Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga

I agree that the issue is very common, but I didn't mind it for my TPY and did not even return it although I noticed the issue within return period.

Changing the LCD under warranty is not a big deal. I have had the replacement for my last 2 laptops and the process is very simple and fast. As long as we know all panels are not affected and since Lenovo is working on the issue, it is quite OK to enjoy TPY.

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Majority of Apple products are made in China and they have one of the best build qualities in the damn industry.

Chinese manufacturing is not some cheap shop operation, its modern and extremely high skilled.

Most products in the world come from China and yes some are crap but companies like Lenovo and Apple and other top Manufacturers have their own factories with very highly skilled workers and a lot of modern technology hence their build quality is excellent.

Being scared of Chinese manufacture is a 10 years old principle, also it is not likely to be made any better in the USA seeing as the work ethic in China is different. Honestly do not be put off by where its built, its the company behind it that will let you know of the quality. Lenovo are a top end company who are making record profits, their infrastructure is top notch as seen by the hundreds of thousands of extremely well built products, my ThinkPad Yoga feels like a tank compared to my old Samsung laptop!

P.s. most of the components besides possibly capacitors in the Fujitsu T904 are made in China

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I do indeed have a CTO Yoga that I ordered directly from Lenovo UK with an i5, 256GB SSD, 1080P with a Digitiser. The CTO seem to have a much higher quality build and a lower issue rate compared to the retail channel.

The T904 will be probably be a fair bit pricier then the Yoga and I don't feel like it really offers any benefit unless you just have to have ethernet or the extra. 8" of screen make that much of a difference to you.

I absolutely love my Yoga and I'm usually extremely picky with tech.

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Its confirmed that the panel used in this device has a chance to suffer from image retention. But only a small majority are actually unusable because of it. Many don't even suffer the problem like me who has had this device for over month with daily use in desktop mode and there's no image retention.

If Lenovo deem is necesary they will order a recall on the screens and you can simply pop into a repair centre and have your panel replaced for free.

I'd advise buying it, but I'd also advise taking out the 2 years with onsite warranty so they can replace the panel at your convenience in your own home etc. Just as a backup but like I said, not everybody gets ghosting and only some people report ghosting that is so bad it makes the machine unusable.

It really is the only product on the market that matches my requirements perfectly!

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Try a system restore to a time before when the battery was charging. Otherwise do a hard shutdown, unplug the charger, and hold the power button on the laptop until it shuts off. Wait a little bit and then try to plug in the charger while the machine is completely off.

If the light blinks 3 times leave it for a few hours then turn it on and check if its charging.

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Yeah, that's why I passed it over. It's not a digitizer. It's simply a capacitive pen. No go for me.

Sent from my GS4

 

FYI just rang Lenovo to check progress of my order as it's gone past 15 days since I ordered. My order is delayed till March 1st shipping date because I added NFC option, not sure if there's a shortage or technical problem?

You would think Lenovo would have some sort of system for informing there's customers of delays. I guess reason for that is because they use a 3rd party (digitalriver) to handle there sales. Not very good customer services Lenovo!

 

So is anyone in the US getting the "ClickPad with NFC antenna & module" instead of the one without?

This is the best bang for the buck configuration I found so far:

 

How did you manage the 500gb hybrid drive?

I got this price

 

What is the practical use for NFC in a laptop?

 

I ordered Thinkpad Yoga on 2014/02/02 with following specs:
- 4th Gen Intel Core i7-4600U Processor
- Windows 8.1 64 english
- Touch & Pen, FHD (1920 x 1080)
- 8GB PC3-12800 DDR3L on MB
- Intel HD Graphics 4400
- Keyboard Backlit - US English
- ClickPad with NFC antenna & module
- 720p HD Camera
- 256 GB eDrive SSD
- Battery (LiPolymer 47Wh)
- Intel Dual Band Wireless 7260AC with Bluetooth 4.0
- Publication - Japanese
- 1 Year Depot or Carry-in

It cost me 162.240 Yen or around $US1600 after 20% discount coupon. What bugging me a lot is the delivery date delayed from 2/26 to 2/27 then 3/3 then to 3/13. It takes much longer than I expected

 

Ah, I got the same build. If you wanna take about a delay...
I ordered on January 21st and mine came just yesterday. It sucks that I'm going to have to return it though.

