Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga

(replying to soul347) No I'm not US based - I'm in Sweden. My TPY visited many countries before delivery. One thing I will say is that UPS's originally delivery estimate was 100% accurate - and so I think it is best to go by whatever date they give you - and not worry too much about following exactly where the shipment is (which only got me worried).

 

I see. I haven't ordered yet, but I am concerned because if the thinkpad has to travel through so many countries and changes in temperature, perhaps that is what could be contributing to the build quality issues and problems

 

I encountered an error when I tried to annotate/write on a pdf file with the pre-installed pdf reader or nitro. The whole pdf file started jumping around the screen as soon as my palm rest on it. It didn't stop so I could not even write anything with my stylus. Does anyone have a solution?

 

Very happy with I7/128GB SSD w/digitizer - no issues as reported here.

I am experiencing a strange issue with WIndows 8.1 on this however - when in Tablet mode (display folded over keyboard) and holding it in portrait orientation, the leftmost icons on the main screen are barely visible of the edge of the screen. When I swipe right to scroll left I see them , but the display then 'centers' automatically and I only see the icons in the 'middle'. The same is true of the icons on the far right - when I swipe left to see them, the screen 'centers' again. I've been searching for help on this one, don't get any hits which is strange these days. Any hints out there?

 

I've had it with Lenovo Customer Service in the UK, the service has been abysmall even in effort to purchase one of these devices, heaven forbid the service if I had warranty issues. It's a shame the device is almost perfect for my needs.

Are there any similar devices on the horizon from other suppliers? Windows device with Wacom Digitiser and a screen bigger than 10", pref i7 8GBish

 

I won't be worried about it at all. The ThinkPad is one of the best built laptops around. Mine arrived yesterday after visiting many countries; it's simply perfect.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Don't look at the pixels - I think he's showing the almost snowflake like arrangement you can see of grid lines on the screen, most notable between the windows icon and the IE icon, that repeats the rest of the visible screen. Doesn't look like the background as it's extended even through the color change on the very bottom of the screen.

 

Just wan't to update that my yoga has been shipped today. Delevery date estimate: 27 of December.

 

Hey,

Yesterday, I received my CTO TPY, and I love it. Wonderful build quality, fast, no issues with the digitizer whatsoever - the only thing that I don't like is how the touchpad behaves. When I do a middle click with my Trackpoint activated, it only scrolls, but I cannot open new tabs with it for instance or close open tabs. This is not a browser related issue, I tested it with Firefox, Aurora and Google Chrome. No luck with the Windows program closing feature via middle click either.

When I do the three-finger click, middle click works. I already updated the Synaptic drivers and tried to disable gestures. No luck. I also posted this here: Middle click on the Yoga - Lenovo Community

Anyone?

 

A quick review. I've been eagerly waiting for my TPY and it arrived 2 days ago. I finally managed to unwrap and set it up last night and these are my first impressions / findings. Hope you find it useful in making your decisions.

Bottomline - I love it so far!

Specifications: Mine is a i7-4600U (wanted the Intel VT as I run a corporate virtual machine on it), 256 SSD, 8 GB RAM, digitizer, 1920 x 1080 configuration.

Initial findings:

• Mine came installed with Win 8.1 - though at the time of purchase it only mentioned Win 8. That was a pleasant surprise.
• Beautiful screen! Coming from a 1368x768 screen this looked so awesome. Also very responsive. Does catch smudges but I'm used to that on touchscreens by now
• Used the Lenovo utility to install BIOS and synaptics updates before I did anything else, and no sleep/wake issues, no trackpad issues: it's all working as it should
• Like the keyboard very much. Feels more tactile. I also like the clickety trackpad
• Power brick is pretty small. Such a relief after lugging giant Dell power bricks

Performance

• This thing is fast! takes about 10 - 11 seconds to get to my boot screen. And then 1 -2 seconds (!) to open the start screen. Silent operations - the fan went on only when I was performance / hardware scans
• Wake from sleep is almost instantaneous
• Wifi has been solid. I ordered a AC dual band card, and it hit 57 Mbps on my 5 GHz Wifi connection. It's pretty much the tops of what my Internet provider (Comcast) gives me, so I'm very happy. My software downloads and updates were all pleasingly quick
• Did not notice any dead points on the screen. The digitizer works nicely. I'm not a graphics artist / photoshop guy, and I care more about quick drawings and note taking and it's great for it.
• I find myself reaching to the touchscreen lot more than keyboard, and I'm not a Win 8.1 hater - it's fine for me
• Screen is a bit glossy, but it doesn't bother me

Usage

I haven't used it in tablet or tent mode so far, but I can see myself doing that for watching videos while flying, or to browse PDFs and other documents. I was originally worried about how much SSD space I'd have after I install my corporate VM - and I still have over 150 GB left. If I recollect right, Win 8.1 took less than 40 GB. My 256 GB SSD is adequate for the near future. Only the SSD prices drop I will probably replace this with a 512, but that's a year or two from now.

