Life with the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro
by Brett Howse on July 30, 2014 2:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Notebooks
- Lenovo
- Windows 8.1
- Yoga
Final Words
The Yoga 2 Pro is a good Ultrabook that has a few flaws that keep it from being great. First is the battery life. In a light workload, almost seven hours of battery life would have been spectacular not that long ago, but with the Haswell U series parts, it’s definitely on the low side of what is expected from the current series of Ultrabooks. For my personal situation, 6 2/3 hours is plenty, as the device is mostly used around the house or on a short trip. If the user needs a full day of work out of the laptop, there are better choices out there.
Another major complaint is the Wi-Fi card used. It is far too slow for a device in this price range, and can make the laptop difficult to work with. File copies over the network are slower than they need to be, and for only a small amount more on the bill of materials, Lenovo could have stepped up to a better solution. It is doubly important due to the lack of an Ethernet port on the device, meaning that a user could be hindered by the network performance depending on the work load. Hopefully the reports of a faster Intel Wireless AC 7260 card shipping in the latest iteration of the Yoga 2 Pro are correct, as that will certainly help with this point.
For the display, RGBW PenTile is a solution to a problem, but it’s not the best solution. However it does allow Lenovo to shoehorn a 3200x1800 resolution screen into this 13.3” chassis. As we have discussed, high DPI screens can have their issues in Windows, but overall the display is one of the standout features of this laptop. We have seen the rise of high DPI displays in tablets and smartphones for a reason, and it is great to see it in a laptop like this as well. The modern side of Windows 8.1 has no issues at all with this resolution, and is fantastic to use in this form factor. There are still some desktop programs that have issues with high DPI displays, and if you do need to use one of those you can always set the resolution to 1600x900. The only real compromise with this display is the RGBW matrix and the low contrast ratios and high black levels it produces. It may not be the best solution to a dense display, but for the price range it is understandable.
Other than those three things, there is a lot done well on the Yoga 2 Pro. The build quality is excellent, and the choice of soft touch plastic is comfortable to use and carry around. The keyboard is good, and the clickpad is nice and smooth. At 3 lbs, it is a very portable laptop. Perhaps one could nitpick that the laptop only has two USB ports, but two ports combined with the inclusion of an SD Card reader has not been a problem for me.
And then we come to the part of the laptop that gives it the name Yoga – the 360° hinge. Something that retrospectively comes across as so basic transforms this otherwise normal Ultrabook into a great device for touch input. For a lot of my use cases, I actually prefer the Yoga 2 in Stand Mode over a standard tablet. It is better for a lot of the web content I access because I do not have to hold the device up, and the performance of a Core i5 is better than any ARM based tablet out there. It is heavier than an ARM based tablet, but the benefit of Stand Mode removes the need to hold up the device. For watching videos, it is likewise great to prop the device open and enjoy a larger display than most tablets have.
The other modes are less useful though, at least in my experience. I have used the tent mode from time to time with the device on a table or counter, but not as often as in laptop or stand mode. With the display folded all the way around, it comes across as a poor tablet due to the weight, and the keyboard feels odd tucked underneath.
As a laptop, it is great, and as a tablet, it can also be great, but it is certainly more laptop than tablet. If the user can live with the battery life and poor W-Fi, the Yoga 2 Pro is a versatile two-in-one machine, with a crisp high resolution display.
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Brett Howse - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
That's great to hear the Wireless is a real drawback on the unit we received. I'm still hoping they will get back to me with the time on when they switched it over. The specs on the website still show the old card so I can't guarantee someone will get AC at the moment.DrShawarma - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
I've been reading this site for quite a while, but this will be my first post.I bought a Y2P about a month and ago and am surprisingly pleased. It's quick, fun and feels good in the hand.
I do however have 2 tiny complaints-
1) Adobe programs won't scale correctly, requiring a microscope to work with. Don't care about that too much though.
2) The trackpad is like a fingerprint\oil magnet, that on the other hand is driving me nuts, how do I clean it? (I tried an LCD cleaning solution with a towel, did nothing)
Brett Howse - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
Adobe showed off their new products with High DPI support at the Surface Pro 3 launch I believe. That's been a big complaint of mine, especially since Adobe should be on top of this because their target market would likely benefit from HiDPI more than the average consumer. Looks like version 13 at the moment but of course that will mean an upgrade cost as well.HighImStan - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
They have since updated their the CPU to i7-4510u and dual band wireless ac-7260 card. I just bought mine, manufactured in mid June, and it hasn't had any wifi issues. Also, uninstalling the McAfee bloatware helped. Still has the greenish yellow though on the display.DigitalFreak - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
Supposedly it's better than it was, but it's just a side effect of the screen technology they chose to use.wpcoe - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
I read that the RAM is soldered to the motherboard, so not user upgradable, but is the SSD user upgradable? I'd prefer the i3 model, but with a larger SSD.KingGheedora - Friday, August 1, 2014 - link
You can upgrade the SSD, it is M.2 slot though. But the SSD it comes with is surprisingly fast. I felt no need to upgrade it (512gb model).Samus - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
My problem with the Yoga is the price. Although they can definitely be had for less than MSRP, they're still more expensive than a Surface 3 WITH a type cover. The rest of the specs, other than the screen size (obviously Yoga is two inches bigger) are about the same, but the Surface has more flexibility. One of my clients picked up both the Surface 2 Pro and a Yoga 2 back in March, and he likes the Yoga 2 more, and perceptively thinks its lighter.But I think the Surface 3 gives it a run for its flexibility.
HighImStan - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
I got the Y2P because my Surface Pro 2 was stolen. Originally, I was planning on waiting for the i7 Surface 3 to arrive in August but eventually settled on the Y2P because1) A 256 i7-4650u with HD5000 is $1549 + type cover $130. For around the price of the Y2P, I can only get 128 i5-4300u with HD 4400 $999 + type cover $130 and only 4gb of ram too! Y2P was only $1200 for i7-4510u with HD4400 and 8gb. I'm on a tight budget this month so Y2P got me the best bang for the buck.
2) My Surface 2 Pro kept having connection issues with the type cover. Brought it to Palo Alto's Microsoft store and they have no idea what was wrong. I played with some of the Surface 3 for an hour and found connection issues that was on and off with one of the displayed Surface 3. I was about to bring back my Surface Pro 2 for fixing after my Fourth of July vacation but it was stolen. So in a way, losing that device is a blessing in disguise...I was able to discover Y2P.
3) I never took off the type cover on my Surface Pro 2 anyways so the Y2P doesn't pose a problem. I treated the SP2 like the Y2P anyways by bending back the keyboard and using it as a laptop. Only difference, I don't have to worry about problems of keyboard connection. Only thing I miss from my SP2 is the mini display port (better than the micro hdmi imo) and the ability to change the keyboard lighting's brightness. Yes, it was lighter too but the weight of the Y2P never bothers me.
Samus - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
That's crazy about your connection issues. I have dozens of clients with Surface 2's and none of them mentioned that. A firmware update fixed some wifi issues people were having back in March though.As far as price, nobody pays retail for Surface. They can always be had for 20% less (just like the Yoga 2) but with that in mind, I agree that it's only really competitive at the base level. But that's where most people are buying, anyway.
I just picked up a Surface 2 256GB 8GB i5 for $800 new with a type cover on eBay... That was a buy-it-now too. There's a lot of auctions for used ones that include BOTH covers for even less.