LENOVO YOGA 3 11 - 80J80021US

Just saw this at Bestbuy today for $879. Any user experiences? Opinions?


Here's a quick run down on the specs:

Features
Processor : 5th Generation Intel® Core™ M-5Y71 processor 4MB cache speed up to 2.9GHz.
RAM : 8GB DDR3L SDRAM memory
Hard drive : 256GB solid state drive
Optical Drive : Optical drive not included
Screen Display : 11.6″ Full HD LED-backlit widescreen display with 10-point capacitive multitouch (1920 x 1080) resolution
Graphics Card : Intel HD Graphics 5300
HDMI Port : micro HDMI outputCamera : Built-in HD webcam 720p resolution with microphone
Speakers : Stereo speakers with Waves Audio certification
Card reader : 4-in-1 media reader
USB Ports : 1 x USB 3.0 port and 2 x USB 2.0 ports
Wireless LAN : Built-in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11ac)
Bluetooth : Bluetooth version 4.0
Weight : Weighs only 2.42 lbs. and measures just 0.62″ thin
Dimensions (W x D x H) : 11.42″ x 7.75″ x 0.62″
Battery : 4 Cell 34 Watt Hour Li-Polymer up to 6 of battery life
Operating System : Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit preinstalled.
Software package included : PowerDirector, Lenovo Veriface Pro and more.
Also includes a trial version of Microsoft Office 2013.
Warranty : 1-year warranty both parts and labor

 

I bought this laptop a week ago from amazon.it . Nice build quality, nice sound... not very loud but quality sound, excellent wifi reception, very nice screen and bright enough. Battery is rather mediocre, you should expect 5-6 hours, not more. Yoga impressed me the first hour of operation. Then I started setting up the laptop, installing programs and in the meantime charging the battery. That was it. Laptop was overheating even in simple tasks such as browsing with Chrome and installing Office. The heat was causing the CPU to throttle back to 0.76Ghz and everything was lagging.

I unplugged the charger and things got a little better after a few minutes. System became more responsive but still.... I was in complete shock. If those simple tasks caused so much trouble, what would happen if it was summer and I had 2-3 programs open simultaneously?

I did request an RMA from Amazon immediately. To my eyes this machine was a complete fail regarding thermal design. I strongly believe that Lenovo will introduce a redesign of this product with a fan inside.

Right now I am waiting for HP Spectre X360 to become available... but I am really sad with the Yoga 11... it was the perfect concept for me.

 

See the post about 8 down for my impressions. I had none of the heating problems mentioned. But I returned it to Best Buy because of fair to poor battery life and because of lack of sensors that sense movement and position of the PC. (Can't play games such as flight sims where control is done by tilting the PC.)

Regards, Jim

 

That's a real shame because this was exactly what I was looking for...

 

If you are looking for something like the Yoga 3 11, but with tablet sensors, take a look at a Yoga 11s Haswell. They are selling on Ebay and sometimes on Lenovo Outlet Store for ~ $400. It is an excellent 11.6 inch laptop.

Good luck, Jim

 

I'm also very interested in this laptop. How would describe your typical usage? Do you use chrome or IE? 5-6 hours web browsing in chrome, I would say "not bad" (IE probably will last 2-3 hours more).

If web browsing in IE can last more than 7 hours, I will be happy to pick up one. Motion sensor is not a deal breaker for me, since I don't play any motion based games on laptop or tablet.

 

My use is Email, web, card games and a flight sim. I use chrome for browsing. Yeah, IEE could help with battery life. It is a very nice laptop. I bought it to replace my Yoga 11s. But, for reasons unknown, Lenovo chose to not include motion sensors as they had done with the 11s. If I didn't need motion sensors, I would have been very happy with it.

Best regards, Jim

 

Thanks for the information. Since the motion sensor is not a deal breaker for me, I may pick up one (corporate perk is offering 8g/180g for less 700).

 

I ended up finding a good deal on a refurb 11s and bought it. So far it's been a great computer. I got it from Fry's electronics. They give you a 30 day period to try it out. I did purchase the 2 yr warranty for $119, which I can cancel anytime within the first 30 days. I like the idea of a warranty, but after reading up a bunch, I've been thinking more and more that I might end up upgrading the SSD & RAM. So perhaps I should cancel the warranty and put that $$$ towards my upgrades. Lots of deals flying around on SSD's. Only thing is I would need to find a buddy who's more computer savy than I to do the install.

 

11s is too heavy and too thick for me (compared with yoga 3 11), resolution is too low, battery life is just so so. I placed an order on Sunday, yoga 3 11, 5y10c, 8g ram, 180 ssd, for around $700.

 

I upgraded mine to 8GB ram and 256 GB ssd. I have it for sale on Amazon. I have replaced it with a Surface Pro 3.

Good luck, Jim

 

If you don't need position sensors, the Yoga 3 11 will be a nice laptop.

Good luck, Jim

 

Would you say that the Yoga 3 11" is a noticeable improvement over the 11s? Because if I take into account the price to upgrade SSD and RAM, that'll put me very close to the price of a Yoga 3 with those same specs....

I'm still well within the return period 11s...

