Lenovo did show off quite a few tablets and hybrids at IFA Berlin at the beginning of September, such as the ThinkPad Helix, Horizon 2S, Horizon 2E and ThinkCentre Tiny-in-One 23. What we regretted not seeing at the trade show was a successor to the Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 tablet, which was a pretty impressive release from the company.
The Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 was among the first to be called hybrid tablets or convertible laptops, offering the possibility of laptop computing and tablet portability. The Yoga Pro 2 is available with Intel i3 and i5 configurations on a 13.3 inch QHD+ display, running Windows 8.1, 4 and 8 GB RAM, 128 and 256 GB internal storage and offered four different viewing modes: laptop, tablet, tent and stand.
With the recent rumors regarding the iPad Air 2 release coming up on October 21, Lenovo has finally decided that a Yoga Pro 3 tablet would be a nice addition to its portfolio and fans couldn’t be happier about the news. The Yoga Pro 3 convertible laptop has already been listed on a Scandinavian retail e-commerce website, and will apparently feature the latest Intel Core M Broadwell-based CPU, which allows a fanless design for the Yoga Pro 3.
Since the iPad Air 2 is also rumored to come with a Core M CPU, the Yoga Pro 3 could not have featured a better build to compete with against the new iPad. The Intel Core M-5Y70 chip runs on an initial 1.1 GHz, but it can go up to 2.6 GHz via TurboBoost. It has 4MB of cache, two cores and four threads and comes with an Intel HD Graphics 5300 with a 100 MHz base frequency that can overclock to 850 MHz. Most likely, the Yoga Pro 3 will stay at the 13.3 inch QHD+ display as its little brother, with a 3200*1800 resolution. It will weigh about 1.4 KG, making it the lightest convertible laptop on the market.
Besides going against the iPad Air 2, Lenovo’s Yoga Pro 3 will face Dell’s XPS 12, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3, Asus’ Transformer Book T100 and Transformer Book Trio, Sony’s Vaio Fit Multi Flip, Vaio Duo 13 and Acer Aspire Switch 11. We don’t have any information on price and availability, but we suppose the Yoga Pro 3 will be out for the Holidays and will probably retail for around $1000.