***Yoga 2 Pro Owners Thread***

Interestingly, AnandTech has an article about battery life on Windows 8.1 and this was mentioned:

AnandTech | Sony VAIO Pro 13 Battery Life with Windows 8.1: Largely Unchanged

So, it's not just the hardware that determines battery life. The OEMs have to make proper use of that hardware. Could this be part of the reason why Apple is able to get such a huge battery life on the MacBook Air? I know it has a much lower resolution screen, but it doesn't seem like that would make such a big difference.

 

The bezel is big because it is touch and you need room to put your finger completely off the screen so that you can slide in.

I don't believe for a second that the B9P is getting hours more of battery time..please post a link to that comparison.

 

Completely ignoring the "yellowgate" issue (because it doesn't bother me), what drawbacks are there to removing Energy Manager? I'd like to just get rid of it but I'm unsure if it will cause any issues.

 

You may get stuck with the dull yellows but it would be interesting to see what happens, if it affects battery life etc. If you do let us know! You can always reinstall from lenovos drivers download page.

 

[Response to Don1]

I don't believe for a second that a bezel needs to be ~1" wide (don't have a ruler on me) on all sides for touch swiping to work. You can get all the same touch effects with half of what is there now.

As for battery life, take your pick:

- Engadget 8:44: Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus review
- Trusted Sources 6:53 (@max bright) 8:00 (@med bright) - Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus - Performance, Battery Life and Speakers

I get no more than 5 hours at mixed brightness levels.

 

I don't think so because if you run windows on an apple notebook the battery life is deplorable.

 

it's exactly 5/8" wide..I do have a ruler with me and I want to see a scientific study of both side by side done by one of these testers..you have no idea what they did compared to what you did in testing.

 

All the drivers are on the secondary Drive in Explorer.

 

The AB9+ most likely has a larger battery capacity. The Y2Pro has 7400mAH battery and has been advertised by Lenovo up to 9 hours. AB9+ however, is being advertised by Samsung to have up to 11 hours.

Anyway, I think you can get 8 hours bttery life, playing 1080p videos as long as you set the res at 1080p, power saver mode, 40% brightness.

 

You want to compare by kWh as voltages may be different on the amperage measurement. The Y2P is showing 55 kWh battery according to Energy Manager and I recall reading somewhere that the AB9+ has 55 kWh as well.. but I'm having difficulty finding any source stating any kWh number on the AB9+ right now. These are the biggest batteries in this form factor I've seen yet (including the MBA).

 

Thanks! Great to know!

 

Does anyone know if Y2P uses same power adapter tip as the original yoga?
I'm asking because I'd like to use an external battery pack that I have to charge it when I'm on the go.
This video shows the tip that works for Yoga.
Lenovo Part #0B47046 (it's about 7 bucks on amazon vs $30 something for OEM!)

Lenovo Yoga Power Tip Adapter - YouTube

 

I believe if you check Samsung lowered their estimate to 9. Originally they were saying 12.

I just checked and they have lowered it again..they now say UP TO 7.5 hours (near the bottom)

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/pcs/NP940X3G-K04US-specs

 

It looks the same.

 

I uninstalled Lenovo Picks. In monitoring battery usage that app was the third highest consumer of power of all services. will see what I pick up in time now. It was bugging me anyway.

 

Has anyone figured out how to change or disable the noise (electronic) that comes from pushing the Windows logo just below the screen? It is not pleasant but the real reason I care is because my dog tucks his tail and runs when he hears it. He's now becoming afraid of my computer. I think this is a Lenovo noise; I could not find it in the Windows sounds menu.

Also please keep posting on what bloatware to remove. I was pleased that McAfee was not completely installed, making removal easy and that Windows Defender did not require an activation.

 

It's not an actual noise. It's a vibration motor. Didn't see any way to disable it..

 

I thought the industry was moving away from putting all the stickers on the palm rest!
Has anyone removed the stickers yet? Any special product/technique? Thanks!

 

Yeah, high dpi mode does screw up a few things in Chrome. For instance, if you right click and try to edit a bookmark in the bookmarks bar, it appears that the text is not editable. In fact, you can type and click ok and you will rename the bookmark, but the text in the field is not updated. Also, I use the LastPass extension, and although it works fine, the popup ui is totally busted. Hopefully this stuff will get fixed in a future update to Chrome.

 

They all come off easily and cleanly, with no residue. And I don't even have fingernails. You won't have any problem.

