Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga

Just one week in use and now I can see the "image Retention" (ghosting). It seems to be getting worse.
Looks like the problem isn’t new for Lenovo.

LCD image persistence (ghosting) - ThinkPad X220, X220i, X220 Tablet, X220i Tablet
Faint Ghosting on X220 IPS screen - Lenovo Community

 

oops wrong thread

 

Lenovo is soooo slow on delivery. I ordered mine 1/12 and they have estimated dispatch to,17/12. I hate waiting. Anyone have an idea if the information from digital river is accurate?

 

lol. I ordered on 21st November (stated 22nd somewhere before, I was wrong) and my estimated shipping date is today, but they didn't ship so far, just like with big_boss.

Also, @uniten, some pages ago, someone mentioned how he fixed this problem. Problem was the same on the TPY.

 

Received my new ThinkPad Yoga last night. I'm in the states and ordered it from Costco. Build:

Model 20CD0033US
Core i7 4500U
8Gb RAM
256Gb SSD
No digitizer
FHD 1080 screen
Single band WiFi
Price paid: $1,200+ shipping

After some of the traditional Windows setup niggles (Lenovo System Update didn't work until I downloaded a newer version, got one bad KMODE BSOD error right away, one freeze and inability to restart after sleep as well) I was able to update everything and get it working. I then installed a few things without issue (Office 2010 and a few apps).

After a few hours of use, I can confirm that the hardware is really nice. Everything is metal, overbuilt and "business class". The hinges seem literally bulletproof and operate smoothly. The screen wobbles a little if I touch it in stand or laptop mode, but the hinges hold it firmly. The weight is a little too high to hold in your hand as a tablet for more than a few minutes, but it's certainly ultrabook portable.

As is usual for ThinkPads, the keyboard is simply fantastic for an ultrabook: concave keys, silent operation, well spaced, no flexing, good travel, good damping, nice layout (except for the bizarre Fn placement). The Lift-n-Lock operation is silent and hardly noticable. The Touchpad is similarly solid with a nice texture and good edge / pinching recognition although the click travel is a little too far for my taste. The touch screen seems accurate and responsive. I'm used to some ultra high PPI screens (Nexus 10, HTC One) and this screen looks fine to me: sharp, relatively low glare and good color. I'm no expert on screens...

Initially it seems the WiFi is rock solid on this laptop, very strong signal and great stability. Because of the SSD, the laptop operates silently unless the fan is on. The fan isn't particularly loud (but certainly not silent) and stays off while surfing etc. The vent is in the back.

Speakers are a bit tinny and lack stereo separation but they do get nice and loud. The camera is indeed noisy and grainy, but I don't really care. The microphone is effective (I only did one Skype call on it so far...). Overall, out of the box this is a high quality piece of hardware and seems good for someone who plans to spend long hours working on it like me. It's not particularly flashy or lust-worthy but well thought out and durable. We'll see how it holds up to being hauled around...

Because of the SSD, it starts up almost instantly from sleep, maybe a second or two for the login screen. Cold boot is maybe 15 seconds to login screen, which is pretty great. I should note that this is my first laptop with an SSD. Installing full Office Pro (including everything) took less than 10 minutes, the SSD is very quick if you're used to HDDs. The 4500U is a fairly powerful processor and everything operates smoothly although I was hardly doing anything taxing. It's nice that this comes with 8.1 preinstalled, 8.1 is much better than 8.0 in almost every way.

One question: what is a good sleeve for this laptop? Don't need one with pockets or anything flashy, I just want a simple and inexpensive neoprene/similar sleeve that fits it well and will protect it in my bag (I have to carry two laptops). I can't easily find anything out there in a 12.5 - specific size.

 

Hey there - I'm glad you like your TPY. Some questions:

- Do you notice any screen ghosting?
- Does the screen bezel seem off?
- Anything else about the build quality?

Not trying to talk your TPY bad for you, but these are some issues others seem to experience.

 

- Do you notice any screen ghosting? - no
- Does the screen bezel seem off? - no
- Anything else about the build quality? - no not really. As I said I just got it last night.

 

Nonetheless, this sounds awesome. Thank you.

 

Good to know that I'm not alone here... Here i took a picture.. had my browser open for about 3-4 minutes showing the nyt homepage. Closed the browser and waited 1-2 minutes and then took the pic. Brightness is/was around 50-60%.
Hope you can see what i mean. This is my normal desktop background (just a simple grey). The "ghosting" is visible independent which background color i use (although gets more visible on darker colors)



@Ax_13: Not sure about your "ghosting" issue but mine is ALWAYS visible not only on white or lighter grey... also on red, blue, yellow etc.... not what i expect when buying a 1500€+ device...

