The Official Yoga 3 Pro Release Thread

I'm wondering if these press units were not quite up to what the production units already are?

I received one that is going to be a gift for my girlfriend on Monday. I have ran it through some tests and followed this thread a little and here are some of my observations...

1) My unit is showing 4.5 W TDP in HWiNFO64 (not the previously reported 3.5 W earlier in this thread)

2) In Chrome, I can't play HTML5 Videos on YouTube at 1440p or 4k resolution, but I can play 1080p videos using HTML5 player on YouTube just fine. This is actually the same experience that I have with my Dell Latitude 6430u work laptop (i5 w/ 16GB RAM). If I use the extension "Disable Youtube HTML5 Player" for Chrome, disable Chrome's built-in PepperFlash player, and download and enable the Flash player from Adobe, I can play 4k videos from YouTube in Chrome through the Flash player. I can also play 4k videos from YouTube in Internet Explorer in the HTML5 player without any issues (as long as my bandwidth keeps up ) and there are no video or audio stutters. And yes, the display is pretty gorgeous with 4k videos!

3) I only have access to the free/limited 32-bit version of Geekbench, but I did run PCMark7 just to try to compare to these results and am consistently getting >=4500. I have uninstalled Harmony and currently set to High Performance power mode just to see how it would do.

So far from a performance perspective, this thing seems pretty good. My Samsung Ativ Book 8 with an i7, dedicated graphics, SSD, and 16GB of RAM is faster but it is also more than double the weight and much larger. Honestly if I could trade it for something like this, I probably would.

My only issues are

- The fan (originally I think everyone was kind of unintentionally mislead into believing that this thing might be fanless!), as it is on almost constantly and I wish that there were a way to force it to truly be passive or turn it off. I have tried using tpfancontrol, speedfan, notebook fancontrol, and none of them were able to adjust the speed of the fan. I read another forum post where someone actually opened and unplugged the fan and have been happy since, but that seems a little extreme to me and I would rather not do that!

- There is some kind of a bright spot about the size of a green pea in the bottom-center of the display that looks like a defect of some kind. It is really only visible when a very dark background is on the screen (especially black, like the lenovo boot screen), but, as others have mentioned, for $1300 I really don't want to see something like that here. I might see if they can swap a new one for me just for this reason.

- If I run my fingers up and down on the rubber part surrounding the display, I can feel little ripples which seem almost like it is related to how the rubber is glued on to the panel some how? It is pretty minor and this is really the only negative thing I can find about the build quality. The new hinge is incredibly stable compared to when I tried the Yoga 2 Pro and this thing is very thin and very light.

 

j0shg:

High Performance mode kills battery life on Haswell/Broadwell machines since they can't use their much advanced power management so unless the laptop can do it on Balanced its not very relevant.

Also please try running Cinebench R11.5. It's possible since PCMark7 tries to "simulate" real world applications there are enough light periods between where its cooling down.

 

Here are some random thoughts now that I have had this for several days (compared to my Yoga 2 Pro):

Positives:
Form factor - now that I've been using the Y3P for several days my Y2P feels like a pig - heavy, fat, not as well made. Plus this thing is beautiful and really stands out. I couldn't go back to my Y2P now for this alone

Screen - the screen on the Y3P is much better - the colors are better, and the touch response is better as well. I couldn't go back to my Y2P now for this alone as well

Hinge - the new hinge is wonderful. It keeps the screen more stable when I am using the touchscreen and I think it looks incredible. It is a real show piece. Plus it makes cool tinkling sounds when I run my hands along it. If your spouse or roommate is a fidgety person this might drive you insane as they will end up running their hands along the hinge all day just for the sound it makes.

Speed - all the reviews keep saying the Core M isn't any good, but for me this feels faster than my Core I7 Y2P. Maybe it is just because it is a fresh install, but it feels faster. Caveat - I don't do anything taxing with this thing - the only programs I run are Microsoft office, browser, email, windows store apps and some desktop apps that could run on any laptop processor in the last 5 years.

Wifi: wifi has been rock solid for me on this. For my Y2P I ended up opening it up and replacing the wifi card with one that does AC as the stock wifi card was slow and unreliable - kept dropping connections and would show as unavailable in windows.

Negatives
Fan - really this shouldn't be a downside since the fan is much quieter than the Y2P and doesn't seem to come on as often, but really, I wish it didn't have one at all.

