***Yoga 2 Pro Owners Thread***

Hmm it was for some reason.. but the weird thing is.. why does it do it on this lenovo, but on my samsung chronos with Automatically detect settings enabled... it doesn't do it...

scratching my head now.

2 things that I have found a bit annoying..

1- the right track pad button.. to get it to show selection settings. you need to press towards the right edge.. if you press towards the middle it doesn't respond and you need to click again.

2 - the whites are too warm for my liking.. i like the cooler effect on white.. they look a bit too dull.

 

WiDi works fine with the Belkin Screencast, you just have to set it up differently with windows 8.1. Now there is no software to download from Intel. You set it up in devices from the charms bar.

 

Why not? We're not talking about "GMA X3000" or whatever.

Intel HD Graphics 4400 - NotebookCheck.net Tech

The Sony Vaio Pro with its supposedly thermally constrained form factor is giving playable fps at medium.

 

I must say I find the reported extent of Lenovo's fix to the yellow problem unacceptable. If yellows are green even in performance mode, it's because the green subpixels are producing an unbalanced amount of light in comparison to the red subpixel. The solution? If the problem is drastic enough and uncorrectable at the LCD production level, the panel manufacturer incorporates hardware color profile circuitry to calibrate for this. Otherwise, it's up to the OEM to create their own correction profile/driver, simply so that when the panel is told to produce yellow, what you get is yellow and not yellow-green - even if that ultimately necessities a reduction in the maximum brightness levels (no point being super-bright if you're only getting it by distorting colors).

Saying this is just a side-effect of the technology and there's nothing you can do about it is akin to saying it's normal for speakers to crackle and distort when playing back bass below 250hz at normal volume levels. Either you fix the physical speaker so it doesn't do that, or you figure out how to reduce the amount of bass you're sending to the speaker until it no longer distorts.

 

No, none of the Ideapad Yoga 2 Pro models have that option. The forthcoming Thinkpad Yoga however does have Wacom technology as an option.

I think it is but I'm not certain as they haven't said explicity that I've seen. I think I saw it referred to as "a layer of Corning glass" somewhere, but I could be mistaken.

The Y2P uses PenTile RGBW technology which is very different from the more common and simpler RGB stripe displays. It is an IPS panel. The RGBW system is designed to operate in different modes such as operating at half power when highly saturated colors aren't necessary. As a result its behavior is much different than a traditional display. All known instances of the Y2P to date appear to have difficulty rendering saturated yellow, at least in low-power mode. Operating the panel in high power mode is reported to mostly or completely solve the problem (at presumably a cost in battery life). This issue drives some people mad but others are not bothered by it. Lenovo may or may not be able to make firmware/software updates to improve the situation and many are currently waiting to see what happens.

Some applications (including some major ones) are unable to properly scale up text and UI elements to compensate for the very high effective resolution of the display resulting in tiny on-screen text. This is a problem that can only be addressed by the developers of those applications. Workarounds include running the panel at a lower resolution like 1920x1080. This is not an issue specific to the Y2P as all high-res "retina" style displays suffer from this issue.

Many people have reported "falling in love" with the display and its highest (native) resolution as it's incredibly sharp and looks great in most cases.

PF.

 

what if blacks are brown and reds are beige?



--Adam

 

This laptop sucks - go away!, I am a "professional" photographer. And I don't always edit my photos, but when I do - it's on a ultrabook!

With all seriousness now - it don't think it supports ACTIVE digitizers, gorilla seems alright, but it's too early to judge long term reliability. Regarding colors: there is in fact a documented issue on how the display renders yellow - but let me tell you, unless you have a yellow fetish (?Fever?) you won't notice it.

You will however notice an amazing display quality with a (over)killer resolution, it's fast, it's light and very thin ... with a not-so-good keyboard though!. If you're a touch typist with 50+WPM - spend some quality time with a display model at best buy

 

You can count me in here. I thought that the high-dpi screen would be a nice forward-looking gimick at best, but it is absolutely gorgeous. I tried dropping the resolution to 1920x1080 and 1600x900 to save some battery, but the fuzziness was a big turn off. I can live with some of the visual oddities that come with poor scaling to high resolutions in some applications for the stunning look of the applications that do scale well.

