Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga

Interesting...but no point

 

Has there been any speculation regarding how much an i7 version with FHD
, 256GB SSD and digitizer might cost?

 

So im guessing the model without the pen does not have a wacom digitizer screen as well?

 

Yeah, the wacom and pen are necessarily paired. I don't think they would include a digitizer and disable it but stranger things have happened.

I have a feeling the sweet spot configuration is going to be
+digitizer
+256GB SSD
+i5/i7
+FHD screen

~$1350-1450 best guess.

 

I would imagine between $1600 and $1700, possibly more or less depending on how much Lenovo will charge for it. (Hopefully less...)

I'm fairly sure they will not include the digitizer hardware in the screen if you get the model without the pen.

IDK about those prices with i7, 256GB SSD FHD, screen and digitizer since the MS store says $1599 for the i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, FHD, without the digitizer, but it would be nice if you are right.

 

I asked this question because I am currently test driving the Y2P. I have been a dedicated T series user for many years and now, after finding nothing significantly wrong with the Y2P when it comes to my needs, I am wondering if I should ignore the added weight and smaller screen size to go with the tried and proven Thinkpad line. Certainly cost is a consideration and when a properly outfitted Thinkpad Yoga comes at a potential $400 to $500 premium over the Y2P, that is certainly worthy of consideration. Don't know if it is worth it for a weekend travel machine. Looking forward to seeing initial impressions soon.

 

So did I misunderstand or the digitizer model will be released AFTER the regular one? Im kind of worried cause I got folks going to new york for Christmas and I was hoping they could get me the TP Yoga there. Do you guys think by Christmas Id be able to find the digitizer version in stores?

 

According to a customer support/rep person I chatted with today, TPY with the digitizer should be available this month (within 2 weeks ). Although don't give your hopes up as I have heard no guarantees.

The MS store is just not taking pre-orders for, and probably will never sell, the TPY models with a stylus, whereas the Lenovo Store probably will. I am unsure about it in stores because I have asked worker at Best Buy but they were clueless to the TPY.

 

I have a X230 Tablet right now with a 12" screen at 1366X768. I'm okay with the size of the screen but not the resolution. A higher res screen at this point is a must. I'm tired of scrolling up and down on a web page as often as I have to.

 

Hey guys not sure if you noticed that the official tech specs have been finally posted for the ThinkPad Yoga: ThinkPad Yoga: Business Ultrabook - 12.5" 2-In-1 Business Convertible | Lenovo (US)

I think what I'm torn with is the Hard drive options which are:
HDD: 1TB / 5400 rpm, 500GB / 5400 rpm, 500GB / 7200 rpm (Jan 2014)
SSHD: 500GB / 8GB (Jan 2014)
SSD: 128GB SSD SATA3, Intel® 180GB SSD SATA3, 256GB SSD SATA3
mSATA: 16GB

Anyone have any experience or knowledge on the various hard drive options? Here are some of my questions:

Any thoughts on 5400 RPM VS. 7200 RPM?
How comparable is the 500GB/8GB SSHD drive in comparison to the SSD drives?
The features section of the TP Yoga says "the Lenovo Performance Booster enhances performance by up to five times." What exactly is this and does it apply to all models?

 

Lenovo Chat confirmed November 12th for Thinkpad Yoga - no pricing available yet though, same for wacom or no wacom

 

That is indeed a good news. I cannot wait to purchase TPY to replace my currently-using huge brick!

 

I keep forgetting about the EPP and the Barnes & Noble discount portals.

Haven't seen many B&N deals lately though so maybe Lenovo will not discount the TPY by much.

 

I can also confirm that I was informed by the live chat that November 12, the TP Yoga will be available for purchase. What I am looking for is:

Intel Core i5
256gb SSD OR 500GB SSHD (Available Jan2014)
8GB of RAM
FHD 1920x1080 with Digitizer Support

In comparison to the price they are offering for a comparable Yoga 2 Pro which is $1149, I am hoping I can get the ThinkPad Yoga for roughly the same price or perhaps around the $1249 range, especially since the resolution is significantly lower on the ThinkPad.

 

I was hoping to get at least an i7 one, so it would last me a couple more years and broaden its uses.

 

Anyone has any idea if this will be available at any retail stores like Best Buy? I'm hoping I can just walk up into a store and pick it up, instead of waiting for my item to be processed and shipped via Lenovo. Also with retailers like Best Buy, it might be cheaper, as was the case with the Y2P when it first came out.

 

I asked an employee at Best Buy the last Friday about the TPY, but he was clueless. Considering they sell the Thinkpad Helix and the Twist on the BB website, I would think that they would sell the yoga, although I have seen neither in stores.

 

There are certain portals from lenovo where you can get significantly discounted prices. For example, currently you can get helix for about $1175 rather than $16xx from epp.

