Yoga 2 Pro Release Thread

I3 version: has anyone spent some time with it?

I haven't been able to find any reviews on the i3 4010U in a high resolution notebook, let alone the Yoga 2 Pro itself. Frankly I wouldn't have a problem dropping down the resolution to 1600x900 when multitasking, and successful multitasking to me is: 1, streaming radio, 2, long (800 page) Word documents and extremely long text based websites scrolling smoothly while several of each are open.

 

Mine shipped! The 11/18 ship date (from Lenovo Canada) was true! Was scheduled to arrive 11/125. I sure hope so!

I asked this a couple times, but wondering if people use screen protectors for smudges and such, and also if the old Yoga keyboard cover fits the new Y2P?

 

Just updated my tracking information. It has left China (I think that's where it's coming from) and it's scheduled to be delivered this Thursday 11/21, which is also my day off! Good luck with your order! I'm crossing my fingers for ya!

 

Mine is coming on the same plane as yours! I am not going to put anything on that beautiful screen! I'll just wipe it off once in a while.
Edit : you live in Canada, so I doubt it will be on the same plane, but I'm assuming it's from the same batch.

 

Is it worthwhile to wait till black Friday to get this? Does anybody anticipate any discounts?

 

I would. That's only one week and 4 days away. You could also see what that competition has to offer, since I have seen that some of them are gearing up to offer discounts. Win win situation.

 

Just ordered mine yesterday, Orange/i7/8GB/256. When I placed the order, estimated ship and delivery dates were at the end of December. However, I checked again this morning and it has been updated to Released to Manufacturing and will ship on 11/21 and deliver on 11/25. I am very cautiously hopeful that I will have my new pal in time to play with it over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

 

Yeah, for some reason the Clementine ones get delivered pretty quickly(like mine that will be here this coming Thursday 11/21), but that can't be said about the silver one.

 

My i7 clementine arrives today. Going to transfer my data and return my silver one back to best buy.

 

Wow is this thing orange. Already transferred data and returned the silver to best buy.

 

received orange today along with matching color mouse lol

 

Just received shipping confirmation email. So instead of waiting for six weeks, I only have to wait about a week. It could be here by Monday! Happy dance!

Edit: Turns out it is coming from North Carolina, not from China. So, it is already in transit with UPS and will be here on Thursday. Peculiar that the delivery date moved from over six weeks to less than four days. Perhaps Lenovo needs to review their inventory tracking methods...

 

Mar2, quite a few people that have ordered after you ordered your Y2P (and in some cases well after) are expected to receive theirs late November (although most of those cases are for the clementine version). You should give Lenovo a nudge and ask what's going on with your order. You never know, it might get them to move things along quicker. They might even offer you the $100 accessories that other people were offered if you mention you're considering cancelling the order.

 

Nice one Pegot. Perhaps someone else cancelled their order while in transit (if that's possible) and Lenovo matched you to that shipment.

 

Just got mine today. It's pretty slick!

Some notes based on my previous posts in this thread...

• I upgraded the wireless card to the Intel AC version, model 7260NGW. Old card I got an avg 6 MB/sec transfer rate, while the new card's getting an avg 30 MB/sec. If you have an 802.11ac wireless network, it's well worth the $36 upgrade.
• I have the Dell 30" u3011 monitor, where DisplayPort is required to run it at it's max res of 2560x1600. The Yoga only has HDMI. So I bought the USB 3.0 Dual Video Docking Stand for Ultrabooks for $175. I was worried the video would be laggy. Played a couple 3D games and that Jean Claude Van Damme Volvo video in 1080p on YouTube. All played very smooth and I'm very happy about that.
• YELLOW: When I booted the laptop, ran MS Paint, the yellow sucked bad, just as expected. Lenovo has new drivers (BIOS, Energy Mngmt, & another)... and the yellow now looks normal. It actually has a slight green cast to it, but it is yellow and not puke green brown. If it was released with this fix, I doubt anyone would even notice.
• I asked a question whether the case was metal or plastic. It is plastic with a rubberized feel. It feels real nice and solid, though I wonder how it'll hold up to scratches. The clementine is really nice. the orange has a pearl/metallic color in it.
• BIOS access is not F2 or del. There is a tiny button next to the power button that boots you there. Took me forever to find.
• Only includes laptop and power adapter. Nothing else. The black sleeve is not a real sleeve like I hoped. About as durable as a paper towel.
• With a new system, the first thing I do is make my recovery disks/images. However Win 8 is different. I'm still trying to figure out how to recover/reinstall in case of total drive failure. OneKey Recovery is the tool to make a System Backup. I think that bios button activates that too. There is no Win 8.1 Key (OEM keys are embedded in the BIOS/firmware) and there is no typical re-install image like I've had with prior Windows versions. In addition to OneKey, Windows has it's own backup too. I'm doing both, but am unsure how it'll work if I upgrade the drive later.
• Finally, the laptop has Wireless Display. I just got a Nexus 5 which has it too... so I'll be looking into one of those dongles to hook to my TV to try out too .

