Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga

As far as I'm aware, at the moment, digitizer models are only available from Lenovo direct. US keyboard in Europe is trickier though.

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Thanks. I have been following this thread for a few weeks, but I have only ever noticed people discussing upgrading their HDD. Meaning they had one already. I have looked at the repair manual (which makes no distinction between the two cases) and noticed that the interface between the MoBo and the HDD is a small PCB module. Seeing that the module is not necessary for any TPY sold on the US store, I figured it entirely likely that they would:
1. Not waste the money, and leave it out. Or
2. Try to sell me the laptop with the hard drive in the first place.

Either way, I ordered one and it comes in next week. So I'll be seeing first-handed.

 

Yesterday I got one (i7 4500U - 8 GB RAM - 256 GB SSD - 802.11ac) with digitizer and US keyboard from an online store in the Netherlands.

So far, I'm happy with it, very nice full HD anti-glare screen and excellent build quality.

 

Thanks zhenya00. That's a bummer, I thought it was a cool feature. I looked up Battery Bar, but it just seems like a statistics program and doesn't seem to have the ability to over-ride the charge level. Windows 8 has a built in hidden feature to report battery statistics as well: Open CMD --> type "powercfg /batteryreport"

 

Which store is it? Will help kegior.

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Hi ALL,

received my yoga 2 days ago and wanted to inform you, that i do not have any qualitiy issues. Model 20CD0038GE bought form a reseller.
Got the black hole issue as well, but the fix did the job.

Now i have got a very annoying problem. Seems that this has not to do with isssues from lenovo but with me...

i descripted it here:
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkP...nstalled-quot-and-quot-Detection/td-p/1363365

maybe some of you have a hint for me, what went wrong with the device, because i do not understand the appearence of this errors at all.

- Stefan

 

Does anyone know how to turn on the backlight on the keyboard? Searched everywhere but can't find it.

 

Fn + Spacebar

 

Touch typing has nothing to do with it. I was touch typing on typewriters back in the late 70's in grade school and in the early 80's in high school. I type faster than any person I know regardless of their profession. Doesn't mean I don't still prefer a backlit keyboard now after having three different MacBook Pros since 2009... Especially since I have a laptop stand on a side table next to my reclining loveseat where I sit, and often I have a laptop sitting there, and will reach over and do things including replying to emails with one hand reaching over to it. Much easier with backlit keyboards.

 

I just recieved my forth TPY this week, again I am not happy at all with the QC and the build quality of the units. This is my forth unit and the hinge on the right is flat whereas on the left hinge it is slightly tilted to the inside of the machine. I don't want to exchange anymore I am done. I guess I will keep this machine and instead of exchanging I will just let lenovo fix it for me. Am I being too picky about my brand new machine?

 

Ultimately it's less a question of being too picky I think, and more a question of having to be willing to settle. I change cars about as often as I do laptops, every 12 to 18 months. And I've found the same issue with both purchases - when you get the first model year of something, you're dealing with the ramp-up issues in quality control and fine tooling the process of manufacturing. Unfortunately, that means a greater likelihood of annoyances and less than perfect workmanship. If they keep the Thinkpad Yoga line going for another model or two, odds are that will be much less the case once they are dealing with minor changes to body/cosmetics and internals. And hopefully things tighten up over the next few months as they adjust what they have now, but for those of us who want that brand new toy as soon as it's available for the first time, I think this is just the price that we unfortunately have to pay. I always think of it as beta testing their manufacturing lines after they're retooled for the new product... Some people get great machines that don't have any issues, others get ones with things that annoy them. I'd probably not hesitate to return one, maybe two, but in your shoes, if it performs without problems, I'd likely just settle for it to save myself the wear and tear of the frustration of repeating the same disappointment...