Happy to answer any questions.

 

Hi necromonger,

Thanks for the great review. I am curious about the power of the virtual machines nowadays though.

Would it be possible to run a graphically intensive game or program on a PC and use the VM to interact with it on the TPY?

And does only the 4300U and the 4600U support the virtual machine capabilites, or would it be possible to run a virtual machine at home with the 4500U?

 

I'm afraid I can't really answer those questions. I knew I wanted to run our VM, so I got the 4600U after reading that it support virtualization in some fashion - don't ask me how

My VM did not run the first time and asked me to go to BIOS and enable Intel virtualization - which I did. The VM worked afterwards. Now whether this feature is only in 4600U or not I cannot say because I do not know.

Sorry couldn't be more help! I use this more as a professional tool rather than for gaming...

 

The TPY is able to handle some games well even with the i5. I can run Civ 5 on low - medium settings, absolutely smooth. Others reported Diablo 3 running on the 4400 graphics chip with ~100fps on the lowest settings, so there should even be some space upwards for better settings.

You can run virtual machines as a host on every available processor. The i7 with vPro for example just has some features which improve virtualization, but that should be not very noticable if you want to run one or two VMs on a Virtualbox or whatever as a private user.

 

A follow-up: I was also experiencing a problem where the rotation would not even happen and I did have the auto-rotate on. I did a power-off/power-on and all cleared up - forgot to check the easy things first.

 

I think 4600 and similar VT cpus run VT-d instructions for native driver support on the virtual machines. But I think this is only supported on a professional hypervisor like wmware vsphere. Current virtualization software running on top of a real operating system don't support vt-d by now (and probably never cause with vt-d enabled they can not share the same device for host and virtual machine).

Not a very useful instruction set for a laptop but I can't check real performance gain. If you are using a real operating system you will not notice any performance benefit between 4500 and 4600 cpus just considering VT-d support. Remember both support the common VT-x feature.

Have a look at this: https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-11089

 

After watching this thread since page 1, I've finally concluded that I will buy the Thinkpad Yoga version 2. By then, they would have stronger screen, longer battery, even faster processor, more accurate digitizer, more comfortable pen. It's just too expensive to buy something that seems to be built half-heartedly.

 

Well, get ready to wait another year.

 

You don't need to wait, and the person above me is right; you will definitely have to wait another year. The screen is plenty strong, some just went bad for some people. The battery easily lasts about 6 hours of non-intensive work. The digitizer is plenty accurate if you calibrate it and you can buy third party pens so long as they work on other Wacom pen-enabled PCs.

The processor statement isn't really a good argument to wait either, as of now I assure you of all Wacom tablets/laptops the TPY is the best with its i7-4600u option that matches the far more expensive t904. 8GB of RAM is enough for an ultrabook even though I'd like 16 or (more like my desktop) 64; though that might be overkill.

If you really want to wait, go on ahead. But I assure you, so long as you get a good unit you won't have any problems. I know I wouldn't wait, even if I could turn around and cancel everything with the Yoga right now to get a full refund I wouldn't wait. It's the best Wacom device I've seen, that's for certain. Its price point may seem high but in comparison to the only competitors it has it's relatively low. (1520$ for i7-4600u, 256GB, AC+BT4.0 and pen enabled model). I spent 1,550 for a Surface Pro 2 with covers and whatnot and it only had an i5-4200u; not to mention was super defective. Got it replaced, another super defective unit. Replaced for the third and final unit, defective, returned, ordered a TPY. Cannot say I'm upset with that decision.

EDIT: in addition to the smaller screen, the touch/type covers were NOTHING in comparison to the keyboard of the TPY; plus the trackpad on those were the worst I've ever used whereas the TPY I'd say is the best I've ever used. It just feels great.

 

You just nailed why I am waiting for my Thinkpad Yoga and didn't go with a Surface Pro 2. I'm typing this from my old Surface Pro that I sold when I bought my Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro (which I returned after a month) because the guy I sold it to doesn't need it at the moment.