So those are my "release" findings. Hope that helps anyone looking to get one of these. I am really happy that the bugs are getting worked out. Now that I have most of my software and stuff installed, it's time to get used to Windows 8.1... Seems weird and quirky compared to 7, but does have some really nice features (like actual file copying data details!)... so it looks promising.

Hope the rest of you get yours soon! I think you'll be happy with it, especially with the driver fixes.

 

guys I need help I got my yoga 2 pro today and this is my first time using windows 8 my problem is I cant turn on my back light keyboard . what I thought you did was press the space bar in the corner but that does not work can anyone please tell me how to turn it on because im getting worried that it might be broke . it there are any setting that I might be missing please help Thanks

 

Press Fn + space bar

 

Thanks I feel real stupid but just happy it works and also it looks great backlight Thanks again peper

 

Just FYI for those that have one of the lemons. I was issued a replacement as of the end of October and came to find my replacement wouldnt even ship until the end of December. This is completely unacceptable and shoddy customer service by Lenovo and everyone should be made aware of it. I've spoken to customer service and they basically said I'm SOL because my replacement was simply placed into the general delayed qeue (which makes no sense). Being expected to wait multiple months because of Lenovo's mistake while they fill more orders is a blatant disregard for exisitng customers and Lenovo should be ashamed.

 

Still on the lookout for a good anti-glarescreen protector... tried the evecase brand from gen 1 Yoga, but the screen looked terrible (grainy display due to high resolution, I guess) plus the size did not fit perfectly. Appreciate any recommendations for a good matte screen protector.

I purchased the first generation yoga slot-in case to protect the keyboard in tablet and kiosk mode (don't really use the tent mode) on my Y2P. It does a good job of covering all the keys. When the lid is closed, the cover is not a snug fit as it used to be for Gen 1 Yoga. I am fine with that, since Y2P is tapering near the front (unlike gen 1 model). I was worried about the dongle for USB mice having to be taken off and put back on with the case, but that is no concern since the right side usb port is too far out and the case ends right before the usb port.

 

That's exactly what I did! The Clementine one is more appealing to me! Do you like it?

 

Got my yoga 2 5 days ago was working fine and now it won't turn on. Have tried getting it out of sleep mode to no avail. Called customer support and they said to leave it charging overnight even though it currently has a fully charged battery. What am I missing here?

 

Maybe it's frozen and stuck on. Try holding the power button for more than 10 seconds. That does a full force power off. Then try again. Also try that tiny button next to the power button. That boots to the bios.

 

anybody have issues with cpu clock speed stuck at .77ghz on battery no matter what power profile until a restart.

 

How are you determining it's stuck at .77ghz?

 

Task manager performance tab

 

Weird. I never really look at that. I'll have to check it out in the morning.

 

Hello,

Can someone who bought the laptop from Germany tell me if the keyboard is in German or English?
I'm interested in buying it from amazon.de, but I want a keyboard in English (no Umlaute or other changed keys).
If Windows is in German I presume I can install a language pack and it will be OK.

