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What's in a name? The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 260 is the successor to the ThinkPad Yoga 12, which was the successor to the ThinkPad Yoga (at the time of the original ThinkPad Yoga, it was the only ThinkPad Yoga available, so a size designation wasn't necessary). Now we have consumer Yogas like the Yoga 700 and Yoga 900, the 12.5" ThinkPad Yoga 260 and the high end 14" ThinkPad X1 Yoga. Then there's the ThinkPad Yoga 14, now called the ThinkPad Yoga 460, except by Best Buy in the US where it's still called the ThinkPad Yoga 14. Oh and let's not forget last year's ThinkPad Yoga 15. Whew! Clearly, Lenovo has capitalized on the popularity of the Yoga convertible design and offered a variety of sizes to see what sticks. The granddaddy 12.5" model has remained a constant through three generations of updates. It's nimble, small enough for comfortable pen use for art and notes, and it's powerful enough to be a main PC.
Specs at a Glance
The ThinkPad Yoga 260 is a 12.5" convertible Ultrabook with 360 degree hinges, a touch screen, a Wacom AES pen and Intel Skylake 6th generation dual core CPUs (Core i3, i5 and i7 available). What's different from the last generation model ThinkPad Yoga 12? The updated Intel CPU and related chipset, a drop in weight and the switch to Wacom AES from the Wacom EMR pen and digitizer. The laptop is available with IPS 1366 x 768 and 1920 x 1080 displays, and it has dual band Intel 8260 WiFi 802.11ac with Bluetooth, an SSD drive and your choice of 4, 8 or 16 gigs of RAM. The base price model with the 1366 x 786 touch + pen display, Core i3 processor, 4 gigs of RAM and a 128 gig SSD sells for just under $1,000. Our review unit with a full HD 1920 x 1080 touch + pen display, Core i5, 8 gigs of RAM and a 256 gig SSD sells for $1,400. A backlit keyboard with TrackPoint and relatively upgradable internals are standard.
Design and Ergonomics
The 2.9 lb. Yoga 260 is slim yet durable with a rigid casing in matte black. It's designed to handle travel and less than careful handling well. The 0.7" thick chassis doesn't flex, nor does the lid. This is a robust and business ready machine with a metal frame. The matte finish resists fingerprints and it's easy to clean with a damp cloth and a little Soft Soap. The bottom panel is held in place by Phillips head screws and the associated plastic clips on the bottom panel aren't difficult to unclip should you need to upgrade or service the laptop.
The ThinkPad has four rows of vents on the bottom, which is quite a lot for a 15 watt Ultrabook with integrated Intel HD 520 graphics that doesn't tend to generate a lot of heat. An exhaust vent lives on the rear edge and blows toward the back of the machine courtesy of the CPU fan. There's one warm spot on the bottom that never got burning hot (101F max in our tests) during hard work, and it's toward the rear so it likely won't distract you or heat you up. The fan is unobtrusive and rarely heard during productivity work and streaming video, but it will ramp up if you're working it hard with code compiles or 1080p video export.
For a small and relatively thin and light machine, the ThinkPad Yoga 260 has an ample port selection: 2 USB 3.0 ports, mini DisplayPort, a OneLink + dock port, HDMI, 3.5mm combo audio, a microSD card slot, SIM card slot for the optional 4G LTE module and a lock slot. The Yoga has side volume controls for use in tablet mode (there are also volume controls on the Fn row of the keyboard) and a side power button (again, good for tablet mode). The Wacom AES pen lives in a silo on the right side so you'll have a safe place to stow it. The notebook has a fingerprint scanner on the keyboard deck, and it's the newer rectangular kind you lay your finger on rather than a slit that you drag your finger across. It works well and is compatible with Windows Hello for logging into Windows 10.
Keyboard and Trackpad
As ever, Lenovo's ThinkPad keyboards are superb with excellent key damping, good force stroke and healthy key travel. It's a typist's dream, and the backlighting, activated using Fn and spacebar keys works well in dimly lit and dark settings. The Synaptics trackpad has settings for gestures and multi-touch, unlike barebones (though still often very good) Microsoft reference driver machines like the Dell XPS 13. It's a good trackpad, though we still don't enjoy the cursor acceleration that tends to send the cursor meandering afar when dragging files. The TrackPoint eraser stick pointer is nestled in the keyboard and the trackpad has discrete buttons for the TrackPoint at the top of the trackpad, though the trackpad itself has the usual buttonless design.
360 Degree Hinge for Versatile Convertible Use
The 360 degree hinges allow you to use the ThinkPad Yoga 260 in laptop, tent, presentation and tablet modes. The hinges are firm and display bounce isn't bad for a 2-in-1 convertible-- the display didn't bounce more than a standard laptop's when riding on a bus. When not in laptop mode the keyboard faces outward, but the Lift and Lock mechanism raises the bezel surrounding the keyboard and locks the keys so they won't wiggle when you handle the Yoga 260 (and they're disabled so you can't accidentally type when in tablet, presentation or tent modes). The trackpad does still depress and click, but the laptop ignores input unless the Yoga is in conventional laptop mode. If you find Windows 10's versatility perfect for convertibles or if you wish to use the pen for notes or art, then the ThinkPad Yoga 260 makes perfect sense.
Display
We have the 1920 x 1080 full HD IPS display in for review and it has Lenovo's usual ThinkPad anti-glare coating that's actually a permanent screen protector or overlay. It helps mitigate glare but dulls colors and contrast a little bit. It adds tooth for the pen, so it doesn't slip over the display as much when writing and drawing compared to glossy displays. Color gamut is disappointing for a laptop in this price range, and it won't suit professional graphic and video workers. It covers just 68% sRGB and 53% Adobe RGB, while competing brands and Lenovo's own more expensive ThinkPad X1 Yoga manage close to 100% sRGB and 75% of Adobe RGB. It looks decent but is certainly not breathtaking when viewing photos and video. Brightness however is very good, and though Lenovo claims 300 nits of brightness, our unit measured 344 nits, which is above average and perfectly bright for use in a well lit office.
Lower end models have a 1366 x 768, 300 nit IPS display, which is adequate in terms of resolution but not particularly sharp on a 12.5" panel. It too supports both pen and touch.
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