Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460 review – a mobile and durable hybrid

lenovo-thinkpad-yoga-460

The ThinkPad line has always targeted business consumers – offering classical design and high durability, the laptops of the Beijing company are a wonderful choice for consumers who value quality. With this in mind, Lenovo doesn’t dare to make essential changes from a functional perspective. Even though you have probably never thought that ThinkPad will offer unconventional models, today this is a fact.

After Lenovo released one of the best hybrids on the market (Yoga), the time came for us to witness other series, containing the “Yoga” element. Lenovo’s mobile devices became a big market hit due to their ability to be used in four modes. This quality of theirs made them one of the most comfortable mobile devices, which are also sufficiently powerful and exceptionally lightweight.

Today we shall have a look at a model of this kind, which promises to be one of the most durable and “flexible” models on the market. Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460 has all it needs to be called ThinkPad, especially with the added touchscreen and tilting screen, you can be mobile all day long.

You can find more information about the price and availability of ThinkPad Yoga 460 here: http://amzn.to/1VrdTpW

Contents


What’s in the box?

The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460 we used for the present review was a test unit and did not have a specific charger model or any documents. Nonetheless, we are sure that when you purchase the mobile device, you will find the charging cable and AC adapter at least, as well as a user manual.

Design and construction

As we mentioned earlier, while containing a part of  the “Yoga” technologies, it is essentially the typical business laptop favoured by every consumer of the ThinkPad line. With the very opening of the box we notice the traditional inscription in the bottom-right corner – ThinkPad, telling us what we can expect under the hood, as well as how durable the model is.

As far as sturdiness is concerned, the Yoga 460 is reinforced with carbon fibres, which is great news to those of you who resort to the device a lot or travel regularly and inevitably have to use it frequently. The design is in the compulsory simple matte black, and the metal hinges stand out, lending style and a sense of certainty that the frequent use of the Yoga 460 in both modes (laptop and tablet) will not decrease the “life” of the hybrid.


top

toop

Below the screen we notice the usual TrackPoint, which has been an indispensable part of this line since its creation (yes, ever since the 700 series, released 24 years ago). It is in the compulsory red color, “rooted” in the middle of  the “AccuType” keyboard, with its main task being the ease which the TrackPoint provides for your work as a second controller for the cursor, so that you can cover all keys with your two hands and thus type and browse in a faster and more pleasant way – which is the main reason for its placement. The “AccuType” keyboard is characterized by keys that are separated and “smiling” (this is how Lenovo refers to their somewhat contoured keys), which are ergonomic and pleasant to type on for longer periods of time.

The touchpad is located slightly below the keyboard  with a normal size for the 14″ device.  Once again it comes with three buttons – left, right and a “middle” one, which is used for scrolling on the web. We have no remarks as far as responsiveness and comfort while working are concerned, be it for the keyboard or the trackpoint.


key

board

Taking a look at the picture above, we notice a glossy screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (other configurations with WQHD screens are available). The HD camera is located in the upper part, and the fingerprints that are left after using the “tablet” mode are relatively easy to clean. The fingerprints that stick to the housing are also easy to clean, thanks to the finish of the ThinkPad Yoga 460.

Shifting to the “tablet” mode, you will quickly forget that this is a ThinkPad model. The test unit we looked at dosen’t have a discrete GPU and it weighs 1,9 kg., which is not exactly lightweight for this type of hybrid. Anyway, it’s is barely 19mm. thick, which means that you can hold the device effortlessly and that size will be no obstacle to your work in the second mode. To fully enjoy it you have side buttons which allow you to increase or decrease the sound of the device. Apart from this, the keyboard “hides” (sinks in) and the keys are deactivated, which prevents the appearance of other symbols on the screen whilst working with the touchscreen.

The location of the ports is not quite practical. On the right you can find almost all ports that are needed, namely two USB 3.0, HDMI, mini Display Port, Kensington lock, as well as the power-off button. If you use the device more frequently as a tablet, you probably won’t have problems with this engineering flaw. On the left there is a USB 3.0 port, memory card reader, charging port, a stylus and a OneLink+ slot.


IMG_6470

IMG_6473

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Display and sound

The screen of the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460 has Full HD panel, model LTN140HL05-901. The diagonal is 14″ (35.56 cm), with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The ratio of the sides is 16:9 and the pixel density is 157 pixels per inch, and 0.161 x 0.161mm pixel pitch. The screen becomes Retina when looked at from a distance longer or equal to 56 cm (from this distance the human eye does not recognize the separate pixels and is normal for a laptop).

Micr-Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460

The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460 has comfortable viewing angles. We present photos from a 45-degree incline for the purpose of quality evaluation.

