I thought I give me first impressions of this new Windows 8 Convertible.
First off the device is very slick, its light weight, looks great. It not the easiest thing to open but once its opened it works well.
As excited as I was to get this, there were several blaring quirks that I wouldn't expect from a $1500 device.
1. The wifi intermittently cuts out. This seems to be a known issue you can read about everyone complaining here. To save you some time reading the thread there are three things I did
a.Update the driver
b.Change the power settings -Set the Wireless Adapter Settings to Maximum Performance (both battery and wired
c.Update the driver properties
1. Bring up the device manager by searching "device manager" from the charms menu under settings.
2. Click on network adapters in the device manager.
3. Right click on "Realtek RTL8723A wireless ..." under network adapters. Click on properties.
4. In the properties box click on the advanced pane.
5. Inside the advanced pane set the following values to these parameters:
selective suspend: disabled (I think this is the only change necessary but I did the other 2 parameter changes as well, you can experiment with different choices)
selective suspend timeout: 60
WiFi config: WiFi
Click OK to save settings
2. There is no keyboard light, which have been on all my Lenovo work computer, so it's hard to see the keyboard in the dark.
3. When you flip the Yoga and try watching a movie, you'll notice the speakers are now pointed away from you! Even still the speakers are louder than the iPad.
Ok about Windows 8
The biggest problem with Windows 8 is that it comes preloaded with Junk! The start bar is full on things I will never use and there is a ton of Trial Wear already installed. I was particularly disappointed that MacAfee (part of the company that gave me this Ultrabook) was continuously popping up messages that were very hard to close with tiny buttons and dropdowns asking me to buy a subscription or register when as far as I can tell it comes with a subscription.
Once you remove all this and get things set up its actually pretty nice, however moving tiles around is hard work (not nearly as easy as a ipad).
There is no Official Facebook App, after some research you can integrate facebook with the People App but when I did this the news feed is different and nearly all the businesses I liked are featured and it is missing a ton of features such as unliking the businesses I don't want to see as full page adds.
Also the App are more expensive. Why is Star Wars Angry Birds $5?
User profiles are very nice and this is something iPads don't have. I am pretty happy with this feature and you can add picture passwords that work okish.
Overall once you get it set up I think it is pretty nice, I don't think the average user wants to spend the time I did to set this up though and I really think it could have been done better.
I got the Yoga 13 in support of my photography it allows me to have a fairly high-end computer in a very lightweight package, fully capable of running Lightroom and Photoshop and being able to process 18-21 megapixel images efficiently. I also like the touch screen and tablet mode for watching movies, viewing slideshows or just surfing. I have two issues though, that have made me sometimes wonder if I should have waited until there were competing models out there. (This was without a doubt, the most capable touchscreen laptop available at the time.)
First, the fan runs continuously, even when the computer is just idling. It can get quite loud when the system is working even modestly hard. This is apparently a well-known issue and there is no fix at the present time.
Second, the trackpad is absolutely awful. I'm in IT myself and have seen many many laptops over the years, and this compares with the worst, trackpad-wise. It alternates rapidly between being hyper-sensitive and not responding at all, it skips, it causes random effects... I've sent emails prematurely, deleted blocks of text, moved things around, etc. After a fair bit of fiddling with the mouse and synaptics settings it's gotten slightly better, but it's still much more effective to use a real mouse with this computer.
One other, relatively small item: the right shift and Enter keys are unusually small, leading to some mistyping.
On the flip side the screen and video are magnificent, the tablet mode works very well, sound is great, and all in a remarkably compact package.
Buy Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 13.3-Inch Convertible Touchscreen Ultrabook (Gray) Now
I've had this laptop for about 2 weeks. (Mine has all the same specs save for 8GB RAM I have 4.) I love it! Getting my programs and files transferred from my old laptop was a breeze and took very little time. I had an issue upgrading Windows 8 to the PRO edition with Media Center. Microsoft Tech support was outstanding (I know?) at getting me up and running in 20 minutes.
I have to imagine you've read all the professional reviews, and now you want to know if it lives up to it on the consumer end. I haven't used it much as a tablet yet because I plan to do that more in the summer. Also one of the first things I did was install Start8 to replace the start menu on the desktop. Very good software that is well worth 5 dollars. I move this thing around frequently. Battery life with heavy use is about 4-5 hours. If I am going back and forth to the machine, then it will last much longer. Every works really well out of the box, and it's speedy.
So here is the one thing I think everyone buying this machine needs to know. For me, it's not a deal breaker, but it was disappointing, and annoying. In my opinion, Lenovo needs to redesign the keyboard. I tried and tried to get used to the cramped shift key, backspace, and enter. I'm telling you, I missed them every time. So now, at my workstation, I use a high quality external keyboard and mouse and keep the laptop in tent mode. I LOVE this setup. The keyboard on the machine is above average for on the go stuff. It's outstanding in fact. It's just not something I want to use for long periods of work. So really, I have the best of both worlds. And for the record, I have read reviews that directly contradict mine. However, I think anyone buying this machine needs to know they might have an issue here. The keyboard issue seems to improve if you approach the keyboard off center moving your hands slightly to the left. This is hard to get used to doing. The other thing is, it would be nice for the keyboard to be illuminated.
Compared to my old laptop, this is a revolution. I am extremely happy with my purchase and would not hesitate, despite the keyboard annoyance, to repeat the purchase.
