Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga to ship this month

Lenovo has announced that its IdeaPad YOGA 13 ultrabook, first introduced at the 2012 CES last January, will be officially released before the end of October. Meanwhile, its little brother, the 11-inch YOGA 11, is scheduled to hit the shelves on December.

These two models are part of Lenovo’s YOGA family, a “convertible” or “hybrid” line of Windows 8-enabled laptops, which at first look, doesn’t look radically different from any other IdeaPad ultrabook and is opened just like you would a regular laptop, except that it can be bent all the way around as if it’s equipped with a 360-degree hinge. All the other essential top-of-the-line laptop parts are there – a physical keyboard, a touch pad, a considerably sized screen – but the real clincher lies in its hybrid-like ability to be set up in four ways:

• Tablet mode – flip the screen all the way around, folded flat on its back; perfect for reading or playing games
• Tent mode – make it stand on its front edges like a tent; great for viewing recipes, playing slideshows, or listening to music
• Stand mode – use it with the keyboard side laid flat against the desk and with the screen bent back like a tabletop AIO; ideal for watching movies
• Laptop mode – use it like a normal laptop; excellent for working, viewing internet fax, and listening to business voicemail messages

IdeaPad YOGA 13

For a starting price of USD1,099, the 13.1×8.9×0.67-inch ultrabook features a 13-inch, 1,600 by 900 pixel resolution IPS display ideal for the different viewing angles you’ll subject the device to. The display supports a 10-finger capacitive multi-touch, meaning you’ll be able to max out tapping on the screen using all your fingers. It will be available in three different third gen Intel processor configurations: Intel Core i3-3217U, Intel Core i5-3317U, and i7-3517U. It also matches the DDR3 RAM (up to 8GB) commonly seen in newer laptops and a 256 gigabyte solid-state drive (SSD).

However, it doesn’t come with discrete graphics other than the Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics built inside the board, which is pretty powerful considering that this is a 3.4 pounder we’re talking about. Speaking of which, it may be considered heavy for an ultraslim laptop, but its 0.66 inch thin bodice and its flexible multi-way setups can justify how it weighs.

IdeaPad YOGA 11

The YOGA 13’s bendy little brother, the YOGA 11, meanwhile, starts at a price of USD799 and sports an 11-inch, 1,366 by 768 pixel resolution screen. Its brain contains a Tegra 3 processor, a 2GB DDR3 RAM, and up to 64GB of storage. It runs Windows RT, the edition of Windows 8 designed to run on devices that uses the ARM architecture. Also featured in the hybrid is a 720p-capable camera, HDMI and USB 2.0 ports. It can go on and on up to 13 hours without having to charge the batteries.

Lenovo truly is going to make waves with its YOGA series, especially because these devices are pegged to be the prototype of the first wave of Windows 8 computers.