 

Anyone ? would like to install a ssd right from the reception.
Is there any guide for a fresh install ?

 

It was said several times in this thread, the m.2 SSD is simply recognized as a separate drive (the caching is done in software). You can leave it in without problems.

 

Just tried to oder my Thinkpad Yoga Yesterday from the lenovo UK website. Got an email 24 hours later saying that the transaction to my card was declined so I called them up to see what the problem was and they said my bank declined the transaction. (I also found out that the lenovo website use a company called Digital River to handle their sales in the UK). After checking my bank balance and noting that the money for the purchase was no longer in my account I called my bank to ask them what the deal was, they said the transaction has been approved and the money was pending release.

I rephoned customer support to tell them the transaction had been approved yet the rep at digital river was adament that I had put my details in incorrectly and my card was declined, after pressing him further he promised he would investigate and call back.... I have had no such call.

Just beware buying if you are in the UK, their recomendation was to just try and buy again but theres no way im locking up over £2000 on my credly card with no guarentee of a product at the end. Im sure I'll get my money back eventually but on the run up to christmas this is an awful experience (worst online purchasing experience ever). I was really looking forward to this device but if lenovo cant keep their resellers in check, i guess I will have to look at alternative devices shame I havent seen them in any stores to pick up.

Googliing Digial River and Lenovo did not fill myself with confidence either, lots of people seem to have similar problems, also this:
Digital River customer service complaints, reviews, ratings and comments

 

Just got this...

Louisville, KY, United States 12/11/2013 10:16 A.M. This shipment is warehoused until it is released by Clearing Agency.

I never ordered from Lenovo before. Anyone have any idea if this will change the ETA and/or how long it usually takes to clear?

At first I believe this was customs, but it might be something related to money. Either verifying if Lenovo has paid their dues, or if I have paid.

Edit: It just cleared. ETA has remained the same.

 

I'm preparing to order my Yoga and was curious about how much actual hd is available for use on the 128g hd.

 

This will fit:
ThinkPad 13inch Fitted Reversible Sleeve | 0B47410 | Lenovo | (NL)

Source:
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=ACCS-GUIDE

 

It is going to go down to 120GB from the 1000 vs 1024 mismatch between drive makers and windows. (eg is 1MB 1000 or 1024kB)

Conservatively you will probably have around 110GB for your use.

 

I ordered on the 20th November, and I've just received my shipping notification at around 3:30 p.m. GMT

 

After win 8 is installed? I keep hearing horror stories of 60 gigs!

 

Hi Hiro 11 - that sounds like a great deal you got from Costco. I know this has been discussed a lot on this thread, but I'm still not entirely clear on one thing -- I see you got the model without the digitizer pen. Does this mean you can't just buy a pen separately and use it? If I understand correctly, if you buy a model that doesn't come with the digitizer pen, it doesn't support the whole pen technology. Is that right? I'd love to get the same deal you got from Costco, but I'm not sure I want to forgo the pen thing entirely. Thanks!

 

With my 256Gb SSD: 226 is actually available. You lose about 7% due to the ol' base 2 conversion, which is about 18Gb, the remainder is probably a recovery partition. Out of the box, I had about 196Gb available meaning that Windows + Lenovo bloatware/stuff took ~30Gb.

 

Thanks! I can live with that.


Edit or not. Probably just swap my selection of 2 year warranty for the larger hd.

 

You need the digitzer to use the pen, period. If you absolutely need a pen, this is a dealbreaker. Keep in mind that I don't think anyone in the US but Lenovo themselves is selling the version with the Wacom so you'll have to order from them if you need it. Every reseller is selling the version without the digitizer.

I like ordering from Costco because their prices are hard to beat, also they add a significant warrantee to the product (2 years I think) and their return policy is no questions asked, ever. Very easy to deal with company.

 

Otherwise your hope is that the Inutos Creative Stylus or similar pressure sensitive capacitive bluetooth enabled pen gains windows compatibility (currently it is only for iPads)

 

Thanks for your reply. I know this is a speculative question, but does anyone think there will eventually be a cheaper version of the Wacom model available, either through Lenovo or another seller? Because the current Lenovo price is just too steep for me. And it appears that they are not offering any discounts at the moment. Thanks!