A lot of people here have complained about Chrome not working well in high-dpi, but Firefox works flawlessly. I tried the current Aurora build (Firefox pre-beta) lastnight, which includes a touch-optimized "Metro" mode like IE11, but it is still a looong way from production quality.

This should be a given for buying any laptop. They are all different, you never know if you will like it until you try it out. I am amazed by the number of people on these forums complaining after they bought their laptop that it was not what they expected. That said, I did not test drive my last laptop (HP Envy 15-3040) before buying and was slowly driven insane by the horrible touchpad.

 

Ordered mine on the 25th. Now showing 11/08 ship date and 11/15 arrival.

 

I suppose I should have qualify one thing - I knew the keyboard is going to be no Thinkpad - and that is another reason I can blindly purchase any next ThinkPad T series release. The keyboard is what sets them apart from the competition. Yoga 2 Pro has just a normal ultrabook keyboard

Somebody said that the Y2P in stand mode paired with this: Amazon.com: ThinkPad USB Keyboard with TrackPoint: Electronics

is all you need for extended hackathons

 

I officially hate my Y2PRo! I just took an online test, and it was almost a disaster! Keeps zooming the web page without me trying! I keep having this issue, even after disabling the pinch-to-zoom option, changing the sensitivity, etc. of the touchpad! This together with the case imperfection, is really forcing me to return this machine tomorrow, since It's the last day that I can. I have enough headaches with my school, full time job, family etc. Boy oh boy. Am I asking for too much when I want a laptop that has a good touchpad?

 

I've seen the widi option in Windows 8.1, but my LG tv rarely gets found (sometime it does). When it does find it, it asks for the PIN, but my tv does not show anything. Sometimes, the TV does show it, and then I put it in and nothing happens.

 

Couple of questions:

1) is it possible to set up Veriface with more than one account, so it can recognize your face and log into the appropriate account?

2) which Windows 8 apps do you guys like?

thanks.

 

I have to say that so far, I find the app selection in the Windows Store and the general app functionality extremely disappointing. I can't think of a single app that I have used that, other than adding touch support, trumps its desktop counterpart. I have heard that the OneNote app is pretty great, though I haven't tried it yet myself. I am looking forward to the release of Gameplay from GestureWorks, which allows you to overlay touch controls over games that lack them.

Overall, after almost a week with Windows 8.1, I find it a huge disappointment. The Metro/Modern UI experience is so thin I have to wonder what all of Microsoft's engineers were doing for the years they were cooking it up. Really, no Live Tile support for Outlook? The Windows 8 look-a-like theme I have for Rainmeter on my Windows 7 desktop is miles beyond what Redmond is offering.

 

So I'm on day 11 with the Y2P. Here are my final thoughts:

1) Battery life is just barely acceptable. I expect more from an ultraportable these days.
2) Screen resolution and brightness is fantastic - text looks INCREDIBLE. But the colors. It's not just yellow - it's all of them. Perhaps I'm too picky, but I keep glancing over at my wife's rMBP and everything just "pops". Honestly, the rMBP makes this display look mainstream, not high end.
3) The Y2P has a large footprint for a 13" unit. Yes it's pretty thin, pretty light, but it's big! We're talking the same footprint as some 14" units.
4) I don't use the convertible modes very often. I did have the pleasure of using the Y2P on a flight earlier this week and it was pretty cool though - the "tent" mode was perfect as it fit on the tray at a perfect angle even with the seat in front of me reclined.
5) The speakers are great.
6) The keyboard is AMAZING - This is the best laptop keyboard I've used in a long time (yes, that includes apple products).
7) Trackpad is great, probably the best one I've used on a PC laptop. It would probably be nearly perfect if it didn't have a grippy texture to it.
8) The screen flexes quite a bit when moving between form factors or simply opening it up. I'm worried it will break.

