Yoga 2 Pro Release Thread

I added my voice and this picture to your thread. The front computer is the Y2P and the back is my HP Pavilion.

 

I'm going to install an Intel 7260 ac card from amazon tomorrow. I'll let you know how that goes!

 

thanks, please do. have you already taken off the back to see how accessible the card is?

and while you're back there, you might as well see if the RAM is truly soldered on and how many fans there are.

 

i don't know, that's why i asked the current owners if they could look at the current setup with the N card.

 

Shouldn't be too hard, though it's not as easy as Thinkpads I'm used to.

This might be useful: http://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/lenovo_yoga_2_pro_hmm.pdf

I'm pretty sure the RAM is soldered, but I'll check. It's the price of having a really thin notebook.

 

In order to get 300 Mbps with 802.11N on 2.4 GHz you need at least two antennas. The Intel 7260N card uses two antennas. Therefore, as long as the bios doesn't have a wireless card whitelist (which many Lenovo models seem to have) you should be able to swap in an Intel 7260AC.

 

Just out of curiosity can any of you guys who have your yp2 take a photo of this image on your screen?

http://nyanimg.com/i/2013/10/18/zG598n.png

 

Hopefully someone else comes along with a better camera than I but here's my attempt.

http://i.imgur.com/0Ut2Pij.jpg

I'll play around with my indoor lighting a bit to see if I can get a better shot without any glare (that was the biggest issue for me).

 

This is my 3 machines - Y2P in front, AB9+ on left, HP Pavilion on right:



Y2P:


AB9+:

 

A sad day for me. I spent the morning tracking down the wifi issue.

Not even in a later version, but in the SAME version of kernel released in Ubuntu 13.10 today, in 1 later build (which is already out) the wifi driver is included.

This means you need to install with a USB ethernet adapter and update the system to enable the wireless in Ubuntu. Not a huge deal, but I have to get hardware if I'm going to do that. A USB Ethernet is a good idea anyway.

Arch Linux supports the wifi out of the box. Any 3.11 kernel COULD support it if they compiled the kernel to include the new intel wireless stuff.

Hopefully I can find a way to make Xorg usable with this ultra-high DPI without redusing resolution. I think 2560x1440 or so would still be pleasing (not entirely sure what modelines are supported.)

Just wanted to pass alone word in case anyone else is interested in buying this for linux. It IS possible, and it will likely be EASY, SOON!

kernel command arguments I use: vga=normal nomodeset acpi_backlight=vendor loglevel=2

This sets normal VGA console so it is actually readable, enables the backlight, and disables warnings on the console. My USB stick was throwing warnings constantly on the console. I'm unsure if it is the stick, driver, or what. It happened in both ports, so I'm betting it is the stick.

Good luck,
-chisleu

 

man, your HP Pavilion looks the best by far of the 3. the AB9+ looks 2nd best i guess, but still not great. the yoga is just really bad, totally washed out and no saturation of color.

 

Wow, those colors are terrible. Is it possible that it is an issue of calibration? Due to differing target audiences, it wouldn't surprise me if the YP2 is not calibrated, while the AB9+ is (especially if the AB9+ and YP2 have the same panel).

 

Thanks guys! I watch quite a bit of anime in my free time and have always been striving for the best quality when it came to my panels. I know I can't make a comparison without seeing the devices irl myself, but judging from the pics the lenovo looks much more washed then ab9+. Even then the ab9+ looks subpar. This is very disappointing and leading me to the surface pro 2 for a high dpi anime consumption device on the go. Also I was wondering if 1080p anime would look worse on a 1800p panel rather then a 1080p. I'm unsure how scaling and such works.

 

It's not I was told by a Lenovo tech it has 1 dimm not soldered

 

Is anybody getting 300? I can't.

 

about the issue displaying yellow

Has anyone tried

Graphics options / display / color / lower the contrast on blue by like 2-3

it appears to add a yellow tint the more you lower the blue contrast, 2-3 seems to make colors a little more accurate for me.

 

Judging what videos look like because of the static pics is ridicules. This display looks amazing and I personally don't even notice the problem without looking for it in paint or Excel.

This is getting blown way out of proportion.

 

The problem is some of us use office/word/excel all day long and this color problem shows up in those applications the worst. I understand you may not notice it as much if your not using highlighted cells or text but some of us are. Also, the other colors are off too because of the panel. I also have my yoga here at my desk at home and work so I am constantly reminded of the fact that the colors are absolutely horrible on the yoga.
All you have to do is a google search for "bright yellow" and put the yoga next to your pc monitor and you will see just how bad it really is.
Another thing, it's not like we spent 300 bucks on these, they are over a grand. You should expect more for that type of money.

 

Thanks for the linux breakdown. I got the Acer Aspire S7-392 when it came out, which has pretty much exactly the same specs as the i7 256GB yoga, including the 7260 wifi card, although I think mine is the AC model, so it does 5GHz too.

