GADGET GIZMO REVIEW Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 300

GADGET GIZMO REVIEW Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 300   Affordable and convertible usually don't go together very well when it  comes to laptops.Lenovo wants to change that with this affordable  Yoga 300 -a thin & ight touschscreen convertible with the trademark Yoga double hinge (which means the screen has 360 degrees of rotation). It's a smart (but conventional) design on this one. Our review unit is  white  (but black is available as an option too). White extends to the lid and underside -the bezel around the screen is still black and so is the palmrest. The silver dual hinges act as a highlight: they are visible with the lid closed and open at any angle. We did find that the matte finish polycarbonate surfaces  are prone to scratches though. The keyboard is full size, chiclet style with adequate  spacing but the travel on each key is quite less. On the left side of the machine, you'll find a Kensington lock slot,  proprietary power connector, USB 2.0 port, SD card reader, rotation lock button and a volume rocker. On the right is an Ethernet port, full size  HDMI port, a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port (powered), power button and  a couple of LED notification lights. With the lid closed, the Yoga 300 has a sort of clamshell design that tapers  off on either end.This looks good when the lid is closed but looks quite odd hen using it as a tablet. It also makes the device feel much thicker than it is, owing to the gap created. What's good is that when you start opening the lid, it recognises the position of the screen (tent, stand, tablet, laptop) and suggests apps accordingly .Obviously, there are several uses for this -and you can even place the machine with the screen flat on a table, facing up. The moment you swivel the screen past 180 degrees, the touchpad and keyboard are disabled. You'll notice this doesn't have one of the Intel Core processors. Instead, it's a Pentium quad core running at 2.16Ghz. It's not performance oriented but it gets the job done most of the time.  Windows 8.1 runs along smoothly and it's got enough grunt for basic  homeoffice use and light multimedia. The 4GB RAM and 500GB hard drive round off the specs. The 2-cell internal battery is good for about  4 to 5 hours of use. One of the areas where some major costcutting has been done is the screen.  Not only does it have very thick ugly bezels around the screen, it's just not  very good quality . Viewing angles are poor, overall brightness is low, colours are not at their best and it is highly reflective. All this makes for a less-than-ideal experience and it's a big negative in an otherwise decent  machine. There is a bunch of pre-loaded software which may or may not be useful to you. This includes Lenovo Phone Companion (Android phone mirroring and notifications -using a phone client app), Companion (registration, accessories, forum, use manual etc), SHAREit (to sendreceive files), Lenovo Veriface Pro (face recognition login), Photo Master (touch optimised photo viewer and organiser), OneKey Optimizer (system maintenance, power & battery charging modes), Motion Control (uses the webcam to detect gestures), Harmony (usage statistics + app recommendations), McAfee antivirus trial and a Lenovo Settings panel (in addition to the usual Windows settings). Overall, the Yoga 300 won't set your pulse racing but it does offer fairly  good value (we've seen online prices as low as `28k) for someone looking at a multi-mode machine with touch. It will also get a free upgrade to  Windows 10 which will further speed up operation. A similar machine you can consider is Dell's Inspiron 3148. It costs a bit more but is the same size, has most of the same features (flexi touch screen) and an Intel Core i3 processor. hitesh bhagat ET7OCT15