 

Why do you want to return it? is it about ghosting problem?

 

No, it's not about the ghosting problem. Although, I am quite aware about that problem, there is much that I don't like about the TPY; the flaws outweigh the benefits. I will have to add my reasoning in this post from another thread about ThinkPads:

 

You do realise you can swap the functions of fn and Ctrl in the bios??

Audio on laptops like this will always be crap, use headphones or Bluetooth speakers.

Other then that well to each his own.

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Well there really isn't one that I could think was worth cancelling my order and waiting a month for. Its good on phones but they aren't as cumbersome as a laptop.

I guess two uses would be the ability to share pictures from your phone by placing it on the track pad.

The second would be making some kind of NFC login key that you could have on your keyring allowing you to login using the NFC key which should be more secure and easier then a password.

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Hi All,

Unfortunately, my trackpoint and trackpad seem to have stopped working this morning... the cursor of the mouse isn't displayed until I plug an external mouse. The external mouse works, but the trackpad and trackpoint absolutely refuse to do anything.

In the "mouse properties" of the control panel, in the "ThinkPad" tab, the two blocks for trackpoint and trackpad are greyed out.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks !

 

I'm trying to set something up or should I say install Python as a new user to try and learn it and I'm following a tutorial video. In there video when they go on to command prompt they can go onto the C: drive. by just typing

c:

when I type that when logged in as an administrator I go to

C:\windows\system32>

If I type it in not as an administrator I go to

C:\users\wgone>

Are these the same as being in the root c: directory or not? I left everything default with my Yoga so I only have the c drive. I'm following set up instructions and the commands that they used in command prompt don't work and I'm wondering if it's because it ain't going straight to the c: drive.

This is the video I was following, he uses command prompt around 6.50 mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg4o9V-no48

 

Type "cd\" without the quotes to get to the root of the c: drive

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If you don't mind me asking, how did you get such a good deal?

 

Well, I do own a TPY, so perhaps I can provide some facts/experiences to base your buying decision on

Background: I have a core i7 TPY with 8GB RAM, 500GB SSD (replaced the stock 256GB SSD) plus the OneLink Pro dock, I had it for ~3 months. Previously I had a bunch of thinkpads and also Dell/HP laptops. This is my work laptop - I use it for emails, word/ppt and writing code. I also use it during meetings with customers - both for taking notes and presentations.

Issues:
- the build quality is lacking (especially in early batches) - compared to my older thinkpads this thing feels nowhere near as sturdy and well built. I had to send my first unit for replacement because it was literally coming apart at the seams
- the performance is adequate, but honestly it's just about on par with my old core 2 duo T400 and when I stress it the fan is working overtime. This can be expected, though - it's an ultrabook and half the thickness of T400
- the screen ghosting issue is very apparent. Obviously I cannot speak of the percentages of the affected systems, but based on comments here, on lenovo forum, dell forum and my own experience I tend to think that all of the systems are affected to some degree. However, not everyone is sensitive to this and the issue is gradually getting worse over time, so some users might have not experienced it yet and others simply haven't noticed. It took me more than two months to see the ghosted start button and, personally, I don't find this very problematic. Of course this is not something I'd expect form a premium machine, but I can live with that. I guess it's a matter of personal preference.
- the digitizer scratching the screen protector thing - I also have a couple of scratches, but I this is not a major issue to me
- the OneLink pro dock not working - this one is actually very annoying - there is a thread on this at Lenovo's forum - basically OneLink docks (both Pro and regular) are not working properly with TPY - USB keeps disconnecting which causes the network to be dropped constantly, failed file transfers to external drives and also erratic mouse movements. They say solution is coming, we'll see. Out of all the issues with TPY this is probably the most annoying/problematic to me as it affects my daily work.
- drivers are flaky - there have been several drivers updates that broke some essential functions (like the latest version of trackpoint driver or the latest wireless driver), but you can always roll back to the previous version - that's what I do. So, if on T400 I'd just install everything the updater suggested here I stick to what works and wait for comments on this thread.
- the hinge - I guess it's a matter of preference, but after using TPY I've come to the conclusion that I'd much rather have a swivel hinge - it's just much more convenient. If I want to show something to a friend sitting next to me/opposite of me with my old Dell convertible I'd just rotate the screen and that's it. With TPY I have to pick it up, fiddle with the onelink and USB cables, etc. I might as well have a regular laptop and just pick it up and turn it around. The locking keyboard works OK, although I'd prefer for the trackpad to lock too, but this I can live with. However the inconvenience of turning the screen around is high enough for me to not even bother.
- the digitizer has regular Wacom accuracy issues, but if you've used a tablet/convertible PC with the Wacom digitizer I guess you are already used to it. It's not better and not worse than others, imho.
- the trackpad has waay to much travel for my taste - it feels like I'm pressing it all the way down to the bottom cover

