Lenovo Talks About Their New Watchband Hinge In Yoga 3 Pro, Details All The Reliability Tests It Did For The New Hinge

Lenovo is feeling more proud of their new watchband hinge design they have developed for Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro. Today, they detailed the new hinge design on their official blog and even gave un an glimpse of tests they did in their labs to ensure their reliability.  The new six watchband hinge helps make the laptop 17 percent thinner and 14 percent lighter than its predecessor and also lets you lay it completely flat at 180 degrees. Just to shave few millimeters off the design, Lenovo created the new watchband hinge. It is constructed from steel and aluminum, the new hinge provides the same degree of flexibility and flatness of a metallic watchband due to its six flexion points.

Also, they did the following tests to ensure that it can last longer under everyday consumer scenarios.

• The Hinge Lift Test – To make sure the hinge withstands the wear and tear of mobile users, we put it through the same Hinge Life test as our other YOGA models – more than 20,000 cycles of opening and shutting. But we didn’t stop there. We put it through seven more tests to make sure it withstands the rigors of user and environments.
• The lap test – Yes, many people use their laptops on their laps. In addition to real life user testing, we created a robot and dummy leg to simulate using the YOGA 3 Pro on a lap while wearing stockings or underneath a blanket to make sure we eliminate snagging or nipping of fabric or skin.
• In a dusty environment or on the beach – we used a dust chamber test to simulate conditions in a dusty or sandy environment so you’re not limited in where you can take your laptop.
• While in transit in a bag – since YOGA is built for mobility, we used vibration and abrasion tests to make sure it holds up in a carrying bag so you can bike to school or travel with it.
• Panel balancing – in this test, we got pretty technical. We applied force to assess the balance and found the peak value to be less than a certain rigorous specification. Meaning? The screen will stay put when you want to use it in touch and interactive mode.
• Sweat, food and dirt – while we don’t recommend using your PC as a food tray, we know it happens and everyone has to work through lunch now and again. To account for sweat, food, dirt and other not-so-clean life factors, we used an environment chamber and life tester to ensure the YOGA 3 Pro could sit safely at the dinner or lunch table.
• Safety, drops, vibrations and shocks – lastly, we put the YOGA 3 Pro through an intense hinge physical that included corner drops, random vibrations, weight drops, shock tests, ball drops, pressure on the hinge and other various safety measure tests.

Source: Lenovo