The ones I know with the Surface Pro 2's haven't had any quality issues like you did at least, and I really like the form factor, and the smaller screen is useful for me, but you really nailed it about the keyboard and trackpad. The trackpad is the single biggest reason I didn't stick with the Surface when I decided to drop my Retina MacBook Pro and go back to windows for my main machine. It's so tiny, and so inaccurate, it's just a total pain to use. I need a good trackpad for all the RDP work I do, which is a majority of my work day, so that ruled out the Surface Pro 2 utterly. Even when my friends talked about how awesome my MacBook Pro's keyboard was, I kept telling them that I still didn't like it as much as the Thinkpad keyboards. Any Thinkpad I ever owned or worked on for clients always felt just incredible as far as the keyboard went.

I'm stuck waiting till January for my rep to get me the good price I'm waiting for, and so having used the Surface Pro 1 here for all of this month while I wait, I am really expecting some magical feelings once I get on a real keyboard again...

And as for waiting for version 2, when it comes out, it'll be just as easy to come up with reasons to wait for version 3, or some other model altogether. There's always something worth waiting for, but the problem is then you're always waiting. I'm just happy when I find something that hits maybe 70 or 75% of the points I want covered in a mobile platform, since I'll never see one made that has 100% of what I want. If I kept waiting for "something better" I'd still be on the old Thinkpad I had back in 1995 with Windows 3.11 for workgroups...

 

You're right about that, there's always waiting. There's always going to be something better but sometimes it takes time for it to happen because at the moment the best is already here.

On that, the Surface Pro 2 defects were just so severe that even when I was offered to have it traded out as many times as it took to get a perfectly working one I just decided; no, I'm done. After 9 days of waiting for one to come in the mail and driving an hour and a half to the Microsoft store both ways, three times, nearly getting screamed at over the phone by the rep; I was just done.

To list the defects: Major screen bleeding on two, pen didn't work at all in corners, calibration was impossible due to the fact that you couldn't calibrate without clicking the corners, Windows crashed to off multiple times within minutes of start up, Windows crashed when transferring two files from my external drive, Touch cover didn't work on one, discoloration or dead pixels (I'm not sure) in the bottom right corner of one, loaded Windows but didn't detect the SSD for storage space which I'll never understand on the last one; overall it was a horrible experience and you're absolutely right about the touchpads. They're tiny, inaccurate and worst yet the clickers don't work more than half the time.

I can see where people are coming from with the smaller more portable size, but for me, I don't care in the slightest. If nothing else I'd actually rather the Yoga just for the bigger screen. Some people look at the SP2 and TPY and think that it's ridiculous to spend that much more on a bigger/thicker device. I'll never truly understand some people's quest for smaller devices, the way I see it; the bigger it is, the more they can cram into it; of course there's a point where that's not true but the TPY comes nowhere near. In the end, I got an upgrade from an i5-4200u to an i7-4600u, a 10.6" screen to a 12.5", a keyboard that's a real keyboard (and is known for being the best) instead of an accessory (which is truly all the covers are), more USB ports, a better battery and best of all; NO MAJOR DEFECTS, not even a minor defect as far as I'm aware.

I've never owned a ThinkPad before and I'm pretty sure all I'll be looking at in the future are more ThinkPads; they are simply the best.

 

I've said for years there were only two manufacturers whose laptops I would buy - Apple or Lenovo. Being the CTO of an IT company, I've seen just about everything out there, and I've seen all of the brands go in their sine wave cycle from being good quality to being junk. A few years ago you couldn't have PAID me to get an HP laptop, and now the ones we deal with for clients are actually decent machines.

But one that seems to have stayed consistent was IBM then later when it became Lenovo... I've had good and bad support incidents with all the manufacturers, but consistently the Thinkpad lines have been the ones that always seemed to have the best build quality and reliability.

Loved my MacBook - the 15" Retina I had for the last year and a half was a gorgeous machine, but I just got tired of the changes Apple was making so it was a great time to jump back to a Windows laptop and a Windows phone. And since I had said for years I'd only buy from Lenovo or Apple, I wasn't left with many options. And even looking at the other convertible touch screen models out there, so many still limited to lower resolution screens, or maxing out at 4GB of RAM or an i5 processor, I just can't see myself getting anything besides a Lenovo...

 

Has anyone figured out a way to enable tap-to-click when using the TrackPoint? Pressing the giant button of a touchpad down with your thumb doesn't really work well (and feels horrible). Guess I'm using the touchpad until someone figures it out...

 

I think Lisa in her review mentioned that wasn't possible.


Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Fuсkin' Lenovo sabotaging the last good line of laptops with a nipple mouse, man.

 

I've gotten pretty used to the trackpoint and left click and even the middle button isn't to bad, but right click seems really awkward for some reason. Of course I am constantly switching between trackpoint, trackpad and external bluetooth mouse so it's taking a while.. oh yeah and using the touchscreen which is new to me too.

