The Yoga moniker comes from the lid's ability to bend backwards on itself, so that the traditional laptop design transforms to become a tablet, which makes it better suited to watching videos or using apps, while losing none of the standard laptop usability.
Under the hood is a generous configuration that offers plenty of power. There's a low-voltage third generation Intel Core i7 processor clocked at 1.8GHz with 4GB of RAM, which will crunch through nearly any task. High-end HD video rendering is best suited to beefier machines, rather than a laptop that's designed for portability, but playback, picture editing and casual gaming is all well within its limitations.
Windows 8 coverage
The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga comes in two colours - an attractive orange or a muted and slightly corporate-looking grey. We much prefer the former, which will turn heads for its stylish design as well as its contortionist tendencies. The inside, however, is plain black, with a spacious keyboard, but it sorely misses backlighting for use in dim conditions.
As the Yoga doubles as a tablet, the 13-inch touchscreen is especially important. Unfortunately, unlike other hybrids such as the Samsung Ativ Smart PC and the Asus Taichi, the screen isn't Full 1080p HD and Lenovo has plumped for a less high resolution 1,600 x 900 display. In the grand scheme of laptops that's still extremely high, but Windows 8 heralds a new generation of quality, and we feel slightly let down.
That's not to say that the screen quality is poor, however. The IPS panel isn't as horribly reflective as many of its competitors', colours are deep and vibrant and movies look fantastic on it.
Elsewhere, the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga enjoys a 128GB SSD drive, which has plenty of room for your files, two USB ports, HDMI, and an SD card port. That's standard for many ultra-portable laptops, but obvious omissions are an Ethernet socket and an optical drive.
As a laptop, the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga performs well. Windows 8 is a joy to use with the touchscreen display - we actually turned off the trackpad and moved to using our fingers, which was genuinely liberating - but nowhere near as pleasurable as it is to flip the screen back and browse the web and watch videos in tablet mode.
At 1.4kg (3.1lbs) it's too heavy to walk about with, and holding the flattened chassis was heavy. However, when sitting back on the sofa or on a long train journey, the ability to bend back the Yoga and stand it up on its haunches meant we could enjoy it all the more.
Buying Guide
There are a few bugbears with the Yoga, which make it short of perfect. There's a little flex in the plastic base of the keyboard, so the keys bounce slightly when typing.
What's more, when used in tablet mode, the keys sit exactly where your hands grip. The keyboard is disabled, thankfully, but you have no choice but to grasp it, mashing the keys as your fingers search for grip, which is annoying and feels disconcerting. As a result, we rarely held the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga as a flat tablet device.
While it's not the perfect laptop, the range of movement and use offered by the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga won us over. The more we embraced its range of movements the more the real-life benefits of a touchscreen display became apparent.
If you're looking for a great Windows 8 laptop that offers something extra, the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga is well worth the cash.
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