Power button - it is in the wrong place. Several times I have accidently hit it putting my computer to sleep. It was easily solved, though - I just went into power settings and set it to do nothing when it is hit. Voila, no more problems.

Windows capacitive button - my windows button just below the screen doesn't have haptic feedback and doesn't respond well - it only registers my touches less than half the time. I spoke with tech support, and this isn't normal so this particular unit is going back.

Crapware - not unique to the Y3P as my Y2P had a whole boat load on it as well, but I do really wish that the Microsoft store sold these things so that we could get a native windows experience. It took a while to get all the junk off of this.

Equivocal
Battery life - seems about the same to me, but then again I really haven't used this thing over 5 hours yet at one time so I have no idea whether battery life is the same or not I'll put this into "good enough for me" category

Keyboard - I miss the dedicated home and end keys (have to hit function + PgUp or PgDn now) but other than that the 5 row keyboard on the Y3P isn't an issue for me at all (I never use F1-F12 keys). I like the travel and feel of the Y3P keyboard slightly better - it doesn't have quite as much travel and just feels better made. (I prefer chicklet keyboards to standard desktop ones and I touch type around 85 words per minute). If you have really large hands you might not like this one as well as the Y2P since the keyboard is closer to the edge. I'm 6'3 but my hands aren't all that large so it works for me. But if you are Kahwi Leonard you will hate this computer.

 

Thank you so much for this. Because of all the negative comments about it I was about to go get a Yoga 2. Now I am confused... I am just like you and not a power user, though I am on the laptop for pretty much the whole day sometimes but with breaks in between and I just surf the web, work on documents on Word, watch videos, listen to audios, and so on. I play no games whatsoever or edit anything using any super specialized programs, I don't even use Photoshop.

The only thing I got concerned about was the performance and speed.. would you say it's better than the Yoga 2 (for a user such as myself)? Some sites are saying that the performance and speed sucks even for normal usage.

 

If you don't use any power programs then I think it's safe to say Y3P has more than enough performance.
Lenovo will *probably* improve some performance and battery life with few updates. We're just being picky and compare the performance with Y2P, especially in repeated benchmark tests, where the new Broadwell Y CPU is weak. Such performance drops actually happen only if you max the CPU for longer time, which never happens when using light to medium apps.
Even the weaker CPUs than the one in Y3P are good enough for casual usage...

And, as for the battery life - same as with Y2P - you can adjust few settings (most important to uninstall Lenovo bloatware and unnecessary drivers, download new Intel graphics driver and enable full Power savings in Intel Graphics panel), and you'll have at least couple of hours better battery life than out of the box.

So, I'd say to go for it if you're not a power user. I personally need more performance and even the lack of F keys is a deal breaker.

But, if you have time to wait then it's probably a good idea to wait several months until Intel unveils new Broadwell U CPU, which is the successor of the Haswell U CPU used in Y2P, Surface Pro, Macbook Air and practically all laptops and ultrabooks from the past year.

All the manufacturers will refresh their Haswell laptops with this Broadwell U CPU and some even release new models.
And I'd be surprised if Lenovo doesn't release some laptop based on Broadwell U CPU. They already released Yoga 3 Pro, so I don't see them releasing "Yoga 3 Pro Pro". But who knows...
Maybe a thinner, lighter and more affordable "Yoga 3" with SSD and 1920x1080 display? If they do it right, that could be the next big hit from Lenovo, and not Yoga 3 Pro...

 

Can anyone share more thoughts on how to get 4k video in chrome (flash continues to lag) using a i5 Y2P? I've disabled pepflash and tried both HTML5 and Adobe Flash 15.0. Why is IE perfectly smooth?

UPDATE: in my testing, adding this to the chrome.exe commandline appears to make 4k video much smoother via FLASH (must force HTML5 disable)

--blacklist-accelerated-compositing

 

Saw this new Microsoft commercial for the Yoga 3 Pro last night... Yoga 3 Pro – Let’s Dance

And accompanying website: microsoft.com/yoga

 

I have decided to postpone the purchase of Y3P at this time for the following 3 major reasons:

1- I have yet to be convinced that the Broadwell M Chip is as fast as the i7 Haswell on my Y2P. It might be worth waiting for the Broadwell equivalent to the i7, the U chip coming up in 2015 and perhaps installed on a future Y4P
2- I am reading bad news about upgrades from win8.1 to win10. So I am going to wait for either the Y4P or the SP4 or another unit from Asus that runs Win10, that way I do not have to go through the hassle of upgrading to win10 when it becomes available in 2015
3- I am not happy with the battery life on the current Y3P in stress mode

 

I've been running my Yoga 3 pro 256 now for about a week. Got to say that the device is really nice. For me (powerpoint, email, excel) the device feels like its faster than my Sony vaio 13 pro i7. There are some negs though.

