Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro review with Intel Core M-5Y70 hardware

58 Comments

  1. Fuad

    October 21, 2014 at 10:51 pm

    I really hope the unit you have is defective because I was really excited about this machine

    • Andrei Girbea

      October 22, 2014 at 4:38 pm

      Hope so too. More reviews should be available soon.

      • Fuad

        October 22, 2014 at 10:09 pm

        Not sure why they keep marketing it as fanless when there is an actual fan and vents for it.
        didn’t expect that from lenovo

      • ZippityD

        October 30, 2014 at 8:26 pm

        It may have been. I just asked a Lenovo rep (sales guy from their website) about throttling, pointing to this review and another with similar conclusions, and he said that would be covered by both a 30 day money back guarantee and the 1 year manufacturer warranty. I screenshotted the conversation, so see here: http://i.imgur.com/LKO3Wvc.png

        Interesting that they would consider this a manufacturing defect, and it does put them back in the running for my next laptop purchase… but I’d love to see them send a new round of laptops to reviewers for a “non-defect” review! We can’t really speak to the thing’s value until that happens! Until then, the “defect” has to be considered normal I suppose.

  2. Al Ez

    October 23, 2014 at 3:49 am

    Thank you review! There is no point to wait for UX305 :)

  3. Jules

    October 23, 2014 at 5:12 am

    Great post! Thanks!

  4. mark

    October 23, 2014 at 7:15 am

    i love ur reviews. very informative. im leaning more towards the asus ux305, yoga 14, or the alienware 13 after seeing this review.

    its a shame that lenovo hasn’t perfected is yoga line yet.

  5. Vinu

    October 23, 2014 at 2:51 pm

    In the pricing section, did you mean Yoga 3 Pro, instead of Yoga 2 Pro?

  6. Maikel

    October 23, 2014 at 7:49 pm

    Such a good review. Thanks.
    So, are you saying that you would prefer 100% for sure the Yoga 2 Pro over Yoga 3 Pro if you have to buy one right now?

    • Andrei Girbea

      October 24, 2014 at 1:03 pm

      I’d wait for the final release versions of the Y3P to become available before drawing final conclusions. But even if the Y3P performs far better than the sample I tested, the price difference between the Y3P and Y2P is still difficult to justify imh, unless you really want a very thin and light device.

      • Maikel

        October 24, 2014 at 1:08 pm

        Understood.
        But, what kind of change would you expect from Lenovo, why, and how would that impact the performance of the final Y3P over the test version you had in hands?

      • Andrei Girbea

        October 27, 2014 at 8:19 pm

        I would expect them to run the CPU at 4.5W or higher, which should translate in faster performance. I would also expect to tweak the energy profiles and make the package more efficient under very light use.

      • Cheryl

        October 24, 2014 at 8:02 pm

        So what you’re saying is that based on current performance, it’s not worth it to spend extra $400 on Y3P rather than Y2P.

        What’s an expected date for the final release version of Y3P?

        So that I understand, does Lenovo continue to make improvements now until its ‘final’ release that could correct & improve on flaws highlighted by users & reviewers?

        I would like to see your final review before I make a decision between a Y2P, Y3P or a competitor model.

      • Andrei Girbea

        October 27, 2014 at 8:31 pm

        Hi CHeryl, my final review could take a while. The Y3P is expected to ship in the US right now, but it won’t come here this year.

        And yes, imh it’s not worth paying extra for the Y3P. And that will probably not change unless the final units offer a massive performance boost and run more efficiently. And then there’s the fragile screen frame, the keyboard’s layout…

  7. Adi

    October 23, 2014 at 9:12 pm

    Thanks for the review, very informative. Superb hardware but poor performance due to throttling and lack of Fn keys makes it a no go for me. I’ve seen the performance issue mentioned in at least another preview, so I don’t think it’s a one-off.

