We doubt that Lenovo’s Yoga lineup needs any introduction but what deserves extra attention is the new Yoga 910 2-in-1 notebook. It’s slim, it’s powerful, it’s versatile and it’s absolutely astonishing. The new Yoga runs on Intel’s latest generation Kaby Lake processors – Core i5-7200U or Core i7-7500U paired with up to 16GB of DDR4-2133 RAM and up to 1TB of PCIe NVMe storage solution. But what really makes an impression to the general user – and to us apparently – is the sexy new look.
Having a footprint of a normal 13.3-inch device, the Yoga 910 incorporates almost bezel-less gorgeous 13.9-inch Full HD – or optional 4K UHD – IPS display without the bulk. Along with the new display, Lenovo has slightly altered the keyboard and touchpad, which are now just a delight to use. But what about the actual performance this notebook has to offer to the general user? Battery life, raw performance, heat management, screen flickering? It seems like it’s the most promising Yoga up to date but let’s find out for sure in our in-depth review below.
You can find some of the available configurations here: http://amzn.to/2f0ZNMD
Contents
Retail package
Design and construction
Disassembly, maintenance and upgrade options
PWM (Screen flickering)
Buy our profiles
Sound
Specs sheet
Software
Battery
CPU – Intel Core i5-7200U
GPU – Intel HD Graphics 620
Temperatures
Verdict
Retail package
The notebook comes in a fresh new box with the usual stuff inside – user manuals, AC charging adapter and the laptop itself.
Design and construction
At first glance, the notebook isn’t noticeably different than its Yoga 900 predecessor but opening it proves otherwise. Now anodized aluminum is the main order of the day, replacing the faux leather on the interior from the previous generation. However, this hasn’t affected the chassis in a negative way so the 14.9 mm thickness remains and the weight has increased by just 110 g – from 1.27 to 1.39 kg. So in practice, you won’t even notice the difference and it’s still a pretty portable hybrid solution, whatsoever.
Let’s begin with the lid. Seemingly it’s made of anodized aluminum or another kind of metal, which Lenovo doesn’t disclose but one thing is for sure – it’s rigid as hell. It can’t be bent, twisted and you can hardly see any deformation even under great amounts of pressure. The notebook opens up fairly hard but enough to only use one hand. Probably over time the hinge will get a slightly loosened. Speaking of the hinge, the Yoga 910 returns with another iconic watchband hinge, which does its job pretty well keeping the screen in place while typing and reducing the wobbling effect when using the touchscreen. The same applies to the base – no complaints at all. Probably the silicone feet need more resistance since the notebook slips easily on a normal desk.
The sides of the ultrabook are totally different and have almost nothing in common with the previous generation. The aluminum on the sides is polished and brushed giving it a distinct razor-sharp look. What’s missing, though, is the rubberized strips around the edges that help keep the laptop in place during presentation and tent mode. Also, we notice that there are some essential connection options missing from the previous generation. While the Yoga 900 offered two normal USBs (one of which is for charging) and a USB-C 3.0 also used for video-out, the Yoga 910 offers only one USB-A and two USB-C connectors, none of which is Gen 2 (10Gbps), unfortunately. However, the USB-C 3.0 port can be used for connecting an external display and the other USB-C port is also used for charging and falls into the 2.0 standard. Moreover, there’s no SD card reader. We wonder why the newer generation has fewer connectivity options.
The interior is another great aspect of the device and one of the key selling points as well. The surface around the keyboard and the touchpad is now totally revamped – anodized aluminum replaces the faux leather-like finish but we can’t really comment on this change because it’s more of a personal preference. Still, the leather interior kept the notebook firmly in place without slipping while in presentation mode. Anyway, the keyboard returns with the usual AccuType style with relatively short key travel but excellent tactile feedback. The LED illumination can be adjusted to two levels. The overall typing experience is excellent and it kind of reminds us of the HP Spectre 13‘s keyboard. Whereas the touchpad, well this is a whole another story. The surface of the trackpad area uses a low-resistance material and all gestures and swipes feel so natural and pleasing that it’s just a delight to use it. Mouse clicks appear to be extremely light and accurate. In short, this might be one of the best touchpads we’ve used in a while. It can easily challenge the excellently-built MacBook touchpads. And while you are on the interior, we want to comment a little bit on the fingerprint scanner – it’s fast, responsive and thanks to the Windows Hello feature, it’s also extremely easy to use.
Now let’s talk about the elephant in the room – the display. The stunning 13.9-inch – in our case Full HD – screen fits into a 13.3-inch footprint thanks to the nearly bezel-less three-sided borders. It’s practical and looks beautiful at the same time. We are glad to see another notebook taking the steps of the XPS 13 and XPS 15 notebooks. The bottom bezel seems a bit too thick but it’s nothing that actually makes a difference in practice. It’s just an aesthetic concern.