Thanks

 

Does anyone find the screen is not as bright after the update (screen fix) if so is there a fix for this or am I now stuck with a screen that's just not as bright any help would be great

 

Didn't work backlight keyboard is also flashing

 

Wow, it looks like Lenovo is putting pressure on the competition with their aggressive pricing! I finally saw one of the competition's ultrabook, in this case Dell, lower their astronomical price of the XPS 12 I7 256/8GB model to $1199. I applaud Lenovo for this! I think that this is the beginning of something bigger, but I still like the screen on the Y2P better.

 

This was massively successfully sylvestk. Thanks a lot.

How hard was it to open the case and install the AC card. Do you know if it invalidates our warranty?

 

Disable adaptive brightness. It will be much brighter.

 

thanks mds2004 but I seem to be having problems doing that I will have to investigate it and see where the setting are to disable adaptive brightness

 

1. Move the mouse to the upper right hand corner.
2. Click "Settings"
3. Click "Change PC Settings"
4. Click "PC and Devices"
5. Click "Power and Sleep"
6. Turn off the top slider that says "Adjust my screen brightness automatically"

 

I have the old yoga and I'm guessing my battery is failing now because it won't charge. It stays at 5% with a status of "plugged in, charging". Lenovo Energy Manager says the battery status is "Good".

I say all that to say, as much as I was considering getting the Yoga 2, I don't like this whole situation of having to send my laptop in to get the battery replaced. And since it's reporting that the battery is still good, and it's only been less than 2 years, I question the quality.

Maybe you get what you pay for ?

 

Thanks guys

 

.77ghz problem:

for me it seems cpu is stuck at .77ghz on battery no matter what in any mode EXCEPT laptop mode. i have task manager opened and it kicked pass .77ghz once i return to laptop mode. laptop mode and tent mode have the same issue. i tried closing energy manager but that didnt work.

 

Hi , I ordered mine yesterday at bestbuy, but a small question, can anyone in de USA take a picture of his keyboard ? So I can exactly compare it with my keyboard (Dutch).... thanx

 

Guys I would like to get back to the wifi card if there are any people out there that might be able to help . I have 100 mb download speeds but my router is not AC I don't want to upgrade my router but was wondering would I still benefit in speed by upgrading my wifi card I just noticed in device manger that this card is only B/G I don't know a lot about this subject so any help would be great and any wifi cards that you might feel would be a good buy for my situation. Thanks in advances and looking forward to anyone's advice

 

Disable DPTF in the BIOS and it won't throttle in stand/tablet.

 

I have not disabled DPTF and I see 2.7GHz (max dual core turbo for my i7) for brief periods in tablet mode. I use CPU-z to view the frequency.

This is expected as it is in-line with Intel's configurable TDP (cTDP down). Throttling is really not the right term. The CPU power manager limits the CPU package to a lower power usage (11.5W?) rather than 15W, but for brief bursts this would not limit the max frequency from being reached.

The reasoning for this is I suppose that tablet style usages (browsing, media, etc) are more bursty and have less sustained usage than laptop-style usages. I'm not sure I buy this for everyone, but it's true in my case anyways.

 

That would be fine if things such a streaming video wouldn't stutter while in tablet mode with DPTF enabled. Disabling DPTF fixes this issue. So regardless of what a CPU monitor is reporting, real world usage shows that something about the DPTF is bottlenecking performance while in tablet/stand/tent modes.

 

I tried to look us error codes, hoping the flashing keyboard meant something... all I could find was the user manual here: http://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/lenovo_yoga_2_pro_ug_english.pdf

Try the troubleshooting tips at the end. If those don't work you might have to deal with Lenovo support.

If you are tech savvy, these would be my next steps.

1. Remove the back cover (you need the tiny T5 torx screwdriver bit, it's not phillips)
2. Re-seat the SSD module, memory modules, and the wifi card, as they may have come loose during shipment. Make sure the wifi antenna connectors are still connected too.
3. Unplug the battery, wait several minutes, even try powering it on without battery connected to try and drain power left in the capacitors. Then plug the battery back in.
4. Put it all back together and try again both on batter and plugged into to wall power

If it won't come back up after that, you will probably have to return it.

