Are 11-inch laptops, which we sometimes refer to as ultraportables, suddenly in vogue? You'd be forgiven for thinking so, because after a multiyear drought where only a handful of models were even worth looking at, we've now got the recent flood, including the revamped 11-inch MacBook Air, Sony's Vaio Pro 11, and now the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S.

The latter is one of the most-anticipated laptops of the year, especially after the very warm welcome its predecessor received. That predecessor was one of the most talked-about Windows 8 launch window laptops, the 13-inch IdeaPad Yoga 13. Though it looked like a standard ultrabook-style laptop, the name "Yoga" hinted at the system's big selling point -- that the display can fold fully over to become a tablet.

At the time, a contemporaneous 11-inch Windows RT version of the Yoga felt like a bit of an afterthought, and the chilly reception Windows RT products have gotten since then prove that point. We all knew a full Windows 8 version of the Yoga 11 was coming, it was just a question of when. With a subtle single-letter addition to the name to account for the RT version, the Yoga 11S (for "super"?) was first shown off at CES 2013 but is only now going on sale, a full six months later.

The original 13-inch Yoga seemed to be everyone's choice for a great Windows 8 ambassador during the 2012 holiday season -- both Microsoft and Intel touted it as a best-in-class example, and Best Buy featured it in a television ad. Shrinking the idea down to an 11-inch system creates a product that, in tablet mode, feels a lot closer to an iPad than any of the 13-inch convertible/hybrid laptops we've seen.

If you haven't seen the Yoga in action, the real surprise hook is not the tablet mode (which is perfectly usable but leaves the keyboard exposed, sticking out from the back), it's the stand mode, which I sometimes call the kiosk mode. The screen is folded back about 270 degrees, turning the system into something like a small touch-screen kiosk. It's great for sharing video or presentations in a group setting, or for just getting closer to the screen while keeping the keyboard out of the way.

The 11-inch Windows 8 version of the Yoga runs processors ranging from a Core i3 all the way to a Core i7 CPU, but all are from the now-outdated third-generation of Intel Core i-series chips. The latest so-called Haswell chips, found in Sony and Apple's newest 11-inch laptops, aren't much faster but offer a significant boost to battery life. Our review unit, with a Core i5 CPU, 256GB SSD, and 8GB of RAM, is currently available for $999 from Lenovo's Web site, although you'll want to look carefully, Lenovo's site is particularly confusing these days, with coupon codes and nearly identical configurations at widely varying prices.

If anything, the 11-inch Yoga feels like a better fit for the unique body design than the 13-inch version did. Only the outdated CPU (the company offers no guidance on when a Haswell version might be available) keeps me from giving it a more unreserved recommendation.

Design and features By now you're hopefully accustomed to seeing some very nice design work from Lenovo's IdeaPad line of consumer laptops, often in sharp counterpoint to the dry ThinkPad line that still has echoes of laptops from many years ago (but which also has legions of fans in IT departments and elsewhere in corporate America). The IdeaPad line more often than not comes up with laptop designs that are slick and modern, but still work in a professional setting. Corporate casual, perhaps.

The fold-back hinge on the Yoga differs from what most hybrids (including ones from Lenovo) have tried to do. Those other convertibles have either a rotating center hinge that swivels around to let the device change forms, a screen that slides down over the keyboard, or a fully detachable screen that sheds its keyboard base entirely to become a standalone tablet. In the era of Windows 8 and touch screens, these hybrids are actually quite common, and we've seen more of them in the past nine months than the past several years combined.

Of all the different ways to create a hybrid, Lenovo's Yoga method is arguably the best, especially if you're interested in a no-compromise laptop experience. It's certainly better than the older rotating-center-hinge design, which acted as a single potential weak point in many hybrids. If you're more interested in a full-time tablet that's also a part-time laptop, however, then something such as Microsoft's Surface Pro maybe more appropriate.

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Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S (Windows 8)