***Yoga 2 Pro Owners Thread***

I have been using the Notier along with my Smudge Glove and actually not having success. Getting tons of phantom marks from the glove and skippy writing. Here's is the odd part. I even tried putting a thick microfiber cloth under my palm when writing and I am still getting palm marks. Very odd. Have no idea how it is reading my palm through that thick cloth :-(

Don't know what I am doing wrong.

I really wish Lenovo had included a digitizer with the Y2P. I would have been the perfect device.

 

Installed the bios update. I never noticed before but has the fan always cycled on and off, and sped up and down? I am not particularly bothered by it but I am wondering if they all do this and I just never noticed, or if the bios update created a problem.

 

Mine never did until the update. And watching processes and seeing what is using how much CPU, mine at least doesn't seem to correlate to CPU usage. It just happens whether the CPU is spiking from something or is sitting 99% idle.

 

I noticed the fan when there were a lot of ads running on this webpage. It isn't consistent so I am not certain that is the cause. Sometimes, like now, it cycles on when I am just typing. There may be something running in the background that is causing it.

 

You'd think, until you're monitoring all the processes and absolutely nothing is happening (I log ago disabled all the Lenovo things that started every time with the computer) and the fans still randomly spin up. Very odd behavior.

 

That is kind of what the Sony Vaio Flip does, except that instead of spinning randomly, the fan is on all the time, even with the computer temperature is very low and on idle. And the noise on the flip is very loud. How loud is the noise produce by your yoga's fan, would it disturb people surrounding you in a classroom for example?

 

Well. It doesn't sound like a blender but if you are sitting in front of it in a quiet room you will notice it. Doubt that it would bother anyone nearby.

 

I how about battery life? Everything I have read about this type of display, and how both, the initial temporary fix, and the Bios and Energy Manager updates fix seam to work, setting power, energy and brightness at certain levels, suggest that the power utilize for the display is directly related to how the colors are render. Base on this it looks like, an otherwise unnecessary, high level of power consumption is needed in order to render good colors, which would reduce battery life vs power saving settings that will give you a bad yellow. Anybody willing to do some test to see how many hours the yoga would run on a full charge after the updates and with good yellow?

 

I have owned a number of laptops as well as the Surface Pro. IMHO the Y2P's fan is the quietest I have ever encountered. I never hear the fan running other than the occasional quiet rush of air. Some have reported defective fans which make a grinding noise. Can't speak to that as I have not experienced it. However, unless your unit has a broken fan as those do, the fan sound should not bother you.

 

For a Haswell processor equipped machine, battery life is not good on the Y2P. I am getting maybe close to 5 hours on a full charge just browsing the web, working on Word docs etc. However I do like to have decent brightness so that probably shortens things. My guess is all those pixels take a lot of juice to push around.

Having this high res screen is terrific but there are trade-offs to be made. Sadly for me I am a bit spoiled and will never be able to go back to 1080p again.

 

Can anyone tell me if I bump down the absurdly high screen resolution in the operating system if it will increase battery life and by how much?

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you sooooooooooooo much!!!

I have ask several times here and in another forum about the battery life, and after what it seams a very long time, somebody finally answer. (just to make sure this is after the fix, right?)
Me and a lot of other people really need to know about the battery life in order to decide weather to by or not. One of the main reason that I'm willing to paid $1000 plus for a Haswell convertible is long battery life. Unfortunately the hours that you are getting out of your yoga are even worse then some Ivy bridge laptops give. Of course, the price of the yoga include all the its other amazing attributes, including the bright screen, by the way what happens if you lower the brightness to save power, does the yellow goes bad again? If I own the yoga, I would probably like to have good brightness as well, so I can enjoy the display on a machine I had paid $1000 plus for. So I'm afraid that this trade-off is a deal breaker for me. I need a convertible that would give me at least 7 hrs on a full charge, plus a whole more than that for over $1000. Thank you very much again for posting. I'll be happy to hear from other people about the battery life on their beautiful Yogas. Peace

 

I can almost guarantee you are not getting 7 hours, especially with a bright screen. What convertible are you considering that gets 7 hours?

 

I don't know how much battery life the other convertibles in this category give, because I never got that far with any of them, because I really didn't care for any of them, the only one I really liked is the yoga, when I find out about the color issue, I took a second look at the design of the Vaio Flip, but when I learn about its awful fan noise, I walk away and never looked back, even if it gives 10 hours of battery life, I'm not buying. Since I really want a laptop that can be converted to a tablet, and not the other way around, the Surface Pro 2, which seams to have good battery life, is out of the question, plus it is too small for my taste. There are however, a few regular ultrabooks out there with great specs and good battery life, and more expensive than the yoga, but I really want a convertible, if the yoga didn't have it's issues with color and now apparently the fun, and it could give me great battery life, I would pay for it as much as they are asking for the Activ 9 plus.

