On Nov. 2, Microsoft yet again "picked on" Apple in its ad for one its hybrid computers, the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro. The 30-second dance-off mocked the MacBook Air, with Microsoft declaring the "game over" after the flexible hybrid dominated in three aspects: thickness, the "tent" and the touchscreen.
It may seem that Microsoft has the game in its hands, but it is still heavily argued that it takes more than three strikes to hammer down the Apple machine. So how does the MacBook Air really fare with its new "dancing" rival? Here is another showdown.
As the ad proclaimed, the Yoga 3 Pro is the thinner laptop. It measures 13 inches while the MacBook Air is at 17 inches. The Yoga 3 Pro also jeered at MacBook Air's non-touchscreen display, which allowed Microsoft to claim that "there's more than one way to do what you want." As a "multi-mode" and flexible machine, the Yoga 3 Pro doubles as a tablet that bends and folds back, in which it starts going into "tent" mode to allow maximum movie experience. With all these identified in the ad, it looked like MacBook Air does not know how to dance like Yoga 3 Pro does.
The Lenovo device also wins in the display department with its QHD 3200 x 1800 display topping Apple's MacBook Air with only 1440 x 900 screen resolution. However, in terms of performance (battery life), Yoga 3 Pro is put on a shaky post. The Yoga 3 Pro allows users to work for 7.2 hours. The MacBook Air, which comes in two sizes (11-inch and 13-inch), promise way longer usage of 9 hours and 12 hours, respectively.
Most importantly, concerning price, users can easily do away with Yoga 3 Pro. The price tags may render greatest impact in a shopper's decision so this pushes Yoga 3 Pro further to the edge of the plank. The Microsoft offering costs $1,300 for the 256 GB storage option and buyers have to add $200 more to get the 512 GB version. The 11-inch 128 GB MacBook Air is priced $899. The 256 GB alternative is at $1,099. The 13-inch version with 128 GB internal storage requires a $999 shell out while the 256 GB version is at $1199.
