Brittany Hillen

Lenovo has popped up with a handful of new products recently, among them being the ThinkPad Yoga, a flexible hybrid laptop with a touchscreen panel that can fold all the way back into a tablet-like mode. This follows the ThinkPad X240 we reviewed last month, and rather than sporting the X240's extremely long battery life and somewhat thick body, Lenovo elected to give the ThinkPad Yoga a more conservative, universal appeal -- namely, a thin, flat profile and a slightly less no-nonsense design, something accompanied by a high-end 12.5-inch FHD touchscreen display. Read on for our full SlashGear review to how the ThinkPad Yoga fared.

The ThinkPad Yoga is available with both a fourth-generation Intel Core i5-4200U and a Core i7-4500U processor, with the former up to 2.6GHz and the latter up to 3GHz. This is accompanied by 4GB of memory and either a 128GB or 256GB SSD. There's Dolby Home Theater version 4, as well as enhanced audio for VOIP usage. The keyboard is a lift-and-lock backlit offering, and the webcam is a familiar 720p HD unit.

As far as size goes, the ThinkPad Yoga is fairly small, though heftier than some of the ultrabooks out there. Measurements come in at 12.46- x 8.7- x 0.76-inches, and the weight sits at a decent 3.52 lbs. The system, unfortunately, doesn't come with a hot-swappable secondary battery, so while thinner than the newest T and X series models, the battery life isn't as mind-blowingly long. Based on our usage, between six to eight hours is what you can expect, with the variation being dependent on how you use the system -- cranking away at media or games will naturally lower the number.

Ports include two USB 3.0 ports, one of which is powered, as well as a combination 3.5mm MIC/audio jack, a OneLink Dock, mini HDMI, VGA/RJ45 with the OneLink Dock, and a 4-in-1 card reader. There's both a TrackPoint and a 5-button trackpad, and connectivity includes both WiFi (b/g/n/ac) and Bluetooth.

As mentioned, the ThinkPad Yoga comes with a touchscreen, as well as an integrated stylus and hinges that allow the display to be folded entirely backwards. Because of this, the Yoga presents itself as a bit more than the average touchscreen-enabled laptop that does not have such flexible hinges and an included stylus. For this reason, we tested out the stylus and touchscreen with more than simple handwriting, using it to draw some pictures.

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Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga Review