 

I think you are being unrealistic. Every laptop has it's deficiencies. From everything I've read even before the "color fix" people were not getting 7 hours without really conserving power as in dim screen in power saver mode. You are probably getting 4-6 hours with the Yoga on a day to day basis. It all depends on which chip you get and how you use it. No one is going to give you perfect numbers for your type and use. If you are on performance and bright screen you will likely get 4-5 hours. So if that is not good enough for you I would move on to another product.

 

Updated the BIOS and power manager. Yellow looks much better, but I have 2 problems (one old, one new since the update):

(1) (old) head phones not working, will not turn off sounds from speakers

(2) (new) the mute button no longer works. The there something that makes noise (e.g. music) and I hit mute, it'll go mute for ~2 seconds, and then back to normal volume.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

HI everyone,

My manufacture date is 10/12/13. On the Lenovo drivers website, I've updated wifi, transitions, BIOS and power management. However there are a slew of other drivers dated 10/16. Do I need to update them as well, or were they already included in my machine?

Thanks.

 

Hi, I did not get any of these problems after update nor did they exist prior. Try reinstalling the audio drivers for Y2P from the lenovo site. Also try plugging in different headphones/speakers... maybe the connector of these ones do not fit well enough... usually the laptop speakers do not turn off if they do not recognise the headphones are plugged in. You can also try testing on the Realtek HD Audio manager. If none of this works, possibly You have a broken audio socket on the laptop.

 

Problem #1:

I had that same problem on the 2nd Yoga 2 Pro which I bought (the first one had a defective wireless card)

I came to the conclusion that the headphone port was defective. Exchanged mine and now the headphones work perfectly.

Lenovo's QC is terrible.

 

Maybe I'm being naive and unrealistic, but my expectations for a battery life on a convertible are base on the fact that with Haswell you are suppose to get more battery life, that was actually the whole sell point, and the advantage over Ivy Bridge, because the power gain that Haswell would have over the Ivy Bridge in this kind of ultrabooks is not that significant. And that is why I waited for the new haswell convertibles to buy. Of course if the second generation of an ultrabook comes with Haswell instead of Ivy Bridge, and at the same time it's specs require much more power to be run and has the same or smaller battery than the previous version, then there wont be much gain in battery life either (Not saying this is the case with the yoga, just making up and example to make the point of how design impact battery life, Haswell or not). A lot of factors determine the battery life. But, my expectation for a battery life on a convertible are also base on the fact that there are already a few regular ultrabooks out there with great specs and good battery life, including a couple from Lenovo. Why is it that convertibles don't have the same attributes that regular ultrabooks have? I don't know, but my unrealistic mine wishes that manufacturers would produce a convertible with great specs, no major issues and great battery life, just like they do with regular ultrabooks. Regarding your comment "So if that is not good enough for you I would move on to another product". I already said that having good color and a bright screen at the cost of significantly reducing battery life,was a deal breaker for me. I expect more from a $1000 plus laptop. I'm sure I'm not going to be the only unrealistic person that wont be buying this otherwise great machine.Thanks again for all your good posts.

 

By the way another sell point with the convertibles and regular small ultrabooks is that they are also categorize as ultra-portable, just like tablets. And a lot of students and professionals need an ultra-portable that they can take on the go for more then just 5 hours without the need to charge the machine.

 

Just wondering if everyone who is having the issue with fan noise has an i7? I went for the mid-range i5/8/256 and I've yet to hear the fan on my machine (11/06/13 build). This is after performing all updates.

Opened the box yesterday and have been trying to set things up, but so far so good. The clarity of the screen text is amazing. Battery life seems to be pretty good (better than I was expecting based on this forum) as I've seen about 7 hours from a full charge. But I haven't messed with any display settings....everything is stock right now. So far, so good....with the exception of some light bleeding in the lower right corner.

 

I'm not legzam358, but the Sony Vaio Duo 13 is supposed to have excellent battery life. This review tested it with a pretty low power settings and got 13 hours out of it. (And it has an active digitizer, too. Unfortunately, I don't care for the convertible design - the Yoga is much more usable.)

Sony VAIO Duo 13 Review | Hybrid Tablet Reviews

 

Wow, that is the same battery life as before the fix. Do you remember what task were you performing during battery mode?

 

I tried that at BB and hated it. Felt like I'd break it in a month and it was hella uncomfortable to use as a laptop.

Aside from that, here is the quote:

The system lasted an epic 13 hours and 16 minutes on the LAPTOP Battery test, which involves continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi on 40 percent brightness.