Anyway, what you're saying jives with my experiences on the Acer. I'm running Crunchbang on this sucker with no issues, on the 3.11.5 kernel (lookin' at you, nsstrunks). I have a script that compiles kernels just fine from the linux-stable branch. Kernel compile directions for debian wheezy (#! waldorf)

You need the 3.11 kernel for wifi to function. Some people have backported it to 3.10. It has something to do with the wifi api level if I'm remembering correctly.

Code:

git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git # This'll take awhile
cd linux-stable
git checkout linux-3.11.y
make-debian-kernel # ~45 mins probably on this machine
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
sudo reboot

Here's my kernel compiler script: ~/bin/make-debian-kernel

Code:

#!/bin/bash

cp /boot/config-`uname -r` ./.config
make oldconfig
scripts/config --disable DEBUG_INFO

echo "Creating kernel_image and kernel_headers dpkg files."

if [ $1 ]; then
  make $1 deb-pkg
else
  make -j4 deb-pkg
fi

echo "Done."

Just for kicks, here's the line I changed in my /etc/default/grub

Code:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT='i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 acpi_backlight=vendor'

The only thing you really need is the backlight part. The i915 stuff is some tweaks to the Intel HD4400 graphics driver for power saving and other stuff I forgot now. : ) Hopefully the display works fine--it's different than my Acer's display.

I'd download the linux kernel source and the "/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-7260-7.ucode" file you need for the wifi using another computer and put all of that on a flash drive, so you can get up and running on a new linux install easily--or find a distro that already comes with the 3.11 kernel and wifi driver, though at this time those are few.

As far as tint2 and openbox goes, you can probably fix the way it looks pretty easily with bigger font sizes and playing with other settings. It's all pretty configurable. You can also set Chrome to default to 200% zoom (or whatever) on all pages. It's buried in settings somewhere.

I'm hoping that the Yoga 2 yellow issue gets solved somehow, because I tire of the Acer S7's keyboard. The Yoga's is MUCH better... just waiting for the right time to buy it and try to sell the S7 (which has an amazing display, no complaints there!). Really the only thing wrong with the S7 is the keyboard, and it's not that bad, but being a programmer, it's kind of a big deal to me. The S7 is an awesome computer otherwise.... dead silent! The fan hardly ever comes on, and when it does, it's not an annoying sound at all.

How is the Yoga's fan? I work in a very quiet environment, so any fan noise is going to be potentially obnoxious.

Also, is the yellow issue present on linux as well?

 

If you are using a 13 inch monitor to do your work all day I pity you. Connected to a monitor it works fine. I just don't see many people using this as their main system for Photoshop. A few people have a reason not to own this machine. Most will deal with it just fine.

And for the type of laptop this is the price is extremely competitive if not cheap right now.

Tell me, what is the competition?

 

I agree. Solid yellow is the only one that looks strange, and pictures and movies look fine, such as your avatar there. It is a serious flaw for some people though, but I really love the high dpi and sharpness, and this display's blue range is fantastic.

 

I agree yoga really doesn't have any strong competitors. That's why I want it like you. But that doesn't mean its cheap. Good value (if the color worked) sure. If the surface pro 2 had a 13" screen it would destroy a yoga with bad color. But at this time surface pro doesn't offer a 13 so you are correct about the competition. I still want the color to be close to correct for this price point

 

2 things - maybe it will be fixed for the people who bought directly from Lenovo.com?
Secondly, for those that ordered online, what is your shipping date showing as?

 

Despite the screen color issue, I still really want this thing. I'll buy one in a heartbeat if Best Buy would just stock an orange model.

 

Slim chance BB will ever stock the orange model. There just isn't a big market for it. If you start searching all of the corporate Lenovo sites you will find that there are a few that offer the orange almost as cheap as BB does the silver. You can find it for $1274(I did) and maybe less on one of the others.

 

Explain to me why it wouldnt be the same as watching the episode? I've done this before with my own panels before and it's accurate. You know how animation works, right?

 

Just quick question for Yoga 2 Pro owners. Have anyone of you tried handwriting with pen/stylus?
I am quite heavy user of OneNote and I wish this convertible to be my next "notebook".
Thanks

 

For UK people, the Orange i7 version just went live for pre-order (1/11) on Amazon for £1099 ( Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro 13.3-inch Touchscreen Ultrabook - (Orange) (Intel Core i7 4500U 1.8GHz Processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, LAN, WLAN, BT, Webcam, Integrated Graphics, Windows 8.1 Home Premium): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories). Seems like a pretty good price considering I had pre-ordered a Vaio Flip i5 for more than that.

 

No cashback from Amazon which is a pity, ISME (who dont have the i7) offer 7% for new customers

 

4GB RAM and i5->i7 for £170. Sounds like the Amazon offering is better IMO

 

Do we have any knowledge of when it be released in Canada?

 

This is not the device for you if you plan on writing/drawing on it like you would with a Surface Pro. It does not have a Wacom digitizer.

 

I think that the ThinkPad yoga does have a digitizer, and unlike the surface pro, even has an internal holder for the stylus. At least it looks that way in the video ads.

