Connectivity is largely typical except for one standout feature, which is that the power socket doubles as a USB 2.0 port – and the mains power adapter thus doubles as a generic USB charger. Although this has been around on various Lenovo laptops for a while, in general it remains a rarity and is certainly a useful feature.This port sits on the left edge, next to another USB 3.0 port, the 3.5mm audio jack and SD card reader. On the right edge is the power button, recovery button, rotation lock, volume rocker, micro-HDMi and a second USB 3.0 port. The front and rear of the device have no connectivity options.
With a 1,366 x 768 resolution and 135 pixels per inch density the, TP200SA’s screen isn’t the best you can buy. It’s fairly standard when compared to other laptops in its range however, matching the resolution on the Acer Aspire Switch 11 and beating the 10-inch HP Pavilion’s x2’s 1,280 x 800 display. You’re definitely not looking at a 4K display here, and you’ll notice the individual pixels, but this is no worse than anything else you can buy for under £300.Colour reproduction is surprisingly good. Colours stand out without seeming overly vivid, and blacks, while not the deepest you’re likely to see, certainly don’t look washed out. The highest brightness level is also pretty good, although it didn’t match the top brightness of my Macbook, which is to be expected. Basically, you might have some issues using the TP200SA outside on a sunny day but the screen does the job otherwise.
You will notice a lot of reflections in the screen but this is hardly an issue specific to the TP200SA. The last laptop I reviewed, the Lenovo Yoga 900, had the same problem with a distinctly glossy screen and that device costs more than five times the price of Asus’ budget machine.In terms of tablet mode, the display is responsive and accurate. I had no issues using the TP200 as a tablet and found it just as usable in terms of touch sensitivity as the more expensive foldable hybrids.The Fangbook SX6-300 doesn’t come from a familiar gaming laptop name, but it does come from a firm with huge high-end experience. CyberPower is best known for its gaming PCs, and it’s won dozens of awards for its pixel-pushing behemoths.This laptop is a 15.6in machine with plenty of power on offer: it has a formidable Intel Skylake chip and one of Nvidia’s best mobile GPUs, alongside an SSD and 16GB of memory.
This machine has a snazzy Fangbook logo on the lid and, elsewhere, it bears many of the familiar hallmarks of gaming portables. There are angled sections, a tough-looking logo above the keyboard, and a Scrabble-tile keyboard that glows with dozens of LEDs. The whole machine is clad in brushed aluminium.It’s no surprise that the Fangbook looks similar to MSI’s range of gaming machines – MSI actually made this laptop before CyberPower changed the name and specification. It’s a smart-looking unit, but it doesn’t have the visual flair of the Alienware 15: that machine has more angles, more vents and more lights.
Although the Fangbook could easily handle being lugged around in a bag without the need for a case or sleeve, there are a couple of build quality niggles to bear in mind. There’s some give in the metal on the lid, and the right-hand side of the wrist-rest also flexes a tad. It’s on a par with the MSI GS60 2QE Ghost Pro, but the Alienware is sturdier.There’s one area where the Fangbook does trump the Alienware – in its dimensions. The CyberPower machine’s 26mm width easily undercuts the 34mm Alienware, and its 2.4kg weight is reasonable too: more than half a kilo lighter than Dell’s laptop.
There’s no disputing the high-end hardware inside the SX6-300. The Core i7-6700HQ is the most modest part from Intel’s latest high-end mobile range, but don’t question its abilities: it has the new Skylake architecture, four Hyper-Threaded cores, and its 2.6GHz stock speed can use Turbo Boost to peak at 3.5GHz.Graphics prowess comes from an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M. Again, this sits right at the top of Nvidia’s mobile range: incorporating 1,280 stream processors, a 924MHz minimum speed and 3GB of dedicated memory.The storage array is decent, too. Windows 10 is installed to a 120GB Kingston M.2 drive, and it’s backed up by a 1TB hard disk that’s easily large enough for a good games collection. Elsewhere, there’s 16GB of 2,133MHz DDR4 memory.