 

Got my TPY yesterday. Lenovo did a great job getting it to me before Christmas. Unfortunately it is DOA, which is extremely frustrating, but I suppose these things happen. At least I've got the opportunity to look over the hardware. It seems like a nice piece of kit. Pity it won't even get to POST. The keyboard backlight comes on after pressing the power switch, then it disappears. Backlight will come on every second attempt and the power light is on but other than that, nothing happens. Drained the battery completely and tried some of the power button tricks published on the net and no luck. Rang tech support and they didn't have a clue about the hardware, let alone how to help. There is a little reset button at the base which I clicked a few times and still no luck. Oh well. Decision time for me. Do I stick with TPY or go with something else given the experiences of others? Looks like the hardware is manufactured by Compal for Lenovo.

 

It seems I have the same "problem".

It seems the i7 is out of stock already. The i5 still seems available: Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga 20CD000MMH - Prijzen - Tweakers

This store also delivers outside of the Netherlands: https://www.bluelink.nl/search?q=thinkpad+yoga

That wasn't to hard, I wonder why there's no auto function to turn on the backlight in low light conditions.

 

Thanks a lot guys. I am going to order the one with the i5 CPU from Bluelink. In the product description they state "12.5inch (1920x1080 MultiTouch with Pen IPS". I assume this means that this model has the digitizer.

 

Another review, folks:

Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga Review: Exclusive Hands on - YouTube

(I ordered the i7 model with a 212$ discount last night, hopefully no hardware issues on my unit)

 

Hi...
after reading the whole thread and patiently waiting to see "the subject" in real life I had the chance today to play a little bit with the thinkpad.
The build quality is pretty good and I did not notice any problems with the display or the digitizer.
I recently sold my macbook pro (2010) and was looking for a replacement. After lots of reading and comparing I came down to the new macbook pro retina or the lenovo thinkpad yoga. I know these machines are pretty different, but I dind´t like the hinge-system of sony and I´m not convinced by the built quality of asus or acer. Most of the other notebooks in the catrgory seem to have their share of problems (WLAN, heat, noise....)

So today I was able to see and test the thinkpad for the first time, and I noticed that the device is much larger as expected when you read 12,5". The frame..margin or whatever it´s called in english is huge. I put the device next to the actual macbook 13" and it was lager. Thats very disappointing for me. So maybe I will go for the macbook. The build quality is excellent and so is the screen. I think I won´t really need a touchscreen in the next years..hmm..let´s see.

 

Sounds very much like a connection came loose inside during shipping. Seen this before on other machines. If you enjoying taking things apart I would try to make sure every connector is fully seated inside then try booting again.

 

Just received my TPY yesterday.

Spend the night doing the transition between my old macbook and my new laptop... (couldn't wait Christmas )

Overall i'm absolutely happy with my purchase, Performance is as expected : flawless :-D

I did the PS Benchmark V3 and it lasted 185s, which is alright i think.
Benchmark Photoshop Speed Test, V3 for really fast computers! - Canon Digital Photography Forums

The real change for me is to be able to use a laptop in tablet mode, this is the advantage of the TPY and they did a really good job at making this. The hinges are extremely sturdy and the device is not so heavy.

As an artist the pen is not as accurate as i would like it to be... in photoshop the dot is very off on the corners and you can't click on the icons naturally... I installed the wacom driver but the calibration is only on 4 points which is obviously not enough. It would be nice to be allowed to edit the pressure curve because the pen is way too sensitive (the curve is likely to be exponential and I would like to have a linear curve) and I find it hard to "feel" the brush. Obviously penabled devices are not as accurate as real tablets like bamboo or intuos.
Maybe in the future wacom will make a worthy driver...
Despite this i'll make do with the relative inaccuracy and i'm sure a lot of people will. Some software tricks will make the device fantastic for painting. If you just do some photo edit and lightroom it is accurate enough.


