Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga

I can't speak to it as I just returned my Yoga 2 Pro and am waiting for my Lenovo rep to let me know about my price for the Thinkpad Yoga so I can get it on order, but the 15" Retina MBP I had also was suffering that ghosting, it was a common problem with the LG panels that Apple used. People like me who got it replaced had a crapshoot to see if they'd get another problematic LG panel, or a ghost-free Samsung panel. I was one of the lucky ones, and received the Samsung panel (and I never did figure out why they couldn't actually order the Samsung SPECIFICALLY for people who were getting it replaced due to the ghosting, but their system used the same part numbers for both the LG and Samsung, so it was always a gamble which you'd get). From the reading I did back then, this was a "known feature" of many IPS panels. I haven't paid much attention since then (a little over a year ago or so) so I don't know if the IPS image persistence is still as much of a problem currently as it was a year ago, but that could be what's happening. I hope not, as I'd hate to have returned my Yoga 2 Pro that had no image persistence only to end up with it again on a Thinkpad Yoga.

 

How ironic: title banner on UK Lenovo website:

20% OFF ON WARRANTY UPGRADES
ONLY TODAY.
ECOUPON: CYBERMONDAYCARE.

Yet, despite reporting it twice, once to web guys over the weekend and once to telephone sales last Friday, you still cannot order a Thinkpad Yoga on the UK website this evening with any extended warranty product due to website breakage.

 

20% on warranty won't save you much though, in AU the ex warranty is around $270 so you'd be better waiting for another promo code.

Here in AU we've had a heap of working promo codes lately, I bit the bullet yesterday and ordered;
i5,8GB, Wacom, 256SSD, Wireless AC for AU$1574 (about $270 saving with their 'cybersale', which was better than full price with 10% off bu about $90) though they would not budge on a better deal or a freebie (like a case), still not bad value IMO - can't wait to get an estimated ship date!

 

Ook so I just found out lenovo wont accept international credit cards not even through amazon payments.

Is lenovo really the ONLY place I could get an i7 with digitizer?

 

USXDISCOUNT is 10% off. Works in my trade group store. I don't know if it will work on a public account though.

It's a public link so I don't think there is any harm in sharing it, there is no verification or special login required.
https://www.cpa2biz.com/AST/AICPA_CPA2BIZ_Browse/Member_Benefits/Programs/Lenovo.jsp

 

Thats what im wondering too. I've scoured the entire internet but it seems only lenovo has the digitizer.

 

A review for the TPY has come out by Lisa Gade of MobileTechReview.

Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga Review - YouTube

Unfortunately, she has a non-digitizer version. But nonetheless I really like her reviews. And it helps satiate your thirst until everyone receives their units.

 

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately it only made me more thirsty...

 

Screen flickers in this review (while x240 is not), which indicates that LCD panel has low frequency PWM backlight. Has anyone had any problems with backlight in terms of eye strain?

 

We don't see any flicker in her video of other yoga reviews, unless she used different cameras.

 

Six and a half hours of battery, she says? Noooooooo. I'm crushed. It's difficult to reconcile this when the Vaio Duo 13 all but doubles that.

So, wait for the Fujitsu Q704 with its Helix-style battery keyboard, or endure the TPY which won't get me through a full workday?

 

I was just about to ask the same question. It does indeed seem like there is a screen protector mounted already but I can't figure out if this only is meant for shipping - and I should peel it off now.

Any thougts on this?

I have the digitizer version.

 

Wow! That's an amazing review!! I'm so looking forward to mine now! Hopefully should be here next week....

 

She explains the screen flicker in the video - its because its filmed at 60hz - and occasionally this catches the LCD refresh. Seriously I have filmed my Dell ultrasharp with my Nikon D800 before now - and it does exactly the same thing - so this is not an issue.

 

You could always get a lightweight external battery pack - not the most elegant solution, but it would be doable.

 

I believe this is the anti-glare coating the digitizer version has. I do however wonder if this is an actual coating or just a pre-applied screen protector and how it'll hold up.
I wouldn't try to peel it off, though...