Pro
1. Really quite compared to my Sony vaio pro i7
2. quick enough for office work
3. really nice finish
4. Great display
Cons
1. No TPM
2. Wifi does not connect to Cisco corp AP
3. Battery seems a bit low
4. Cant get hold of travellers ac adapter
5. Too high resolution on the display. w8.1 does not scale good enough

I think that there is a high chance that a bios will be released that actually fixes some of the power issues. I get the impression that the cpu is not reaching correct sleep state or so.

 

Excellent review of the Y3P. She says the performance falls somewhere between a 4th gen core i3 and i5.

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=47270

 

Thanks! Lisa always does great videos -- she's also very knowledgeable, and that's reflected in the Y3P review (though she has a hard time saying Lenovo 2/3 Pro! LOL). I'm just a little surprised that her benchmarks put it up with the i3/i5 Haswell U. We've seen here that you get serious throttling on the benchmarks over multiple runs. I wonder why her results may have differed...?

-Matt

 

Maybe the early reviews had a pre production model?

Looking at the thread views folks are interested in what she has to say about the Y3P.

Wow, that hinge looks solid!

Sidenote I noticed she reviewed the Asus Zenbook UX303....interesting laptop and available with the Yoga pro's 3200X1800 panel. I wonder if they have yellow issues also?

 

Yep, Lisa and Anandtech rank up there among the top for detailed reviews. Its now looking like the performance issues on the pre-production models are thankfully anomalies.

 

Has anyone found a video review that shows this little guy's performance on games? I want to know if I can play WoW, DotA and the likes decently on a core M.

 

Yeah. She's by far my favorite reviewer.

 

The hinge is very solid, and I love the size and weight of the Y3P. I have trouble with the touchpad, but that's nothing new - I have trouble with all touchpads.

 

Haven't seen any benchmarks yet but would guess it won't do very well on games with the Thinkpad Yoga 14 performing about three times better.

 

She's not saying anything contrary to what we are expecting based on that short review. Between Core i3 and Core i5 is not a good sign. There's quite a bit of difference between the two.

Another review with Core M: Asus Transformer Book T300FA review - a fanless 2-in-1 with Core M-5Y10 hardware inside

Performance is even worse, even though its set at 4.5W. Yea, ok its a lower-end model but if the Yoga 3 Pro is so badly thermally throttling then the 5Y10 hardware with better setup should do at least as good.

 

Lisa's findings and benchmarks are definitely an improvement over some of the early reports - one of which cast doubt whether it could even run youtube videos at 1080p without stuttering. For awhile there, it looked like the performance was more in line with a baytrail processor than something between an iCore 3 and 5.

With that said, I'm leaning more towards the Thinkpad Yoga 14 with a Samsung SSD - a bit cheaper, more ports, upgradeable, faster processor and mid-range GPU. Although it is bigger and not nearly as cool looking...

 

My $300 refurbished Bay Trail Tablet can run 1080p Youtube perfectly fine. Computers should have mastered that 3 years ago. And in PCs 7 years ago.

Based on some benchmarks the Core M is barely faster than Atom. The funny thing is one chip is basically being paid to be used while other sells for $200+.

 

If you watch her video review, she has no problem at all playing 1080p video on chrome, with about 8 tabs open. Should they have labeled it with the "Pro" monicker? Probably not. But Lenovo obviously focused on light and thin, versus fast and powerful. It doesn't make it a bad machine.

 

Again, Lisa's benchmarks show a different story with performance much greater than Atom level. We will have to wait for more reviews but it may be that the earlier reviews done on pre-production machines are simply less powerful than post-production models for the reasons Lisa stated in her own review.

With that said and to your point, a $480 Asus T200 does provide a whole lot of computer at less than half the price.