The Yoga 910 doesn’t revolutionize the Yoga design or the notebook’s design for that matter, but the excellently executed craftsmanship proves that little details matter and there’s still room to improve with the current tech that we have. The 13.9-inch diagonal in a 13.3-inch form factor is a neat idea that we wish more OEMs will consider doing for their high-end notebooks. We were also extremely impressed by the keyboard and touchpad comfort and usability – something we think is absolutely essential for a portable 2-in-1 device mainly aimed at the business consumers. All of this fits into a portable, premium and light package, which is an eye-catcher for sure. With all the superlatives that we used to describe the Yoga 910, it’s easy to look away from the fact that the device’s weight has increased by a tad over the last generation.
Disassembly, maintenance and upgrade options
Performing simple storage upgrade or a battery swap is quite easy. You just need to detach the bottom with the help of a screw. However, if you need to access the fans, a full disassembly of the motherboard and its extensions is required., which will take some time and patience.
Storage upgrade options – M.2 SSD slot
As most premium ultrabooks, the Lenovo Yoga 910 also relies on the M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD standard and our unit came equipped with a 256GB drive in a 2280 form factor.
Slot
Unit
Upgrade price
2280 M.2 slot
Samsung PM951 256GB PCIe NVMe
Upgrade options
RAM
The RAM isn’t upgradeable – it’s soldered to the motherboard. You can order your’s with up to 16GB of DDR4-2133 so choose wisely.
Other components
The Wi-Fi card is easily accessible and it’s right next to the M.2 SSD.
Although the battery doesn’t look so big, it sure does pack a lot of energy and it’s rated at the whopping 78Wh.
Cooling system
To access the cooling system (heat pipe, heat sink, fans) you need to flip the motherboard around. Make sure you’ve removed all the screws and cables attached to the motherboard and its extensions. Then unscrew the fans and lift it up. And now is the time to admire the fact that Lenovo was able to integrate a KBL-U chip onto such small motherboard while using the spare space for a huge battery pack.
IF you require more instructions, you can visit our full disassembly article here.
Display quality
The notebook uses a Full HD (1920×1080) IPS panel with a glossy finish and unusual diagonal – 13.9″. It’s manufactured by AU Optronics with model number B139HAN03.2 so the pixel density is 158 ppi and 0.16 x 0.16 pixel pitch. The screen can be considered as “Retina” when viewed from a distance equal or greater than 56 cm.
The viewing angles are excellent as you can see from the image below.
We’ve recorded a maximum brightness of 310 cd/m2 in the middle and 292 cd/m2 as average across the surface. This is more than enough for comfortable work indoors even if there’s a bright light source nearby but it might prove insufficient outdoors under direct sunlight, not to mention the display has a glossy finish. And given the form factor and the versatile nature of the product, using it outdoors is a very probable scenario. Anyway, the maximum deviation is just 11% – on the right side of the screen. The recorded color temperature is 7990K – far from the optimal 6500K so colors will appear a bit cold-ish/blue-ish. The contrast ratio is more than excellent – 1240:1 before calibration and 970:1 after.
The maximum dE2000 (color deviation to the center of the screen) is just 2.7 which is a good result since values above 4.0 are unwanted.
Color reproduction
To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction of the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.
Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.
Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.
The yellow dotted line represents the area, which the Yoga 910’s display covers which is 95% of the sRGB color space. Colors will appear vivid and saturated.
Below you will see practically the same image but with the color circles representing the reference colors and the white circles being the result. You can see main and additional colors with 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% saturation inside the sRGB gamut pre and post calibration.
We’ve created a profile at 140 cd/m2 and using sRGB gamma mode with D65 white point.
As you can see in the image below, the gamma curve is far from optimal – dark areas of an image will appear even darker – while the color temperature will aid for more blue-like colors. However, this can be fixed by using our Office/Web Design Profile.
We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the Office & Web Design profile.
The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.
The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the Gaming & Movie Nights profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle and the surrounding light conditions.
Gaming capabilities (Response time)
We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and reverse.
We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 27 ms.
PWM (Screen flickering)
Pulse Width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our specialized article on PWM.
Our equipment didn’t record any pulsations across all brightness levels thus the display can be used for long periods of time without affecting even users with sensitive eyes.
Blue light emissions
Installing of our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our specialized article on Blue Light.
You can see the levels of emitted blue light on the spectral power distribution (SDP) graph.
Conclusion
There’s not much we can say about the display because it’s almost flawless. It has what it takes to deliver excellent viewing experience – wide sRGB coverage (almost full), high contrast ratio, relatively high maximum brightness, although, it might be insufficient for outdoor use, and now PWM across all brightness level making it perfect for long hours of work. Our only complaint would be the inaccurate colors and a bit cold color temperature but both can be fixed by using our custom Office/Web Design Profile, which will correct the gamma, white point and also bring the average color deviation dE2000 down to 1.2 from 6.5.