Angles-Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460

We measured 275 cd/m2 maximum brightness before calibration with only 8% deviation on the surface of the screen. The average temperature value, measured on white screen and maximum brightness is 6325K and is fairly close to optimum (6500K) light.

BefMax-Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460

Color reproduction

The following diagram displays the spectrum of the sRGB color space (that has been used by millions of people in HDTV and the Web) covered by the screen of Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460. Starting with the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible spectrum 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) used in HDTV and the Web – rec.709/sRGB, while the wider Adobe RGB color space is used by professional cameras and images meant for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and their precise representation is crucial for the quality of the screen.

The yellow triangle delineates the capabilities of the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460. The coverage of 52% of sRGB is insufficient for saturated colors.

GAMUT-Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460

The two diagrams below are the same with the only difference that they show our findings before and after calibration. The color circles are the colors with 100% and 50% saturation in the sRGB color space, whereas the white circles display the output of Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460.

ColorsPre-Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460

ColorsPost-Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460

The input-output gamut-curve displaying the distribution of brightness levels coincides with the accepted standard 2.20 after calibration.

Gamma-Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460

We calibrated the screen to brightness level of 140 cd/m2 and target temperature of 6500K.

67-Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460

We used X-Rite i1Display Pro as a tool for calibration.

xRite-Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460

We tested the screen using 24 colour samples, which contained common colors as well as colors that are easily discernible by the eye – dark and light human skin, blue sky, grass green, orange peel, for example. Their accuracy is high, avg DeltaE 2000 = 0.78. The contrast ratio is also high – 1010:1 before and 910:1 after calibration.

Result-Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460

REPORT-Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460

Part of the colors from the screen verification report are graphically presented in the histogram below.

ColorChecker-Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460

Pulse-width modulation (PWM, Screen flickering)

The screen of Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460 uses PWM for controlling brightness levels only up to 75 cd/m2 (46% Brightness). In this way, it does not harm the eyesight in the most common work modes (the range is 80-200 cd/m2).

PWM-Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460

Conclusion

The screen of Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460 has high resolution and contrast, comfortable viewing angles, but the sRGB coverage is poor. It does not affect the eyesight with pulsations in a normal working mode. It is suitable for video playback, web browsing, gaming and various business applications (not connected to color processing).

Sound

The sound of Lenovo ThinPad Yoga 460 is stereo and has very good maximum power. The quality of the mids is relatively good. The lows and the highs are not clearly reproduced and deviations are also observed.

Sound-Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460

Specs sheet

CPUIntel Core i5-6200U (2-core, 2.30 – 2.80 GHz, 3MB cache)
RAM4GB (1 x 4096MB) – DDR3, 1600MHz
GPUIntel HD Graphics 520 (shared memory)
HDD/SSD516GB SSHD (16GB SSD + 500GB HDD, 7200 rpm)
Screen14-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS panel, glossy
Optical drive
ConnectivityLAN 10/100/1000 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0
Features
  • 3х USB 3.0
  • built-in web cam
  • built-in microphone
  • HDMI
  • Mini DisplayPort
  • TrackPoint
  • OneLink+
  • 4 in 1 card reader
Battery53Wh
Weight1.90 kg (battery included)
Thickness19 mm


Software

Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460 came with pre-installed Windows 10, which is perhaps the best option for an OS, baring in mind its ability to be used in different modes. If you need the newest drivers for your mobile device, you can visit Lenovo’s official website: http://support.lenovo.com/

Battery

Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460 has s 52550 mWh (53Wh) battery, which clearly suggests that the device can accompany you everywhere. The model is really robust, and the hardware has low power consumption, which gave us hope for long battery life after a single charge. In order for these expectations to be confirmed, we conducted our usual test in real-life conditions – Wi-Fi browsing, gaming and video playback with the following settings: Wi-Fi turned on, power saver switched on. Unfortunately, screen brightness did not manage to reach 120 cd/m2, so we left the hybrid with the maximum possible brightness levels.

Web browsing

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for to automatically browse through over 70 websites.

lenovo net

We were definitely happy about the batter as it nearly held up 7 hours of use – 6 hours and 51 minutes.

Video playback

For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.

lenovo mov

The result is a bit lower than the one above, and still it was not less than 6 hours – 6 hours and 20 minutes.

Gaming

To ensure an accurate gaming situation, we used the Metro: Last Light benchmark with graphics settings set to low.

lenovo game

Thanks to the integraded GPU and the low-voltage processor, the gaming performance of the battery is 3 hours and 33 minutes.

CPU – Intel Core i5-6200U

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Intel Core i5-6200U is a 6th generation dual-core CPU. It is manufactured using 14 nm FinFET process, meaning it’s part of the Ultra-Low Voltage lineup.The CPU is clocked at 2.3GHz, but thanks to the Turbo Boost technology it could automatically increase its clock speeds up to 2.8GHz for a single core and 2.7GHz when two cores are functioning. It is designed using Intel’s Skylake architecture allowing it to have similar performance to Intel Core i7-5500U, which is part of the Broadwell lineup. The CPU boasts four logical cores and 3MB level 3 cache. It consumes 15W of energy and can operate at a maximum temperature of 100 degrees Celsius.

