We take our tablets to bed with us, watch movies on them while on the train, and hand them to our kids when they’re being too noisy. But the feeling of accomplishment that comes with “real” computer work is still pretty elusive in tablet-land. Until now.
The Lenovo Yoga 11S, like the Yoga 13 before it, is all about letting you seamlessly blend your regular computing life with your mobile life. It’s a fully realized PC that transforms into a tablet and back again. Let’s explore.
For Designers
Say you’re a roving designer, out taking pictures and working on your art. Most of the work you do lives in Photoshop. However, you can still flip into Tablet mode and get real design work done. In this way, you never have to feel locked at your desk when you're out creating something.
Thanks to that muscular ten-point touchscreen, you can easily upload your pictures from your DSLR to the Yoga via USB 3.0 or SD card, and edit them by hand using Adobe Photoshop Express. The Yoga lets you take swift, tactile control of the photos you've taken, giving you the ability to color correct, remove red eye, and apply filters like you're at your desk. You can now do work your on the fly, save for later, and still feel accomplished at the end of the day.
For Gamers
Gamers are known as a discerning group when it comes to their tech, and many would think twice about relying on an Ultrabook for their needs. But the Yoga 11S takes top-tier guts and uses them blend mobile and traditional gaming into something more, thereby letting you play like you never thought you could. Plus everything’s in glorious HD.
Sitting down to play Halo: Spartan Assault shows how the Yoga enjoys a platform that lets you take even the biggest games anywhere you want. Spartan Assault is only available on Windows 8 machines, and the Yoga is one of the best places to play it. With the 11S, an 11-inch screen affords you with more screen real estate than the average tablet to play with, the Yoga's Dolby speakers give rich sound, and its six-hour battery life means you can enjoy a long gaming session without needing to recharge.
For Information Junkies
Your ever-expanding Kindle or Nook library’s not going to read itself. Your precious digital tomes and magazines can be enjoyed in the Yoga’s Tablet mode without a hitch. The great thing about Tablet mode is that you’re not obliged to stay in a single orientation. Switching from landscape to portrait is simple, and the apps you use to read and catch up on the latest news can adapt just as quickly as the machine itself.
If you're looking for a better way to feed your news habit, the New York Times app performs perfectly in Portrait mode. It gives you that broadsheet feel of an actual print publication – Windows 8’s Modern UI aesthetic looks gorgeous when you turn that widescreen 90 degrees, making this tablet stand out from the rest. Meanwhile, the CNN app is great in landscape you can enjoy all those HD video dispatches. And all this lives perfectly on the Yoga’s bright screen that’s clear even if you’re in broad daylight. It never feels like information overload when everything looks so good.
In sum, the Yoga 11S is a fully realized computer that can go toe-to-toe with the best tablets out there, mostly because it’s still a full PC. And a full PC, no matter the form factor, won’t force you to make the same compromises as the average tablet. Its three other modes in addition to Tablet — Laptop, Tent, and Stand — make it easy to go anywhere and do just about anything worth doing.