Face Off: Lenovo Yoga 900 vs. HP Spectre x360 13 vs. Dell Inspiron 13 7348
Notebooks with 360-degree hinges tend to be more ergonomic at smaller sizes. The 13-inch category feels like the sweet spot for this type of convertible as it's not too big to be cumbersome in tablet mode and not too small to be limiting in screen real estate.
With the launch of the recent Yoga 900, we feel that now is a perfect time to compare the three currently popular convertibles in the 13-inch space. These are the high-end consumer notebooks and, in the case of the Inspiron 13, can carry a few business features as well. If touchscreen and multi-mode functionality are on the top of your list for your next big laptop purchase, then we recommend looking at one of these three in our latest Face Off.
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.
Lenovo Yoga 900 Review (Yoga 3 Pro 2014)
Case
There is no denying that these are sleek devices carefully designed to be safely turned and rotated in orientations that are atypical for a standard notebook. As shown in our comparison below, the dimensions of these notebooks are very similar especially in length and width. The Lenovo solution, however, is the thinnest by almost 5 mm compared to the Dell. Consequently, the Dell is roughly 400 grams and 200 grams heavier than the Lenovo and HP, respectively, which directly impacts its handling in tablet mode.
If the Inspiron is heaviest, does that mean it is also the strongest built? Not necessarily as we can notice plastic around the base of the unit. This is compared to the unibody aluminum on the HP Spectre and rubberized surfaces on the Yoga 900. Construction quality is still very good and is quite resistant to twists and depressions. Nonetheless, HP comes out on top as far as quality is concerned at the cost of less accessible internals.
An interesting factor to keep in mind is that while the pure aluminum alloy surface of the HP may appear nice and sharp, it is not ideal for handling when in tablet mode. The Yoga 900 and Inspiron 13 are rubberized either around the edges and corners of the outer lid or around the base for an easier grip. The hinges on the HP tend to teeter slightly more as well.
We find that the Yoga 900 offers the better balance between weight, construction quality, and handling. This latter attribute is especially important for this type of notebook.
Winner: Lenovo Yoga 900
Ports in Comparison
Connectivity
There are important differences between the connectivity features of each notebook. The HP is the only notebook with three full-size USB 3.0 ports and no USB 2.0. The Lenovo is the only one with no mini DisplayPort or even a HDMI port. Instead, video-out is done through the newer USB 3.1 Type-C port, which ultimately means one more adapter most users may need to carry. The Inspiron uses the larger but less expensive 2.5-inch SATA drive for storage instead of the costlier M.2. Note that the Inspiron 13 7347 is lacking the handy stylus slot as it is only available on the Inspiron 13 7348.
There is no objective winner in this category due to the many non-overlapping advantages one notebook has over the other.
Winner: Tie
Lenovo Yoga 900 | HP Spectre x360 13 | Dell Inspiron 13 7348 | |
USB | 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0 | 3x USB 3.0 | 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0 |
Video-out | 1x USB 3.1 Type-C | 1x HDMI, 1x mDP | 1x HDMI |
Other | SD reader, 1x 3.5 mm audio | SD reader, 1x 3.5 mm audio | SD reader, 1x 3.5 mm audio, Stylus slot |
Storage Bays | 1x M.2 | 1x M.2 | 1x 2.5-inch SATA III |
Input Devices
Starting off with the Yoga 900, its keyboard offers the most shallow travel and weakest feedback of the three. It's far from bad as it's all relative, but Lenovo can certainly improve upon the keyboard for future iterations. Meanwhile, the HP offers a similar level of travel, though with noticeably better feedback. Our main gripe with the keyboard here is that the white keys blend it a bit too well with the white backlight, so the characters can be difficult to see. Additionally, the notebook provides just one level of backlight brightness compared to two on the Yoga 900.
The keyboard on the Inspiron 15 is unfortunately closer in travel and feedback to the Yoga 900 than the HP. The spongy pressure point takes some getting used to and the center of the keyboard tends to yield with pressure.
