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List Price: $1,099.99
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I got this after a real Odyssey searching for a new ultrabook. I owned the Samsung series 9, np900x3c, and my girlfriend has a Macbook Air (MBA), so I can also compare them to the Yoga.
At this price, the Yoga is a great product if:
you want a great quality ultrabook (parts are solid and well made and it is not as fragile as the Samsung 9).
It is not as light as others but unless you really need an ultraportable (like the Samsung 9) then the Yoga fares well as it weights just 0.3 lbs more than the MBA although it is a little bigger.
About the latter, it is sturdier in some sense than both the MBA and Samsung. The MBA actually delivers a good solid feeling (the Series 9 not much so, I felt like you can break it easily, especially the hinges of the screen) but I feel like I could drop the Yoga without having to say goodbye to it. I believe this is in Lenovo spirit, their laptop are renowned to be sturdy and long-lasting.
good quality control (my first the Samsung 9 came with a dead pixel, the second one had a crappy trackpad which selects things at random while you move the cursor and statics from the speakers and audio output!).
a great touchscreen, also in terms of quality of the LCD display (IPS with decent resolution). Notice that touchscreens reduce battery performance. The Samsung 9 has a brighter screen and more battery life, especially compared if you use the screen at the same level of brightness. That was a drawback for the Yoga to me, because I don't care about the touchscreen. However, overall, considering features and design, quality control, and price (!!) the Yoga wins easily.
a good keyboard. It is not as good as the X1 Carbon, but it definitely beats the MBA (which has a decent keyboard but shallower than the Yoga) and wins hands down the Series 9 (stiff, shallow and noisy).
IT IS RELLY A GREAT ULTRABOOK FOR THE PRICE with the competition out there at the moment.
You can also upgrade the RAM and SSD easily enough (especially the RAM, it's trivial).
What I would like to see improved in the future, in order of importance, are:
battery life! If you use 80-85% brightness and use it constantly (I mostly browse, type quite a bit -coding for example -and listening to some music) you might even wipe it in just 4 hours. That's not awesome. The Series 9 would last 1 hour longer. However, the battery is decent, don't let yourself down because of this. The OS and features drains the battery, the MBA would last 3 hours if it had a touchscreen like this and was running Win 8!
more brightness and bigger screen (the MBA has a slightly bigger screen but worse resolution and quality, that's for sure).
An even better keyboard, like the X1 Carbon thinkpad (with the nipple please!)
I would prefer a metal case in terms of design. It would make it just awesome.
Back-lit keyboard.
NOTE: I don't use the touchscreen much but the factor forms are really useful. Many times you are in a vehicle, or on the plane, or in a situation where you need to bend the laptop and use it with the screen closer to you, taking up less space and such. It is really useful! I love to use it on the couch and bed as tablet (otherwise a little heavy). Even if you don't love the touchscreen and would rather have a better battery life and lighter product (like I do), the Yoga still wins to such product like MBA and Samsung 9 because of its features and quality, for that competitive price!
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The Yoga 13 is an excellent computer, which works (almost) exactly as it should (with one minor wifi fix). My real rating would be 4.5 stars, but I'm rounding up because this is a 1st-Generation device, so small bugs are usually common. I've compared it extensively with the Dell XPS 12 and opted to keep the Yoga 13, even though I got the Dell for the same price ($1,000 for a Dell-refurbished unit + a coupon).
Design (9 out of 10)
The 360 hinge works as it should, with one minor complaint. The screen is a little bit "bouncy" when you have the laptop open at all and try to write on it with a stylus, which means you need to either have the screen "open" all the way and flat on a surface or you need to stabilize it with your other hand to use a stylus well. The Dell XPS 12 hinge does not have this same problem. However, overall, I slightly prefer the Yoga 13 design to the Dell XPS 12 design. In fact, I now find it silly to have a laptop with a touch screen that doesn't open all the way. The double joint feature that allows the fold back really can't cost more than $20 or $30; every laptop should have it. The criticism about the keys being exposed is blown way out of proportion. It feels a little funny at first, but that's it. Don't set your laptop down on a dirty, wet, or sticky surface and the keyboard will be just fine.