 

I'm pretty certain opening them up doesn't void the warranty. I've been a systems guy for a long time and only came across one "void if removed" sticker on an old desktop once in my life. They are designed to be upgraded/opened. But as always, do so at your own risk and use ESD precautions.

You'll need a tiny T5 torx screwdriver to remove the screws. And you'll then have to use something very thin to pry the back of the back cover up (I do not recommend a knife or anything metal as it will surly gouge the soft plastic... I had plastic cell phone case removal tools around). Start at the back on the outsides of the hinges first. Once those are loose, then work the snaps lose along the fan vents. After that, I lifted and it came right up. I used this video for reference.

The card is on the right with the two antenna wires which you'll need to pop off. I don't know if it matters, but don't mix the two antenna wires up, just in case.You'll need a small phillips screwdriver to remove the one screw and the wifi card will lift right out. Pop the new card back in, make sure it's seated and screw it back down. Put the antenna connectors back (They are tiny, this took me a few frustrating minutes to snap them back down).

The only other upgrade you can do is the SSD module. Memory, unfortunately is soldered to the board. If your battery wears out after a few years, it looked easy to swap out too. Actually, this laptop is easier to open up than most others. You usually have to remove the keyboard on lots of others. So just having to open the back cover was nice.

It's all pretty easy. Just don't drop the screws!

 

I noticed that the Yoga 2 Pro has a "Energy Manager" where you can set battery charging modes. One is called "Conversation Mode" where it'll only charge the battery to 55-60%. This will help the battery last longer, but of course the down side is you're only half charged. It's not a practical setting if you are mobile mostly. But if you are plugged in mostly, this is a useful setting.

If you're comfortable opening up the laptop, the battery isn't too hard to replace on your own. eBay has them for around $75 (i see one now with a 2yr warranty too). Lenovo will cost more than double and then some, plus you'll be without for who knows how long.

 

The Yoga 2 Pro has an 802.11n card, so the B/G you are seeing might be what it's connected at currently and not necessarily the specs of the card itself. If this is the case, your router might be 802.11bg... I don't want to go too far off the thread topic, but I just switched to AT&T last month and the wireless gateway they gave me, to my surprise, was only BG (i disabled it and use my own). So you might want to check to see your router specs (google your routers model #).

If it is an N router, and with the Yoga Pro 2's N, you've got more than enough wireless bandwidth to cover 100Mbps (that's quite a fast plan!). 150Mbps is typical for N... If your router is G, 54Mbps is typical. Of course all these speeds depend on the signal quality (walls, distance, etc).

If you have a need to increase speed on your internal home network, I think AC is a worthwhile upgrade for the Yoga 2 Pro (+ an AC router). But I have some file servers, move large files around a lot and also stream live HDTV streams from my HDHomeRun over the network.

If you have N, it's fine for most people.

 

Can u share the battery replacement u found?

Thanks

 

How have you been through 3 machines when the rest of us cannot even get our first????? just curious...

 

I've had the ultrabook for a few days now and I feel I should give some feedback since there's so many negative comments here. I'm very happy with the laptop. I don't have problems with fans, and maybe I'm not very picky but I'm very happy with the keyboard backlighting and the wifi never dropped on me. I can type on the keyboard and it's very responsive. The trackpad does everything I want it to do. The monitor is great and yes some applications have tiny interface elements but that's more related to Windows 8.1 than anything else.

I'm not a power user as I got a desktop computer and I'm using the laptop mostly for leisure, but I'm very happy with my purchase and I am also very happy that Lenovo acknowledged the problem with the yellow very quickly and release a partial fix so quickly. Try getting the same feedback from Sony or Asus? Good luck!

About the yellow... well, what can I say, I did the update and the yellow looks yellow enough to me. It's very subjective and honestly if you don't like it, then I suggest you simply stay away from the Yoga 2 Pro and the Samsung Book 9 Plus. Get a Sony Flip or something with an IPS in 1080p.