Can someone recommend me a good pen with 2 side buttons ?
Fujitsu Lifebook T4210 T4215 T4220 Stylus PEN | eBay
Fujitsu Lifebook T5010 Stylus PEN H2I20 00 | eBay
IBM Lenovo Thinkpad X41 Tablet Digitizer PEN 39T7303 | eBay

theses ones look good, have someone tried one of them ? thank you

 

I am using the Lifebook pen. It works fine. I don't find myself accidentally pressing the buttons or anything. I use my pen mainly for OneNote. The eraser needs to be pressed somewhat hard to work. I set the top rocker as an eraser instead of the default double click. When I used the eraser to erase, I feel uncomfortable with the amount of pressure I need to provide to erase. I removed the anti-glare film on my laptop. This makes the contact from pen to screen closer. IMO it got a little more accurate. Whenever I switched orientation I have to recalibrate or else it would be quite off. After recalibration, it was close enough for my preference.

Hope this helped.

 

You could try this - [HOW TO] PROPERLY calibrate your PEN and fix those stupid corners (273 test points) - xda-developers

273 calibration points.

 

Thanks cbracer. A bit hesitant to do this. I have played around with internals before but given its straight out of the box, I'd rather leave it to the experts. I did give it a little shake to see if I could hear something loose inside but couldn't hear anything. Might do a quick vid and send it to Lenovo to see if it expedites the DOA process.

 

Question - has anyone found some aftermarket screen protectors for the TP Yoga? The scratches on the factory one are really starting to bug me...

 

This has been discussed multiple times here already.
There are two storage interfaces inside TPY - a regular SATA drive bay which accepts standard 2.5" 7mm (or 9mm - if you are willing to push hard) disks (HDD or SSD - doesn't matter) and an M.2 42mm SATA card slot - used for caching SSDs in HDD configurations and left empty for SSD configurations. You can stick any 2.5" SATA drive into the drive bay regardless of the technology and any M.2 42mm SATA card into the M.2 slot and you can mix and match those as you please.
The small PCB you are referring to is just a physical connector for the SATA interface - in some cases you do not want mount the connector directly on the motherboard - for example, because it's meant to be fiddled with (adding and removing the drive) and if done repeatedly may harm the motherboard, so the connector is mounted on the separate small PCB and then connected to the motherboard with a flex cable.

 

To be completely unambiguous:
If you buy a Thinkpad Yoga with a HDD, you can purchase an SSD and install it in the place the HDD is. You do not need any sort of adapter.

For the Thinkpad Yoga, the SATA interface board is screwed into the chassis anyway, and does not need to be removed to swap out the drive. You simply remove the two screws that hold the drive cage in place, and slide it out.

 

If you live in Europe you can buy a clear or mat ATfolix screen protector.

atFoliX FX-Antireflex Protection d'écran pour Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga (2 pièces) - protection d'écran antiéblouissante!: Amazon.fr: Informatique
http://www.amazon.fr/atFoliX-FX-Cle...387712663&sr=8-1&keywords=thinkpad+yoga+clear

I used one of them on my note 10.1 and they are very durable despite intensive sketching with the digitizer. Very good product.

 

Does anyone know when the OneLink Pro Dock will be released, especially in europe?

 

How's the Yoga look without the matte protector on?

 

I got my Yoga a week ago and overall I'm very happy with it. There is some kind of a small fibre inside the aperture of the camera. As the fibre cannot be seen on images taken by it (poor quality cam anyway...) I'm not sure yet if I should try to do something about it.

Since this thread helped me a lot already, I thought it might help me with my remaining questions as well:

If I understood the manual correctly, the upper part of the touchpad (where the little knobs are) is supposed something like a scrolling area and there should be some kind of "middle klick point" somewhere, too. Neither of these work for me, although I think the settings in the driver are correct. Also, is it possible to get this middle klick thing while not using the trackpoint?

Can I use different calibration settings for the digitizer depending on display rotation?

Is it a known issue that Windows sometimes "forgets" the display scaling (or whatever this is called in English)? If so, specific to this machine or to Windows in general? This often happens after standby, but cannot really be reproduced be doing anything specific before.