 

So, just to make sure I got this - you have a regular SSD drive on you desktop AND a smaller cache SSD drive? Why?
Usually the smaller cache SSDs have relatively bad performance (still much better than a spinning HDD, but as much as 5-6 times worse in sequential read speed than larger "normal" SSDs). So what's the benefit of your setup - I'm curious?
As for computer recognizing the SSD for cache - it doesn't really - it's just a regular small SSD and you can format it and use it as a regular drive, but there is a software (usually a windows filter driver) that comes with it (or preinstalled) that will do the caching. There are actually only a couple of vendors that produce this software and it's bundled/preinstalled with most of the drives.
The only exception being hybrid HDDs where it's a regular spinning HDD with some (usually very small - like 8 or 16GB) amount of flash storage inside the disk assembly and then the HDD controller will do the caching transparently to the operating system.

 

While she explains it in the video I have actually notices some slight flickering on my unit. I've ignored it as it's defective anyways and being replace, but now I wonder if this might be a backlight problem. And I didn't even have florescent lights on, which can produce the flickering effect sometimes...

 

You are the guy I was looking for!
I've bought TPY, but got a defective unit, so I'm waiting for it to be replaced and while I'm waiting and reading this thread I'm having serious doubts about reliability of the TPY and Lenovo's QC in general.
XPS 12 was always on my short list, but I've decided to go with TPY - mostly for the OneLink docking and digitizer, but if it's so unreliable I guess I can do without both.
Can you please write a short comparison of the two - how are they in day-to-day, how convenient is the transformation to/from tablet mode/which runs hotter/louder/how's the keyboard and trackpad/touchscreen performance/how's the screen quality and glare/general impression - that sort of thing.

10x in advance!

 

I will reply on your questions concerning the comparison between the xps 12 and the yoga tomorrow as I'm in quite a hurry today ... To your "flickering" issue --> i had that as well... Seems like it can be resolved however:
1. go to your control panel and click on power options. then click on change plan settings and then change advanced power settings- then go down to where you find "display" and there disable adaptive brightness for both options.
2. rightclick on desktop --> intel graphic settings--> energy --> battery. here you put "power safe mode" and the gaming option to off

sorry I'm using the german version of windows so the expressions I used may not be correct. I hope you'll get what I ment

Cheers and see you tomorrow

by the way did you notice some ghosting on your device?

 

not a coating, but a screen protector like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon

 

Anyone else in the US get this delay notification today?

"We apologize, but we are unable to ship one or more items on your order at this time. We anticipate shipment within 30 days of this notification. Our online order status tool displays the latest information on your order therefore a revised estimated ship date is not included in this notification."

I ordered the TPY i7 4500, 256GB SSD configuration through Lenovo US. Part number 20CDCTO1WW.

 

Great review. Really clears up a lot of questions. Hopefully, the units we'll receive from Lenovo are of the same quality that she reports.

 

Yes, I received it this morning. Kind of strange, because yesterday they moved my ship date from 12/9 to 12/6. My order status page is still saying I have a ship date of 12/6.

 

Do you happen to know what the refresh rate when you tested it? Seems that a lot of high res hdmi rates are below 60hz.

 

I don't know if I understand what you said. If the external battery means USB battery, I doubt if there's any USB battery that can charge up this laptop, have the right plug converter, and if it can last for several hours.
Also, the TPY's design means that it's not possible to change the battery by user without a screwdriver, even if you can buy a backup internal battery.

 

Something like this, external battery pack that puts out the 19V or so input.

Energizer XP18000A Review | External Battery Reviews

 

I'm pretty sure this pertains to the first delay, which, in my case, bumped my ship date of 12/2 to 12/9. My guess is they have a bad notification system. My date for the 12/6 hasn't changed even after receiving the notification.

 

That's what I'm hoping too. My 12/6 ship date is still on the order status page, and they also charged my credit card yesterday. Doesn't seem like they'd do that if the shipment was delayed past the 6th.

 

Okay good to know others are seeing this as well. My estimate is also still available and says 12/9. I never did get the original delay notification so an e-mail issue seems likely.

 

Ordered mine two days ago, was sent today! Not through Lenovo, but e reseller. Full hd screen, i7, 8gb ram, 256gb ssd and digitizer.

Was surprised that I could get it here in Norway before you guys

 

Smaller cache SSD is only available if you choose 500GB or 1TB hard drive. The option disappears if you choose 128GB or 256GB SSD.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Mind sharing the reseller?