The Yoga 900 sports the better touchpad out of the three. Travel is short, but feedback is very firm with a satisfying clock. The extra-wide touchpad on the HP is deceiving because a portion of it is not for cursor movement. Gliding and precision are still good, though feedback is weak. Dell is once again last as the accuracy of its touchpad is not always consistent.
Winner: Keyboard -- HP Spectre x360 13
Touchpad -- Lenovo Yoga 900
Display
Which notebook is carrying the better 13.3-inch IPS glossy touchscreen? Like in most of our other comparison articles, it's a seesaw battle between different properties of the display. The Yoga 900 is dimmer and with the lowest contrast, but has the highest native resolution and the more accurate colors. Meanwhile, the Inspiron 13 is the brightest with double the contrast, but has the least accurate colors and "only" a resolution of 1080p. The Spectre sits in the middle in terms of resolution, brightness, and color accuracy.
We cannot objectively pick out a winner in this category as it will depend on what attributes the user may find most important. Outdoor users may find the brighter Inspiron 15 easier on the eyes while others may prefer the extremely sharp and accurate panel on the Yoga 900. All displays are otherwise crisp and excellent for general day-to-day use.
Winner: Tie
Lenovo Yoga 900 | HP Spectre x360 13 | Dell Inspiron 13 7348 | |
Size | 13.3-inch IPS | 13.3-inch IPS | 13.3-inch IPS |
Native Resolution | 3200 x 1800 | 2560 x 1440 | 1920 x 1080 |
Pixel Density | 276 PPI | 219 PPI | 166 PPI |
Panel ID | Samsung SDC454A | LG Philips LGD0000 | Samsung SDC4C48 |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | HP Spectre x360 13-4104ng | Dell Inspiron 13-7348 | |
---|---|---|---|
Display | |||
Display P3 Coverage | 63.2 | 66.8 | 65.2 |
sRGB Coverage | 88.7 | 92.8 | 93.5 |
AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 64.9 | 67.3 | 67.1 |
Response Times | |||
Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 38.8 ? | 24 ? | |
Response Time Black / White * | 22.4 ? | 19 ? | |
PWM Frequency | 1316 | ||
Screen | |||
Brightness middle | 319.8 | 324 | 375 |
Brightness | 302 | 324 | 351 |
Brightness Distribution | 88 | 90 | 89 |
Black Level * | 0.835 | 0.34 | 0.44 |
Contrast | 383 | 953 | 852 |
Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 2.68 | 4.36 | 7.37 |
Greyscale dE 2000 * | 2.35 | 4.62 | 9.54 |
Gamma | 2.09 105% | 2.18 101% | 2.69 82% |
CCT | 6975 93% | 6857 95% | 6685 97% |
Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 57 | 60 | 61 |
Color Space (Percent of sRGB) | 88 | 93 | |
Total Average (Program / Settings) |
* ... smaller is better
Performance
CPU Performance
Lenovo, HP, and Dell all offer multiple CPU options beyond what we have here, so this comparison is only between the configurations on hand.
The three different ULV processors from the two different Intel generations provide essentially equal computing power according to CineBench results. The easily throttled Yoga 900, however, shows it performing much slower than it ought to be in some tests. Users who are constantly running demanding CPU applications may want to avoid the Lenovo for this reason.
Perhaps a more interesting note is that the Dell is the only system with single-channel memory and removable SODIMM RAM. Its fewer integrated components and easier maintenance are likely contributing factors to its heavier weight and thicker size.
See our dedicated CPU pages on the Core i7-6500U, i5-6200U, and i7-5500U for more benchmarks and comparisons.