 

I posted my art-oriented review of the Thinkpad Yoga earlier today. Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga review: close, but not quite perfect

 

Do you know anything about the bios of the thinkpad yoga?
Because it matters if you have IDE or AHCI mode. If you have the unit with HDD and switch it for a SSD by yourself, you have to change the mode to AHCI or else you will only get very crippled writing/reading speeds.

 

AHCI has nothing to do with the drive technology (HDD or SSD), so there is no reason for the HDD models to ship configured in a legacy IDE mode, but just for kicks I took a quick look at my TPY BIOS and there is no "legacy IDE" option or a way to configure SATA mode at all, so I assume it's AHCI only. I have tried disabling secure boot and switching to legacy boot mode (as SATA mode selection is sometimes limited to legacy boot mode) - but nope - still no legacy IDE.

Also - there is no RAID mode, so if anybody wanted to put in an SSD and an m.2 card and make a controller assisted RAID drive out of them (cannot think of a one good reason to do it, but still...) - no such luck.

 

Can you tell me what Fujitsu stylus and flex nibs you referenced in your review? It sounds like you liked it and I would like to order one for my Yoga.

 

I had a very very noisy 3 years old laptop and I really needed a refresh. Thus, in the beginning I was between the T440s and the X240 and I finally ordered the former two months ago. However, my order was delayed and after two months I finally cancelled it. During this time I was watching the alternatives which were the Latitude e7240 and the elitebook 820. And then it happened. I read a review about the Thinkpad Yoga and I got very excited. It was love at first sight. I realized that the TPY is really a step forward by Lenovo, a real innovation. Thus, I pulled the trigger and ordered one from a European shop that hjm indicated (btw I feel the need to really thank him for his suggestion). Now, Ι am looking forward to receive my new (and first) Thinkpad.

 

I'm still waiting for my thinkpad yoga to arrive. delayed and then I had to change the ship to address, what a nightmare that was. If I'm not impressed right away then it's going back and i'll order a HP Zbook 14 instead. Can order one of those next day. Strangely I haven't found many reviews or forums online with people who have gotten one.....

 

This thread was quite helpful for me, so I thought I should chime in with my experience and review. Hopefully this will be useful to others.

I ordered a custom Thinkpad Yoga on December 4th, and it arrived on the 19th after a delay. My model is the I7-4500 with 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and the digitizer. I talked with a rep and got 10% off. I was hoping for more, but that's what they offered, and I didn't feel like passing or waiting just to maybe get another couple of percent off. My laptop arrived in good condition in very basic packaging (which is earth-friendly, though unimpressive).

I chose the Thinkpad Yoga because it's the closest to my ideal device of anything on the market right now. I've been using a MacBook Air with Windows, and it's definitely a compromise. The lack of a touchscreen especially bothered me with Windows 8 (after using a Surface, I kept poking the MBA screen). Some of the drivers also felt very second-class (very limited gestures on the MBA trackpad, for example). When the IdeaPad Yoga came out, I said I'd buy one if it only had a digitizer, so when the TPY finally appeared, I couldn't really come up with any excuses not to buy it. Among the other devices I considered were the Surface Pro 2, the Sony Vaio Flip, the Fujitsu T904, and the Dell XPS 11. The Surface Pro 2 is a very nice device, but I need something that is "laptop first", because that's my primary use case. The 10.6" screen is also a bit small for me. I spend a lot of time on my laptop and want a reasonable-size screen. The Vaio Flip also seems nice (have no used one, basing this on the specs), but everyone says the fan noise is excessive, and I can't deal with that. The N-Trig digitizer is also a minus, but I could deal with that. Fan noise, though, is a no-go. The T904 looks nice, but doesn't exist in the US so far as I can tell. I also don't love the "twist and fold" design. The Yoga form factor is more appealing aesthetically, though I cannot speak to which is functionally better. The XPS 11 has a smaller screen and a less tactile keyboard. I'm unclear on whether it even has a digitizer, too. Dell claimed it would have a digitizer when it was announced, and then when it was launched, they made no reference to the digitizer, so either it's not there or it's not worth talking about.