Bottom line, this is not a bad machine, it's compact (although a bit heavy for it's size), it looks nice, imho, the keyboard is great and it gets job done and I'm not planning to go through the hassle of returning it.
Would I buy it again? Most likely - no. I'd get something with a swivel hinge, with a more reliable 13.3" screen and more time in the market/better track record. Even if I'd have to let go of the digitizer.
Would I recommend it to our IT department (I used to pick machines for a large enterprise, so I have some experience)? Not at this point, no - there are too many issues, the maintenance overhead would be too high.
Would I recommend it to a friend? Well, if the digitizer is a must, if he can live with the screen ghosting (I'd show him mine or some pictures from the forums) and if he doesn't need a dock (or can work with a USB based dock instead) and if the hinge type works for him (this one really depends on your usage scenario) then yes (but with a 3yr onsite warranty), otherwise I'd recommend him to look elsewhere.

I guess at the moment TPY is better suited for students (pen for note taking, but not too much demand for high-quality screen for graphics work, not too much demand for sharing the screen with others - like a coworker or during a presentation, fairly decent battery life, portable, powerful enough for school task and some occasional light gaming/watching a movie, etc.). Considering all of it's current shortcomings it doesn't really work well as a business machine.

That is my opinion based on my usage scenarios. Obviously yours might be different, but perhaps my experience can be useful in your buying decision.

 

Does anyone here use the yoga for any serious image editing? I'm talking photoshop with 5+ layers (20+ MP 16bit tiff). Can it handle that or is that too much to ask from a low voltage cpu? What's it like working on a 12.5" screen?

 

Anyone here tested the TPYoga with a Wireless AC router? How was it?

 

The AH-IPS panel used in the ThinkPad doesn't have a great color space.

Review Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga Convertible - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

Who are you referring to?

 

My bad, forgot to quote. I was referring to you.

 

The Barnes and Noble Gold discount plus taking out the SSD ended up in giving me huge savings.

Also Lenovo upgraded the base model specs a bit as well while keeping the cheaper price of a lower config.

I think that Lenovo increased the price again so you might have to wait until they decide to drop the price again and let you use a coupon as well as replace the SSD with an HDD instead.

Modern ThinkPads go on sale a lot (especially when they have manufacturing issues) so just keep checking and also see if you can use a student or employee discount as well since they may stack with certain promotions.

 

I'm very interested in that as well! I'm already aware that it has a low color gamut. But how does it fair performance-wise. I'll be using it mostly for coding and web design, but i'll be doing some illustrator, lightroom, indesign, and some photoshop as well. I have an additional screen for accurate colors. The question is, can the Thinkpad Yoga handle those applications?

 

You are better with another machine like the X230t or T902 if you want to do photo editing.

The ThinkPad Yoga not only uses a ULV CPU but it caps out at 8 GB of RAM. With the X230t and T902 you can have a faster CPU and 16 GB of RAM.

 

If I recall correctly, it's an average - above average performer. Nothing that'll blow your socks out of the water, but it's fine for an Ultrabook IMO.

 

It's sad that the current Haswell MacBook Retina Pro 13" model has a better CPU/ integrated GPU , support for more RAM , and a better display.