 

My take:
Intel says the thermal limit is 95C and using the testing program OCCT the cpu freq drops hard at 80C, and slowly builds up then hovers a touch under 70C. Looks like Intel thermal program keeps the cpu freq as high as possible to keep it at 70C.
If this tablet proves popular - I would hope to see some kind of aftermarket base that lines up with the vents in tablet mode to blow air through, because I seriously think I could game on this. I have only tried Europa Universalis IV so far, and besides scaling it runs fine.

I like this tablet/laptop so far.
I wish:
-the power button was recessed so it doesn't get powered off when in tablet mode resting on my legs.
-there was a wacom digitizer
-smaller screen resolution (some of my older exe's are not scaling correctly to the super huge resolution of the yoga 3.

I like:
-screen brightness and size
-backlit keyboard
-hinge
-sturdiness
-screws on the back cover
-the small power adapter with usb cable
-fast start/boot time and quick responsiveness
-ac wireless and bluetooth 4.1


the other annoyance is win8, not lenovo's fault. I bought this because there are screws on the back that will let me replace the hard drive, or battery in the future.

If you are on the sideline, I would say go for it. If your a gamer you might want to wait until someone else confirm what plays and what doesn't.
cheers

 

Yeah, I completely agree -- but maybe I should clarify...what I meant was that our initial expectations were that the Y3P, for everyday tasks anyway, would feel like your "standard" laptop with a Haswell U. Pushing hard (e.g., gaming, intensive multi-tasking, video encoding, etc.) was another story, but I think the consensus here was "not likely". Then, after the early user reports (notably, from review units) started to come in, it was looking like even everyday stuff was a struggle, and in particular, I was disappointed to hear that there was significant throttling over repeated benchmark runs.

At least for me, seeing the MTR video "promotes" the Y3P back up a few notches in my book, though for sure I'll be waiting/hoping to see a Broadwell U in one early next year. In the meantime, I thought it was very interesting that Lisa explicitly touched on the pessimistic early reports and speculated that it was maybe due to preproduction issues. Definitely not saying all is well in Broadwell land but it does put a more optimistic spin on what we've heard so far.

-Matt

 

gadgetrants:

Lenovo and Intel know very well what they are doing. Yes, we were led to believe Core M would do fanless, or close to with i5 U performance. The problem is NONE of the reviews I am seeing OUTSIDE of Intel's closed-door benchmarks are showing good results. I am in awe how badly they missed. If you were following the Ultrabook project closely as I have you'd have noticed that they basically are saying Core M is what THE Ultrabook is.

And I may have compared against not just Atom, but ARM competitors like Apple A8X and Nvidia TK1 as well. I think its a relevant point. Especially when the Intel supporters are moving their argument from "It won't catch up to Core" to "Benchmarks are too synthetic". I can't see Core M devices as an upgrade to my XPS 12(Ivy Bridge). It's really not. Mine is faster, and while it may be somewhat quieter and somewhat more portable, its not acceptable for the drastic performance drop. What did PC guys achieve in the past 2 years? We got used to basically stagnant performance for better portability. Now they want us to get used to having it slower? And it still costs as much?

 

FYI: PCMag just gave the Yoga 3 Pro a pretty favorable review: Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro Review & Rating | PCMag.com

They messed up the part about it being fanless and a few other errors.

 

Here is a good review, more or less spot on in my opinion(I have the yoga 3 pro) Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro med Intel Broadwell-Y - Test / Recension - Bärbara datorer - SweClockers.com . Its in Swedish though

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Now that the HP Envy x2 M Core is out can someone compare how it tests against the Yoga 3 Pro? and possibly against the MS SP3 with i7 or i5 Cores? Those will be very decisive comparisons for people who cannot yet decide to purchase either Broadwell M cores or Hartwell i7 or even wait till MS SP 4 M or U Broadwell comes out next year. If anyone seen a comparison, please post the link(s). The Swedish publication mentioned above compares the Y3P to the MS SP3 i5 and it SEEMS THAT THE SP3 i5 WON in almost all counts!!! I think that the final word on this is that the Broadwell M chips are not as "fast" as the Hartwell i5-i7 ones but the jury is still out on the Broadwell U chips coming out in 2015. I must add and as said repeatedly on this forum, so far the only advantage of the Broadwell core M is that it affords the thinner laptops and sometimes (in low res units such as the HP X2) will eliminate the use of a fan and perhaps avoid throtelling!!

 

The problem is that I had a Venue 11 Pro Baytrail 3795 4GB of RAM and 64GB eMMC waiting to unbox, becouse I want to know if the Core M version of the Venue 11 Pro worth it, but...