Bottom line: Mine's going back to Best Buy within my 15 days. I'll happily pay $300 extra for a 13" rMBP which is, in my opinion, better in every way - adjustable form factor and keyboard aside.

 

So if I am not mistaken, you are returning it for reason #1 and partially #2 (the color issue) and maybe #8?

 

It seems like you're returning it because of the color issue, which Lenovo is working to fix and is actually pretty minimal on highest settings, and some "poor" battery life? I'm confused as to how the rMBP is better in every way? By the same logic, the Y2P is better in every way because it's not a mac.

Note that I bring this up because I'm wondering if there is a more significant issue that I am missing or if battery and color happen to be the deciding factors for your preference?

 

Doesn't rMBP have a better battery life?

 

Just got my Y2P from Best Buy. I am loving it so far. I type 85+ words a minute and find the keyboard great - I had worried based on some of the feedback here on the forum. Trackpad seems just fine, I mostly just touch the screen instead anyway. Build quality seems excellent - I don't have any of the casing problems people has spoken about. I don't know about the yellow color - haven't gone looking but the screen seems just fine to me so I don't think it will be an issue.

The one thing that I don't like is the fan noise - I don't notice it at all except when I am sitting in a quiet room at night before bed. This is where my Surface 2 beats my Y2P. I'm going to try limiting the processor to 50% and see if it will cut down the noise a bit when I'm just surfing and don't need the extra heat and noise from the fans.

How do I turn off the "whoosh" sound when I hit the windows soft key below the screen? Very dorky sound that my wife will surely make fun of me for. Right now I just turn the entire volume down so I don't have to hear it, but it would be great if I could just disable the sound to that soft key somehow? Registry tweak? Some setting I am missing?

All in all really like this laptop/tablet. Once I can get the fan noise fixed it will be nearly perfect. I have another I5 version coming directly from Lenovo for my wife and I will compare the fan noise on that one. Maybe this one is outside the norm.

 

Took a suggestion from the Lenovo forum, and tried the new driver for touchpad for the Yoga 1 (I have a Y2P and it works on it), and what a huge difference. Worth a shot. Uninstall current Synaptics software, reboot, install newly downloaded software 17.0.8.4 from here Drivers and software - IdeaPad Yoga 13 Notebook

Two finger tap does not work unless you enable it through registry, but everything else works much better in my opinion. Even has reverse scroll options which some are asking for. Two finger scroll works flawlessly on Chrome, as well as all functions for tablet modes.

 

Really? It's worth a shot. Now you said to use the drivers for the yoga 1 13inch model correct? Thanks

 

In general? I think so.
If you really tweak the power settings though I think you can achieve comparable battery life, according to some previous posts in this thread at least. Someone mentioned that there are three different places to change power settings so I'm guessing most will find battery life poor since they have not adjusted all of the power settings correctly (as unintuitive as it is to have three different places for power settings)

Also note I don't have one of these... yet.

 

You mean JUST got it? Is it the i7/8GB/256SSD option? Where!? I can't find any best buy which has these in stock anymore! Do some of the stores actually have them even though it's not listed on the website?

 

All of the above really. The Y2P is, overall, a great machine - but it's just not quite there. It's not as portable as I'd like (see big footprint and mediocre battery), the display is nice but not great, and the build quality (while not awful) is lacking a bit.

These sound like me nitpicking, I realize that, but when I spend $1,000+ on something, it better be the best item *for me* that I can get. In this case, I find a new rMBP to be a better value than the Y2P, even at the Y2P's relatively amazing $1200 price. For me, a much better display, superior battery life, smaller footprint, and faster CPU/GPU are more important than what the Y2P brings to the table - touch screen, convertible, and $300 less. Even if the new 13" rMBP hadn't come out as it did, I'd likely still be trading the Y2P out for a refurbished 13" MBA due to the reasons stated.

I'm speaking purely from a hardware standpoint here folks, and of course, this is just how things have played out for me. I'm not an Apple "fanboi", but I'm not unreasonable either. I have a Windows desktop, an Android cell phone, and an Android tablet. I can see where this would be close to the perfect laptop for some, it just isn't for me. I don't want to keep posting in an owner's thread, as I won't be one soon, but I wanted to provide my last opinion as an owner. If anyone wishes to ask me additional questions (or yell at me and call me stupid), please do so with a PM out of respect for everyone else.