 

If position sensor is not a deal breaker for you (like me), Yoga 3 11 should be a better choice (at least in the paper). Thinner, lighter, cooler, more powerful, better screen, better battery.

I am still waiting for mine, so it is just my speculation.

 

If lack of a position wasn't a deal breaker for me, I would have kept my Yoga 3 11. Everything else was very nice, except battery life was only fair for me. About 6 hours.

Good luck, Jim

PS: If you are interested in used, check out my listing on Amazon.

 

well I went back out and took another look at the yoga 3, but then I noticed to my left an open box deal at best buy for the yoga 2 pro 13 inch for literally the same price as the Yoga 3 11.6. This Yoga 2 Pro is loaded with the i7 8 gigs of Ram, 256 SSD and of course that crazy high-res touch display. So I bought that and brought it home and I have it side by side with the 11 S. Now it's a big decision of which to bring back to the store and which to keep. any advice?

 

So on paper the yoga 2 pro should blow the 11 S out of the water if I'm not mistaken? Obviously the screen is much nicer. So without reading the 180 pages of the owners thread, has this yoga 2 pro been reliable? I'm definitely interested in it because if I was to upgrade the SSD and RAM in my 11s I wouldn't be too far away from the price that I paid or the yoga 2 pro and I still wouldn't get this epic screen.

 

If you mean by "epic screen" a resolution so high that you can't read most text, and a mustard green yellow color, then go for it. The yellow color problem has been partially fixed by a bios change that has a side effect of killing battery life.

Good luck, Jim

 

I had a yoga 2 pro before (used for almost a year and gave it to my sister), and played with haswell 11s in bestbuy. In my opinion, yoga 2 pro is much better. My only issue with yoga 2 pro are the battery life (around 5 hours for streaming videos), and heat generation during the gaming. If haswell 11s can't do much better in those two area, I can't justify the same price as yoga 2 pro at all. Yellow color is not perfect, but is not that bad either (after the bios upgrade), wasn't a deal breaker for me (I don't do photo editing, you can't see the different watching the video).

If it wasn't for much lighter and cooler design, I would have bought a yoga 2 pro instead of yoga 3 11.

 

So far I'm really enjoying the Y2P. I returned the 11s to the store last night. I think my Note 4 has ruined me when it comes to low resolution screens. They just look incredibly blurry. I liked a lot of things about the 11s, but that screen was just a no-go. Also, the weight of this machine is really light. I barley notice it in my lap.

I've got two weeks to return this Y2P, but so far I'm not seeing much reason out there to go for anything else. The color issue people complain about doesn't seem to bother me. I don't do graphics work. I'm a Firefighter. So this is just going to be used as a computer I have on my lap for media consumption and movie watching.

I did take another second hard looking at the 13" MBPr & the 14" Lenovo Thinkpad, but for now I'm sticking with this machine. I do like the MBPr for its reliability record and resale, but I like using things like flipboard and some of these news apps far too much. Also, I'm really digging the yoga's ability to flip around and use the touchscreen when I've got it on my lap. I do 95% of my computing on the couch or lazyboy chair. So while for some the yoga may be more of a gimmick, for me, it's great.

Battery life is fine for my purposes. Sure I'd like 15 hours of battery life, but then again, I shouldn't be sitting on my computer for that long anyway.

 

Just got the yoga 3 11. Initial impression: everything looks good, build quality is better than yoga2 pro.

A quick note, my yoga 3 11 does have the motion sensor. I got it directly from Lenovo, it comes with 5Y10c, 8g ram, 180g ssd.

I will post more information after I spend some time with it.

 

I have been playing with this 2 in 1 for a few days. Generally speaking, I like it much more than my previous yoga 2 pro.
Advantages:
1. thin and light.
2. much better battery life.
3. runs very cool and quiet.
4. better build quality.
5. better screen color.

Disadvantage:
1. No keyboard backlight.

 

e manager, yes. But, if you mean sensors necessary

If by "motion sensor" you mean the one that shows up in Device Manager, yes. But it does not have the sensors that are necessary to play games that use position and movement for control input.

Good luck, Jim

 

I didn't try motion games (never play any of them), but it can auto rotate when I change the orientation of the laptop in tablet mode. I can try a motion later today.

 

I tried the "asphalt 8: airbone", the motion sensor is working perfectly.

 

Interesting. My Yoga 3 11 would not play F18 Carrier Landing except in keyboard mode. I was told by a Best Buy tech and a Lenovo tech, that the Yoga 3 11 didn't have the sensors required to play a game like that. The Lenovo tech told me that the Yoga 3 11 was considered more of a laptop than a tablet, so tablet sensors were not included.

Jim

 

Don't fully trust those technician, some of them are really unprofessional. I had similar experience before, they don't really the product they are selling.

By the way, I got the laptop from Lenovo not best buy. There may be some difference (at least CPU is different ).

 

You may be on to something. Best Buy often has a model that doesn't show any place but Best Buy. They could very well have contracted for a model with a faster processor and left out the position sensors. Or, my Best Buy model could have been defective. Or maybe the F18 sim is defective.

Jim