Speaking of the digitizer, it works well on my unit. I have not experienced the "black hole", and the default calibration was pretty good. I initially installed the Wacom Feel drivers, but found that they made the pen less accurate, and the calibration tool less effective. So I uninstalled the Wacom drivers and re-calibrated using the "273-point" calibration others have used for the Surface Pro. This was tedious, but seems quite effective, as the pen seems accurate across the entire display now. I'm not using Photoshop, so the loss of Wintab isn't really important to me. I've been using Sketchbook Pro (not an artist, but enjoy sketching), and the pen is working great, though I hope to buy a more substantial pen at some point.

All in all, I'm liking the laptop. It has some pluses and some minuses, but overall it's solid and functional. My device has none of the build issues some others have mentioned, and it's the closest thing to my ideal device that exists. It's also a metal build, which is a huge plus, though as a Thinkpad the design is very utilitarian in appearance. In general, this seems to be the best device on the market for my use cases.

Below are some other observations about the device.

Pros
Solid construction - As I mentioned, the device has a metal case, so it looks and feels nice. Mine has no construction issues that I can find.

Form factor - I'm loving the form factor. I use it as both a laptop and as a tablet (two-hands or seated) in roughly equal amounts, which was my hope when I bought it. I've also been surprised to find that the "display mode" (screen folded backward, but not all the way) has been extremely useful. This turns out to be a great "tablet on the lap" position. I often put the device into this position while sitting on the couch, and the hinge allows the screen to stay at a great viewing angle while browsing or watching video. I even sketch in this position occasionally, though I need to put my left hand behind the screen to support it if pressing heavily. (Edit: Actually, I just tested and this isn't true. The hinge doesn't collapse even with enough pressure to get maximum pressure from the pen. I naturally prop the screen but it isn't necessary. It does steady the screen when it wobbles, though.)

Lift-n-lock - This turns out to be a nice feature. I wouldn't buy the laptop just for this, but it's a bonus. My wife has the Ideapad Yoga and it is indeed more pleasant to feel the firm keys on the Thinkpad instead of the disabled-but-still-mobile keys on the Ideapad.

Digitizer - The digitizer works very well. The pressure sensitivity seems very good. It's fun for sketching and seems quite functional for general work (especially with OneNote).

Cons
Clickpad - This is my single biggest complaint. The clickpad is acceptable, but not great. The Ideapad Yoga has a better clickpad for sure. I think they compromised too much by trying to make the clickpad work as buttons for the trackpoint, and the result is pretty mediocre. TrackPoint users seem to generally dislike the loss of dedicated buttons (understandably), and as a non-trackpoint user, I find the clickpad to be pretty meh. The travel is way to large. It probably depresses 4 times as far as the Ideapad Yoga or the MacBook Air, and this makes it feel slow and sloppy (it's also a bit loud). My guess is this is to approximate the feel of dedicated trackpoint buttons, but I think it's a huge miss. Synaptics's touchpads are also still lagging behind Apple in terms of tuning, and that shows up here. I've still not managed to set the speed/acceleration/etc to feel quite natural, especially for the scroll gesture. General pointing seems okay after setting the speed to the high end, but scrolling feels awkward still. The amount of scrolling that happens in response to a "slow" scroll is just too different from what happens in response to a "fast" scroll. The "acceleration" factor is wrong, and there seems to be nothing I can tune on this. The "right click" region is also too large for my taste, resulting in a lot of accidental right-clicks, but I found a fix for that, details further below.

Backlight flicker - Some people have commented on the screen flickering in YouTube videos and some people say that they can see it. I can confirm that the flicker is a real issue. When sketching rapidly (you can also simulate by just waving a pencil in front of the screen with a white background), I am quite aware of the flickering. It creates a bit of a strobing effect that I can live with, but don't like. My MacBook doesn't have this effect, presumably because the backlight is higher quality. On the other hand, the range of brightnesses that my MacBook can cover is noticeably smaller, so it's a tradeoff. The flicker doesn't seem to bother me in general use (as compared with flickering CRTs, which gave me nasty headaches), but I do occasionally notice it when scrolling.