 

well reality is that the rMBP uses a non ultra portable cpu, also has integrated graphics but you can get it with nvidia optimus and still get better battery life than the yoga 2..

 

Ok, makes more sense where you're coming from, so are you having dead pixels or backlight bleed? Or maybe you feel as though it feels cheap for reasons like the screen flexing?

Good to know actually. I am wondering if these were design decisions to reduce the weight of the device?

 

Other people have said that it's worth it to call even if the website shows it out of stock. I live in the northwest and all of the nearby stores are showing that ship to store is available (takes 3 - 5 days).

 

I was about to do the rMBP myself but the heavier weight is really what made me stick with YP2. The build quaity is much nicer on the apple but at the cost of .4 lbs. The CPU is not much faster if you compare the i5 rMBP with the i7 YP2 because Lenovo unlocked the turbo boost limit for our laptop. It has a higher base clock but the maximum clock speed is about the same. The GPU is about 10-15% depending on what you are doing. The fact the battery is glued onto the inside of the rMBP is really terrible too. I like to buy a new fresh battery every 1-1.5 years and the YP2 it is a easy install. I will agree I would take that display over our display even without the touch screen. In the end if I got the rMBP I would install windows on it and see equal battery life so I finally decided to keep my YP2. It is a hard choice for sure but YP2 is the better value overall IMO.

 

It does as long as you don't run windows on it, then it is abysmal.

 

I like my Yoga 2 overall. Yes, there are issues (Yellow, bad WiFi [hopefully fixable by the new ac card I ordered], jumpy touchpad etc.) but hopefully those will be fixed with drivers/updates. One thing that I think will NOT be fixed is the battery life. I am continuously getting 4-5 hours max (without 'special' settings but brightness at ~60% and light use) and that's completely unacceptable given Lenovo's claims.

I waited for over a year for this machine to arrive and if one has to make so many tweaks plus learn to live with a few other issues, I don't know what to say. I'd get get 2013 MBA in a heartbeat if it had a 'more Windows compatible' keyboard and possibly better resolution with a touchscreen. I find it hard to believe that no non-compromise laptops exist even when Haswell and Windows 8.1 are out.

Yes, I got a good deal and you get what you pay for is partially true here but keep in mind that the original MSRP of this machine is $1499. That's how Lenovo built it. Eventually I'll probably keep my Yoga but am disappointed in Lenovo.

 

I really appreciate your tip! I uninstalled my driver and installed the one you told me and it's working much better! I might just keep my Yoga after all! Little by little, I have been fixing the small issues that I haven't liked(screen flickering and touchpad fixed!) through tips like yours! I also have passed down what I have learned to others too. Now the only thing left is the mustard color yellow.

 

When all subpixels are "active" (as they should be for black), getting brown would imply that the red and green subpixels are allowing more light leakage than the blue subpixel. There is likely not much you can do about this one except at the panel level.

Beige-y reds would probably imply that green is allowing more light through than it should be.

 

Can someone share the optimal power/battery settings that you have used to experience better battery life?

 

wow great discovery! I never had any MAJOR issues with the track-pad, but this is still noticeably better.

Thanks

 

I live in the Seattle area, and have been checking the BestBuy site religiously for a week. One store showed in stock yesterday briefly for the I7/256 so I called and then drove about 20 miles to pick it up. I love it. Of note, I haven't had any of the wifi issues that people have talked about. Just the crazy fans. But it has been better today so maybe it was working really hard in the background on something that I wasn't aware of last night.

 

I did not see a response to your question on subsequent pages so I apologize if someone already offered a solution. This is what worked for me.

In Control Panel
Select Appearance and Personalization
Select Display
UNCHECK "Let me choose one scaling level for all of my displays"

Prior to that displaying to an external monitor was horrible and everything was so large.

With this setting, I can have my Y2P at 3200 x 1800 and my external is some shameful very low res monitor. It works though.