The one main advantage of the Dell XPS 12 design is that you can leave the base completely stationary and flip the screen. If the laptop is plugged in, this is handy. Still, the flip screen design on the Dell feels a little gimmicky (although it's still a fine alternative design to the Yoga 13 and much better than the Twist, in my opinion).
The overall feel of the Yoga is nice. It is not "premium" like the Dell XPS 12 carbon fiber, but it's not worth paying extra money for a slightly nicer texture, in my opinion. I actually prefer the interior texture on the Yoga 13 -very comfortable typing handrests that don't get cold or hot.
Screen (9 out of 10)
The screen looks very nice; the 1600x900 resolution works very well for a 13 inch screen. Side by side with the Dell XPS 12's 1080p, it's clear that the Dell has a better-looking screen. However, the resolution on the Dell is a bit high for a 12 inch screen, which means you need to increase font sizes for most text to be readable without squinting.
Touch/Tablet mode (10 out of 10)
This is where the Yoga 13 demolishes the Dell. If you plan to use a stylus and are considering the Dell please read this, since I've not seen it come up in any reviews. The Dell XPS 12 is unusable in stylus mode. I tried two different Dell units with the exact same results: jagged lines, missed lines, and illegible text if I tried to write anything small. This occurred in every program (One Note, Word, Corel Draw, Note Anytime), and 6 hours with tech support could not fix it (new OS, new drivers, etc.). The Yoga 13, on the hand, works quite well (although I would pay an extra $150 for a active stylus with digitizer -Lenovo, are you listening?).
Tablet mode has worked great, with no problems. With the Dell, I had problems with auto-rotate and auto-keyboard pop-up failing to work on two different Dell units. The only fix was a complete re-install of windows.
For some who have noted that there is sometimes a lag in the touch screen if you haven't used it for a while, follow these steps (found on a message board):
Open device manager
Expand Human Interface Devices
At the bottom of the HID list are two devices labeled "USB Input Device" On my system, the one we're concerned with is the second one, so the last item in the list, but just to make sure it's the right one:
Open the device properties
Click the Details tab
In the drop down menu, select Hardware Ids
The one we want will say USB\VID_04F3&PID_000A on the second line
Move to the Power Management tab
Uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"
Keyboard/Trackpad (9 out of 10)
Trackpad is great (I updated to latest drivers). Not sure what the mixed reviews are about. The Dell XPS 12 was not good. Keyboard on the Yoga is also great. I liked the feel of the Dell's keyboard a bit more, but I've had no missed keys on the Yoga.
I don't understand the criticism of lack of keyboard backlight. I've never had a scenario where I needed keyboard backlighting. In completely dark room, the computer screen illuminates the keyboard enough to see the keys. But if you really love keyboard backlighting, be aware that the Yoga 13 doesn't have it!
Wifi (7 out of 10)
While it sounds like some people are having bigger problems with wifi, my failure-to-reconnect on log-on issue was solved with this simple fix: Go to Device Manager (Charms Bar --> search for "Device Manager" in settings), Go to Network Adapter, Right Click on the RealTek, Click on Advanced Tab, Then set Selective Suspend to "Disabled."
Since I did that, I've had zero problems. It annoys me that Lenovo could ship a product that needs a fix for wifi that automatically reconnects at log-on, but the range issues people have been reporting are non-existent for me. In fact, for both my home network and work network, I have 3-4 bars of wifi in places where my Dell XPS 12 had 1-2 bars and would fail to connect at times. Since my fix, I've had zero wifi problems in the past 3 weeks.
Ports/Other Features (10 out of 10)
I like the full-size HDMI port. While DisplayPorts might be the future, everything in my house has HDMI (and HDMI to DVI cables are $6 on Amazon, if you have a monitor without HDMI). No VGA port, though, which is fine for me since it is no longer 2005.
SD card slot is nice. Seems silly that Dell left it out of the XPS 12.
Expandable SSD slot is amazing. I have a 128GB Yoga now, but it's nice knowing I'll be able to add a second SSD in the future as prices drop (see YouTube for instructions). Also, I plan to expand to 8GB of ram, although I've had no problems with 4GB for the time being.
