Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga 11S: same idea, different size.

Andrew Cunningham

Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga lineup started with two laptops. One, the Yoga 13, is a 13-inch Intel Ultrabook that runs Windows 8. The other, the Yoga 11, is a Tegra 3 laptop running Windows RT.

The problem for Lenovo is that Windows RT hasn't really gone anywhere aside from those devices launched alongside Windows 8 (which included the Yoga and a handful of other convertibles and tablets, most notably Microsoft's own Surface). If you want to know how well the ARM-based convertible did for Lenovo, well, the company no longer sells it directly.

That leaves a hole in the Yoga lineup, and it's a hole that the new Yoga 11S is supposed to fill. It takes an 11-inch chassis similar to the standard Yoga 11 but adds Ivy Bridge-based Intel processors similar to those used by the Yoga 13. If the 11S had launched alongside the Yoga 13 in the first place, it would be easy to recommend to people who liked the Yoga line's signature flexible hinge but wanted something lighter. As it is, the laptop feels a few months late, and it fixes none of the minor issues we had with the 13-inch model back in November.

Visually, the Yoga 11S is in every way a smaller version of the Yoga 13. We were fans of the larger version's style, and that style has been retained here. The top and bottom of the laptop are a somewhat soft-feeling gray plastic (the laptop is also available in a bright "Clementine Orange") that sort of looks like aluminum but isn't. The palm rest is a more rubberized black plasticthe texture is different from the 13-inch model, but it's still quite fetching.

The laptop's body isn't tapered like some Ultrabooks, so it may appear slightly thicker or boxier than offerings like the MacBook Air or Asus ZenBook Prime. It's still thin0.67 inches, just like the 13-inch modelbut that thickness is constant throughout the body of the laptop. At 3.06 pounds, it's lighter than the 3.4 pound Yoga 13 but a bit heavier than the 2.38 and 2.96 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air, the 2.43 and 2.86 pounds of the 11-inch and 13-inch ZenBook Prime, or the 2.97 pounds of the touch-enabled 13-inch Kirabook. Even with the smaller model, you're looking at a laptop that outweighs the 13-inch versions of many of its competitors.

The 10-point touchscreen is both smaller and lower in resolution than the larger Yoga (1366768, down from 1600900), but it retains the larger version's excellent color and viewing angles. The screen also has a much larger bezel than in other Ultrabooks we've seen, which gives you a bit more room to grip the Yoga 11S if you're using it as a tablet. A physical Windows button is embedded below the screen.

The main draw of the Yoga lineup is its flippable hinge, which works exactly the same in both models. There are four "modes" that Lenovo advertises, of which two are functionally very similar: "Stand" and "Tent" mode are both designed to let you put the Yoga on a surface (flat or otherwise) and interact exclusively with the touchscreen. We commented in our last Yoga review that doing this left the (deactivated) keyboard and trackpad either pressed against your desk or exposed. But Lenovo has partially rectified that with the 11S by offering a $29 optional slip case that covers up the keys when they're not in use.

Andrew Cunningham

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Review: Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga 11S is good, but it’s late to the party