So how does the Yoga Pro 3 stack up to a MacBook Air?
Look and feel: The hinge on the Yoga looks awesome. It’s thinner and lighter too; but the Air still gets the edge.
Form factor: Yoga. Think about how often people use their iPads in cafes — it’s usually propped up on the table with a cover. That’s tent mode and will come more handy than you think.
Display: The Yoga kills the Air in display…
Battery: …but the Air kills the Yoga on battery life.
Touch: Yoga.
Trackpad: Air.
Keyboard: Tie?
Price: Tie. The Yoga is more expensive but justifies the price with more RAM and storage.
Hype: Apple.
Stand-out-ness: Yoga.
OS: Opinions.
So it boils down to this — Yoga’s flexible form factor and display or the Air’s long battery life?
I’ve been advising friends interested in a MacBook to wait for the new, upcoming 12-inch revamp. It would feel decidedly uncool to spend a lot of money on a laptop that will look last generation in six months.
But the Yoga Pro 3’s short battery life bothers me. According to Extreme Tech:
Lenovo’s claim of “up to nine hours” on battery life is farcical. WindowsCentral.com claims 5-6 hours, at the very most. PC Pro hit eight hours, but only by turning screen brightness to its lowest levels; turn brightness up and battery life plummets. UltraBookReview reports that under various workloads battery life ranges from 6 hours to 4 hours 40 minutes depending on workload.
Lenovo made a bad decision with the Yoga Pro 3’s incredibly high 3200 x 1800 resolution — no doubt the culprit of the horrible battery life. It’s higher resolution than even the MacBook Pro’s “retina” display of 2560 x 1600. Who needs a screen that sharp?
If Lenovo had gone with a 2160 x 1440 resolution — the same as the Surface Pro 3 and plenty nice — and tacked on a couple more hours of battery life, this would have been a fantastic computer. Instead, Lenovo wasted money on something that caused more harm than good.
It’s poor product decisions like these that enable Apple to grab so much of the profit pie.