 

Can someone please let me know how the fan noise is on this? Does it run all the time like the old Yoga 13? How loud is it and How is the heat coming off the notebook? Thanks.

 

I can see how this could affect certain people tremendously but for the vast majority, not so much. It would affect me as I create websites and often am trying to match colors to logos or create small snippets of background colors. Fortunately I am connected to an external monitor so I can live with it. As I mentioned in previous posts, the color rendering does not impact videos at all. So for me, this is not a deal-breaker but for $1200 I think it is a bit ridiculous that something like this got through Lenovo's testing. Will Lenovo do something about it, most likely not but I'm keeping this machine and have no plans to return it because of this issue. Just hoping nothing else that is a big deal pops up.

 

I've got the i7 model from Best Buy. I have yet to hear the fan (though I haven't tried loading any games- that'll be tonight).
Haven't noticed any real heat either. It can get slightly warm, but that's it. Last night I even used it for about an hour in tablet mode with the fans about an inch from my chest and barely noticed.

 

I haven't heard the fan once and I am in a dead silent room all day.

 

I am trying to develop the same slant on this as you have but am finding it difficult to do. Everything else is nearly perfect from price to build quality to kb did I say price? Anyway I feel like I am being played for a fool by Lenovo if I keep it. I can just see them sitting back in Beijing laughing and saying "we priced it right, they won't return it".

 

Same here. Fourth day with the computer and have yet to notice the fan or any kind of significant heat. I have noticed that the power brick can get pretty warm when it's charging up the laptop.

 

Quick tip: I noticed that although my battery was only at about 60%, the battery indicator said "Plugged in, not charging." I panicked a bit after checking all the power brick connections. I've had a couple other laptops that stopped taking a charge and short of getting a replacement, none of the repairs ever lasted long.

But after digging around a bit, I found that the Energy Manager app was set to "Conservation Mode" and found this in the help for that app:

"If the battery will not be used for a long period of time (7+ days), enable "Conservation Mode" in Settings. This will keep the battery's power level at 55-60% to avoid battery life reduction due to long period of full charge state."

Turned off conservation mode and it's happily charging. Whew!

 

It is very quite and virtually no heat. Used to have an old Lenovo that literally left burn marks on my legs so I was a little concerned but not an issue with this one. Through the vent in the back, I can feel the slightest heat but very very minimal. Don't think I've heard the fan once in 2 days.

 

Thanks for the tip. Mine was not set to Conservation Mode but there are other settings in there that I would not have found otherwise, such as USB Charging which allows me to charge my phone/tablet even computer is sleeping or powered off. Going to have to play with the screen zoom feature too which allows you to zoom in on titles and icons. Could be helpful with scaling issues.

 

Another tip for fixing problems with touch support on Google Chrome.

Start Chrome with the flag: --high-dpi-support=1

Before doing that, Chrome was totally unusable via the touch screen on the Yoga 2 Pro. Touches just wouldn't register 99% of the time. Adding that in, it's a world of difference.

 

Actually it is a good idea not to let it charge all the way but 60% is sort of crazy. Samsung has always had that battery saver feature in their S9s but it is set at 80%.

 

Yeah, I think I probably accidentally set that while digging around in the app the other day. There's also the express charging feature which could be useful if you need to charge up quickly before running out somewhere, etc.

 

Can anyone provide their feedback on the trackpad in general (and especially the two finger scroll)? I'd love to see the 'butter smooth' scrolling like MBA. I particularly like that no matter where the cursor is on Safari in MBA, two finger scroll just works. And I have yet to see that on Yoga (original), ATIV Pro, or any other laptop. Can someone shed light on their experience with the trackpad's responsiveness, accuracy, behavior on 3200x1800 resolution etc.? Thanks much.

 

I can say from my experience using the trackpad that I have no problems with two finger scrolling. It is pretty smooth in my opinion and no matter where the cursor is on the webpage, the scrolling still works very well. The trackpad is very smooth and I really like the feel of it. It takes me two swipes to go from one end of the screen to the other horizontally. The only negative that I have is that the two finger scrolling is inverted where when one scrolls up the the page goes down and vice versa.

My sister has a macbook pro and I actually like the yoga 2's trackpad more even though it might be a tad smaller in size.


EDIT: I forgot to cover clicking, when pressing the trackpad down, the clicking sound is louder then what I am used to, however I usually tap for clicking and/or use a mouse and so it really doesn't bother me.

 

Two finger scrolling works fairly smoothly, but it depends on the browser you use. With IE10, it's butter smooth, same with zooming in and out. With Firefox (Aurora), it is smooth, but there is a slight lag to it. Not sure about Chrome yet as I haven't tried it. Not going to bother installing Safari on Windows.

weirdly enough, disabling smooth scrolling fixed the lag in firefox

 

That's the default behavior on Macs as well, you can change that through synaptic settings iirc.

 

Two questions:

1. I just sold my newish XPS 13 L322X because of the buzzing electrical noise that it emitted (otherwise, the laptop was great). Does the yoga have any weird, loud, and high-pitched buzzing noises?
2. What is the overall consensus on the touchpad?

Thanks.