  8. Jeff

    October 24, 2014 at 2:31 pm

    Re poor Chrome performance vs IE:
    Google decided that Chrome should always use VP9 codec on PCs – even if there is no hardware acceleration available. This means that Chrome is doing CPU decide and that is pretty demanding in a 3.5w power limit for CPU, GPU, LLC, and FIVR. On IE, YouTube uses H.264/AVC and the hardware code support kicks in for much more power efficiency.

  9. Jeff

    October 24, 2014 at 3:00 pm

    I meant codec – not decide and code in previous post… Typing on phone is a pain

  10. Rob

    October 24, 2014 at 6:48 pm

    I read your “Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro” Review and look forward to a Review of the “HP ENVY x2”, it is fanless and on HPs Site starting @ $900 (Hint).

    I think these first lines of Laptops / Tablets derived from this Processor will be fraught will the need to throttle to preserve TDP. The thinner and smaller a device the less room for a Heatsink, thus turning the entire device into one (a Heatsink).

  11. Rev.SoulGlo

    October 28, 2014 at 1:44 pm

    Someone please tell Lenovo to stop trying to redesign the keyboard layout. Nobody wants to purchase a new laptop and be surprised when keys NO LONGER EXIST!!! or… i have to press another key like Fn. This is very unproductive!!!

  12. Laurits

    October 29, 2014 at 3:34 pm

    I think I am going to pick this up at BestBuy for 1300 USD, and try it out. To my understanding I can just return it again within the specified time period.

    I cant seem to figure out, does this machine support digitizers comparable to the on for MS SP3? Or is it limited to passive stylus (no palm-rejection and pressure sensitivity)?

    If I am using the terms for the pens incorrectly I apologize.

    Playing any mid level graphics games (League of Legends, HL2 engine etc) on native display with lowest graphics is out of the question because of the resolution?

    Would I be able to just set the res to about 1920 × 1080 and it would look fine (maybe the performance would still suffer though)

    Do you know if the Yoga 2 pro supports pens like MS SP3 (I guess same as first question)

    • Andrei Girbea

      October 29, 2014 at 4:15 pm

      It doesn’t include a digitizer, so it will only work with passive styluses. That’s the same for the Y2P as well.

      You can lower the resolution, but imh, the hardware is just not capable of handling any of those games, at least that was the case on this unit that I tested. I haven’t tried any games at native resolution, as I said in the article, I’ve tried to run them at HD (1366 x 768 px res) and ended up with 7-9 fps on average in things like Dirt 3 and Grid 2. LOL will run better, but I still don’t think it will be smooth enough.

      • Laurits

        October 29, 2014 at 6:19 pm

        Tanks for your quick reply.
        Do you have any experience with passive styluses?
        None of those are able to do palm rejection or pressure sensitivity correct?

        Really my wish list is something like this (others please comment if you agree)

        -Yoga hinge thingy
        -1920×1080
        -Core I7 (+ whatever integrated graphics that usually follows)
        -8GM RAM
        -256GB SSD
        -Digitizer support (touch included ofc)
        -A form factor + weight somewhere in between Y2 Pro and Y3 Pro
        -Sensible thermal throttling under sustained load.

        Yoga 3 pro is 1300 usd in the US, and it is around 2150 usd in Denmark (Europe) where I live (12500 DDK)

        I see my wish-list-specs going for around the same in the respective countries

      • Andrei Girbea

        October 31, 2014 at 11:53 am

        I don’t have much experience with any styluses, that’s not something I’m interested in and I haven’t got to test many laptops with styluses/digitizers.

        For your needs, I’d probably look at the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga . There’s also the Fujitsu Lifebook T904 but I personally never seen it in action, so can’t say much about it.

        The Y2P and Y3P lack a digitizer. There’s also the older Sony Vaio Duo 13, but the slider form factor isn’t great.

      • Laurits

        November 5, 2014 at 4:36 pm

        Hi again Andrei
        I have found exactly the specs I need in the Thinkpad Yoga on the Microsoft store:
        microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Yoga-i7-256GB-Signature-Edition-2-in-1-PC/productID.306276200

        I am currently in the US for the next few months, and I do not seem to be able to buy these specs back home in Europe. Do you think I will be able to replace the keyboard keys (so that I get the layout I am used to)?