Not happy about the charger (the unique style means I have to pay top dollar for a replacement, since I like to have two), but it works fine.
Final Thoughts
The upcoming Helix could rival the Yoga in terms of design (detachable screen, 10 hours of batter life, stylus), but if you're like me and do a decent amount of typing, an 11-inch screen is just too small. The Yoga 13's 13-inch screen is just right for productivity, and in tablet mode works really well on your lap. No, you can't hold it with one hand comfortably, but you can prop it up in a variety of ways. I find the 9-11 inch tablet size to be nice, but also too large for one-handed use. I hope the next version of the Yoga has an active stylus.
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I am a big computer enthusiast, and I have went through a lot of laptops/ultrabooks over the past few years. I have owned:
-Macbook pros and airs
-Asus Zenbook ux31a
-Dell XPS 13
-Dell Latitude
-netbooks and other lesser known notebooks.
My favorite out of the bunch was the Asus zenbook ux31a, and it still is if I am talking solely about ultrabooks. I prefer the yoga because of the touchscreen and future-proofing Windows 8 OS. I never really owned any powerful gaming laptops because I have a very powerful desktop sitting at home.
So now you know my techy background, here is my list of pros and cons for the Lenovo Yoga 13 after using it for about a week.
PROS:
1. Windows 8 on a touchscreen. I used Win8 on my XPS 13, which does not have a touchscreen, and I absolutely hated the experience, especially considering the XPS has a subpar touchpad. I think Win8 gets a lot of hate because people use it on a non-touch laptops. Using Win8 on a touchscreen laptop is very fluid and natural. Even in the traditional desktop mode, I can tell they made a lot of adjustments in the OS to make it work well. I do have some problems with the virtual keyboard not popping up sometimes when I needed it to. At rare times, it would even pop up when I don't need it.
2. Screen. 900p IPS glossy display. Not as good as the zenbook's 1080p IPS matte display, but the difference is not noticeable.
3. Touchpad. Some reviews say the touchpad is terrible. I actually like it quite a lot, and this is coming from someone who used the Macbook's touchpad for years. I like the zenbook ux31a's trackpad more, but just by a hair.
4. Construction. There are cons in the build quality (listed in cons section), but overall, it is a solid design. The entire laptop scheme of the construction is rubber. You can feel the rubbery friction on the top and bottom of the laptop, as well as inside on the trackpad and even between the letters of the keyboard. I am guessing they went with rubber instead of aluminum or some other metal is because the laptop is already heavy enough, and they did not want to add more weight to it especially since it's an oversized tablet. Also, the rubber makes for a good grip in tablet mode, something necessary for such a large tablet.
5. Battery life. Yoga 13 has the best battery life out of all the ultrabook/tablet hybrids to date (according to my knowledge at least). This is one of the main reasons I bought this over the XPS 12. HOWEVER, the battery life is still subpar compared to non-touchscreen ultrabooks like the zenbook or macbook air. I get about 5-6 hours, but I have pushed it to close to 7 hours if you use it very conservatively.
CONS:
1. Construction. As I said in the PROS section, there are pros and cons about the construction. I like the rubber scheme design, but there are some flex in the keyboard, making the overall product feel less premium. The size of the screen bezel is thick for my taste (I am spoiled by the XPS 13 thin bezel). The bezel size also increases the overall size of the laptop, and the width and length makes it much larger than my old xps 13, and is also actually larger than my old macbook pro 13. The size combined with the the thickness makes it noticeably heavier than my old zenbook and macbook air.
2. No backlit keyboard. The keyboard itself is alright, I am typing this review on it right now. The top of the keys are straight while the bottom is curved, which feels kind of weird to me, so my touch typing feels slightly off, but no biggie.
3. Bad factory partitioning, easy/automated fix can be found online. Google "Yoga 13 hotfix"
4. Fan. It does seem to be on all the time, but you won't notice it because it's a quiet hum. I only noticed it when I'm alone in my room, and even then it never bothers me. There may be a "fix" online, but I never looked into it.