 

I was running procmon while idling and noticed PGservice.exe was scrolling by at least 10% to 20% of the time. One of the top 3 hogs for sure. Looked it up and it is the Point Grab process for Lenovo Motion Control. I stopped the service and immediately saw them eliminated from procmon. Went ahead and uninstalled Lenovo Motion Control as seems only works with a few apps that I never plan on using (cooking and something else). Hopefully can get a little extra battery juju from this.

 

Interesting. Why is there a vibration motor? Seems really strange and I can't imagine why that would be functional. BTW, I really love this computer. Wifi is also much improved, which is why I did not keep the Yoga 13 when I got it a couple months ago.

 

Which WiDi receiver are your using? I see very mixed reviews on the different receivers and would love to know which are working well.

I'm thinking that WiDi connected to a monitor + Bluetooth for keyboard and mouse could give a CORDLESS, NO PLUG "docking station".

Thanks!
Richard

 

Whenever I open a youtube video to full screen, the task bar remains there and I can't use the youtube bar. Anybody else having this problem? Any ideas?

 

Yes I am. Been meaning to address that. Good to know I'm not the only one.

 

Loving my Yoga 2 Pro -- Got the great deal at Best Buy.

Thought folks here might like to know Best Buy also seems to be way cheaper than anyone else for spare power supplies $31.98 vs $50 list from Lenovo. Search for "Lenovo - 65W Slim AC Adapter - Black" or "Model: 0B66260" or "SKU: 6633813"

Ordered 2 spares - one for home and one for work.

 

Anyone else having a problem with it not waking up from sleep? I put it to sleep, the screen goes black and the keyboard is still lit up. I try to press the Windows logo on the screen or the power button and nothing happens. I feel the vibration but that is it. What I find funny is that I can still turn on and off the backlit keyboard.

 

What are folks using for magnification and text size settings on Win8.1 with our super-res screen? I'm not completely happy with these settings yet and there may be other or better adjustments we can make.

What is anyone else doing?

I'm playing with Control Panel / Appearance and Personalization / Display
-- I have "Change the size of all items" at "Larger" (all the way to the right)
-- ...and "Change on the Text Size" set to 12 point for "Title Bars" and "Icons" and 11 point for the other settings

For Window Desktop:
-- Icons sized to "Medium icons" (right-click on the desktop (not an icon), "View" / "Medium Icons")

For Chrome:
-- Font size "Large" (In "Settings')
-- Page zoom 100%

 

WiDi with Xbox one? That would be an epic combination with Y2P

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

Is the power button still blinking, indicating sleep, or is it a solid light, indicating it is on? Given that your keyboard is backlit, I'm guessing it is on. Try adjusting the brightness via the keyboard. One time I thought my machine was dead and it turned out that brightness was just turned down all the way. That might have been during a sleep but I can't remember for sure.

 

I'm showing 5 hours 45 minutes left after about an hour and fifteen minutes of web browsing and forty five minutes of being off the charger in sleep mode. Not amazing but not bad either...assuming the windows estimate is correct. I've had it since Thursday.

 

I use Belkin's and it is working great with this. If you look around (try Amazon) you may find it dirt cheap too, I did.

 

I am using the Belkin model which is a few months old. I am actually doing your plan at work. I have a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and the WiDi. If I use the secondary monitor as my primary screen and turn off the laptop display, I am able to use this all day on battery so essentially I am totally cordless. I walk in to the office and open the laptop. Connect to the Widi with 2 mouse clicks and I am there.

 

I use 14 point for the Title bars and 10 point for icons along with large icons but keep the rest at 9. The rest of my settings are what you are doing and it seems good to me. Chrome is still a bit wonky.

 

I am still sorting out some issues with the second screen like you are. I am using WiDi so I don't think it is your cable but appears to be some driver issues. I would think this is a price we are paying for being early adopters of the hires screen.

Also I would not jump to conclusions on getting better battery life on the Samsung laptop. Judging by what people say on a forum is not a good barometer. We need to wait until we see a side by side from a reputable reviewer to know for sure. Also there are things loaded on the Lenovo we are looking at removing that seem to be causing some extra battery drain.

 

Yes, I have the original Yoga 13 and I have not actually used the charger that came with the Yoga 2 Pro. Everything charges fine.

 

As an update on battery life, my main concern has been movie watching on long haul flights. My test criteria has been to run a video for either 30 minutes or 1 hour, note what the battery % is after that period of time and then scale to what a full discharge would take. I have run this in various resolutions from max res to 1080p to 1600x900.
The 1600x900 does get me from 99% not charging, unplugged, played a video (Matrix mid way through for the test, less greens in those scenes ) for 30 minutes and the battery was at 93% and the estimator was showing 7hrs 5 minutes. By doing the math 99 - 93 = 6, then multiply by 2 to give an hour of battery usage. Finally take 100 divide by 12 and that gives me the number of hours to discharge the battery entirely. In this example 100 / 12 = 8.33 , so 8.5 hours. Note I had the screen at 40% brightness, cpu max state at 40%, Bluetooth and Wifi turned off with power saving profile.. The same test at max res was closer to 6 hours as per the Lenovo website. So there are gains to be had by dropping the resolution when watching movies.