        I hear talk about connectivity issues with the WIFI on these devices, do you know if that is still at occurring problem?

        Kind regards

      • Andrei Girbea

        November 5, 2014 at 6:04 pm

        I don’t think you can replace the keys, but you can set up the keyboard you want and just learn where the keys you need should be.

        As for the wi-fi issues, it’s mostly a matter of luck. Most TPYs don’t have wi-fi problems, but some do. If you’re unlucky, you can draw the short straw. Buying the laptop from the US might not give you warranty in your country, you probably know that but I though it’s worth mentioning anyway.

  13. Groudie

    October 31, 2014 at 2:35 pm

    Have you tried to put a linux distro on it? I plan to remove Windows totally and install Linux.

    • Andrei Girbea

      October 31, 2014 at 4:05 pm

      No, I have NO experience whatsoever with Linux

      • Groudie

        October 31, 2014 at 6:48 pm

        Fedora? Ubuntu? Mint? Arch? Antergos? OpenSUSE? Debian? elementaryOS? A little experience with Linux is something every computer “nerd” should know :D Even if it’s running Linux from a live USB instead of installing it directly. Trust me, it’s a lot of fun :D When you have some time you should experiment with it. You know, raise your “nerd” cred even higher :) I am using Antergos with the Gnome 3.14 Desktop Environment but for beginners I would suggest Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Linux Mint 17, OpenSUSE 13.2 and most highly recommended is elementaryOS Freya(but it is still in Beta). Just some suggestions if you want to try :)

      • Andrei Girbea

        November 1, 2014 at 10:43 am

        I know there are a lot of distros out there. I’ve experimented with Mint and Ubuntu a few years ago but never got the time to do it again then. Or the urge, tbh :P . Quite a few readers suggested me trying Linux on the test laptops, so I definitely have to get myself familiar with it once again.

      • Groud Frank

        November 4, 2014 at 12:08 pm

        Oh! When you said “I have NO experience whatsoever with Linux” I thought that included not ever using Linux. My bad. Great! I please let me know when what results you come up with.

    • Leszek

      January 25, 2015 at 9:12 pm

      Hi, I have installed Ubuntu 14.10 x64 and erased Windows 8 completely.
      It works smoothly under Ubuntu. Only you will need to plug some USB LAN card after installation, so Ubuntu can install proprietary WiFi driver.
      Touch screen works well. I’m using native Onboard for touch input.
      I was playing with scaling at native resolution, but some applications have problems with that, so I’m just using FullHD for now.
      Autorotation isn’t working so far. Hopefully we’ll get something working soon.
      You may want to look here also: plus.google.com/108110137184055365183/posts

  14. mystiq

    November 23, 2014 at 1:43 pm

    nice review, andre, would u mind to review the all new lenovo thinkpad yoga 14 for us?

    • Andrei Girbea

      November 23, 2014 at 5:04 pm

      I wouldn’t, but don’t know if I can get my hands on it . Will try

      • Mystiq

        November 24, 2014 at 6:00 am

        that was interesting to hear, because Thinkpad Yoga “14 has similar spec with the best(for me) ultrabook 2014 asus ux303ln.
        so we’re looking forward to see the review TY 14…..i’m planning to buy between these 2 notebook…

  15. Jim

    November 25, 2014 at 12:31 pm

    Hi, Andrei,thenks a lot for your review. I wnat to buy a “thin” ultrabook and considering either “Yoga 3 Pro” and “Samsung ATIV book 9 Plus 940 (with Core-i7-4500/8GB/256SSD)”…

    I consider Y3P due to its long battery life as highlighted in the spec. about Core-M CPU, and I expected its performance will somehow like a device with Core-i5…. and also its “tablet” mode… (before reading your review)

    But, now, do you think Samsung book 9 will be a better choice?

