Benchmarking Intel's Skylake-U Series Core i7 Processor For Laptops
Lenovo Yoga 900 Initial Battery Life Testing And Conclusion
According to Lenovo, the Yoga 900 comes with a four-cell 66 Whr battery that's supposed to last around 9 hours, for video playback. Our Battery Eater test is significantly more strenuous than just streaming HD video content, as it stresses the CPU, GPU, memory and even the storage subsystem. It's truly a worst-case test that is meant to see how long a device will last under much heavier workloads.
In this test we set screen brightness to 50% and leave WiFi enabled, while the test is running. Power is then removed from the system and in addition to the test script, we monitor the device for a final uptime score measured in minutes.
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Lasting just under 3 hours, the 2.85 pound Lenovo Yoga 900 and its Skylake-U Core i7 processor offer up respectable performance, once again in the top quadrant of our test group. Frankly, however, this test doesn't really allow the ultra-low power state characteristics of Intel's Skylake-U platform to kick in, rather it just pushes on system resources until the battery begs for mercy. We're looking forward to testing the machine under lighter-duty workloads in our web browsing test, which will allow the CPU to throttle back significantly and we suspect will demonstrate best-of-class battery life for notebook architectures that are currently available. Stay tuned for the full review where we'll be sure to dig in deeper here.
To close things out, here's a quick refresher on the entire 15 Watt Intel Skylake-U family, reporting for duty in ultrabooks and ultralight convertibles of various shapes and sizes this Q4.
La Famiglia - as they say in Italy...
To close things out, here's a quick refresher on the entire 15 Watt Intel Skylake-U family, reporting for duty in ultrabooks and ultralight convertibles of various shapes and sizes this Q4.
La Famiglia - as they say in Italy...
The Intel Core i7-6500U that we tested in Lenovo's Yoga 900 sits right about in the middle of the stack, and along with the 6200U, will likely be a popular configuration for many notebook platforms coming forth from other OEMs. The i7-6500U has a nice balance of near top-end base clock and near top-end Turbo Boost clock as well, though the Core i7-6560U looks very intriguing, with its ultra-low 2.2GHz base clock and higher 3.2GHz Turbo. This chip will also sport Intel's Iris Graphics 540 engine as well, for a bit more GPU punch.
Lenovo's Yoga 900 Series With 3200X1800 IPS Display - $1400 MSRP
Lenovo's Yoga 900 Series With 3200X1800 IPS Display - $1400 MSRP
That about wraps up our initial quick-take look at Intel's Skylake-U series performance and Lenovo's latest Yoga variant notebook. We definitely have a bit more tire-kicking to do with this machine so be sure to stick around for the full review. For now, it looks as though Intel's 6th Generation Skylake Core Series processors are a natural in the 3 pounder ultralight weight class, offering better performance across the board, and though we need to roll up our sleeves more with it, likely much better battery life as well.