As I can see, maybe the Yoga 3 is faster, becouse it boats with a real SSD, unlike the new Core M Venue, with eMMC as the Atom models, so if we combine, the less powered Core M, the 5Y10, eMMC storage in the case of the Venue 11 Pro... really it will last on battery as much as the Atom, and it will be faster and run cooler?

As they say here...

Asus Transformer Book T300FA review - a fanless 2-in-1 with Core M-5Y10 hardware inside

"Price and size wise, it sits between the last two. In fact, it’s scheduled to sell for only $100 more than the T200TA model that includes an Intel BayTrail platform, 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB eMMC. It does offer a bigger screen and a faster hardware platform, without being heavier or significantly larger. And it’s still fanless. But while the T200TA could last for 8-10 hours on a charge, this one can only go for 5-6 hours.

So in the end it’s hard to put this T300FA on the map, because it sacrifices battery life for a performance boost that’s not actually that visible in everyday use. Yes, the Core M hardware scores higher in benchmarks, but when it comes to performing daily tasks, it doesn’t feel much faster and it does run quite a lot hotter.

If you need a fanless detachable capable of handling well-enough everyday activities, the Asus T300Fa might be the one for you
If you need a fanless detachable capable of handling well-enough everyday activities and can live with 4-5 hours of battery life, the Asus T300FA might be the one for you

Thus, to put it simply. If the longevity is high on your priorities list and want a computer for basic, casual tasks, than the T300Fa is not for you, pick the T200TA instead (follow this link for my detailed review). But if you love the idea of having a fanless computer, still plan on performing casual activities on it and would appreciate to have a bit more power when really needed and you’re fine with 4-6 hours of battery life, then the T300FA might be the one right for you. Even in this case, get the base version without a HDD in the dock and put a SSD in there if you need the extra storage space."

What do you think? Do you think, Core M tablets will improve Baytrail tablets?

 

I just picked up one of these Yoga Pro 3 laptops yesterday at Best Buy (512GB version). I returned my Surface Pro 3 (Core i3 version) because even though I had a keyboard, it really doesn't work well for using the laptop in my actual lap, as it is kind of a pain dealing with balancing the unit with the kickstand extended, flimsy keyboard. I really love the watch hinge on the Yoga Pro 3.
However, the WiDi isn't working well at all. It connects and starts playing on my TV, but then starts skipping, pausing, and glitching the video (looks like a pastel filter applied to the video). Disconnecting/Reconnecting the WiDi and/or rebooting the laptop does not make any difference. This is very disappointing, because it is a show-stopper for me if I can't get this fixed. My old Surface Pro 3 worked flawlessly, and it only had an Intel Core i3 CPU. Is the M-5Y70 CPU in the Yoga Pro 3 even less powerful than the Core i3?
Anyway, I spent a good deal of time researching every stupid bloatware Lenovo program installed, and uninstalled about 80% of them. I will see if that makes any difference tonight when I get home. I also could not find the particular driver that drives the WiDi on Lenovo's support website. It is hard to tell which one includes the WiDi.
Any one else give the WiDi a try yet?

 

You can actually get a Windows 8.1 USB Installer image directly from Microsoft for free. The product key should already be burned into the BIOS so Windows 8.1 will activate automatically after you install. If you can find all the needed drivers from Lenovo, then this will give you a Microsoft clean install of Windows 8.1. I'd create a Recovery USB before I wipe your drives though.

 

Have you installed the newest Intel graphics drivers?
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=24348&lang=eng

They are much improved with better battery life, much better performance, fixed issues and new features.
You'll have to first to uninstall the stock Lenovo Intel graphics driver (Control panel, Programs and features), and then install the new ones from Intel website. Reboot might be required.
I wouldn't wait for Lenovo update the drivers. EVER. Worst support ever...

 

Yeah, I think new Core M is just a little better Haswell Y CPU. In fact, it's exactly that, the fifth generation of Y CPU.
It's better to compare it to Atom (Pentium N3520, runs in budget Yoga 2 11) than Haswell Core i5/i7.

Core M was supposed to increase the battery life AND deliver the performance almost identical to Haswell U i5 and i7 CPUs. However, it doesn't do either of that.
It looks like it isn't even good for tablets. Performance is, very much, but battery life isn't.