Hope this helps!

 

I did a test of pretty heavy usage in my first few days and got 6 hours 40 minutes (multiple Chrome and Firefox tabs, youtube videos, outlook, word, excel, etc). I was at 50% brightness and did NOT have the Lenovo Energy Manager running to determine power consumption. When I had the Energy Manager running in Cinema Mode on "airplane/no wifi" mode running a video at 1920x1080 I only got 6 hours even at 50% battery. In the future when on planes I'll probably make sure the Energy Manager is not running and select maximum battery performance in the windows power settings.

 

Timbuk2 small custom laptop sleeve. Great fit.

 

I get about 6hrs of battery life: brightness 40%,power balance mode. That's with light use : web browsing, working on office documents, back-lit keyboard on for about 2hrs, and checking emails.

 

I've had my Yoga 2 for about a week now, and although a little bumpy at first, I have to say I am really liking it. Most pleasant surprise so far? The speakers are actually quite good.

 

I have been plugged in for a couple days. When I just rebooted after installing an old Photoshop that required it I got a message say "The battery level should not remain above 70% for long periods of time. Please change settings to conservation mode" But I can't find that setting anywhere. Anyone know what that means?

EDIT: Nevermind. I found it. It's in the Energy Management program. Click the Menu button to the top right of the Percent Charged Dial and go to settings. A bunch of interesting settings there.

 

Wow that's interesting. Is it common for windows notebooks to display that message? I wonder if that's from windows or Lenovo software.

 

It was a Lenovo message.

 

This is a life saver! Thanks a lot for posting.

 

I've ordered, and If lenovo.com ever ships, I will own a i7/8/256 in orange (showing ship date of 11/14 as of now). I have a question while I'm waiting. I will be using Word, Excel, Powerpoint daily. I currently have licenses for Office 2010 and would like to try that first before thinking about Office 2013. How is Office 2010 working on the Y2P in terms of scaling, menu and icon size, sharpness, usability etc with the native resolution? Any advantage to running it at 1920x1080? Has anyone gone from Office 2010 to 2013? Any big advantages other than the touch capabilities in 2013? I'd be interested in any impressions or thoughts.

 

Interesting that you brought it up. I was just working in Excel and PowerPoint AFTER my post above on updating the touchpad drivers. For some reason that I can't figure out, the trackpad and the keyboard is a little weird on Office 2013. It's as if there is some kind of friction that I don't know how to describe. Anyone seeing this?

 

I get where your coming from. Comparing the display to other HD displays side by side, the y2p appears to have much less saturation and colors are a lot cooler. I think the color range in general is a little bit lacking. But honestly I forgot everything thing I knew about display technology after using the y2p. I guess it's personal preference but I find cooler colors to be much more life like as far as pictures and movies go. I expected to be blown by the display on this notebook and I was not disappointed.

 

Does anyone know how to map Function (i.e. Fn) key + Left, Down, Right arrow keys for rewind, play/pause and forward functions respectively?

 

I ordered the slot-in case from Lenovo. Yoga2 13" Slot-in Case | 888015541 | Lenovo | (US)

Although the site says estimated shipping date of mid-November, I ordered mine earlier this week and UPS tracking says it's on its way and will be here Monday.

 

I'm really curious about the people who bought this and are returning it to buy a MBP. In my experience, most people choose the OS first, then decide on the hardware. People are either comfortable with Mac or Windows and have all the software that runs on that particular OS. Switching platforms is usually a pretty big deal. The idea that one particular model of PC has some hardware flaws means you are going to switch to a Mac seems very odd to me. Are you planning to run Windows on that Mac Book Pro? Or are you generally a Mac person, tried the Yoga as an experiment, now going home? Or just fed up with Windows and ready to make the switch? Or really just platform agnostic?

Really not attacking, just honestly curious. Personally, on my desk there is a Windows PC, a Mac Book Pro and a Linux desktop. All get relatively equal use. Not a huge fanboy of any particular platform. But it seems most people I know either love Windows and hate Mac, or vice versa.