Buy our profiles
Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package is meant for Lenovo Yoga 910 configurations with 13.9″ AU Optronics B139HAN03.2 (FHD, 1920 x 1080) IPS, which can be found on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2eqvATB
*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at bg.laptopmedia@gmail.com.
Read more about the profiles HERE.
In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.
Office work / Web design
If your field is office work or web design, or you just want your monitor's color set to be as accurate as possible for the Internet color space, this profile will prove to be useful.
$4.96
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Gaming or Movie nights
We developed this profile especially for occasions on which you spend a lot of time in front of your monitor with some games or watching movies – it will be easier for you to discern fine nuances in the dark.
$4.97
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Health-Guard
This profile reduces the negative impact of pulsation and the blue spectrum, securing your eyes and body. You still get a pitch-perfect color image, albeit slightly warmer.
$4.98
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$9.99
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Sound
The sound quality is rather good but there’s missing clarity in the low and high frequencies. This is a common problem with small ultrabooks.
Specs sheet
Check price
CPU
Intel Core i5-7200U (2-core, 2.50 – 3.10 GHz, 3MB cache)
RAM
8GB (1x 8192MB) – DDR4, 2133 MHz
GPU
Intel HD Graphics 620
HDD/SSD
256GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
Display
13.9-inch – Full HD (1920×1080) touch IPS, glossy
Optical drive
–
Connectivity
Lenovo AC Wireless (2×2), Bluetooth 4.1
Features
1x USB 3.0 Type-C with video-out
1x USB 2.0 Type-C with charging
1x USB 3.0 with always-on charging
3.5 mm audio combo jack
Battery
6-cell, 78Wh
Thickness
14.9 mm (0.58″)
Weight
1.39 kg (3.06 lbs)
Software
The pre-production unit came with pre-installed Windows 10 (64-bit) but if you wish to perform a clean install by yourself without the bloatware, we suggest downloading the latest drivers from Lenovo’s official support page.
Battery
Despite the thin aluminum body, the notebook carries a huge battery pack rated at 78Wh and quite expectedly, the notebook shatters all records in terms of battery performance. Of course, you won’t get the same battery life out of the 4K UHD version of the Yoga 910, but the Full HD variant rocks the house for sure. We will also have to give some credit to the small 13.9-inch screen and the energy-efficient Core i5-7200U ULV CPU from the Kaby Lake family.
Anyway, all tests were run using the same conditions as always – Wi-Fi turned on, Windows power saving feature turned on and screen brightness set to 120 cd/m2.
Web browsing
In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script to automatically browse through over 70 websites.
Outstanding result comparable to some tablets and even smartphones – 806 minutes (13 hours and 26 minutes).
Video playback
For every test of this kind, we use the same video in HD.
Lower but still amazing result – 638 minutes (10 hours and 38 minutes).
Gaming
For accurate simulation, we used the F1 2015 benchmark running on a loop with graphic settings set to minimum.
We doubt you will start a gaming session away from the charger but here’s how much time you will get out of the system – 275 minutes (4 hours and 35 minutes).
CPU – Intel Core i5-7200U
Intel’s Core i7-6200U is part of the 7th Generation Kaby Lake CPUs and it’s the direct successor of the Core i5-5200U (Broadwell) and Core i5-6200U (Skylake). It’s also based on the same architecture as the aforementioned chips with little differences that should bring a small performance increase and a bump in power consumption. However, the new CPU is clocked at 2.5 GHz and its Turbo Boost frequency is 3.1 GHz opposed to the 2.3 – 2.8 GHz clocks on the previous Core i5-6200U.
Anyway, we still have the 2/4 core/thread count, 3MB last level cache, and a TDP of 15W, which includes the iGPU and the dual-channel DDR4 memory controller. Speaking of the former, the chip integrates the newer generation Intel HD Graphics 620 graphics chip clocked at 300 – 1000 MHz.
You can browse through our top CPUs ranking: http://laptopmedia.com/top-laptop-cpu-ranking/
Here you will find other useful information and every notebook we’ve tested with this processor: http://laptopmedia.com/processor/intel-core-i5-7200u/
Cinebench 11
NovaBench CPU
Photoshop
Results are from the Cinebench 11 test (higher the score, the better)
Laptop
Results
Result
difference
Price
Price
difference
Lenovo Yoga 910 Intel Core i5-7200U (2-cores, 2.5 - 3.1 GHz)
3.65
HP Spectre 13 (2016) Intel Core i7-6500U (2-cores, 2.5 - 3.1 GHz)
3.22
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