Screen wobble - SurfaceProArtist commented that the screen wobbles, and I agree that it wobbles more than it should. This is a "touch-first" device, so the screen should be pretty solid, but it does have a bit of shake. It's not unbearable (and I've used touch-screen laptops that are far, far worse), but I think it could be a bit better.

Screen scaling - 100% scaling makes everything a bit too small for me, so I'm using the 125% setting. This makes me aware of how many programs do either a poor job or no job (falling back on Windows's scaling) on HiDPI displays, which is a bit annoying. Sublime Text 3 looks wonderful in HiDPI. Chrome is blurry if you leave it on its defaults, and it's an absolute trainwreck if you turn on HiDPI in chrome://flags.

Tiny Pen - The pen is smaller than I expected. It's functionally fine, but not the most comfortable. I was surprised by just how small it actually is. It seems about the length of a crayon, but it's thinner. I'm planning to pick up a better stylus for sketching at some point.

Other thoughts
Keyboard - I'm not as impressed by the keyboard as some others seem to be. It's fine, but I'm not wowed. It's on par with the MacBook Air, though the travel is a bit larger. I have no complaints about the keyboard. I just don't see what the fuss is about. Maybe I've never had to use a terrible laptop keyboard, so I don't have enough context to appreciate it.

Screen protector - The matte screen protector seems fine, but I wish I could compare to a TPY without it. I suspect that the screen would be more vibrant, but I don't really want to pull it off without knowing. The feel at first with the stylus was also very scratchy, but it seems to have smoothed out. I don't know if that means the protector has actually smoothed out, or if the stylus nib has smoothed, or if I've just gotten used to it.

Right-click - If you don't like the right-click region on the clickpad, you can turn it off entirely in the registry. Run regedit.exe, then navigate to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Synaptics\SynTP\TouchPadSMB2c". Then set the "RightButtonZoneT" key to "0". After that, if you log off and back on, the right-click area should be gone. Be aware that opening the "Mouse" settings in the Control Panel and clicking "Apply" seems to overwrite this again, so it would need to be reapplied if you make any other changes. You could probably also play with the other settings here if you just want to shrink the right-click area (and not eliminate it), but I didn't test that. As always, be careful what you do here, because you can cause all kinds of problems mucking with the registry.

 

Hey daprk,

For use in school (for note-taking and occasional on-the-go assignment work that consists of programming and writing), which would you recommend over the Surface Pro 2 and the TPY?

 

Hey Daprk, I appreciate your thorough review! It will help me in my decision. In theory the TPY is really my ideal device. The screen flicker is quite concerning though since I am coming from a Surface Pro screen which I think is quite superb. The trackpad in theory also looks attractive to me, but it appears some people either love it or hate it. Do you think it is a matter of getting adjusted, or do you think there are real design flaws? Anyway, thanks again for your review!

 

I have a 16g cache +1 tb of yoga, I would like to add a m2 of ssd, and then use it as the primary hard disk. But can not find on the ngff m2 bios boot disk as an option, how do? Lenovo will update the bios it?

 

@fatindian, I'm afraid I can't really pick for you on this. Personally, I would choose the Thinkpad Yoga, but that doesn't mean it will be the best for you. I do a lot of "lap-based" computing, where my laptop is literally sitting on my lap. In this circumstance, the TPY is better than the Surface Pro 2. The dual-stage kickstand helps, but the Surface Pro is still a device that works best on a hard surface if you want to do a lot of typing. I do a lot of typing, and relatively little of it is done with my laptop sitting on a hard surface. I have a dedicated desktop at work, so any portable device is primarily for use at home or in meetings. 90% of the time at home I won't be at a desk/table, and probably 40% of the time in meetings I won't be sitting at a desk/table. So lap-first is critical for me, and the Surface Pro 2 just doesn't fit that need for me.