Connectivity is good thanks to dual-band 802.11ac wireless and Bluetooth 4.0, and Gigabit Ethernet comes from Killer – which means traffic is prioritised for games. The Fangbook matches most other gaming notebooks in this department. The selection of ports is decent: two USB 3 connectors and a USB 3.1 Type-C port, an SD card slot, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs and a DVD writer.Its rivals are equipped with similarly impressive hardware. The MSI has the same processor and graphics core and falls behind only with 8GB of memory. The latest Alienware machines are kitted out with the same Core i7-6700HQ processor, and pricier models are available with the GTX 970M. Note that even lesser machines still boast GTX 965M graphics.
If the hardware inside this sample doesn’t suit, then the Fangbook is available in several other configurations. The SX6-100 costs £919 and includes the same Core i7 processor alongside a GTX 960M graphics core and a 500GB hard disk, and the £989 SX6-200 includes a 120GB SSD and GTX 960M graphics.Customisation is possible, too. CyberPower can drop the machine down to 4GB or 8GB of memory, switch up the storage, or bring the GPU down to a GTX 960M to save cash – or, if there’s more money in the budget, further SSDs can be added.The Fangbook’s internals are accessible, but it’s tricky to get inside. It’s held in place by more than a dozen screws, and requires some elbow-grease to yank the panel from the main body of the machine.
Once inside, though, things are more simple. The two memory slots, M.2 SSD and hard disk can all be unscrewed, and the battery is swappable too – although only once the base panel is removed. The cooling gear and optical drive can also be unscrewed, which is handy for swapping parts and cleaning.Lenovo, a leader in the laptop-tablet hybrid market, impressed with last year’s Yoga 3 Pro. With its "watchband" hinge that rotated 360 degrees, the laptop combined innovative design with decent performance, making it one of 2014’s most intriguing Ultrabooks.The Yoga 3 Pro did suffer from mediocre battery life, however, and its Core M processor meant that it wasn’t the fastest laptop on the market. This year, Lenovo has tried to address those concerns with the Yoga 900, the successor to the Yoga 3 Pro.It isn't only the naming convention that’s changed. The company has beefed up the internals with the latest Intel Core Skylake i5 and i7 processors, and a bigger battery that Lenovo claims will provide up to nine hours' battery life.
Like its predecessor, the Yoga 900 can be used as both a laptop and tablet thanks to its rotating screen, with four different modes: Laptop, Stand, Tent, and Tablet.With the added performance upgrades and continuing commitment to innovative design, the Yoga 900 certainly looks like it does enough to justify its £1,200+ price on paper. But can it really compete with other laptops at this level? What’s more, will another iteration of the Yoga design be enough to keep Lenovo at the forefront of the hybrid Ultrabook market, at a time when several other solid options – including the Surface Pro 4 – are available?
Considering the laptop’s high price (options start at £1,199.95), you'd expect a pretty well-built product for your money. But whether or not the Yoga 900 delivers in this department could well be determined by what you’ve become accustomed to.Starting with the positives. The "watchband" hinge, previously seen on the Yoga 3 Pro, makes a reappearance on the 900 and really does lend the device a premium feel. Lenovo claims that more than 800 pieces are used to make the hinge, slightly fewer than on the 3 Pro, which allows easy manipulation of the 360-degree rotating screen.In my opinion, detachable screens have always been the best method by which to integrate tablet and laptop. But the ease with which the watchband hinge allows you to put the Yoga 900 into its different positions makes a strong case for the folding design.
Add to this the new auto-lock feature, which allows the keyboard and screen to snap together when they're in close proximity, and the reworked hinge arguably makes the 900 the best foldable hybrid available at a time when 360-degree folding screens are no longer a novelty.Elsewhere, the laptop has been bulked up in comparison to its predecessor. At 1.3kg, the Yoga 900 remains light – but, due to the bigger battery, it's almost 0.1 inches thicker than the Yoga 3 Pro. Still, the 0.59-inch thickness remains impressive, putting the Yoga 900 close to the Microsoft Surface Pro 4’s 0.53-inches.The metal finish lends the Yoga 900 a MacBook-esque feel. You can choose between a range of somewhat redundantly named metallic finishes: Clementine Orange, Platinum Silver, and Champagne Gold.While the metallic finish does plenty to enhance the high-end aesthetic of the Yoga 900, like most laptops that try to emulate the MacBook design, this ultimately works as a disadvantage, enhancing the areas where the Yoga 900 can’t match Apple’s build quality.