Lenovo Yoga 900 | HP Spectre x360 13 | Dell Inspiron 13 7348 | |
CPU | 2.5 GHz Core i7-6500U | 2.3 GHz Core i5-6200U | 2.4 GHz Core i7-5500U |
TDP | 15 W | 15 W | 15 W |
RAM | 16 GB DDR3 1066 MHz, Dual-channel, Soldered | 8 GB LPDDR3, Dual-channel, Soldered | 8 GB DDR3, Single-channel, 1x SODIMM slot |
GPU | Intel HD Graphics 520 | Intel HD Graphics 520 | Intel HD Graphics 4400 |
Cinebench R15 | |
CPU Single 64Bit (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
HP Spectre x360 13-4104ng | |
Dell Inspiron 13-7348 | |
CPU Multi 64Bit (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
HP Spectre x360 13-4104ng | |
Dell Inspiron 13-7348 |
Cinebench R11.5 | |
CPU Single 64Bit (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
HP Spectre x360 13-4104ng | |
CPU Multi 64Bit (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
HP Spectre x360 13-4104ng |
Cinebench R10 | |
Rendering Single CPUs 64Bit (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
Rendering Multiple CPUs 64Bit (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK |
wPrime 2.10 | |
1024m (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
HP Spectre x360 13-4104ng | |
32m (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
HP Spectre x360 13-4104ng |
Super Pi Mod 1.5 XS 32M - 32M (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
HP Spectre x360 13-4104ng |
3DMark | |
1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Physics (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
1920x1080 Ice Storm Extreme Physics (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
1280x720 Cloud Gate Standard Physics (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
HP Spectre x360 13-4104ng | |
HP Spectre x360 13-4104ng | |
1920x1080 Fire Strike Physics (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
HP Spectre x360 13-4104ng | |
HP Spectre x360 13-4104ng | |
Fire Strike Extreme Physics (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK |
PCMark 8 | |
Storage Score (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
Work Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
Creative Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
Home Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK |
X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 | |
Pass 1 (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
Pass 2 (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK |
* ... smaller is better
GPU Performance
The system with the faster processor on paper comes out ahead in GPU performance. The move from Broadwell to Skylake is more about gains in GPU power rather than CPU power, so it makes sense that we see larger differences in GPU performance than CPU performance between our two Skylake systems and our Broadwell system.
See our dedicated GPU pages on the Intel HD Graphics 520 and HD Graphics 4400 for more benchmarks and comparisons.
Cinebench R15 - OpenGL 64Bit (sort by value) | |
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK | |
HP Spectre x360 13-4104ng | |
Dell Inspiron 13-7348 |
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.
All three notebooks throttle their CPUs quite heavily when under both Prime95 and FurMark stress. In contrast, the GPU throttles much less significantly, so integrated graphics performance appears to have priority over the CPU if the system is under extreme demands. Unfortunately, our reviewer for the HP Spectre x360 did not provide the stable GPU clock rate under stressful conditions, but it is likely to be similar to the Yoga 900 due to their underlying ULV Skylake architecture.
Though it's a very close call between the three notebooks, the Inspiron takes the crown because of its smaller performance delta between its base CPU clock rate and stable clock rate. Core temperature is set to never go above 70 C while the ceiling is slightly less conservative on the HP at 75 C.
Winner: Dell Inspiron 13 7348
Lenovo Yoga 900 | HP Spectre x360 | Dell Inspiron 13 7348 | |
Rated GPU Core Clock (MHz) | 400 | 1000 | 947 |
Stable GPU Core Clock on FurMark (MHz) | 850 | -- | 800 - 900 |
Rated CPU Core Clock (GHz) | 2.5 | 2.3 | 2.4 |
Stable CPU Core Clock on Prime95 (GHz) | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.8 |
Maximum CPU temperature | 70 C | 75 C | 70 C |
Emissions
System Noise & Temperature
When idling, all systems are nearly inaudible at 30 dB(A) or lower. The HP and Dell, however, have more sensitive fans that will pick up in speed in response to light or medium loads. Thus, the fan noise on both of these systems tend to pulsate more frequently than on the Lenovo.
The Dell is the loudest when under maximum processing loads. While the Lenovo and HP have similar maximum values, we prefer the Lenovo for its steadier noise levels when browsing or surfing the web.
Average surface temperatures on all notebooks are about the same after accounting for the ambient temperatures during the measurements. The Lenovo is slightly warmer when idling due in part to its thinner design. Both the Lenovo and Dell are able to keep their keyboards much cooler than the HP when under high processing loads. The more symmetric cooling solution in the Lenovo helps to create a more even temperature profile as well.
