, you can swipe through recipes without having to touch the screen by waving your hand in front of the webcam. Photo Touch lets you edit images including cropping items with a few quick taps on the notebook's display.
At 0.67 inches thick and weighing 2.9 pounds, the Yoga 2 11 is a bit thicker, though lighter, than the 0.61-inch thick and 3.1-pound Yoga 2 Pro. The Yoga 2 13, on the other hand, is both larger and heavier than its more premium sibling, measuring 0.68 inches thick and weighing 3.5 pounds. Despite that, both the Yoga 2 11 and Yoga 2 13 felt light enough to carry around all day without slipping a disc.
In terms of specs, the Yoga 2 11 features an 11-inch, 720p display, up to a fourth-generation Intel Pentium processor, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hybrid hard drive with 16GB of flash cache. The Yoga 2 13 is the workhorse of the duo and includes a 13-inch, 1080p display, up to a Core i7 processor, an available 8 GB of RAM and a hybrid 500GB hard drive. The Yoga 2 13 also gets the benefit of a backlit keyboard, something the Yoga 2 11 doesn't offer.
Overall, it looks like Lenovo has two compelling entries into its Yoga lineup. Still, we'll have to hold our final judgment until we can fully review both units. Stay tuned.