 

Pretty sure that the i5 models with 8 GB ram won't be available until Lenovo starts using the TPM chips in the Yoga, which will be in 2014 as you also noted for the 500GB SSD.

 

Compare it to the X240 instead and that config (which is what I would get if I were buying one) will be very expensive.

 

Interesting.. I was doing a Google search for Lenovo Helix and the first result on the 2nd page presented an Excel file called "Lenovo Solutions Book - Canada": http://www.lenovosc.com/assets/file... Solutions Book - Canada - November 2013.xlsm

It shows the Thinkpad Yoga configurations and Canadian list prices. An example when I filter on 256GB SSDs & i7-4500u/4600u combinations:


I then entered one of the model numbers into Google (20CD000SUS) and sure enough a few websites are already listing it. The first result for i7-4600U / 8GB RAM / 256GB SSD / FHD with Pen & Digitizer is listed at $1534.63 ( Lenovo NOTEBOOK TPE S100 8G 256 W8P (20CD000SUS) - Laptops / Notebooks)

No one appears to have any in stock at this point.. but probably not too long now. Yay!

 

Excellent find! Didn't know such a thing existed. The prices for the TP Yoga are looking quite steep. I find this strange because they said it would have a starting price of $950. I hope that they will offer large discounts for the list prices as they are doing for the Yoga 2 Pro

 

The cheapest model I could find was $1049.. no doubt there will be discounts off list (some of the retailers that are pre-listing already show discounts). The cheap model was an i3-4010u, 4GB, 500GB/5400RPM + 16GB M2, HD screen.

I think I just stumbled across the US equivalent website while searching on some of the model numbers listed in the Canadian Excel file: Lenovo Solutions Center

 

It looks like the price in USA will be the same as the price in Canada (or at least very similar).
Plus, according to the existed resources, can we confirm that the RAM in TPY is unreplaceable or not manually upgradeable.

 

Well. $1579 for a digitizer version with a 180GB SSD. Doubt that a 250GB version will discount down to the cost of a Y2P. This is a tough call.

 

RTPW1230_ThinkPad_YogaUltrabook

RAM has been confirmed for a while now to be soldered on - see Processor & Memory under Technical Overview

 

This appears to be the US version of that excel file.

Lenovo Solutions Center

For 8GB of RAM and FHD Digitizer with 1year warranty the prices are:

i7 4500U and 180GB SSD -- 1579.00
i7 4600U and 180GB SSD -- 1679.00
i7 4600U and 256GB SSD -- 1699.00
i7 4600U and 500GB HDD + 16GB M2 -- 1499.00

To get an i5 with digitizer you have to drop down to 4GB of RAM

 

Thats just perfect! Good price, good specs.

 

Any thoughts on how the battery life of the i5 will compare to the i7?

 

This is great info. But, I am still not sure about the availability. Microsoft store has the release date pushed out (says mid to end December now). Any confirmed date from Lenovo?

 

In the U.S., the live chat said it will be available for purchase on November 12 which is next Tuesday.

 

This is a concern of mine, too. I have been trying to predict the difference based on the way the Haswell chips have been performing in Apple machines so far, even though it may not be a fair comparison.

Here, for instance, the difference in battery life was pretty negligible:

AnandTech | The 2013 MacBook Air: Core i5-4250U vs. Core i7-4650U

However, me personally, portability is probably my most needed feature. I want the longest running battery I can get with the digitizer model, so I will probably go i5/4GB which should be sufficient for most of my tasks.

 

i5 with 4gb would probably be sufficient for me too. That is currently what i have on my Surface Pro 1, and it is blazing fast. There should also be a bit of a speed boost since the TP Yoga would have the Haswell i5. I have also been monitoring my RAM usage and I never go anywhere near using the full 4gb.

My main concern at this point is hard drive storage and the speed difference between a full SSD drive VS. a Hybrid Drive.

 

Hey. I'm in the UK. Does anyone know if there is an expectation that the same release date is being honoured over here?
Ta.
Kev.

 

I'm not sure if it's been updated since trentb accessed the Lenovo Solutions Center, but I'm seeing one model with an i5, Active Digitizer, and 8 GB of RAM. However, it's listed at $2913 and comes with a 3 year warranty, as opposed to the 1 year on most models. This shows up on even the i7s as well, with the price skyrocketing. But there doesn't seem to be an i5 model with 8 GB of RAM with only a 1 year warranty.

Past that, it seems prices for i5 with digitizer run from $1429 to $1529, so not cheap, but not too expensive. I'd prefer an i5 8GB of RAM model, though, especially since the RAM is soldered on.

 

It was there, I checked the 1 year box I guess and forgot to uncheck it when checking for an i5 with 8GB of ram. that being said, the price spike for a 3 year warranty is ridiculous, over a grand more...