5. Hard for User Upgrades. This can be argued to be a PRO considering a lot of ultrabooks doesn't even give you the option to upgrade anymore. Anyways, It's kind of complicated to upgrade the SSD. I haven't read too much into it, but I think it's doable, just not your traditional HDD/SSD swap. Also, it only has 1 RAM slot, so the max you can upgrade to is 8gb right now.
6. Hard to open! This is probably my biggest everyday gripe about it. I'm not sure what Lenovo was thinking. When the yoga is closed, there's a strong magnet to hold it in place. You definitely can't open it easily with one hand like you can with macbooks and the new zenbook. You'll probably have to use 2 hands. Furthermore, there is no LEVERAGE for you to hold onto! You basically use one hand to try and keep it down while using your other hand to pry it open, except they didn't make any sort of space you can get your fingers under for a good grip. It's a very slipper experience. This might be the hardest laptop I have ever used to open, mainly because of the strong magnet. I actually have to give a little attention to and focus whenever I want to open it up.
*I did not experience any bad wifi problems.
OVERALL, I do enjoy this Yoga. The PROS still outweigh the cons. The 2 biggest thing I look at in a laptop is the trackpad and screen because that's what people use the most, both are outstanding on the Yoga. While in laptop mode, it looks like a normal 13inch laptop, kind small and portable. But as soon as you use it in a tablet mode, its perception becomes a super huge tablet with tons of screen real estate...mind tricks. Anyways, I do like the machine a lot. I picked the yoga over the microsoft surface because I believe the keyboard and trackpad is an essential part of using a full-fledged windows machine. I can't see myself playing games or doing real work on the Surface even with the keyboard cover, too small and cramped.
Do I recommend you to buy this? I never recommend buying a first generation product. They are usually glitchy and highly priced. If you know you want a touchscreen laptop, get this. Buy the Surface if you really want portability with less battery life and screen estate. Otherwise, I would say to wait for the 2nd or 3rd generation. I can see Yoga 13 #2 having a thinner bezel, and a thinner body, lighter design, and longer battery life, maybe even a higher res screen. Hopefully, retail pricing will also start below 1k.
Honest reviews on Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 13.3-Inch Convertible Touchscreen Ultrabook
I read enough reviews on Amazon and other places to justify me having to write one here. First things first, I am an IT guy, so between hardware, software and networking it's easier for me to figure things out, so keep that in mind when reading the review.
As all of the other reviewers said, there are some known quirks with this computer. Yes, the hinges let the screen wobble a bit. I have a Dell XPS 13 and the screen doesn't wobble at all, but this one does. It's not a big deal. Secondly, yes, the keyboard is different. The keys don't appear to be as deep as other keyboards, so when pressing them down it isn't as much as a confirmed response back from the pc. That being said, I don't have a single problem typing on it outside of the backspace key being small. A few hours later and it's fine. The mouse is perfect fine for me. I actually prefer it over my Dell mouse. There are times when the tapping or click of the mouse doesn't respond, but it isn't to the point of annoyance. You can two finger scroll, two finger right click, pinch, zoom, etc all with it. I actually do like it.
The one I wanted to spend a little bit of time on is the wireless card. This thing is 2.4 ghz only. It's speed is limited to 150 mbps. My pc out of the box didn't have any driver issues, but for some reason when I installed the latest driver from the lenovo site, I couldn't get online anymore, so I had to rollback that driver. There is a combination of bad drivers, software and network requirements needed to make this thing work. Again, out of the box I was only able to connect at 65 mbps on my cisco frontier router. My xps 13 connects at 300 mbps. Obviously this is a Lenovo issue. What I did was turn off the suspend mode for the wireless card, then set my router to channel 11, upper threshold with 40 mhz width. That poppped me back up to 150 mbps on the wireless card. Unfortunately it took me about 3 to 4 hours with all the troubleshooting to get the answer.