 

It's worth calling Lenovo and asking regarding discount. With Christmas nearing, they may get new codes.

 

Got the shipping notification today at 14:52 UK time!

 

Just got my shipment notification as well. Ordered 11/22 (i7, digitizer, 128 GB SSD).

For whatever reason Lenovo seems to have charged my credit card three separate times for this bad boy. Hope they get that sorted out. Shouldn't be their first rodeo.

Also got the ModBook Pro Digitizer Pen as a replacement for the dinky one the TPY will come with. Feels very nice in the hand, but I'll do a proper mini-review when I, you know, actually have a PC to use it with

 

Hello.

Yeah that is pretty prominent. You said it's always visible... so does it not go away after a little while? And if it does go away, after how long?

But not everyone is experiencing the ghosting. Someone mentioned it was due to the type of panels Lenovo uses, and that they've had this problem with other laptop models. So I'm wondering if this is just something that we'll have to live with, given the panel that's in the yoga, or if this only affects a certain number of units and we have to hope for the best when ordering one... ?

 

Well, mine is supposed to be here tomorrow, but it's been sitting in Louisville, KY for a day and a half and now there's an exception. There was an import scan at 10:15 this morning, and now it says "This shipment is warehoused until it is released by Clearing Agency. ". Anyone know how long that usually takes?

 

As I said, that won't be necessary. If you put everything under a microscope, you'll probably find some sort of minor construction fault on every laptop.

I'm very happy how low idle temps I'm getting, around 32-40 celsius. Did some stress testing with intelburntest for short time and max temp was about 75 C. Will do more later.

There's a bios update available. My machine came with 1.07 bios and there's 1.08 on Lenovo site. Did anybody install that already?
"[New functions or enhancements]
- Added support for PXE boot from ThinkPad USB 3.0 Ethernet Adapter.

[Problem fixes]
- Improved power management."

I did notice some flickering when playing with xbox music. There's a grey background. It only lasted for 2-3 seconds and stopped.

 

My laptop should be sitting there right next to yours then! My buddy who works at UPS says that means it is going through customs and it "shouldn't take long" (his words not mine). The scheduled delivery time should be accurate.

 

Sorry perhaps that was misleading... it's not permament, that means it goes away after some minutes (haven't looked at my watch but i guess around 7-10 minutes). BUT ofc new things get "burned in" so there is always something visible when switching to other windows or the desktop.

I had a look, my monitor id and the panel producer are:

Monitor ID LEN40E4
Producer LP125WF2-SPB1

so from what the internet says this has to be a panel produced by LG.

Funny thing, I didn't notice the ghosting in the first 2 weeks but now after a little more than a month the image retention is quite visible hope that not all units are affected and that lenovo is using different panels...

 

Great news! I'm having them hold it for me at our UPS facility so I can get it at 9:00am instead of waiting until our usual delivery time of close to 5:00pm.

 

I'd be curious if anyone else who is *NOT* experiencing the image retention after a few weeks could check their monitor ID to see if they have the same panel?

Apple's 2012 Retina MacBook Pro had the same problem, but only experienced with the LG screens. Their laptops had a random chance of having used an LG panel or a Samsung panel. Both used the same part number internally at Apple so the only way to even know what you had was checking the details on the computer. If Apple can use multiple manufacturer sources for the monitor, I support Lenovo could as well, even if they only show a single part number internally like Apple did.

I'd just like to see if there's a second panel manufacturer for those not experiencing the issue, or if all truly are the identical manufacturer and part.

 

Louisville, KY, United States 12/11/2013 2:20 P.M. This shipment is warehoused until it is released by Clearing Agency. / Released by Clearing Agency. Now in-transit

 

Got mine today and changed the ssd to an 512GB 9.5 mm one and it works just fine. However, if you have not yet bought a ssd to replace it yet, I do recommend to get a 7 mm 2.5" ssd as the 9.5 mm is a bit too tight. I am not saying that it doesn't fit, is just that there is no more room for anything else.

I had a spare Intel Wireless 7260 AC and tried it. It does not work. I repeat, do not try to change / upgrade it later because the one that comes with your system is linked to your system bios (Lenovo's usual crap). Anyway the default N model is not by much different at all, so there is no reason to panic. It works perfect.

As per the built quality; common guys, there is nothing that can be stronger / better built than this machine. If feels very solid, not like a toy. Lenovo has used a lot of magnesium in this system and that is why it feels so strong.