 

Ive just opened up my new TP Yoga and here are results




Overall build quality is very good

So as you can see there are limited options for upgrade:

Memory: No slots so you better get 8GB model
Storage: 2,5" HDD easily upgradable to SSD or better model. You have to make sure that your upgrade thickness will be under 7mm though.
M.2 slot This one is little bit tricky since there are not many M.2 SSD modules arround but this one seems to be swapable for bigger model BUT so far Ive found only SSD Intel 530 M.2 as possible upgrade and its too big. Installed SSD module is from Sandisk and has dimension approx 43mm x 22mm. Intel SSD model size is 80mmx 22mm If you have some tips for M.2 with proper dimension please let me know.
Wi-FI This modules should be easy to swapable for other but so far I am happy with this one
Battery There is just one screw holding battery, no glue anything so this one will not be hard to replace

Hope that my info will help someone If you will have some questions please let me know

 

The MyDigitalSSD m2 from Amazon ($99 for 128GB) should work, and I think I read some have installed already.

 

How do you removed the bottom cover completely ? It seems, that there are some clips on one side of the cover.

Regards

Matthias

 

Aha, I've missed those. Looks weird - usually the digitizer grid is - well - a grid...

 

Yep, VT-d is pretty much useless unless you are running a dedicated box hosting multiple VMs (in which case the value of the ability to flip it into a tablet mode becomes questionable)... However, VPro models also include TSX (transactional memory) extensions which are much more interesting, imho. As a developer I'd love to play with them, but unfortunately I only have 4500.

 

So far I've been really loving the TPY but I've been having one issue that I'm pretty sure shouldn't be there.

Clicking in the bottom right corner of the touchpad feels different from the rest of the touchpad and won't click, neither will most of the areas along the sides or other corners. I can only click down in the center of the trackpad and I'm fairly sure that's not supposed to happen as when using the trackpoint I can't click using the top of the touchpad like I'm supposed to. I tried getting rid of gestures, increasing sensitivity and a few others. So far, no luck; it just doesn't work.

I also don't have the 2 year accidental damage protection warranty registered to my TPY, though the support said that it should appear within thirty days. Tech support also told me that I can't take it in on the onsite warranty because it's not yet registered to the device, but they made an exception for me. Within 48 hours I'll have the ability to fix the touchpad, given that it's having issues. Everything else seems perfectly fine though, I don't have any screen issues or anything like that.

 

Hi,

You should start from top (hindge) after you remove all screws just gently pry it up than continue to other side if you have pry plastic tool (these are usually shipped with many chinese replacment parts). Bottom part is hard. Again you start from one side and use that tool to unlock clips one by one. Once you unlock first clip rest will go easily. Just dont use too much force and you will be ok

 

This is good information but I would really like to see a close up picture of the clip and instructions for how to release each clip using a pry tool. Otherwise I'm going to break one off until I figure it out

 

You could have a look here: RTPW1230_ThinkPad_YogaUltrabook

There's a video on the removal and replacement of the base cover under "FRU Videos". You can also find the procedures for removing other components there as well.

 

Purchased my i7 no digitizer off amazon and had to send the first machine back. The display wasn't flush with bezel and you could see light bleed through in that spot right above the hinge. When putting it into tablet mode only the left side of the keyboard would lock out and move flush.

Second unit is perfect. Just thought I'd post as it seems like there might be quality control issues. Will report back with overall experience after spending some time with it.

 

It appears as if TPYs ordered direct from Lenovo have less problems than those ordered from the resellers.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

I had this too, bottom right corner felt different. Though the clicking worked.

 

My trackpad came "dislocated" for lack of a better word and was initially very hard to click, I just pushed down fairly hard a couple times and it popped back into position. Now clicking anywhere on the pad feels exactly the same.

 

Hi Everyone,

Got my TP Yoga, US, custom from lenovo, 4500U w/ 8GB, digitizer and 256gb ssd. Doesn't seem to have the black hole problem and everything seems good.

Just one question. When I was playing around with it, I saw that they had a power setting (in Lenovo Settings --> Power) to choose to leave it 50% charged. I updated the system and this option disappeared. Is there anyway to get it back? If not, what would be the best way to ensure my battery packs lasts for awhile. I usually use it plugged in, would it be a bad idea to leave it fully charged and plugged in? Sorry I'm a noob at this and just looking for some advice. Thanks!

 

On the Lenovo forums one of the employees said that setting has been removed because it was really only intended for people who keep their computers permanently plugged in and it was causing confusion for the vast majority of regular users.

There is a 3rd party program called Battery Bar that I believe, in the paid version, gives you access to those kind of settings.