Winner: Lenovo Yoga 900
Lenovo Yoga 900 | HP Spectre x360 13 | Dell Inspiron 13 7348 | |
Fan Noise when idling | 30.0 dB(A) | 29.6 - 34.6 dB(A) | 29.6 dB(A) |
Fan Noise under high loads | 32.0 - 38.5 dB(A) | 34.7 - 37.9 dB(A) | 35.4 - 41.4 dB(A) |
Average surface temperature when idling | 23.4 C | 24.4 C | 24.6 C |
Average surface temperature under high loads | 28.9 C | 32.0 C | 30.2 C |
Ambient temperature | 18.0 C | 22.0 C | 22.0 C |
Battery Life
Ein direkter Vergleich der WLAN-Laufzeiten ist schwierig, da unser neuer WLAN-Test v1.3 deutlich anspruchsvoller ist als der alte WLAN-Test v1.0, der noch beim Inspiron 13 zum Einsatz kam.
A direct comparison between WLAN runtimes is difficult since our newer WiFi v1.3 test is much more demanding than our older WiFi v1.0 test performed on our Inspiron 13. Even with this in mind, the Dell has the shortest battery life out of the three. Perhaps coincidentally, it also carries the lowest capacity battery at just 43 Wh. The Li-Ion battery packs are all non-removeable and hidden underneath their respective maintenance panels.
The HP convertible comes out ahead by about an hour and a half longer than the Lenovo and likely even more when compared to the Dell.
Winner: HP Spectre x360 13
Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK 80MK 66 Wh | HP Spectre x360 13-4104ng 56 Wh | Dell Inspiron 13-7348 43 Wh | |
---|---|---|---|
Battery Runtime | |||
Reader / Idle | 844 | 522 | |
WiFi v1.3 | 403 | 500 | |
Load | 128 | 97 | |
WiFi | 394 |
Verdict
Handling, size, and weight are more vital factors for a convertible than on a standard notebook. If based on these qualities alone, then the Yoga 900 is the overall better choice. Users will have to live with the dimmer display, softer keyboard, and throttling CPU and sacrifice key connectivity features like HDMI and Mini DisplayPort. In turn, this latest Lenovo is the most comfortable convertible to use as a tablet and is recommended for users who are certain that they will its tablet features frequently.
The Spectre x360 and Inspiron 13 have key advantages over the Yoga 900 in areas outside of handling or size. Whether or not these are enough to consider over the Yoga 900, however, will ultimately depend on user preferences. The Dell is much too heavy to use in tablet mode for extended periods despite the brighter display. The HP lies in between the Lenovo and Dell and we find it to be the better middle-ground solution for users who will only occasionally or infrequently use tablet mode when appropriate.
Lenovo Yoga 900 | HP Spectre x360 13 | Dell Inspiron 13 7348 |
---|---|---|
+ Lower fan noise + Thinner and lighter + Rubberized surfaces for better grip + Dedicated rotation lock button + Very high display resolution + More accurate colors and grayscale + USB 3.1 Type-C + More accurate and comfortable touchpad | + Longer battery life + Stronger aluminum alloy unibody construction + Higher display contrast + HDMI and Mini DisplayPort + Firmer keyboard feedback | + Stylus support (7348 only) + Brighter display backlight + Accessible internals + Inexpensive 2.5-inch HDD/SSD replacement + RAM not soldered (Available SODIMM slot) |
- Dimmer display backlight - Lower display contrast - More susceptible to CPU throttling - No HDMI - Slow charging - Shorter keyboard travel and weaker feedback | - No rubber grip for tablet mode - Slightly weaker hinges - More inaccessible internals | - Thicker and heavier - Less accurate colors and grayscale - Shorter battery life; Smaller battery capacity - Fans pulsate more frequently - Shorter keyboard travel and weaker feedback |
Lenovo Yoga 900
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HP Spectre x360 13
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Dell Inspiron 13 7347
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