What's up Price Fight fans.
I'm Bring Tong, and this is a battle between 2 Windows 8 Ultrabook laptops with touchscreens that are unlike any other.
And you know what?
I'm just call them touch taps.
It's a price before I punch out between the Lenovo Yoga 13 and the Asus Taichi 21.
Our judges for this fight, our senior editor Dan "the Man" Ackerman,
senior associate editor, Scott "the Bottom line" Stein and Brian "Can't go wrong" Tong.
That will take all three judges blind scores and average them out for the nearest 10th each round the final price fight score will be an average of all around using the same system.
Let's get this party started.
Round one is design.
The Yoga 13 looks pretty much like most Lenovo laptops with its really clean lines and a soft textured body.
It brings a nice 13.3-inch display that's heavier in weight at 3.4
pounds but it really wows you with its flip-around tablet design that goes all the way around.
This is truly one of the most unique designs you'll ever see.
Now the Asus Taichi 21 brings a tight compact design with a real classy black glossy lid and an angular body with beveled edges.
It weighs in a lighter 2.8 pounds but there's a surprise.
The lid is also a screen.
That's right.
This guy has 2
11.6-inch screens, business in the front, party in the back.
The two-screen concept is great in theory but the outside of the laptop takes the most damage and it's a smudgy fingerprint magnet mess.
It's one of the rare rimes I'm taking functions over to looks.
The Yoga 13 takes his round with the four and the Taichi 21 gets a 3.7.
Next round is speakers.
The Yoga 13 brings a 1.7 Gigahertz core i5 processor
with 8 gigs of RAM, a full size HDMI port, 2 USBs and an SD card slot.
But let's be real.
Its biggest feature is that the Yoga 13 has more poses than Panda Express has menu options.
Put it on your lap, stand it on a table, use it like a laptop, read it like a book or wear it like a hat.
It's not called the Yoga for nothing and this thing is flexible.
Now the Taichi 21 in this price fight
has been configured with the 1.9 Gigahertz core i7 processor and 4 gigs of RAM.
You'll get micro HDMI, a mini VGA port and 2 USB ports.
But the biggest feature here is its 2 screens in one design and almost no other laptop has had that feature.
But the inner screen doesn't have touch and it's a killer omission.
Now sure, it doesn't sound like a big deal until you use this guy and you get frustrated with the disconnected experience.
Windows
8 was made to be touched and on top of that using both screens is controlled by clunky utility in the desktop that includes a mirror mode and dual-screen mode that might be useful in only a handful of situations.
Now, Asus really swung for the fences here but decided not to round all the bases.
The Lenovo Yoga 13 gets another 4 and the Asus Taichi 21 gets a 3.3.
So after averaging 2 rounds, the Yoga 13 has lead.
The next round is performance.
The Taichi 21 is a more expensive configuration that brings a faster CPU and no surprise here, it's faster in most of our benchmarks.
It shine in the multimedia, multi-tasking test and slightly edged out the Yoga 13 in the Apple iTunes encoding test.
But it wasn't too significant of a performance lead.
In fact, the Yoga 13 actually took the Photoshop CS5 processing test showing that it's a solid performer.
Our judges give the Taichi 21
this round with a 4 and the Yoga 13 gets a 3.7.
Round four is the all important battery life.
In our video playback battery drain test.
The Yoga 13 was the clear winner with 5.5 hours of video playback which is solid for an Ultrabook but not bad or [unk].
Now the Taichi 21 ran for about an hour less at just under 4.5 hours of playback.
And if you wanna try using both screens at the same time, it goes down one more hour to 3.5 hours
and that's if you even use both screens at the same time.
Now the judges all agree here.
Lenovo takes another round with a 4 and the Asus gets a 3. So after averaging 4 rounds, the Yoga 13 still has the lead.
The final round that decides it all is value.
You'll be paying over one grand for either of this touch tops, but with the Yoga 13 that starts at $1,099, you'll be getting one of the best values in the Windows 8 laptop right now with its super versatility and solid performance.
The Asus Taichi 21 still comes in a price that's not outrageous starting at $1,299 for 2 screens.
But this product fall short because of the disconnect in the user experience and its execution with its dual screens.
There will be people who love its unique design but the Yoga 13 is a better value right now.
In the final round, Lenovo takes this one with a 4.3 and the Asus Taichi gets a 2.7.
So let's average out all 5 rounds and in a
price fight, will Lenovo jumped on top early.
Asus still able to take around but it wasn't nearly enough.
And the Lenovo Yoga 13 takes this battle 4 to 3.3 and it's your price fight winner.
Both of these touch tops are bold new designs and it will really be interesting to see how this product category evolves.
Now Asus got a real clever proof of concept and we'll see if the next gen for them perfects that idea.
But right now, it's the Yoga 13 that takes the title of King of the
Ring.
I'm Brian Tong.
Thanks for watching.
We'll catch you guys next time for another Price Fight.