That is very low brightness and legzam358 said he/she wants bright screen. I don't doubt the Sony has better battery life, but what's the trade off? If you try it and like it and need a longer battery that sounds like an option, but not for me.

Like I said, if legzam358 wants 7 hours on this with the screen bright I don't think it's going to happen with the Yogo Pro and I would move on to other options. That's all.

Now I haven't tested it. I'm going by what the system estimates in various modes and screen brightness, so if others have real world tests that prove me wrong I'll be happy to hear it.

 

I also think that the yoga has a much better design. But if it wasn't for the sony's awful fun noise, after all the issues with the yoga, I would be taking another look at the Vaio Flip. Guess I'll keep looking

 

By the way realistically speaking, I don't know how many people would enjoy browsing the web, watching videos, pictures, etc, in a Vaio Flip set in the way that was set on the test that resulted in 13 hours of battery life. So I'm pretty sure that it would give me less hours, but probably more the the yoga, but to be fair, the display on the sony, although good, is nothing like the one in the yoga, yoga blows the Flip away in that regard.

 

Agreed. The Yoga is the only convertible design I like. If it weren't for the Yoga, I'd get a "normal" laptop like the Zenbook Infinity or Vaio Pro 13.

The "Promise of Haswell" has gotten really blown out of proportion. It CAN do really, really well, but, like you said, if you put "drainier" components in it on a less power-hungry processor, it's going to balance out. The Zenbook Infinity is a great example: they DRASTICALLY improved the components in the Infinity over the Prime of the year before, and it's 2x as expensive, but the Infinity gets only like 1/2hour more battery life than the Prime. Then you've got the MacBook Air, which has really low end components and a bad screen, and lasts half a day.

Laptops have always been, and always will be, a choice between 1) weight 2) battery 3) muscle. You can generally pick two of the three. Even as technology improves, our expectations will increase, so in ten years, we'll be saying, the Sony lasts 3 weeks and is 2 ounces, and the Lenovo lasts 2 weeks and weighs 1 ounce...

 

Haven't tested it yet. I assume in games it would greatly improve battery life but you're only changing the software(/gpu composition) of display. So it will probably improve battery life but not as much as having a 1080p display would.

 

I haven't done any good testing without power after the update, but I can say that I've hit 7 hours and still had juice left over. This is at a client site, so using wireless, with Outlook running, windows mail, Trillian for IM, a few word documents, some web pages as I troubleshot a few things, and three remote desktop sessions to three servers I was working on during a server migration. I had brightness right about 50%. I started out at 7:45 with no power and a full charge, and stopped about 2:30 and still had somewhere around 10% left when I finally plugged in to start charging again. No video, and no sound since I dislike random system sounds or email notification sounds while I'm concentrating on something.

This is an i7 / 8GB / 256GB from Best Buy.

This week I'll be at a client that has no power outlets left in the basement where they keep their servers, so I'll have some opportunities to see how it does after the bios and power manager update running on battery most of the day.

 

How do the colors look with brightness right about 50%. do you get a good yellow?

 

Heavy web use, downloading programs and running installers (livestreams of football games). Random Metro App usage as well. Wouldn't say I was hitting it terribly hard, but it was running like a trooper. Second full charge use, I've been going for about 75 minutes and the battery is estimating a little over 6 hours left at 85%. There were a few stints where I didn't do anything on the machine, but it was doing it's own thing (Windows Updates, etc.).

I really wonder if the issue is the i7 vs. i5 on a lot of this. I would assume the i7 would drink a bit more power and run hotter as well. Just a thought.....

 

[QnaUOTE=187;9455097]Agreed. The Yoga is the only convertible design I like. If it weren't for the Yoga, I'd get a "normal" laptop like the Zenbook Infinity or Vaio Pro 13.



The "Promise of Haswell" has gotten really blown out of proportion. It CAN do really, really well, but, like you said, if you put "drainier" components in it on a less power-hungry processor, it's going to balance out. The Zenbook Infinity is a great example: they DRASTICALLY improved the components in the Infinity over the Prime of the year before, and it's 2x as expensive, but the Infinity gets only like 1/2hour more battery life than the Prime. Then you've got the MacBook Air, which has really low end components and a bad screen, and lasts half a day.

Laptops have always been, and always will be, a choice between 1) weight 2) battery 3) muscle. You can generally pick two of the three. Even as technology improves, our expectations will increase, so in ten years, we'll be saying, the Sony lasts 3 weeks and is 2 ounces, and the Lenovo lasts 2 weeks and weighs 1 ounce...[/QUOTE]

These are great points, observations and example. While it is true that there are a few bad "apples" among ultabooks, there are also a few that offer a good balance between 1) weight 2) battery 3) muscle and 4) price. Unfortunately, none of them are convertible, which is what I really want.