 

I tried this code for UK and Ireland and it worked 10% same as last month CJDEC10UK. Strange Lenovo did'nt send the digitzer model for the mobiletech review

 

Got my TBY on Monday (i7, 8GB, 256SSD, Digitizer) in Austria. My yoga also has the black hole but the firmeware update fixed it. Now I'm a little bit confused about the font - in contrast to my old notebook with the same resolution the font seems really blurry on the TBY.
Anyone else who can confirm that?

 

Hi,
can any of the German buyers check how much a warranty extension from 12m to 36m "Vor Ort" costs, if bought directly from lenovo?

Garantie-, Wartungs- und Schutz-Services. Deutschland

You need a serial number to check it.

Cheers

 

There are two reasons I did this. First there is less wear on the main SSD since caching can be a lot depending on your uses. Secondly it speeds up the system by having the ability to write and read from two drives at the same time. I do some video editing and a separate cache drive combined with a main drive is faster. Nice if you hibernate all the time too. It's not a life or death must, just preferred.

 

Is the backlight flickering noticeable?

 

According to the review, there is no backlight flickering. It was just the camera capturing the screen.

 

Ofcourse not, Dustinhome.no

 

The TPY is so overpriced on Dustinhome. At least here in Sweden. I ordered from Lenovo's swedish site last weekend, which got me a Black Friday weekend deal. After excluding Win 8 Pro, the final price difference was around 3000 SEK compared to Dustin.

Though the difference is that I don't even have a confirmed ship date yet...hope I get it before christmas!

 

I ordered the i7, 8 GB with digitizer, 7260ac wifi and 500 GB mechanical harddrive from Lenovo's Swedish site during the Black Friday deal as well. Very convenient to get the 10% off just as the digitizer fix was confirmed!

Like you, I don't have a shipping date confirmed either, but seem to remember it said "shipping in 1-2 weeks" when ordering.

I've also ordered a 500 GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD that will hopefully work in this machine.

Since my machine comes with the M.2 SSD for caching, does anybody have an opinion on whether I should remove it or leave it in there when installing the 2,5" SSD?

 

Now that I have ordered my TPY, can anyone help with choosing a drawing package that makes proper use of the digitiser, that will allow me to draw and edit what I currently do in my paper diary. I just draw relationship diagrams, with boxes and arrows and annotations. Don't want Visio-style drawing tool, just a freehand one, but one that will be useful and fun to use with stylus. Anyone have personal recommendations, or URL for good comparison review etc.? Ta.

 

Remember tomorrow there is a Lenovo hangout event for the ThinkPad Yoga.

 

Hi all,

so i have my Yoga now for 3 Days, and i really like the machine! But unfortunately i have a loose contact! Which i will explain later! (Chapter buildquality)
I did run some benchmark which i will may post later.
I will give you more an opinion of mine.

First i got a Machine with this Specs:
Core-I7 - 4500
8GB ram
256GB SSD which is an Samsung SSD!
Digitizer

Performance:

The machine is fast, booting up in 8 Secs and shutdown even faster. It takes every Task without delay.
I did some test with Photoshop had no Problem with 4000x4000 - 5 layers and big grunch Brushes! Was surprised about the performance!
I did run Zbrush and 3ds Max too and was again surprised ;-). I had load an model of an female i did past time with around 200k Polys in 3ds Max and it worked ;-).
In Zbrush i was around 8 Million and was still able to Perform with Digitizer (a bit later to that).

Display

The Display is crisp has excellent viewing-angels and nice Colors (they are not as accurate as MacBook Pro 13" 2012 or SurfacePro). I wasn't able to do a recalibration on my own yet! (Time)
The Mechanism of the Yoga works great flip fllap flop like you want!
The TPY is bright, indoor the full brightness is to much for my eyes i usally use it around 50%.
With full brightness and the halfmatt display i was able to use it outdoor.

Input-devices:

Trackpad:

First it is huge and serves all my needing in space
The trackpad has really good sliding abilities. I do enjoy the clickpad, after an hour i was getting along to the mechanism and it works for me (may not for everyone).

Keyboard:

As mentioned by other peaple already, the Layout is a bit tricky if you come from another Layout, i learned it in less an hour. (Fn // Controlkey)
The hub and feedback is acceptable and gives you a good control about your writing.
The backlit works as you may expect, nothing special here.