    • Andrei Girbea

      November 25, 2014 at 9:11 pm

      The Core M processor is not on par with an i5 Core U Haswell CPU. Not even with an i3 from what I can tell. So if you need the power, the Core M is not the best choice.

      • Peter

        December 4, 2014 at 11:17 pm

        This article (http://ultrabooknews.com/2014/09/14/intel-core-m-overview-benchmarks-and-product-previews/) is very interesting. It says that in order for the Core M to work properly the case has to be aluminium. Dos that mean that we can wait better performance from the UX305?

        Also, check the benchmarks. The Core M does pretty well.

      • Andrei Girbea

        December 8, 2014 at 12:52 pm

        That article is a bit old, we know a few more things about Core M now. And I’ve seen COre M implementations on plastic devices and they worked alright.

    • Andrew

      February 6, 2015 at 8:56 am

      Get the Ativ, without a doubt. I have the Ativ 9 Pro with the i5 and magnificent 3200×2800 resolution. I got it on sale for $1100 at micro center. The Ativ is always on sale somewhere. This laptop screams. I put heavy power savings on and throttle it down and am able to get 5-6 hours on a charge. This is one of the few that is worth the 1000+ price tag.

      My boss ought a couple dozen Ativ 9 Lites and had us deploy them to areas where people were very frustrated with computer problems. I was able to build the image for them on a single charge, I was impressed but worried because in certain situations, this lower end model was extremely slow. We had to replace one for a user immediately to get his Dragon working. But everyone else was very happy. The design of the Ativ is what makes it so great. Add the premium hardware on the Plus and Pro models and you have the perfect laptop. Only problem is its high price tag. We had to switch away from Samsung because I’m not waiting for a sale if a user needs a new laptop. We switched to the Toshiba Portage Z30 w/ i5 and are very satisfied with this system as well.

      Get the Ativ, just not the Ativ Lite. You cannot go wrong with this option.

  16. jac

    November 27, 2014 at 9:14 am

    Hi Andrei, thank you for the review, which has better gaming performance? The yoga 3 pro or the yoga 2 pro?

    • Andrei Girbea

      November 27, 2014 at 11:32 am

      My test unit did not work as advertised, but even after reading other reviews of final retail versions, the Y2P with a Haswell U platform is going to offer better performance than this Core M architecture.

  17. Zack

    November 30, 2014 at 2:32 pm

    Hi, Andrei

    I want to buy a good ultrabook and waited for YP3, ASUS UX305 etc but as i can see the CORE M isn’t what i expected. Do you know when in 2015 are we going to have any broadwell i-cores (i mean the successors of haswell i3, i5, i7) models? For example, i would love a fanless dell xps 13 with i5 but i don’t know if i can wait so long. Your answer would help me a lot, thank you!

    • Andrei Girbea

      December 6, 2014 at 6:07 pm

      Broadwell Core U processors should be shipping inside laptops by Q2 2015, from what I know right now.

  18. Juan

    December 27, 2014 at 4:21 pm

    Hey Andrei,

    Great site, second time using your site for a new notebook for the family.

    Looking to replace my VPC-Z, which is a limited edition gold version. It’s about 4 years old and still really nice. Having a bunch of issues, which seem to be related to ageing hardware.

    I’ve tried the ASUS UX301 but found it too heavy and compared to my much older VAIO. I need to run Solidworks and need some good power.

    Would I be happy with the new YOGA 3? If not, any other suggestions after coming from a VAIO-Z?

    • Andrei Girbea

      January 3, 2015 at 10:42 am

      I’d stay away from COre M hardware, it’s not meant to deliver performance, it’s merely a high-eficiency chip for very thin and light machines.

      The UX301LA is pretty much the fastest Windows 13 inch ultrabook available right now. However, Intel’s next gen Broadwell U hardware platform is just around the corner, so if you can delay your purchase a few months, there should be more options for you by Spring.