 

I have the Netgear stealth fighter looking AC (R8000 maybe?) router and I haven't had any issues. It seems fast enough for streaming etc. No issues here.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/731068-lenovo-thinkpad-yoga-296.html#post9573329

 

the i7 4500U CPU in TP Yoga should be slightly faster than the 3nd gen regular i5 3210M, unless I am missing something,

PassMark Intel vs AMD CPU Benchmarks - High End

 

Yeah this configuration is no longer available in the US

 

If you are looking at synthetic benchmarks then yes, you are correct, but I'm referring to the real-life performance. Opening a project in visual studio or starting a debug session takes about the same time as on my old T400 (I had the same 500GB Samsung 840 SSD there, although it only had SATA II).
While on paper the processor and the storage subsystem might be faster in real life TPY has an ULV chip that is already performance-limited and due to it's smaller size and a puny fan it is much more likely to throttle due to thermal envelope limitations.

 

That scenario is all about storage speed though, it's not CPU intensive is storage intensive. The only thing you will notice going from SATA2 to SATA3 on the same SSD is synthetic benchmark performance. You will not notice a difference in real world usage.

The CPU in the TPY is a fair bit faster then any Core 2 Duo. Certain use cases are just not CPU intensive and what you described it one of them.

The C2D in your T400 is half the performance of the i5-4200U, Ofc that's only noticeable when doing CPU intensive things, but still. The fact that opening applications and so on is best instant as well its ability to play some pretty decent looking games without issues shows its very powerful even for a ULV chip. Not to mention the can does kick in when doing something but it rarely throttles for me.

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A bit off topic UK specific question – is this true that customer has 7 calendar days to cancel the order after receiving it even if it is not faulty when buying directly from Lenovo online?

 

Thanks! I tried a system restore but no luck.

I then did the hard shutdown thing, and the light blinked 3 times and then never came back on again. After I turned it on the next morning, it said " 14% available (plugged in, not charging)". I did a search on the "plugged in not charging" phrase and many people said it was due to the (old) power management software with the configurable maximum charge level, which couldn't affect us.

Anyone have any more ideas? I could always drop it off for warranty but I'm afraid they'll keep it for too long again (week and a half for replacement keyboard)

 

Godofwar... People are certainly entitled to their own opinions on this machine. You have been a cheerleader for the device and happen to have a response for ANY criticism that posters have leveled. I hope you're getting a commission from Lenovo.

The OP can certainly speak for me. My $1600+ Thinkpad Yoga was a piece of crap. Drivers were cruddy, digitizer was buggy, screen ghosting, random reboots, erratic display performance, erratic trackpad.... Must I go on?

Additionally, the warranty replacement unit was going to take OVER a month for me to receive. Beyond that, having the screen replaced at a local depot was going to result in a similar delay.

There have been a significant number of issues reported here. Your retort for every critical post isn't necessary man.

 

You may not have properly read his reply. He was responding to someone who said 'we' would not recommend buying one, insinuating that everyone hates their yoga. Which is definitely wrong. He, as was I, one of the number of people who disagree to this and voiced their satisfaction with the yoga. Every device has issues, but so far I have to say that the yoga I have had really hasn't had any issue other than a couple dead pixels. I have purchased and sampled a number of ultrabooks over the past year and the yoga is my personal favorite so far.

 

Lenovo is working on getting fixed screens which is why many people say that it's better to wait and not buy one right now.

If someone doesn't care about the image retention issue then it may not make sense for them to wait.

BTW , I'm still waiting on the NFC option as well. The Yoga does seem a bit rushed...

You claimed that you sampled a number of ultrabooks but you didn't say which ones. Do you mind making a list of the ones you've used?

 

I am trying to decide between the Yoga 2 pro i5/8/256 and TPY i7/8/256 + stylus - i would have to Pay the Same Price for either.
I will use it for watching to in bed, and getting stuff done for university (statistic, CAD etc) and i will neu sing it reasonably Often with an extern Monitor / tv.

Better cpu and stylus are Nice but on the other Hand the y2p screen is pretty Nice and the tpy is slightly bulkier.

What would you guys recomend?

 

Both are horrible for CAD work but the ThinkPad Yoga is better for a student since you can actually take notes on it.

The ThinkPad warranty is also much better.

 

I see. I guess HDD was making the real price difference. I've been waiting so far for deals but instead price went up. US prices increased by $50 since January and Canadian prices increased $150 for the very same configuration (128gb SSD, i5-4200 with pen)! And now HDD is not even an option. I really regret that I waited, and not sure if I should wait longer or buy. How long does it usually take for Thinkpads to go on sale after launching?