If you order this system, don't worry, you will be extremely happy with it when you get it. Its a real good business system that allows you to do what you need to do. You will have to work out certain things like software's updates and installing new stuff, but that's normal with any new pc.

As per those that had some issues with their systems, it could have been just some QC problem, but they could always ask for a replacement until they get the perfect one. You will not regret this system when you get it. Compared to anything in line out there, this is perfect!

 

Hey guys,

I revived my yoga las week, imo it's one of the best business Ultrabooks so far, but

I'm a little disappointed of the display solution. I tought the display is a non-glaregorilla glass but mine is covered with just a thin non-glare foil wtih a little-deep scratch on it (probably not the last...)
My first tought was, that's just an protection foil but well... the foil fits pefectly and it's strongly gummed up, now i've got some damaged corners from my attempts to remove the foil

My second problem is that the digitizer don't work, (I think) there is no device in the manager for it. I clean installed W8.1 and tried to install the latest firmware but always the same alert appears:



it's the fullHD, i7 model with 500GB SSD and... the digitizer for a real impressive price.

Should I send it back?

 

Hi Xera - this was in the US, ordered it just on thanksgiving weekend (end Nov)

 

Got my TPY delivered today - I need to play around with it more and do some tests but I can confirm I do not have the blackhole issue out of the box (whether this means the firmware update came pre-installed I do not know but the digitiser appears to work well.)

 

Excellent! In how many days did it reach you from shipping date?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Shipped on friday, arrived today (to UK).

 

Two times out of four, my TPY has now crashed and won't wake from sleep. The "mute" amber LED indicator is on on the F1 key both times even though I did not hit "mute". It crashes and requires a hard reset to start. This is really annoying me. Anyone else have this problem?

 

Thanks! So mine should arrive by Monday hopefully.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Sounds like a hard drive / SSD failure. Return it to Lenovo for a replacement.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

This is extreme. I can get it to restart by holding down the power key for a few seconds, the SSD hasn't failed. I flashed the BIOS and updated the audio driver.

Lots and lots of issues out of the box so far with this. At first I wasn't concerned but now I've had one BSOD, two hard resets and a crash requiring restart in maybe three hours of total use. Typical new computer pains with Lenovo?

What utilities should I run right now to make sure everything is updated?

 

Where did you get this information? Cannot seem to find that...

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

I think if*, when you turn on the computer, keep hitting F11 and it should go directly into restore / recovery. Maybe you will have to unfortunately try that first and restore everything back to the factory default. But please make sure you save everything that you may have loaded previous in the machine (docs, files etc.).

 

Just received my i7 8gb 256 ssd TPY today. This was without the digitizer from newegg.com. So far I am very satisfied with the purchase as I have yet to experience any faults such as wifi drops, cracked (gap) in the top of the screen, screen flickering or ghosting. I am a college student and not a very tech savvy one at that, so I had a few questions as far as updates to install right out of the box, and where to find them in general? Do I need to run the black hole fix even though I have no digitizer? Also what bloatware might I want to remove for my machine to run optimally?

Input is greatly appreciated, looking to learn more about my device and computers in general so this thread has been immensely helpful.
Thanks

 

Well, your TPY does not have the digitizer. So you can't install updates (your TPY doesn't have the digitizer software to update!). I think TPY is free from bloatware. Can't confirm as still waiting for mine.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Hi everyone, I'm just coming from a Dell XPS12 (god awful thing) and I've just got a few questions.

I see a few complaints about the display. Is this issue specific to the displays on the models with the wacom digitizers?

Also, how is the touchpad? It is a thinkpad so I'd expect it to be quite good, but I'd like to get your thoughts on it.

I'm tempted to get the one with a digitizer, but since I'm actually no longer in school I don't have a real need to spend the extra money for the version with the digitzer since I'll only be using this for maybe some fun coding projects (if I'm not too tired after all day of doing that) and a few skype calls.

p.s. I know most users of this laptop won't be using it to game, but has anyone by any chance put this machine through its paces in some games? It'd probably perform as well as any other laptop with an HD4400 out there, but I'd like to know does the laptop get hot? loud? etc.

Thanks again!

Yes, if you get the one without a digitizer pen it doesn't have the wacom digitizer at all. (So you wouldn't be able to buy a pen and use it later)

Most Thinkpads don't have much bloatware, so you'll be fine in that regard.

As for software updates, open Windows Update and run that. You can find drivers on Lenovo's site and you can compare software versions (unless Lenovo has included their own update utility). Also, you don't need to calibrate the digitizer since you don't actually have one.