 

That is the point, As I read more reviews, there is a problem with the temperature of this devices with Core M, and also battery life not be as promising as it should be. And In my case, as I only wan't the best battery life, I think I should go with Atom, becouse in terms of avarage battery life is not comparable... For power I had an Dell XPS 13 with Ivy Bridge i7, wich is an amazing machine, so... I think is too early to think in a Processor that runs like a laptop processor ans lasts like a tablet one...

 

I think we'll see very good machines in several months when Broadwell U CPUs arrive. Better battery than Haswell U, with better performance. Win-Win. And Windows 10. Win-Win-Win!

 

Thats it, but what about tablets? Maybe the next Atom generation?

 

Intel literally HAS TO release some good tablet CPU to keep itself in business and compete against Android tablets and iPads. A good next Atom in tablets running upcoming Windows 10 could be a next hit.

I'm sure the next Atom will be pretty good, or at least enough for a non-heavy duty usage. I don't think the Bottleneck in budget tablets will be the CPU, but the eMMC. A budget tablet with an SSD will have by far the best performance.

 

Thanks. I'm getting the Yoga 3 tomorrow. Has anyone put together a guide for removing all the bloatware - as far as which programs are useful and which are basically junk?

Also I see on the Yoga 3 support website there are a number of new drivers and firmware available. As part of the setups process will the laptop automatically download and install these, or is there a Yoga 3 "tune up" type of program that will look for Yoga 3 specific updates and download/install them? Or do I have to go through their website and install them one by one?

Any tips on getting started with the Yoga 3 would be greatly appreciate. Things like how to best set up Windows to handle the resolution scaling, etc. Thanks!

 

According to engadget performance is not that bad:
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro review: slim and sexy comes with some trade-offs

And 7hrs of battery life is average i would say. I would get one of these if it was cheaper but 1600€ (thats what it costs at amazon these days) is just ridiculous.

 

Stumbled onto an older (Nov 26) review at hothardware.com...pretty much your standard fare, though if you have some time, the performance data are pretty interesting, starting at:

Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, Watchband Hinge And Intel Core M Deliver Thin And Light Performance

Overall the Y3P competes favorably with other i5 and i7 systems, and in particular, the battery life looks (suspiciously?) good.

I recommend checking it out!

-Matt

 

That is decent battery life, but it's weird that they, somehow, completely forgot to include their 2014 Dell XPS 13...which lasted well over 2 hours longer than the Yoga 3 Pro in their web browsing results.

 

Look who's back. Er, I mean...WELCOME back.

Funny too that there's a typo in the web browsing chart -- didn't spot the Y3P and instead it looks like Yoga 2 Pro has TWO entries (unless there's a specific reason in the text).

EDIT: Ah, now I see those are both web browsing estimates from different times. You're right, the 2014 Dell is a real outlier.

You're just in time. We should be getting some spicy rumors about the new Y3P models any day now. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Core M models drop in price another $100 or so as well once the U-variants are announced.

-Matt

 

Haha, I've been around,

Yup, it's just suspicious. From what I've read, the Yoga 3 Pro has above-average battery life....if it was powered by a 15W Haswell-U CPU.

Price isn't an issue for me: I hope to be using this laptop for years to come. We're talking less than a dollar a day, heh. It just needs to be good, lol.

Lenovo released this a tad too early, probably for the holiday sales. I guess this was the "Broadwell on holiday shelves" that Intel promised. I just read that most 2015 laptops will USB 3.1.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20141224PD224.html

And I found the laptop that the Yoga 2 Pro should've been, specifications and functionality-wise: the Acer Aspire R13. IGZO, LPDDR3, active digitizer, great webcam, solid battery life, multi-mode, etc.

And the Surface 4 Pro is rumored to be 13 to 14 inches, too. Hopefully that means a real keyboard. And Windows 10 is coming soon, too.

Eh, Lenovo could've had a slam dunk here. They've got the ingredients, but they took it out of the oven a bit early.

 

Wow, that's wonderful to see that the Y3P has some serious competition. I didn't know about the Acer -- very interesting! And a larger Surface Pro sounds equally cool. What are your thoughts on the Acer hinge...maybe not quite as pretty a solution as Lenovo's, but I'd love to see/test it in person.

Hope you're enjoying a peaceful XMAS. Unfortunately I just spent my life savings on a new micro 4/3 camera and lenses, so I'll be on the laptop/hybrid sidelines probably until spring!