  19. HM

    February 8, 2015 at 4:18 pm

    Hi Andrei,
    Thanks a lot for the helpful reviews.
    I’m planning to buy an ultrabook. But I’m a little confused which one to choose. Which one would be your best choice?

  20. Rob

    February 12, 2015 at 7:31 pm

    Here in Sweden they are offering a y3p with an i7, 500gb ssd and 8 gb of ram. How come I can’t find any reviews of this one? I’d really like to know how it compares to this one. My laptop is on its last legs and I need a replacement and thought this one looked good, but now after this excellent review I’m having second thoughts. I just want a decent laptop, preferably a touchscreen since it seems like win 8 is really designed for it. Any suggestions?

    • Andrei Girbea

      February 15, 2015 at 8:52 am

      i7? that can’t be right. Can you leave a link?

  21. Rob

    February 12, 2015 at 7:33 pm

    I should add that I’m not a gamer but I do play a lot of music and video.

  22. Mike

    March 20, 2015 at 2:26 am

    DONT BUY. If you loose your power adapter – you screwed. I have $1400 piece of garbage in a drawer because lenovo doesn’t have power adapters. And Lenovo doesn’t care.

  23. Ken

    May 12, 2015 at 6:42 am

    How were you able to run League of Legends on this notebook? I recently installed the game on the same laptop and tried to run league of legends in it. But When I was ingame, I couldn’t click anything. My touchpad works and all but when I tried to left or right click, nothing happens. Same with when I use a mouse.

  24. John Brunner

    August 13, 2015 at 4:07 pm

    Lenovo could have one of the worst customer service organizations around.
    I purchased the Y3P in January 2015, in July the unit slowly degraded until it would not boot – had issues with WIFI first, then would randomly boot, and then finally the blue screen of death and could not boot. Sent Y3P to Lonovo in July, now in mid August without a resolution. Lenovo claims they know what the problem is (but they refuse to tell me) and that the needed parts to fix the machine are not available. They can not tell me when I will get the machine back. I don’t know what to do next…I have called customer service and tech support too many times now, keep getting handed back and forth, neither group communicates with the other, leaving the customer in complete limbo land!

  25. Arie Kashmir

    September 3, 2015 at 10:28 am

    I am looking for ultrabook that can be used as drawing and designing gadget. Previously i was interested in microsoft surface pro 3, since it has it own n-trig digitizer
    Is there any chance that lenovo yoga pro 3 using the same stylus that are pressure sensitive?
    Thank you…

    • Andrei Girbea

      September 3, 2015 at 7:10 pm

      The Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro lacks an active digitizer, so it’s not going to be the right choice for what you want.

  26. vito

    October 29, 2015 at 12:25 pm

    Andrei, what’s your feeling about the final release of the YP3 in particular for the newer with M-5Y71? I’ve bougth one for 899€ and the news of this new release and your review are confusing me (i’m in time to back to seller). Thanks

    • Andrei Girbea

      October 29, 2015 at 12:32 pm

      Hi Vito. The Core M 5Y71 should be a lot different than the early unit I tested and perform faster. But even so, the Y3P is still not one of my favorite convertibles. I feel it’s fragile, slow and doesn’t offer much in terms of battery life. I don’t like the keyboard either. It has gone down in price by a lot lately, and I don’t think there’s any similar device you could get for the money you’d spend on a Y#P right now, so there’s at least that.

      Bottom point, If you’re happy with it overall, you should keep it. How you feel about it is far more important than anything else, no matter what someone on the Internet says. Me included :P

  27. nwachukwu ezenwa

    August 8, 2016 at 2:34 pm

    how can I force restart it cos is been on pls wait for longtime

  28. simo

    August 20, 2017 at 10:51 am

    I had for time broken the 256GB SSD, last time after 20 days the warrant expire and even if the HD was already changed few months later they refused to do it by free. Need a legal action but better change brand.
    I used it for work and the only heavy work is doing is when rarely I play WOW.
    Really unlucky machine ad bad service.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *