Face Off: Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 vs. Asus Zenbook UX360CA vs. Dell Inspiron 13 7359
At about $1000 USD each, these 13.3-inch convertible systems seem to be just the right size to replace both your tablet and aging laptop without costing an arm or an leg. We've already compared pricier 13.3-inch models in the past including the flagship Yoga 900 and Spectre x360 13, but the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 and Asus Zenbook UX360CA are cheaper without necessarily being thicker or heavier because of their low-power Core m CPUs. We've added the Dell Inspiron 13 7359 to this comparison as well to see exactly what kind of advantages and disadvantages users can get from the more powerful ULV Skylake CPU.
We encourage users to check out our dedicated review pages below for more data and detailed analyses of each of the three models. This comparison is by no means a replacement, but a condensed aid for those on the fence.
Case
Unlike traditional notebooks, convertible notebooks are meant to be turned and handled from a variety of orientations and must be well made to withstand their ever-changing modes. The base, lid, and hinges of the Inspiron 13 7359 are all noticeably more rigid than the Yoga 3 Pro 13 and Zenbook UX360CA, so the longevity of the Dell system will likely trump both the Lenovo and Asus units. These latter two models are comparatively more flexible around their bases, keyboards, and especially their thinner lids. This isn't to say that the display lid of the Dell is perfect, but it is certainly less susceptible to warping and bending. The unique wristband hinge of the Lenovo is still sufficiently rigid while we found the more standard 360-degree hinges of the Asus to be the weakest of the bunch.
The stronger build of the Inspiron 13 7359 comes at the expected cost of size and weight. The faster Dell system is several hundred grams heavier than both the Lenovo and Asus while being noticeably thicker as well. Thus, users will be sacrificing weight and portability for a stronger chassis.
Ports in Comparison
Connectivity
Noteworthy differences here include USB Type-C only on the Asus while the Dell includes the more standard ful-size HDMI port. The screen rotation toggle on the Lenovo is also quite handy in tablet mode for sharing the display with others. Depending on user preferences, the integrated stylus on the Dell may be more important than having USB Type-C or a rotation lock button. The ports are otherwise identical between the three systems.
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 | Asus Zenbook UX360CA | Dell Inspiron 13 7359 | |
USB | 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0 | 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB Type-C Gen. 1 | 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0 |
Video-out | 1x mini-HDMI | 1x mini-HDMI | 1x HDMI |
Other | SD reader, 3.5 mm audio, screen rotation lock, Volume rocker, OneKey Recovery | SD reader, 3.5 mm audio, Volume rocker | SD reader, 3.5 mm audio, Volume rocker, Stylus, Noble Lock |
Storage Bays | 1x M.2 | 1x M.2 | 1x 2.5-inch SATA III |
Input Devices
The keyboard of the Lenovo notebook offers crisp feedback with shallow travel and can feel very light to those who are accustomed to desktop keys. We don't find this to be uncomfortable in the long run and are instead more bothered by the notebook's complete lack of dedicated Function keys above the standard row of number keys.
Luckily, the keyboards on the Asus and Dell feature the top row of Function keys, though the bottom right Arrow keys are smaller compared to the Lenovo. The QWERTY keys on the Asus in particular are more wobbly and the notebook base around the keys depresses more easily for an overall softer stroke. Lastly, the keys on the Dell are not unlike the Lenovo system in terms of travel, though its keys clatter more loudly. Thus, the Lenovo offers the best of both words in terms of comfort at the unfortunate cost of an entire row of Function keys.
As for the touchpads, all three notebooks utilize integrated clickpads with no dedicated mouse keys. The Lenovo is the most comfortable in terms of responsiveness, multi-touch gestures, and haptic feedback. The Asus clickpad is also very good with an even shallower travel and firmer auditory feedback. The Dell clickpad is just as smooth for gliding and clicking, but its cursor was sometimes unresponsive on our test unit during use.
Display
Though the three notebooks are identical in native resolution, their underlying glossy panels are not the same. Core features like brightness, contrast, and color accuracy are very different between these panels as illustrated in our table below. The Lenovo system carries the more accurate colors but the poorest black levels. The Asus carries the highest contrast ratio and wider color gamut, but suffers from pulse-width modulation (PWM) at lower brightness levels. Lastly, the Dell has the dimmest backlight and narrower color gamut with less accurate colors.
The more well-rounded display goes to Asus with its lower response times for less ghosting, higher contrast, and wider color gamut. The brightness and contrast alone are significant advantages for better outdoor visibility especially for a convertible. We recommend a color calibration for more accurate colors and avoiding low brightness settings due to the presence of PWM on the Asus.
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 | Asus Zenbook UX360CA | Dell Inspiron 13 7359 | |
Size | 13.3-inch IPS | 13.3-inch IPS | 13.3-inch IPS |
Native Resolution | 1920 x 1080 | 1920 x 1080 | 1920 x 1080 |
Pixel Density | 276 PPI | 276 PPI | 276 PPI |
Panel ID | Samsung L_LLTN133YL03L01 | AUO B133HAN02.7 | Samsung SDC864D |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE | Asus Zenbook UX360CA-FC060T | Dell Inspiron 13 7359-4839 | |
---|---|---|---|
Display | |||
Display P3 Coverage | 64.6 | 65.1 | 40.31 |
sRGB Coverage | 89.5 | 93 | 60.5 |
AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 65.5 | 66.5 | 41.65 |
Response Times | |||
Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 36 ? | 29 ? | 38 ? |
Response Time Black / White * | 28 ? | 22 ? | 29 ? |
PWM Frequency | 1330 ? | 192 ? | |
Screen | |||
Brightness middle | 314 | 302 | 253 |
Brightness | 294 | 298 | 232 |
Brightness Distribution | 83 | 90 | 83 |
Black Level * | 0.57 | 0.21 | 0.28 |
Contrast | 551 | 1438 | 904 |
Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 2.18 | 6.33 | 6.36 |
Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 6.48 | 11.89 | 12.72 |
Greyscale dE 2000 * | 2.45 | 8.13 | 10.26 |
Gamma | 2.39 92% | 2.52 87% | 2.28 96% |
CCT | 6745 96% | 6811 95% | 6500 100% |
Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 58 | 60 | 38 |
Color Space (Percent of sRGB) | 89 | 93 | 60 |
Total Average (Program / Settings) |
* ... smaller is better
Performance
CPU Performance
Lenovo, Asus, and Dell all offer multiple CPU options beyond what we have here, so this comparison is only between the configurations on hand.
The Broadwell Core M in the Lenovo is measurably slower in raw CPU benchmarks than both the Skylake Core m3 in the Asus and the more demanding ULV Core i7-6500U in the Dell. The performance gap between these two 4.5 W processors is about 13 percent according to CineBench 15 while 3DMark Cloud Gate shows an even wider jump of 50 percent. The Core i7 in the Dell has a healthy lead over both its competitors as it is in a higher TDP category with faster raw clock rates.
Serviceability is more limited on the Asus and Dell compared to the Lenovo. Convertible notebooks tend to have very few upgradeable components anyway with RAM modules soldered on both the Lenovo and Asus.
See our dedicated CPU pages on the Core M-5Y70, Core m3-6Y30Intel Core i5 6200U Notebook Processor, and Core i7-6500U for more benchmarks and comparisons.
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 | Asus Zenbook UX360CA | Dell Inspiron 13 7359 | |
CPU | 1.1 GHz Core M-5Y70 | 0.9 GHz Core m3-6Y30 | 2.5 GHz Core i7-6500U |
TDP | 4.5 W | 4.5 W | 15 W |
RAM | 8 GB DDR3-1600, Dual-channel, soldered | 8 GB LPDDR3, 1866 MHz, Dual-channel, Soldered | 8 GB DDR3L, 1600 MHz, single-channel, 2x SODIMM |
GPU | Intel HD Graphics 5300 | Intel HD Graphics 515 | Intel HD Graphics 520 |
3DMark | |
1280x720 Cloud Gate Standard Physics (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE | |
Asus Zenbook UX360CA-FC060T | |
Dell Inspiron 13 7359-4839 | |
1920x1080 Fire Strike Physics (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE |
PCMark 8 | |
Work Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE | |
Asus Zenbook UX360CA-FC060T | |
Dell Inspiron 13 7359-4839 | |
Creative Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE | |
Home Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE | |
Asus Zenbook UX360CA-FC060T | |
Dell Inspiron 13 7359-4839 |
GPU Performance
The Lenovo is equipped with a weaker HD Graphics 5300 integrated GPU from the Broadwell generation compared to the HD Graphics 515 and HD Graphics 520 in the Asus and Dell, respectively, both from the Skylake generation. Nonetheless, all three have 24 EUs each and should be roughly comparable in theory, but the higher TDP ceiling on the Dell affords the HD Graphics 520 higher raw clock rates.
3DMark Cloud Gate and Bioshock Infinite benchmarks show Lenovo being the slowest and Dell being the fastest as predicted. Surprisingly, however, the jump from the HD Graphics 5300 to the HD Graphics 515 is larger than the jump from the HD Graphics 515 to the HD Graphics 520 even though the HD Graphics 520 benefits from a higher TDP. This suggests that much of the additional power overhead in the Dell is taken up by the CPU instead as the i7-6500U has a much faster core clock than both the Core M-5Y70 and Core m3-6Y30.
See our dedicated GPU pages on the HD Graphics 5300, HD Graphics 515, and HD Graphics 520 for more benchmarks and comparisons.
3DMark 11 - 1280x720 Performance GPU (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE | |
Asus Zenbook UX360CA-FC060T | |
Dell Inspiron 13 7359-4839 |
3DMark | |
1280x720 Cloud Gate Standard Graphics (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE | |
Asus Zenbook UX360CA-FC060T | |
Dell Inspiron 13 7359-4839 | |
1920x1080 Fire Strike Graphics (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE |
Cinebench R15 - OpenGL 64Bit (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE | |
Asus Zenbook UX360CA-FC060T |
BioShock Infinite | |
1280x720 Very Low Preset (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE | |
Asus Zenbook UX360CA-FC060T | |
Dell Inspiron 13 7359-4839 | |
1366x768 Medium Preset (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE | |
Asus Zenbook UX360CA-FC060T | |
Dell Inspiron 13 7359-4839 | |
1366x768 High Preset (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE | |
Asus Zenbook UX360CA-FC060T | |
Dell Inspiron 13 7359-4839 |
Stress Test
To test system stability, we run both Prime95 and FurMark to simulate maximum stress. These unrealistic conditions do not represent daily workloads, but are instead meant to put both the CPU and GPU at 100 percent capacity.
Core m processors tend to throttle more heavily compared to most other Intel U-series processors, so we're not surprised to see both the Lenovo and Asus each throttling down to as low as 600 MHz for the CPU and 250 to 350 MHz for the GPU. In comparison, the Dell runs at a permanent Turbo Boost of 2.6 GHz against its base core clock rate of 2.5 GHz. Our editor unfortunately did not provide a clock rating for the integrated HD 520 GPU, but it is likely to be at least slightly faster than its two competitors as well.
The faster performance out of the Dell comes at the price of higher core temperatures as the CPU can be as much as 10 C warmer than both the Lenovo and Asus when under heavy processing loads. This is despite the fact that the Dell system is both thicker and with a slightly noisier fan noise as well.
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 | Asus Zenbook UX360CA | Dell Inspiron 13 7359 | |
Rated GPU Core Clock (MHz) | 100 - 850 | 700 | 300 - 1050 |
Stable GPU Core Clock on FurMark (MHz) | 250 | 350 | -- |
Rated CPU Core Clock (GHz) | 1.1 | 0.9 | 2.5 |
Stable CPU Core Clock on Prime95 (GHz) | 0.6 | 0.6 | 2.6 |
Average CPU temperature | 65 C | 67 C | 76 C |
Emissions & Energy
System Noise & Temperature
Notebooks with Core m processors are extremely quiet and most get by with no active cooling at all. This is the case for the Zenbook UX360CA as it is fanless and absolutely silent during use. The Lenovo includes a fan, but it is not always active and is still very quiet and almost unnoticeable even during heavy processing loads.
Unsurprisingly, the fan in the Dell is more active due to the higher TDP of the CPU. Even so, it is relatively quiet under regular use and will only spin up to its maximum of 34 dB(A) when under extreme loads. It's worth noting that our test unit unfortunately had an audible buzzing noise that we found to be more bothersome than the actual system fan itself. Otherwise, all three notebooks are essentially noiseless when under ambient room or office conditions.
Average surface temperatures are warmest on the Lenovo when idling and warmest on the Dell when under high loads. Nonetheless, we vastly prefer the temperature behavior of the Lenovo over both the Asus and Dell as its hot spots are away from the keyboard surface as shown by their respective temperature maps below. The typing experience is more comfortable here and its bottom panel is also comparatively cooler.
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 | Asus Zenbook UX360CA | Dell Inspiron 13 7359 | |
Fan Noise when idling | 31.2. - 31.8 dB(A) | -- dB(A) | 32.2 dB(A) |
Fan Noise under high loads | 32.3 dB(A) | -- dB(A) | 34.1 dB(A) |
Average surface temperature when idling | 27.3 C | 24.5 C | 24.6 C |
Average surface temperature under high loads | 29.2 C | 31.8 C | 33.1 C |
Ambient temperature | 22.6 C | 21.0 C | 21.9 C |
Power Consumption
The three notebooks are power-efficient as expected especially when idling on desktop. Interestingly, the Lenovo draws just a few more Watts when idling than both the Asus and Dell despite it having the weaker processor of the bunch. When under load, however, the higher demands of the ULV CPU in the Dell takes over and the power consumption differences begin to show. The Inspiron 15 draws about 10 more Watts of power than the Lenovo and Asus when under higher loads which, perhaps not coincidentally, is also the difference in TDP between the Core M-5Y70/m3-6Y30 and the Core i7-6500U.
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE HD Graphics 5300, 5Y70, Samsung SSD PM851 MZNTE512HMJH | Asus Zenbook UX360CA-FC060T HD Graphics 515, 6Y30, Lite-On CV1-8B128 | Dell Inspiron 13 7359-4839 HD Graphics 520, 6500U, Liteonit LCH-256V2S | |
---|---|---|---|
Power Consumption | |||
Idle Minimum * | 4.8 | 3.4 | 4 |
Idle Average * | 10.7 | 7 | 4.8 |
Idle Maximum * | 11.8 | 7.6 | 7.6 |
Load Average * | 18.3 | 19 | 30 |
Load Maximum * | 19.7 | 20.1 | 29.3 |
* ... smaller is better
Battery Life
The Inspiron 13 may have the more demanding processor, but its larger battery capacity more than makes up for it with significantly longer runtimes than both the Yoga 3 Pro 13 and Zenbook UX304CA under similar WLAN conditions. The Asus should run about 2 hours longer than the Lenovo while the Dell will last almost two hours longer on top of the Asus.
The batteries are all not user-replaceable as is common on convertible notebooks. Note that the comparison numbers in the table below are provided in minutes.
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 80HE004LGE 44 Wh | Asus Zenbook UX360CA-FC060T 44 Wh | Dell Inspiron 13 7359-4839 54 Wh | |
---|---|---|---|
Battery Runtime | |||
WiFi v1.3 | 263 | 386 | 486 |
Reader / Idle | 1027 | 886 | |
Load | 239 | 109 |
Verdict
Each of the three notebooks offer something superior to the others. The Yoga 3 Pro 13 is the most portable and also the most comfortable to use in terms of keyboard feedback and handling. In turn, its core system performance and battery life are both slower and shorter, respectively. The Asus notebook is equipped with an overall better display that provides deeper contrast levels and higher brightness for better outdoor visibility. Unfortunately, its chassis is weaker and its softer keyboard keys will take time to become accustomed to. Lastly, the Inspiron 13 7359 is the more powerful, stronger, and longer-lasting system, but its heavier weight, dimmer backlight, and narrower color gamut make it comparatively harder to use when on-the-go.
The better convertible here is again dependent on user habits and if the system will be primarily for outdoor use or indoor use. The Dell is recommended for indoor uses where its extra processing horsepower can also make it a more capable multimedia device. Both the Lenovo and Asus are better fit for constant travelers where versatility and portability become more important.
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13 | Asus Zenbook UX360CA | Dell Inspiron 13 7359 |
---|---|---|
+ Thinner, lighter, and more portable + Dedicated volume rocker and screen rotation lock buttons + More comfortable keyboard keys and touchpad; full-size Arrow keys + Accurate colors without any calibration; Bright display backlight + Keyboard remains cool under load | + USB Type-C + Brighter display backlight and with higher contrast + Faster display response times and wider color gamut + Fanless design | + More rigid chassis and design + Full-size HDMI port and more common 2.5-inch SATA III drive + Faster CPU and GPU performance; No CPU throttling + Larger battery capacity and longer battery life + Integrated stylus option |
- No dedicated row of F keys - No USB Type-C - Higher black levels - Slower CPU and GPU performance - Shorter battery life - Throttling under extreme loads | - Weaker hinges and more flexible base and lid - More wobbly keys and a softer stroke - Pulse-width modulation on lower brightness levels - Throttling under extreme loads | - Thicker, heavier, and less portable - No USB Type-C - Keys clatter slightly more loudly - Narrower color gamut and more inaccurate colors - Dimmer display backlight - Higher operating temperatures and power consumption; Warmer keyboard - Slightly noisier |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 13
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Asus Zenbook UX360CA
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Dell Inspiron 13 7359
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