Yoga 2 Pro Release Thread

It showed as available to me. I think I just jumped on it quickly because by that evening every Best Buy within 25 miles showed unavailable. Got lucky!

 

Now *that's* dedication! IMO, the only issues with this laptop can be addressed with software updates (yellow, reverse scrolling). The other complaints are not wide spread and if you do get a lemon, at least you've secured yourself a unit - it can always be replaced with another one if its not up to par (once BB gets more stock). The important part is making sure you lock in the $1200 price because I have a feeling that's not staying put..but i could be wrong..

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk

 

I went into the bios (turn the yp2 off, then turn it on using the tiny button next to the power button) and enable the virtualization option. I have VMware workstation 9 installed (got it free when I got a certification). I was able to create a windows XP vm no problem.

I am downloading Ubuntu desktop now, and ill reply again to let you know how it installs/runs.

EDIT: had no issues installing Ubuntu as a virtual machine. (though it didn't go into the graphical interface on its own, I had to type "startx").

 

All the best buys in my area said not available. But I called anyway and they said one store in my area had 1 in stock. Snatched it up

 

Sometimes the best way to get a companies attention is to use Twitter. They have a promotion for some event Oct 30th where they suggest using a #betterway hashtag.

<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>

@lenovo I'd like a #betterway for my brand new Yoga 2 Pro to display the color yellow. Where is the quality control? http://t.co/PyGTMR4FRk

&mdash; Eric Hanson ( @ehanson555) October 20, 2013</blockquote>

 

Same for myself. All the stores in New England showed not available. But I went in to my local Best Buy yesterday morning and inquired about the i7 model. They seemed to have two in stock, but initially would not sell one to me. They said they could not sell until Sunday (some street date or in stock date). I asked to speak to a manager considering there was a willing party wishing to send $1200 on a laptop that they had in stock. The manager agreed to sell and the first salesperson was incorrect in that they are allowed to sell even though the system had misleading stock dates.

 

For those wondering about gaming capabilities-

I played Guild Wars 2 on it for about an hour yesterday. It ran pretty well. Despite the fact that it said it was only getting 10 fps (auto detected settings, mostly low), it felt better than that. Lowering the resolution from 3200x1800 to 1600x900 doubled my fps to 25. Definitely playable.

Lowering the resolution is pretty much a must anyway. At 3200x1800 the UI was tiny and incredibly difficult to read.

The fans kicked up a bit, but were still incredibly quiet.

I haven't tried any other games yet, but I would expect most to run about the same.

 

I know it's strange to affirm this, especially after complaining about notebook manufacturers using super crap super low res displays (aka 1366x768), but Lenovo really should give a 1920x1080 option (or 1920x1200 one can dream) to its customers, as a good IPS Full HD display is next to ideal for 13.3. 3200x1800 is fantastic but mostly for graphic artists, fans of photography and the like. For standard work / web browsing / reading Full HD is almost better because most people won't see individual pixels at normal distance use, plus it is easier on the (integrated) graphic card and battery life.

That said as a photographer I'm so looking forward to see this notebook and I hope that Lenovo can entirely fix the color issue with a software fix.

BTW is this a Sharp izglo screen?

 

Hey everyone!
I know some of you wanted an owners thread made, so I made one.
You know what to do!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ideapad-essential/735166-yoga-2-pro-owners-thread.html

PS I will be posting a very detailed review on the Yoga 2 Pro to that thread, and this one too if wanted!
~Jay

 

No, this is not a Sharp IGZO display, it is a Samsung PLS (IPS derivative) display. I haven't seen the new HiDPI IGZO displays yet, but from what I hear they should have lower power consumption than the PLS panel the Y2P uses, but at the cost of some IQ (viewing angles / color shifting). I'm looking forward to hearing and/or seeing how the new XPS 15's display is.

In regards to resolution, I think 3200x1800 is FAR better than 1920x1080. The reason being is that the 1800p res essentially gives you two high resolution options: 3200x1800 or 1600x900. The next step down for 1920x1080 that scales perfectly is 960x540. Regardless, I can definitely see the difference between 1080p and 1800p. The resolution is amazing.

 

Has anyone confirmed the WiDi capability of this laptop? It should have it as part of the Ultrabook specification (and that they have included it in marketing), but it does not seem to be installed out of the box. An attempted install directly from Intel is met with: "Your operating system is not compatible with Intel WiDi"

 

Can someone tell me if there is an extended battery for this?
Also, how is the battery life in tablet mode?

 

I'll do that tonight. Lying in bed recovering from a marathon right now.

Sent from my LG G2 with Tapatalk.

 

posted this in the owners thread but these are my results with the chrome fix
did the comparison and it makes a huge difference with chrome. thanks for the tip

Left is with the settings enabled ; right is default

http://i1.minus.com/ibcflptgHIdKk7.png

 

Yellow will be rendered exactly the same way.... it's white that will be rendered differently.

 

What settings are you using exactly?

 

IGZO and IPS/PLS refer to different aspects of the display. They are not mutually exclusive properties. Just like "LED" TVs are still LCDs.