 

I didn't realize that you have an i5.
i5 vs i7 could really by a factor, and the reason why there are estimates that says 5 to 6 hrs vs your 7 hours. Interesting. Another door opens for possible buyers?

 

If this happen to be true you have two choises:

i5 processor; 13.3" Quad HD+ display with 3200 x 1800 resolution; 4GB memory; 128GB solid state drive, 5-6 hrs battery life at $1000

OR

i7 processor; 13.3" Quad HD+ display with 3200 x 1800 resolution; 8GB memory; 256GB solid state drive, 7 hrs Battery life at $1200.

Which one woudl you choose?

 

Oops. The Battery hrs and the specs are mix up on my previous post, this is what I mean to post:

i5 processor; 13.3" Quad HD+ display with 3200 x 1800 resolution; 4GB memory; 128GB solid state drive, 7 hrs battery life at $1000

OR

i7 processor; 13.3" Quad HD+ display with 3200 x 1800 resolution; 8GB memory; 256GB solid state drive, 5 - 6 hrs Battery life at $1200.

Which one woudl you choose?

 

I think you have the battery hrs reversed. I wouldn't get one without a 256GB Drive since you have so little left after the OS and Lenovo stuff on a 128GB. I'd get 8GB ram too personlly. The i5 with 256GB/8GB might not be a bad option for you.

 

Yes, thank you, they are mixed up, sorry about that. I allready post a correction. I didn't see the i5 with 256GB/8GB at Best Buy website, is that an option at Lenovo's site?

 

Yes. Look or ask around for a coupon code to get or near the BB price if need be.

 

Thank you Led Zappa. At risk of sounding like an idiot here is this question:

Is it possible or there is any reason why, under the same conditions the i5 with 256GB/8GB would give you less batteries hours than the i5 with 156GB/4GB?

 

A great inking solution which works very well and solves the entire palm rejection issue.

There are many styli which have a finer tip that will do an adequate job of basic note-taking on your Y2P. The problem is the palm rejection. Some people can wear a partial glove like the Smudge Guard discussed earlier. However, if your body has a stronger than average electromagnetic field your finger's "touch" will go right through the glove as it does in my case.

The solution is to run to your local fabric store and get a simple 2" x 2" felt square. When writing, place this square beneath your pinky and ring fingers and the screen so that it slides beneath your hand as you write. Presto, instant palm rejection. If you think about it, when writing your entire palm does not touch the screen, just those two fingers. A sufficiently thick piece of felt will block even the most electric of us from causing stray marks and pen skips. I've tried this and it works brilliantly.

 

Awesome, let's hope it works for everybody else!

 

I turned down my resolution to 1080p on the first day and haven't looked back. It looks more than fine to me. I have yet to sit and use it for more than 2-3 hours at a time but I know at that resolution and on "Balanced" power plan it would "estimate" 9+ hours regularly on a full charge. Also I have the i7 model. This was just mostly browsing and using some metro apps, no video or gaming.

 

did you update the Bios and the energy manager to fix the color?

How does the yellow looks at 1080p? What % is your screen brightness set to?

Thanks

 

I'm running a battery test as we speak to hopefully help those who are trying to decide if they want to download the new BIOS fix and Energy Manager. I'm running in High Performance Mode at 50% brightness, WiFi on and playing a movie on external DVD player. I closed out of all other programs. On average, I've been getting 6 to 6 1/2 hours before the new fix with brightness at about 75-85%, keyboard backlight, Outlook, Chrome, and a number of other programs running. If I were on a plane, I'd shut down wifi and a few other background programs if I needed to absolutely maximize the battery life.

I'll report back later tonight.

 

If you don't want to downgrade all the way to 1080p you can split the difference and go 2048 x 1152. Looks good, will save power and will make working with external monitors easier.

One interesting fact on this is that 2048 x 1152 @125% zoom is roughly equivalent to 3200 x 1800 at 200% zoom. The benefit to this of course is that 125% zoom will look fine on an external monitor while 200% will look pretty ridiculous.

So you can still get better than 1080p resolution but have a better external monitor experience.

** Use this along with gdipp font smoothing (Google it) and fonts will look pretty great (especially in Firefox - just make sure you disable hardware acceleration).

 

So this means that an I7(which I ordered) can last as long as an I5 model? Because some people here are stating otherwise. Just curious.

 

Take the i7 and run it at i5 speeds and see a nice bump in battery life . The i7 stock will run a tiny bit more battery despite better binning

 

Sony vaio flip has the same amount of battery life run time as the Y2PRO, but with an inferior screen and wonky convertible mechanism. At least that is what the reviews are saying. I tried it (the flip) at BB and thought that it was a weird design.

 

I tried the Flip at Bestbuy too. Hated it. Seems clumsy.