 

Don't almost all long haul planes now have electrical outlets at the seats?

 

Nope, most I have come across only have power in every second row IF you are lucky. My flights are to Europe and I have flown Delta and Aer Lingus for the transatlantic piece and only once was lucky enough to have power in the seat.

 

So, battery life guys. What's the verdict? It's the only thing holding me back now.

 

The only other Ultrabooks that seem to leave the Yoga 2 pro in the dirt for battery life are the Sony VAIO Duo 13 and the Mac Book Air 13. Both are lower res screens and only the Sony has a touchscreen. I think Lenovo's battery estimates on the specs are pretty close to the real world usage. From posts here on this site it seems the Samsung ATIV 9 plus seems to be getting similar battery life to the Yoga in the real world usage vs. what Samsung states.

 

And how much is real world usage for the Yoga Pro 2? 6 hours?

 

What AntiVirus software do you guys recommend?

 

Samsung says UP TO 7.5 hours which is pretty accurate depending on how you interpret UP TO.

 

Depends on what you're doing, of course.
-Working on Microsoft office: ~7.5 hours
-Playing music, many active Firefox tabs plus Microsoft office or more intense programs (e.g. Solid Works): ~6 hours
-Watching videos: 5~5.5
-Playing D III: 3~3.5 hours

I'd say 6 is realistic and you can squeeze out 7.5 when needed (like on a plane trip) using low (but usable) brightness, no music, and WLAN off.

Note the power automatically goes to sleep at 6% (to save your files). Factor that in when you read battery icon numbers.

It's enough for me. MBA and Sony Pro with the sheet battery (for +$150 on an already overpriced laptop) will beat out the Y2P.
If you need 9+ on a regular basis (everyday?), go for the MBA.
If you only need long battery life occasionally (e.g. fly once per month), you could always buy an external power source (which run $80~$150).

Having owned this laptop for a week, I will say it is excellent. I love the trackpad, the keyboard, weight, and screen (the yellow issue doesn't bother me). The battery life is not "unplugged all day," but solid enough for my uses. The build quality is solid. The glossy screen is prone to finger prints and I still need to get a screen protector.

Oh, and my friend showed me his Adonit pen. It works great! Almost as good as a Wacom, but without the pressure sensitivity. It's great for writing notes. I'm going to get one as soon as the screen covers are released (fearful to scratch the screen without a cover). Almost went for the Thinkpad version because of the pen, but very happy with the Y2P.

 

Thanks Patrick for the update. From your earlier posts, I have calculated that at 1080p, the Y2Pro will run for 8~ hours playing 1080p videos. Basing from this post, you got 8.5 hours at 1600x900.


So bottom line, if you guys lower your resolution to 1080, you'll get about 2hours additional runtime. (40% brightness, 40% CPU, Power saver mode)

6hours @ 3200x1800, 8 hours @ 1920x1080

 

I did a side-by-side comparison on the Y2P and the AB9+ for battery life and the difference was only 28 minutes more on the AB9+. Had both set at 50% brightness and was running several browser tabs, office products, videos, etc on them both.

I do not know what resolution I was using on either machine at the time.

 

I am eagerly awaiting the delivery of my Y2P from Lenovo, so in the meantime, I have to live vicariously through you all. Has anyone here or elsewhere taken the time to benchmark the Y2P's performance in various games? Being new to Windows 8, I am also curious how well games support touch controls, and if there are any suggested 3rd-party applications for adding touch controls to games that do not have touch natively enabled. I dream of being able to sit on the couch and play X-Com in tablet mode. Lastly, have people made good progress getting the appropriate drivers for various Linux distros?

 

Ran mine for about 5 hours last night. Mostly steady use, including about 2 hours full screen video watching. 3200 res. Clicked hi perf in energy saver, then back to power saver for the yellows. brightness 50%. Said I had more than half hour left after that.

Not amazing battery life, but close to twice what I get on my Surface tablet and much better than what I get with my Lenovo T-520 with the big- battery.

So if you're looking for outrageous battery life, there are probably better options out there. But this is totally acceptable from my viewpoint and needs.

 

Why not set the res at 1080p? Unless the movie you're watching has 3200x1800 res. You'll get more battery life that way