 

Intel hasn't really released a windows 8.1 version that works yet.

 

So I went to reinstall Windows 8.1 completely, wiping hard drive fully, etc. to see if I could get a clean install to test the yellow issue. As expected, all the Lenovo stuff is still there.

Is there any way to manually install a 100% clean version of 8.1? I found a way to download 8.1 from Windows but you need to enter a product key, which of course we don't have because it's embedded in ou BIOS. Does anyone know of any other way to legally download 8.1?

 

Just download something like keyfinder. It should find your windows key. I know it works on win 7

 

Doesn't work . I tried that and when trying to download Win8.1 I get the error "This product key cannot be used to install a retail version of 8.1"

 

You can download the 8.1 Enterprise evaluation, which works for 90 days. Should allow you to test a clean install.

Download Windows 8.1 Enterprise Evaluation

 

Thanks for the link but I don't want to deal with having to eventually reinstall 8.1 again since I'm only doing it to test the color issue..

 

i was looking into this earlier and it looks like there is a way to 'save' your activated status and reapply it after install.
i don't have a link so you will need to google and see what you can find.
really don't see why it would be so hard to just give us a key...

 

So, what's the word on an extended battery for this thing?

 

Not possible, it's completely sealed and there is no connection for any sort of slice battery. Plus any sort of extended battery wouldn't allow for tablet mode because of the way the hinge is.

 

Not possible, it's completely sealed and there is no connection for any sort of slice battery. Plus any sort of extended battery wouldn't allow for tablet mode because of the way the hinge is.

 

LOL yeah, this brian guy is making up stories. He doesn't even know that IGZO is not a display tech but a compound semiconductor. An IPS-LCD, PLS or an OLED isplay can both have an IGZO panel.

 

With how displays are marketed and reported on and reviewed, I don't blame him.

 

I purchased the Yoga Pro 2 on Thursday October 17. I love the computer for so many reasons, (especially since it replaces my 4 year old Compaq that was 6.5lbs!) however, I am also having a few issues with it.

It is the i7/8GB/256GB model from BestBuy. I am experiencing the same yellow issue as is mentioned by many on here. I didn't realize it, though, until reading these forums and then comparing to my old computer and my ipad and iPhone. A little disappointed, though it looks like Lenovo may be working on a solution.

But the real reason I originally came to look at this forum is because of 2 things: my fan and battery.

The fan (on the right side of the keyboard) is always on! I didn't expect this, and am wondering if mine is a lemon or if others are noticing the same thing. It's pretty noticeable, especially in a quiet room. I was showing off my new computer to a friend and the very first thing she said was that it was loud! She was using a MacBook pro, which wasn't making any noise at all.

The second thing is the battery... I am attaching 4 photos all taken within a few minutes of each other. If you cant see them, they are all of the battery meter on my screen. I am listing the time of day (to show how much time passed), percent remaining, and time remaining:

10:04 (88%) 306 hr 15 min

10:05 (88%) 8 hr 48 min

10:09 (86%) 4 hr 54 min

10:29 (81%) 5 hr 12 min

I feel like my computer just cant make up its mind!!

Another issue I had... I turned on my computer to show it to a friend (same friend who said it was noisy) and the screen image wouldn't flip when in any of the modes. This means I showed her the stand mode with an upside down image. Even in tablet mode I couldn't get it to flip. I turned the computer off and then on again, and luckily it decided to work, but it was frustrating, and I hope it's not something that becomes an issue.

Also, when I have the computer in tablet mode, the keyboard automatically pops up when I click somewhere to type... but this doesn't happen in stand mode or tent mode. Is this normal? I would have thought that the keyboard would appear in any of those modes, since the real keyboard is not accessible in any of them. And of course now that I am testing it out while writing this, none of the modes (including tablet) is having the keyboard come on screen. Of course, I know I can always choose the icon on the task bar to bring up the keyboard, but it would be nice if the computer did it automatically since it knows there is no other keyboard accessible in those modes. Is this an issue anybody else has had?

I really do enjoy using this computer, but some of these issues really need to get worked out if I am going to keep it. I'd love to hear if anyone is experiencing anything similar, and if there are any good fixes!

 

So I installed a clean version of 8.1 - no Lenovo anything pre-installed.

Color issue was still there, so it doesn't appear that any software or drivers specific to Lenovo is causing the issue.

 

The issue with the screen rotation is because you pressed the screen lock button without noticing. It is a small round button on the side near the volume.

That keyboard doesn't automatically pop-up in Desktop. If you were in the metro interface, it always will. In Desktop, however, some apps will still always pop-up in response to touch like Google Chrome Canary edition.

 

After a little more investigation it appears WIDI is builtin to windows 8.1 for 7 Series devices and there will never be new software from Intel. I tried getting to it as this says but have yet to get it to work.

Self-Service

edit: Actually it works great, just do a detect first to find it the first time and then do the setup.

 

If possible, I would go to a Best Buy that has a display model and compare your fan noise. The only time I can hear my fan running is when I put my hear right next to the vents, or when I'm playing a game. Even then, I wouldn't characterize it as loud. Of course, I'm coming from a Vaio F11 (desktop replacement) that was incredibly loud 100% of the time, so I may be biased.