Here are my other thoughts on the Surface Pro 2 vs the Thinkpad Yoga:

Form factor - See above

Build - Surface Pro 2 wins, by a decent bit. The TPY build seems quite good. I've been pleased. However, I think the Surface Pro 2 has a better build. I'd put it on par with Apple's build, and that's generally what I've heard from other reviewers as well. I would not say that the build quality of the TPY is on par with a MacBook Pro or Air. It's good, but it's not as good as Apple, and it's not as good as Surface.

Portability - Surface Pro 2 wins, hands down. It's just more portable, reasonable to hold with one hand, etc. Now, if you're carrying a full-size backpack anyway (as I generally am), this doesn't matter as much. But if you want to carry the smallest full-power machine, or you've got a small messenger bag to carry it in, or something like that, then the SP2 wins.

Typing - Thinkpad Yoga wins, by a little. The Type Cover isn't bad at all, and I could type on it for a long time without issue, but it's not as nice as the TPY. (I've only spent a little bit of time with the Type Cover, so I won't pretend that I can give good detail here.) I also like the touch cover, but it's obviously not competing with the real keyboard on the TPY if typing is your primary concern.

Trackpad - Thinkpad Yoga wins. It's bigger. That's really the primary criteria for a trackpad. I haven't spent enough time with the Type Cover to say if the trackpad there is more accurate or, though.

Screen size - Thinkpad Yoga wins. 12.5" is smaller than I think the screen should be. (They should have squeezed in a 13+" screen.) Still, it's almost two full inches larger than the SP2. If you care about screen real estate, there is no competition.

Screen quality - I haven't spent a ton of time on the Surface Pro or Pro 2, but the screen in general seems to be a little nicer than the TPY. I'd go with the SP2 if screen quality were the primary concern.

So there's my thoughts on the pros and cons of the two options. Do you need a laptop first, or do you need portability (or do you need the best-built device)? I know a few people who use the Surface Pro or Pro 2 as their primary device, and love it. For me, I just spend too much time typing on my lap for it to be the best option. (It's a viable option, just not the best.)

 

@soul347, The screen flicker is a bit annoying but it doesn't seem to be causing issues in general. I generally only notice it when I'm looking for it. I think Lenovo could have done better here, but it's not enough of an annoyance that I'm sending the device back. It's not giving me headaches or anything like that. I'm also not seeing the ghosting that some others have talked about. That would probably be a bigger issue for me.

The trackpad is usable. It's just not going to win any awards. I'll probably get more used to it as time goes on, but I'm never going to think it's the nicest trackpad ever. I'm reaching for the screen a little more as a result of the trackpad, and that will probably continue.

 

I have seen a lot of complains about the touchpad... From the first day I got it, I enabled:

1. Single touch with one finger => Left button

2. Single touch with two fingers = > Right button

All the problems are gone. I don't ever use lately the 'mechanical' way how the touch / track / mouse pads are made today. As long as the touch sensitive area is well built and responding well, the above is the best solution for everyone. Better get used to it...

 

Good review. A couple of points though:

1) I haven't noticed any screen flicker on mine, nor does the screen wobble.

2) I only tap on the track pad, instead of clicking (and tap with 2 fingers for right click). Works pretty well.

 

My problem with the single touch 'click' is that it has a delay for some reason to validate the click. Everytime you click you have to wait to validate that the click happened. This is totally fine for most casual use but not for performance and precision when using the pointer. At the same time the mechanical click on the Thinkpad Yoga requires too much force as you have to push the whole touchpad down. I'm going to give it some more time to see if I can get used to it but I usually I can get to these things very quickly if they are good, and haven't been able to do that yet with the TPY.