-Matt

 

A quick note on the R13 -- stopped by the Microsoft Store yesterday to give it a spin, but (am I surprised?) they hadn't seen or heard of it. LOL So I substituted a bit of internet research instead...

...something that struck me as surprising was the active digitizer, which I think is maybe not quite so. Perhaps it's a standard touch screen with additional software for detecting the pen location, and the "active" pen does the heavy lifting (e.g., pressure level, palm rejection, etc.). Note in their presser (hah, I made a pun):

Press

Some other recent posts on the Acer forum...

Acer Aspire R13 (R7-371T) Active Pen problems. - Acer Community

Is the R13 pen N-Trig? - Acer Community

It's a pity that the machine is reviewed in its entirety on NBC and yet only a minor mention of the pen: Acer Aspire R13 R7-371T-779K Convertible Review - NotebookCheck.net Reviews Anyway it's a totally moot point in my case as I don't need to pen -- in the meantime I think it's a very juicy alternative to the Y3P.

-Matt

 

Excuse the third post in a row...but this thread is rather quiet!

Just wanted to note that I made a trip yesterday to the big city, and had the chance to get some hands-on time with both the Y3P and the Acer R13. A couple quick impressions:

Yoga 3 Pro

- I actually liked the hinge -- not nearly as grotesque in person as I expected
- outstanding display
- keyboard & trackpad also excellent
- super, super light

Acer R13

- noticeably heavier than the Yoga
- also excellent display
- key action a bit spongy but OK
- trackpad a bit sluggish
- don't like the hinge as much as the Yoga, but could get used to it

What appeals to me about the 2-in-1 form-factor is that I get a reasonably good laptop (work) and a tablet (movies, books, etc.) in the same device. Not terribly interested in the Core M at this point (given the very diverse performance and battery-life reports) but maybe after CES we'll have an idea of what's coming in the next few months. I'm sure I could spend the next two years with either of these machines!

-Matt

 

I like my Y3P. As you say, it's very, very light, and the different modes are handy. I like to prop it up in my lap in what they call "tent" mode and use it like a tablet to browse the internet while I'm watching TV. Needs a TrackPoint.

 

Has anybody tried to upgrade to the latest intel graphics drivers? After updating to the latest (v4080) set to try and fix the high cpu issues with the older drivers ( https://communities.intel.com/thread/57299), half of the keys on the keyboard don't work. WT F? Rolling back to the bundled drivers fixes the keyboard, but then that means I'm stuck on very old drivers with other problems.

Also, has anybody had problems with the touchpad randomly not working?

Maybe this just needs a fresh install without all of the Lenovo crapware, but I'm worried that won't work either if the latest drivers don't even work. Looks like Lenovo hasn't updated the drivers since release (10/10). Has anyone tried a clean 8.1 install?

Love the Y3P from a hardware standpoint. It's just seems like the crappy drivers are limiting it.

 

Ok, so I rarely post but feel the need now. Purchased two Yoga 3 Pro's from Lenovo Direct a week ago. I should add this is my first other than Dell purchase in 20 years aside from a brief try with a MacBook. Love the YP3 from a design standpoint - not so sure the keyboard position and layout is all that great. A day after loading all my programs - I get a Windows error and the software on the YP3 says I need to refresh the system. What I didn't realize is that this wipes out all the programs I loaded. Not great... Now the 2nd unit starts to experience unexpected Windows shut down errors but the programs don't disappear - some of the user data is reverted. This happens several more times. I finally decide it isn't worth the time or energy to try and resolve with tech support since I'm pretty sure they are going to say reload the O/S on both units. I should add that the programs are pretty normal - e.g. MS Office 13, Google Chrome and Sugarsync - all that work fine on the Latitudes E7440's that we currently have.

Maybe a bad batch...

So I call customer service today to get an RA since we are within 30 days. Next surprise - there is a 15% restocking charge. The sales rep told me there was no restocking charge if returned within 30 days. But it appears he may be confused with a promo done @xmas time that allowed this. I would never, ever have purchased from them direct (this is Small Biz division) - I would have gone to BestBuy who does allow returns like this without penalty. I am now awaiting a call from the salesreps manager which will take up to 48 hours...

This will be my last Lenovo experience - back to Dell I go where there is a 30 day return policy w/o penalty and products that have always worked quite nicely out of the box.