A few people (including myself) have noticed some slight inconsistencies in battery estimates within the first few days of use. It is likely just calculating and calibrating. Wait another day or two and you shouldn't see any more jumps.

Good to know! I haven't purchased a receiver yet, but this is a feature I definitely want to try soon.

 

The battery is always going to change based on what you are doing at the moment you check it. This one might just be a little more sensitive.

 

Calm down there buddy. I realize you're in absolute glee that I hadn't read up properly on IGZO, but I can guarantee you've been wrong before as well. Let's try and keep things civil.

 

Any word to when it's going to be released in Europe (UK/Ireland)?

God, it's been a long wait for a great Haswell Ultrabook at this side of the ocean.

 

Anyone having issues with WIFI? I've been reading reviews on BestBuy's site on the Y2Pro. A couple of guys are having WIFI troubles and that is a huge issue

 

I just posted this over on the owners thread as well - I had 3 internet dropouts in the first 4-5 hours with the laptop. I then updated the wireless driver (windows actually automatically found the updated driver for me, I think that is a first) and I haven't had any issues since Friday night. I used the computer pretty heavily yesterday and this morning. I was pretty bummed out with my initial drops, but I am happy now.

 

Thanks for replying to my post. I have cancelled my order of the Y2Pro, but when i saw how yellow rendering issue has been fixed temporarily by software I immediately wanted to go back to buy it. It seems this initial WIFI issue is the same as the Sony Pro13, updating to latest software eliminates it. Now I'm ready to re-order

 

No and I am guessing the people having issues don't know what to check. By default on battery mode the wireless adapter settings in power options is set to maximum power savings which makes the wifi card barely work. Change it to maximum performance and it will be fine. And BTW this has been true in all laptops for the past few years.

 

Yes, but what I'm referring to is an instance in which I noticed that the laptop thought I had about 14 hours remaining. That's a little more than just a variation due to use. Two other people reported the same thing in the Owner's Thread, but it seems as if it goes away pretty quickly.

 

An update from Lenovo..

Re: Yoga 2 Pro 13 Yellow Color Issues
Options
‎10-21-2013 09:52 AM

All,

Thank you all for the continued feedback. I'm glad the change to max performance in the energy manager produces improved results. For those just joining the discussion, I'd like to share a bit of information on the particular LCD display panel used in this, as well in some competitor models.

Yoga 2 Pro incorporates a PenTile panel, which uses a modified RGBW grid that differs from standard RGB in two ways: first, the physical pixel layout is different, and second, it uses a white sub-pixel (hence RGBW). The white sub-pixel is actually a clear pixel that allows the backlight to come through without any color filter, resulting in a brighter screen at much lower power consumption rates.

As demonstrated by temporarily changing the Lenovo Energy Management to Performance mode, the yellow brightness can be increased considerably, with the result of shifting closer to a brighter yellow, rather than the somewhat olive tint with the default settings.

Some have suggested that the default settings on other systems that incorporate this panel may appear closer to a true yellow. We compared side by side with a Samsung 940X this morning

This first photo shows the systems set at same brightness level with Lenovo default energy management settings:
The Yoga 2 Pro produces a yellow that has a green tint and appears a shade or two more green than the Samsung. Please also note that the Samsung also displays yellow with a green tint which suggests that this is an aspect of the panel across the industry.

Y2P vs samsung 940x - 2.jpg

Then, here is the same comparison showing the previously suggested energy management setting changes.
It is now comparable to or perhaps one shade brighter than the Samsung.

Y2P vs samsung 940x - 1.jpg.png

Apologies for the quality of the pics - taken with my camera phone.

So, the greenish tint is an artifact of the specific LCD panel technology and is fairly consistent with other systems using the same panel. That said, it appears that it is possible to affect the displayed color, and so I believe we are exploring what optimizations we could make via a potential update.

During our testing, we also confirmed a glitch reported in this thread by Jrcbandit, that when the screen dims (due to power management) or when the system sleeps and then resumes (power management) that the default brightness levels return, necessitating an re-toggle of the settings. I would expect that to be addressed in a software update.

We'll pass along updates as available.

Best regards,

Mark

 

^ Do you have the links for the two comparison pics? Thanks

 

They are on this page: Re: Yoga 2 Pro 13 Yellow Color Issues - Page 6 - Lenovo Community

 

Last post of the page.
Re: Yoga 2 Pro 13 Yellow Color Issues - Page 6 - Lenovo Community

Edit: too late.

 

Re: Yoga 2 Pro 13 Yellow Color Issues - Page 6 - Lenovo Community

 

Now, the only issue that remains is the battery life? How is it going for all you people already?

Also, has anyone tried playing Fifa 14 or any racing games on it? Just light gaming.

 

Anyone who's tried linux--is the yellow an issue there, too? That would help determine if it is Windows' or Lenovo's fault. I'd also like to know, since I won't be using windows on this comp if I buy it.

 

I've read an article where Fedora was loaded and the colors were still off.