 

So far this has been my worst online shopping experience ever. Lenovo said delivery time 1-2 weeks when I asked prior to my order which I placed 1/12. After two weeks and no updates i called them,and they said expected ETA were 24th December. UPS says 27th. It's really exceptional to be the worlds biggest PC manufacturer and have this crappy communication and delivery chain.

Location Date Local Time Activity
Koeln, Germany 20.12.2013 3:28 Import Scan
Koeln, Germany 19.12.2013 23:23 Arrival Scan
Warsaw, Poland 19.12.2013 21:17 Departure Scan
19.12.2013 19:23 Arrival Scan
Almaty, Kazakhstan 19.12.2013 18:24 Departure Scan
19.12.2013 15:53 Arrival Scan
Incheon, Korea, Republic of 19.12.2013 12:44 Departure Scan
19.12.2013 7:36 Arrival Scan
Shanghai, China 19.12.2013 4:51 Departure Scan
Shanghai, China 18.12.2013 21:34 Export Scan
18.12.2013 21:34 Origin Scan
China 16.12.2013 5:28 Order Processed: Ready for UPS

 

Re: Thinkpad Yoga - Digitiser has inaccurate area - Page 8 - Lenovo Community

Still many german guys reporting digitizer issues. Its coming from the HDD/SSD magnetic field. A lot of german resellers upgrade these parts according to customer wishes. So this explains probably why models ordered via lenovo site work better, the digitizer firmware fix will only work good for hdd/ssd models which lenovo knows of, but of course not any model, as the magnetic fields will vary.

Without this digitizer issue I would have bought it already. But for software like Ableton Music studio with a lot of small control knobs you need good accuracy, some mm inaccuracy are too much for this purpose on such a small screen. Also I don't think like others here Yoga 2 will take another year, probably the Intel Iris graphics is built into ultrabooks the next months, and then lenovo has to offer some updated ultrabooks to keep competing

 

This is incorrect. First, SSDs do not HAVE a magnetic field. Secondly, if the distortion were due to the static magnetic field of the magnets in the voice coils driving the HDD's seek arms, then the distortion would change when the laptop hinge is in different positions. This does not occur, so the cause is unrelated to the HDD, SSD, or any component in the laptop base.

 

Every current line creates a magnetic field. You are making more assumptions than I do. It's a guessing game as long as lenovo is not willing to tell whats wrong. Meanwhile they should have figured it out and the firmware fix obviously doesn't work properly for all devices.

Some user report the black hole only appears in tablet mode, so there it is the laptop base causing this behaviour. I also can only rule out things. But it has to be some kind of field coming from the base, if not, then there are different defects that cause inaccuracies of the digitizer, that is even worse.

But I'm out now, I will not order a german model with that error for over 1000€, maybe if I can directly watch and test the piece in a shop.

 

In this thread, I have seen that there are two basic hard drive configurations for the TPY:
-HDD and small supplemental SSD
-Single, larger SSD.
In the US Lenovo store, It is not an option to buy one with an HDD. So if I buy one with just the SSD, will I be able to drop in my own HDD, or will it not contain the proper connections?
Thanks in advance.

 

If only the Helix had a backlit keyboard, I would just jump that way instead of waiting. But out of curiosity I checked, and even THOSE, which were released last spring, have a 4 week or more ship date... I don't need graphics for gaming, I don't game on this. I would love being able to pull the screen off and have a straight tablet... But I do a lot of work on my recliner at night with lights off, and the backlit keyboard is an absolute must for me... Too bad, so many "almost" products, but there's always a compromise somewhere.

 

I don't understand the appeal of backlit keyboards. It's quite easy to learn to touch type, including special symbols.

 

I'm a better than average touch typist, but even I need to look at the keys fairly frequently. I use at least 3 different keyboards on a near daily basis and none of them have the same layout of function keys - and most of those keys get used very rarely. The backlit keys are very welcome.

 

@JDThird - I considered between the TP Yoga and the Helix too. Owning now the Yoga and would not change it back to the Helix anymore. Big advantage for the Yoga is the low voltage Haswell. I really love the Yoga for it's silence. You can put your ear on it and hear nothing. The Helix had some issues with the fan.. (higher voltage processor here). As far as I know there won't be a Haswell-update on the Helix =(

Also great are the Yoga hinges. Build quality seems to be excellent.
But the speakers and position could be better. Unfortunately the sound quality gets a lot worse when not in laptop mode. =(


@Brandizzle - many users reported already it is possible to change the ssd/hdd. Just have a look some pages back..

 

Hello guys, could you suggest me any online European store that offers the TPY with the digitizer and with a US/English keyboard locale?