Digitizer:

Here we go with the probaly most interesting feature.
I did update the Firmware, and had no issues after it with the "Blackhole". I calibrated it and got more accuracy at the corners.
In my opinion its a bit better than the Surface Pro at this point. I did alot of handwriting with OneNote and its works great, its recognize the pressure as you may expect from a device with a sensivity of 1024.

I had now issues with any drawingapp. SketchbookPro, Photoshop, MangaStudio all work. As i mentioned i used e.g. Photoshop 4000x4000 with a grunge Brush 500px and had just a bit of an inputlag. So the i7 does its work.
If you use normal brushes with less resolution you get just normal difference in Input like you get on SurfacePro.
For everyone who knows Zbrush, i have to say it worked like expected. Sculpint went smooth was ables to use pressure sensitivy and so on.

The Pen itself is a bit small for a serious sketching or sculpting session. It is ok for taking notes and so, i guess thats the price for putting it in the device which is really handy, if you like me loose such things XD.
I used the Pen of the Surface and as expect it works. (As other pens with UP will work --> there is a list in the Surface thread here)
Oh and the small pen have no rubber function on the backside ... the rubber of the SurfacePro Pen work!

Touchdisplay:

I like it, it takes 10 fingers and feels like a tablet. Nothing special here just fine.

Weight:

The TPY is not a flightweight, which you should consider. But if you use it as Laptop or a tablet on your lap it is ok. I even managed to read with it 2hrs with two hands without getting exhausted.

Connectivity:

The Wlan (AC version here) has a great range, like you expect from a Thinkpad. (My router some "provider thing" was 15m away and several walls between and i had no drop)
The Bluetooth work as expected.

Battery:

Yeah the battery.. what to say i did light work surfing the Web taking notes, write some lines of code watch some clips and reading PDF i drained out the machine in 7.5 hrs.
I watched 1080p movie from USB and after 2.5hrs i still had ~75% left (60% brightness).
When i did some serious work like 3ds max, Zrbush and so i drained it in 4hrs which is quite nice (i did some low renderings and modelling).

Noise and Heat:

Which noise? Yeah in energysaver mode and low workload things i could not hear the machine. I noticed that it got a bit warm on the back but thats all.
In full performance mode the machine was still quiet, after a few minutes the vent starts but was not getting nasty or insane load.
I did not noticed any throthling while doing real work. (Said while i used PerformanceMode)

Buildquality:

The feeling of Materials is nice and overall it has a good stifness.
The baseunit feels like a rock and is solid no gaps. (I didn's aspect anything else in this price class)
Ok the Displayunit is a bit bendy but thats ok in every Modus.
Now the hinge feels solid too and gives you the feedback that it will last really few hundredthousand flips.

So now to my loose contact:
My TPY has a flickering displaylightning. If you thouch or press around the Windows button at the display you can trigger it.
That is one... sometimes it starts from self without doing anything, if you push on the right side of the Windows button you can stop it a bit but will start again after lifting your finger.
Another effect of that is, the lightning went of or just a part of it every "n" led.

That is an really nasty defect which makes it imspossible to work or something.

I called my rep and they told me they will ship a new one, and that they dont had any defect like that before.
Maybe i just had bad luck (i hope), in regard to that i love the machine!!

As i mentioned i did some Benchmarks which i post when i get my new machine, where i can validate the data ;-)

Thats my Opinion on the TPY..

 

Where is it?

 

10x!

Nope, haven't noticed any ghosting, but then again - my unit was defective, so I've only used it for a short while before packing it up and sending back for replacement.

 

https://plus.google.com/events/cvkgvqsbr2qmvdl0mj2vei2ptb0

link for the hangout!!

 

THAT WAS AWESOMELY AMAZING MAN!

Great review. Covered all main points for a aspiring artist like me haha!

Did you get yours in EU?

 

How much did you pay? Could't order it from the norwegian Lenovo site, it's not on their site yet. I paid just over 13.000 SEK delivered on the door.

Edit: It's added to the site now, isn't possible to buy it from there. Only possible to find a retailer. Recommended price from Lenovo is 14.300 SEK. Expensive here in Norway