 

Hey Kev, try to do a live chat through the UK website and see what they say. I am not sure how quick they release their products in comparison to the U.S. release. In Canada, it appears that we sometimes get the product 1 week after the release in the US as was the case with the Yoga 2 pro

 

The prices do really seem to steep for my liking, but i am really hoping that there will be substantial discounts upon release. When you try to get pricing information on live chat on the ThinkPad yoga, they say there is no available information. I'd like to believe that upon release, we will see more reasonable pricing. We'll find out by next tuesday on the US lenovo site.

 

I'd be more worried about the fact that you have a spinning drive inside of a tablet that you're constantly moving around.

 

From the information I gather...thanks to the site posted earlier by others, we have a list price. Lenovo will list that price upon release, but they will probably have an e-coupon. This will knock the price down 100-200 dollars. I used the ThinkPad Twist and X1 carbon as references. The i5 versions of the Yoga 2 Pro have also been knocked down by a couple hundred bucks (it's now the same as Best Buy).

So for an i5 256SSD with digitizer list price is about $1500. It will probably be around $1300+.
For the i7 it's about 200-300 dollars more...so you're looking to spend approx $1500-1600+ to buy it via Lenovo.

Everything is speculation.

I hope stores like Best Buy will carry it. Maybe they will have a better deal.

 

I can't find any entry-point for chat on the UK website. Maybe I'm being dim

 

Hi folks,
my first time posting here. I'm very interested in the Thinkpad yoga - from a photoshop editing perspective - with a stylus. Lenovo seem to be pretty clear that the stylus / digitizer that are included with this model is intended for writing / taking notes / signatures. No mention of graphic design or art / photo editing.
With this in mind - perhaps a seperate Wacom stylus is needed - for instance the Wacom Intuos Creative stylus - but would this work / be compatible with this model? I have seen several people post that this model will be compatible with Wacom stylus - but I have not seen that information coming from a Lenovo source - or for that matter a reliable source - and I wonder if it is perhaps just wishful thinking. Does anyone know if there will be the possibility of using a Wacom / 3rd party stylus with this model - for the purpose of photo editing?

 

It doesn't worry me so much. One of the features of the TP Yoga is that it has active hard drive protection according to the website. This basically means that the system will lock the hard drive in place in the event that there is a sudden movement such as dropping the computer. This will prevent damage and loss of data. I'm sure carrying around the tablet normally won't effect the hard drive too much . I won't be yielding the thing like a sword anyway. I'm still torn however between SSD and Hybrid. If the Hybrid drive can still have decent performance, I might go for it for the sake of having more storage.

 

I HIGHLY doubt that they will sell the TP Yoga for the full list price, especially if they want to remain competitive. The Yoga 2 Pro offers 8gb of RAM and a 256gb SSD drive for $1149 which is an excellent price. If they deviate too much from this, it will hurt sales. I think serious business professionals are not going to dash $2000 for a TP Yoga when they can easily get a different ThinkPad such as the T440. Normal consumers will definitely not pay the full list price as well.

 

To my knowledge, Wacom enabled devices are compatible with most if not all wacom pens. For example, I can take my Surface Pro wacom pen and use it on a Samsung Note 3. I can also take the pen that comes with the Samsung Note 3 and use it on my Surface Pro. It's the same technology all around. In fact what I plan to do when I buy the ThinkPad Yoga is I will use a Surface Pro pen with it since the Surface Pro pen has an eraser while the TP Yoga pen does not appear to have one. The nice thing is you can buy a Surface Pro pen for only $30 from the microsoft store. I am actually also trying to find another wacom digitizer online but can't seem to find any for cheap.

 

I totally agree with you. The only thing I'm wondering is how long it will take them to drop the prices. In the case of Y2P it was approx. 1-2 weeks before they reduced the price to match Best Buy prices (which I feel are fair prices). As far as I see it, it's a business strategy. There is a small percentage willing to buy at release, even if the prices are high. The price will then get dropped to a more reasonable amount, and it will be picked up by others. It's the same thing that Apple does with their iPhones, or any other piece of new tech that gets released. If I can spend less than $1500 tax included for the variant I want, I would purchase at release.

 

Was it really 1-2 weeks? I thought those web coupons were available as soon as it was available for purchase on the lenovo website. I could be wrong. I want to stay within the price range that you are shooting for as well. If I can get that with an i5, FHD panel + digitizer support, 256gb SSD and 8gb of ram I'd be really happy

 

Also just a heads up. I inquired about how long the discounts would be available and a representative said they apply ecoupons on Thursday and remove/change them by the following Wednesday. If you look at the Yoga 2 Pro models being offered on the U.S. website, the $1149 model which got you an i5, 256gb SSD and 8gb of RAM has been reverted back to $1399 since yesterday (Wednesday). So it is really true that they change their coupons on a weekly basis, so be sure to get the model you want while the coupon still lasts

 

Good point! Since I have an EPP account, perhaps I do not need to worry that much