 

Screen flicker or ghosting might not be apparent to everyone - some ppl are more sensitive to those things than others, but screen wobble is pretty hard to miss. If I place my TPY on a table and tap top right or left corner of the screen (a regular light tap) my screen begins to wobble quite visibly and it takes it good 3-4 seconds for to settle back. Are you saying it doesn't happen on yours? I'm not talking about what's normal or acceptable - just an objective observation of the amount of "wobble".

Guys - those who have TPYs handy - can you try "the wobble test" - perhaps some units have hinges problems?

 

I'm going to disagree. I find tap-to-click incredibly frustrating. Tap-to-click has always resulted in lots of random unintentional "clicks" on every laptop I've ever tried it on. It's not the best solution for many people, and it's not necessary on the best touchpads. A reasonable click resistance and click travel makes clicking easy and reliable, and makes tap-to-click unnecessary.

 

For the flicker, set the brightness to about 25%. Then open up a white screen (notepad maximized will work). Take a pencil and wave it back and forth in front of the screen while looking at the screen (look past the pencil). You'll likely see a "strobe" effect. Unless Lenovo is using different backlights in different units, this will affect every unit. It's an artifact of the modulating backlight LEDs, and the only fix is to not use modulation for dimming (or possibly to modulate even faster).

I agree with rabramov about the wobble. It's pretty clear on my unit. It's not a ridiculous amount of wobble, and it doesn't appear to be a construction issue. But there's more than there should be, in my opinion. The wobble is more apparent if I put the laptop on a hard surface and poke near the top of the screen. Putting the laptop on my lap dampens the wobble considerably. (Edit: I just checked my wife's Ideapad Yoga, and it has pretty much the same amount of wobble, so I expect that this is typical. These laptops have a double-hinge, so it's not surprising that they could have a bit less rigidity.)

 

I've had my TPY going for a couple of weeks now and I don't seem to have any of the issues listed here. Screen latency, "flicker", I'm not seeing anything like that. The hinge is rock solid, I'm really confused over what people are complaining about there. Also, this is bar none the best trackpad I've used. The glass base is very solid and the texturing is just about perfect. The Synaptics gestures all work fine. The physical clicks are indeed "positive" but hardly excessively "deep". Anyway, if all else fails software "clicking" (tapping the pad) works fine.

I will say that you need to update almost every driver on this machine. Mine was built in November and basically every driver has been superseded at this point. Brand new audio, video, power management and trackpad drivers all hit in the last couple of weeks. A new BIOS came out at the end of Nov. The Lenovo "Support" app maddeningly misses many of these updates, I went to the support page and manually updated everything. It was annoying. Also, the system definitely had some small issues prior to me updating everything. Perhaps some here haven't updated everything? Also, I have a model without the digitizer, perhaps that's the reason? Regardless, everything seems rock solid to me now.

At a loss...

 

Ok, in actual real time use, I'm never ever going to do that. Then why bother? In normal use, against a white background, I do not see any "strobe" effect.

I agree. It isn't a construction issue at all. It's just a springy action from the hinges. Magnesium by its nature flexes, which makes it more shock absorbent and less likely to crack when dropped. Obviously, the flex also results in the wobble against a specialised Yoga hinge, which has to rotate over 360 degrees. All ThinkPads are made of this material, and have proved their strength and durability over the years. I see it as a positive rather than a negative.

 

I don't notice any backlight flicker. It looks PWM frequency is at 225Hz which seems to be sufficient for me.

Foto of single line taken with moving camera at 1/25s to determine PWM frequency:



Something I notice is when auto brightness is enabled brightness regularly fluctuates without any reason, therefore I have auto brightness disabled. Also when auto brightness is turned off, brightness will get a lot higher.

At standard 125% scaling for me everything in the Windows interface is a bit blurry. At 100% scaling everything is small but perfectly sharp and readable.

 

Just for the sake of comparison I took my old Dell XT2 out - it has pretty much the same amount of wobble (which is a bit weird, considering XT2 has a single central rotating hinge and it's over 4 years old, but I guess it can be considering "normal"). I'll also check a couple of touch-screen ASUS's I have at work tomorrow...