One more item. I tried using a bluetooth mouse with this machine. It performed very poorly. In my research, this seems to be an issue with Yoga and Microsoft Mice. I switched to a mouse with a receiver. perfect.
You will not regret this purchase unless you are planning on writing a novel in a coffee shop on this thing. And even then, maybe you will adapt easier than I did.
My guess is, Lenovo nailed the future of the laptop.
Read Best Reviews of Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 13.3-Inch Convertible Touchscreen Ultrabook (Gray) Here
I bought this so I could have one light weight machine that operates like a tablet when I'm just having fun on the computer, and operates like a powerful laptop when I need to do serious work such as software development. This device achieves my goals! I fold it back and use the touch screen when I just reading, browsing the internet, shopping or playing games. If I'm watching internet based movies, I plug my TV into the HDMI port and watch the movie in 1080p on the big screen. When I need to get serious, I fold it differently and start using the keyboard. When I want to work, I switch from metro view to desktop view and it looks pretty much like a Windows 7 environment. ( I did buy StartIsBack for $3.00 so I could have a desktop Wind 7 Start icon, but that's a Windows issue, not device issue)
The touch screen works great. It responds quickly and accurately. It is very bright and crisp when viewing. The keyboard feels pretty good under my fingers and I don't have a problem with typing letters. Finding the arrow, shift or delete key is always a problem for laptops and me. Sometimes I plug in an external monitor for more screen real estate using the HDMI port. The USB 3.0 connection supports an external BluRay or harddrive device. Another USB port provides for thumb drive plug in, or external mouse/keyboard when I'm at my desk and working.
A weird thing about this device is the multi-touch pad. I'm not sure why they have multi-touch pad along with multi-touch screen but it's there. This caused me a few problems with the pad's buttons before I realized that I had other fingers on the pad also! Once I figured out how to manipulate it, I discovered I could do things like zoom in on web pages when using Chrome when in desktop mode.
Things that could improve: The small right-shift key is a problem. I keep missing and hitting the up arrow. It's hard to get into the BIOS until you read up the solution online. The reason this lost a star in my review was the non standard power cord. I wanted to buy a second power supply for home only to find that this device uses a different power connection than the other Ultrabooks resulting in higher cost for a second power supply.
Bottom line: I would buy this again and recommend it to anyone needing serious computer and touch screen.
Geek info: As I said, I development software. That means I install a lot of non standard stuff on this machine including Microsoft Development Environments, SQL server Express, IIS server, Virtual PC, and a bunch other things. So far, this has all worked on this Windows 8 environment. This box comes installed with Windows 8 (Not RT and NOT Windows 8 PRO). Windows 8 has a few missing things, such as the ability to remote desktop into the the Win 8 device.
Want Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 13.3-Inch Convertible Touchscreen Ultrabook (Gray) Discount?
I've been looking for a windows 8 tablet/touchscreen laptop for development work, i needed a i7 or i5 processer with a SSD as the primary boot drive. I purchased the Acer W700 first but returned it, it was very fast and well made but the high screen resolution made it unusable in desktop mode.
I had originally overlooked the Yoga 13 because of the exposed keyboard in tablet mode, but later after reading a review talking about about a second unused hard drive slot in the Yoga 13 (yes a tablet / ultrabook with 2 drive slots !!!) i decided to give it a try.
Lets get the bad out of way first so we can talk about the good in more detail:
My Yoga is going back it has a stuck/bad pixel, But i am going to get another Yoga 13 to replace it.
Windows 8 enough said.
Screen can bounce back at ya if you jab it to hard.
Single band WIFI in 2013?
Single channel RAM holds down performance a bit.
Difficult to to a do a clean install no OS disks or option to buy them.
To many partitions from the factory WTFO?
touch-pad tries to be jack of all trades but ends up being master of none.
The good:
The hardware is superb build quality is a 10. This alone makes up for all of the negatives.
The screen size/resolution is a good trade off for desktop mode.
Display quality and brightness are both excellent (even with a bad pixel).
Actually usable in all of its 'advertised positions' and you will find it will adapt and be usable in almost any environment.
If feels so good in your hands you will find it hard to keep from touching it whenever you walk by.
Very slim and light (for a laptop).
No issues with WIFI as other posters have said.
Room for a SECOND HARD DRIVE (very well kept secret).
Tips:
Make your icons on the desktop 'small' gives the desktop a roomy feel.
Turn off edge swiping on the touch-pad otherwise it will drive you crazy.
Learn and use the keyboard shortcuts in place of some touch functions (like F4 to close an app/window).
In tablet mode hold it 'hinge up' this places your hands on the palm rest area on the keyboard (feels good) not in the keyboard (feels bad).
In laptop mode angle the screen slightly back towards you this prevents some 'bounce back'. This also helps illuminate the keyboard.
While lack of a lighted keyboard is a negative the keys have a very bold white lettering that makes it easy to see by the screen light.
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The last few reviews have touched on this but I want to make certain people understand, this is an outstanding gaming laptop. The processor and GPU are light years beyond what you'd get in this price range and it shows in high demand gaming environments. The hard drive is a bit slow on load times but once you're in, you're absolutely golden. I spent a good bit of time attempting to find a cheap laptop I could take to and from places and still be a functional gamer, and this exceeds expectations.