 

I suggest you re-read my post as you clearly did not understand the point or tone of it..

It was in reply to somebody who doesn't own the device using the word "we" to say the product is not recommended. I do not want somebody to speak FOR me. Also all previous comments from that particular user were negative about the Yoga without even having used or owned one. Hence it being an unnecessary post etc.

You had a bad experience, it was your experience. My experience has been extremely positive and most of your issues were initial driver problems, things that haven't been an issue for 6 weeks or so now. So to say the Yoga is crap because the first month's drivers weren't great is just stupid. Your experience would be far different if you were to receive a new Yoga with all the newest drivers etc. But again it was your experience and your particular Yoga wasn't fit for purpose. That doesn't mean a fully functional Yoga which many of us have received wouldn't be a night and day difference and be your perfect device though, but without owning a flawless one you can't give the Yoga as a whole a judgement because your unit was clearly defective.

So far the ONLY persistent issue that has been reported is the image retention and even that is hit and miss regarding severity and notice ability. I am very picky and I do occasionally look out for my Start Logo to stay when I switch to the Start Page but after 6 weeks of daily usage I haven't experienced image retention in event he slightest way.

Ps. I am not sure what "retorts" you are on about, care to enlighten me? I haven't discredited any negative comments unless they were easily solvable issues.

 

I would definitely go with the ThinkPad.

p.s. My ThinkPad Yoga i5 4200U with the 256 SSD runs CATIA without any issues. I cannot say drawings with alot of constraints and components all in an assembly won't cause some lag, but I have yet to witness any lag when viewing my Ariel Atom suspension assembly for my Uni project last semester.

@Zero I am not saying the ThinkPad is perfect for CAD but I wouldn't say it is horrible, its very usable

 

Yes indeed, in fact storage subsystem is probably the main factor affecting perceived system performance (although doing a full build of ~100K lines project is still very CPU intensive), but that sort of drives my point home. While you can run a synthetic benchmark that will put TPY clearly ahead of my old T400 and while, in theory, there are some very specific vertical real-life scenarios where TPY can shine (running some FF transforms in MathLab?) in most of the cases (or at least in most of my use-cases) TPY will give you similar experience to my old T400. Part of it indeed has to do with a finite amount of throughput you can get from the storage subsystem and limited RAM (as I have large project open in VS, many Chrome windows, Outlook, etc. - so there is a lot of swapping going on), but part of it has to do with the ULV chip and throttling, imho.

Haswell is very aggressive with throttling to begin with and ULV chips are even more so - on idle my system usually stays below 1GHz. It is very hard to know the actual reason for the throttling - because in modern CPUs it constantly goes on (just look at your CPU clock and voltage), because clock throttling and VR throttling is not always correlated, because sometimes parts of the CPU are power-gated completely and transition in-and-out takes some time, because moderns CPUs include northbridge with integrated GPU, memory controller, etc. and all those things are throttled (both in terms of clocks and voltages) independently, because thermals also play a role in throttling so the die temperature, other subsystems temperature, cooling system and even ambient temperature affect it and finally because it is very difficult to know if you are hitting some actual limits or there is just an IO bottleneck, so CPU throttles because it's out of work. Bottom line - without a full blown HW testbed I cannot draw any factual conclusions on the throttling effects on TPY.
I can, however, guesstimate based on perceived performance, so when i see that my usual workflow gives me about the same experience on TPY and my old Core 2 Duo T400, while on the bigger non-ULV Ivy Bridge Core i7 Dell development laptop (also with 8GB RAM and 500GB Samsung 840 SSD) same workflow moves noticeably faster this makes me think that ULV chip throttling and weaker cooling subsystem is to blame.

I'm not saying that TPY is some crappy netbook that is only good for light web browsing, not at all, it is perfectly capable of being a developer machine, I'm just trying to set expectations - don't expect TPY to perform on par with T440p or E6440

 

Have you tried having the plugged in power profile do a minimum of 80% CPU and maximum of 100% CPU. As well as looked into unparking the cores??

This application will set the level of core parking. It is a noticeable difference even on desktops with all these new power states.

http://bitsum.com/about_cpu_core_parking.php

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