The SoC also integrates Intel HD Graphics 520. Its performance is similar to that of NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 820 GPU. The GPU can be clocked at up to 1000MHz. The SoC supports the Dual-Channel DDR3L-1600/DDR4-2133 Memory Controller, HyperThreading, AVX, AVX2, Quick Sync, Virtualization and AES-NI technologies.

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-i5-6200u/

 


Fritz

Fritz is a chess benchmark that tests the computing capabilities of the CPU with various chess moves. The Intel Core i5-6200U managed to get 5.476 million moves per second. In comparison, one of the most powerful chess computers, Deep(er) Blue, was able to squeeze out 200 million moves per second. In 1997 Deep(er) Blue even beat the famous Garry Kasparov with 3.5 to 2.5.

GPU

pic_dispIntel HD Graphics or also known as GT2 is an integrated graphics processor used in ULV (Ultra-low voltage) chips from intel that are part of the Skylake generation processors. he GT2 core boasts 24 Execution Units (EUs) – in comparison to Intel HD Graphics (Broadwell) which has two times less (12 Eus). The highest frequency, that the integrated GPU can use is 1050MHz, but the latter can be changed depending on the CPU that’s used in. In our case it was clocked to 1000MHz.

To connect your monitor/tv to the graphics accelerator you can use the ports Display Port 1.2 and HDMI 1.4. If you have HDMI 4.0, you will need a DisplayPort adapter.

You can check our Top Laptop Graphics Ranking here: http://laptopmedia.com/top-laptop-graphics-ranking/

You can find our more information about our tests with this GPU here: http://laptopmedia.com/video-card/intel-hd-graphics-520/


Gaming tests

It is obvious that ThinkPad is not meant for gaming, but you can still play games from time to time with settings set to low.

tomb-raider-2013-wallpaper1

Tomb Raider (HD, Low)Tomb Raider (HD, Medium)Tomb Raider (HD, Max)
25 fps11 fps7 fps

f1-2015-game

F1 2015 (HD, Low)F1 2015 (HD, Medium)F1 2015 (HD, Max)
12 fps10 fps7 fps

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Thief (HD, Low)Thief (HD, Medium)Thief (HD, Max)
13 fps10 fps6 fps

Temperatures

Before displaying the results, we want to share with you that it is quite difficult or even impossible to engage the full power of the CPU or the GPU with normal use. Despite this, we performed it for you – as an illustration of how the cooling system reacts to maximum stress.

The cooling system showed relatively good results – a maximum of 72°C after 30-minutes of 100% CPU test. Unfortunately, the device we used is a testing unit and most applications had different results when testing the CPU sensors, and for this reason we share a general image below.

tempcpu30

Here, we can see that after a parallel start for the GPU and CPU tests, the reached temperatures were 78°C, and bearing in mind that most of the time they were 71-2°C, there is definitely enough evidence for quality cooling and comfort with heavier applications. However, we must not forget that the cooling is located on the right and if you are using a mouse you can feel some heat which can be unpleasant.

Verdict

Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 460 turned out a bargain, because of the capacity it offers, as well as the durability that “guards” the hybrid. You can enjoy your favourite photos or movies in each of the four modes (laptop, tent, stand and tablet) without the threat of poor image quality – all this is thanks to the IPS panel. The lack of PWM in almost all brightness levels and all levels considered as normal for work is very good news, as it is expected of you to spend a good deal of your time in front of the screen. In this way you can be sure that your eyes will be a tiny bit better-protected.

The compactness of the 14″ device makes it possible for you to carry wherever you go, while the powerful Intel Core i5-6200U CPU, along with the SSD provide the necessary speed and productivity you need for the software needs of your business. Even though we have a 14″ device, it has enough ports and the sound is clear when the maximum power of the speakers is used.

Small flaws of the device are the not exactly lightweight construction justified by durability reasons that the ThinkPad line provides, as well as the presence of PWM under 50% brightness – we don’t expect it to be used at such levels but still we have to mention it. We can also point out the low coverage of the sRGB color space, meaning that the Yoga 460 isn’t the best option if you deal with color editing or software of this kind.

You can find out more about the price of the device here: http://amzn.to/1VrdTpW

Pros

  • Durable construction, reinforced with carbon fibres
  • Lack of PWM with normal screen brightness levels while working
  • Comfortable “AccuType” keyboard
  • IPS panel
  • TrackPoint and a multi-touch screen


Cons

  • Poor coverage of the sRGB color gamut

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