The good. The screen is exceptional. The icons are glorious and it's even better in tablet mode. I'm not sure if the colors are right given that the white background has a bit of wash in it (like on this page), but when I look at this screen and then go back to my XPS 13, you can clearly see the difference. Tablet mode is also good and I was initially worried about the keyboard being on the bottom, but it's actually not a big deal at all. What I didn't like was when you have the pc in presentation mode (bent back 75%), the keyboard and mouse aren't turned off like they are in tablet mode, so you have to put it on a flat surface or it will start going nuts.
In summary, I'm not sure the pc is worth the $899 asking price that Amazon has it for considering all the tweaks that have to be done to it, but at a lower price, this computer may be worth the money. It's fast, the screen is gorgeous and the battery lasts a decent amount of time. Hopefully this review helps as all the other ones on Amazon did help me.
**Update 7/1/13**
Well, I must have been premature in my review. There are a few things wrong with this laptop I can't get over:
1) The fan runs constantly and it gets too hot. I literally start sweating with it on my lap if I'm watching a movie or using something intense like adobe flash player
2) The keyboard is absolutely terrible. The keys stick and aren't firm enough. Moreover, the flex in the keyboard itself makes it even worse to type. It feels like the engineers at Lenovo only typed on this laptop standing up, because the keyboard is virtually useless on the lap.
3) While the wifi card works, it has to be the lowest end possible. I only get 130mbps while my dell xps 12 gets 300 with ease. The data transfer rate is 10x on the XPS and in order to get those speeds, I have to plug in the Lenovo to a usb-to-ethernet adapter. At first I was willing to accept this issue, but after using the pc in a hotel with weak wifi connections, it wasn't worth it.
The pc is going back to Amazon as we speak. What a shame, because if they fixed the fan and spent a few more $$ on the keyboard/wifi, this pc would sell like hotcakes...
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 13.3-Inch Convertible Touchscreen Ultrabook
I have had this laptop for two months now and I love this computer. I mostly use my laptop for watching my digital movies, constantly searching the web, writing, reading and also use (very rarely) to play pc games. I will tell you that I highly recommend this computer despite any flaws I have found. So while this review my be a little bias I tried keeping with the facts only.
The Yoga's Flexibility
~Note: Flipping the laptop to each stage is very easy but also sturdy in any position you put it in. I have never had a problem in flipping, but I will make a note that it does automatically snap close if you push it to far down (about a centimeter) towards the keyboard, so to avoid damage (though unlikely) please do not push is partially closed and take you hand off and let is snap close.
1. Notebook/Laptop Stage: I use this one the most because I was looking for a laptop mostly and a tablet second. If this is something you are also looking for than this would be perfect for you. The keyboard is great. Easy to type and spacious without being difficult to reach other keys anywhere on the board. In fact, I make less spelling mistakes on this keyboard than on any other laptop I have ever had. The mouse is something I have had to get use to though. I do not like the clickers being fused with the touch pad. I go to far down and my mouse will not longer move and I'm click on a link that is an advertisement without me realizing it. Or I will start of hitting the clicker when I just wanted to move the pointer out of the way of text and end up highlighting an entire paragraph. This can be very frustrating, but I hope to get more use to it as time goes by.
2. Tablet/Touchscreen: I mostly use this when I'm playing a game or I am reading and want to view just the screen. I love the touch screen on this computer. I got addicted to it right away. It's really sensitive. When I want to click on a particular small link cluttered together with other small links it always gets it right. The only problem I have with the tablet view is that it's hard to carry around with the keyboard under it. You have to grip it from the corners by the mouse for maximum support. Lucky, you can have this support on top or bottom of the tablet as you can turn it anyway you want. I will like to note that even if you hit any of the keys it will not effect what the screen does as the keyboard will automatically lock.
3. Tent: Probably my favorite way of watching movies. This is something you would love it you are in the kitchen cooking along with a cook show you are streaming from the internet or if you just want the background noise while working on something else. I have use it's for reading as well.
4. Stand: Also a great way to watch movies, but with the added addition of being able to aim the screen in any angle you want. I have used this to watch movies on my back with the laptop on my chest with the screen angled down. Also good for setting the laptop up somewhere high and out of the way of anything/anyone my damage but still able to see what is playing clearly.
Weight
~3.3 pounds. Easily able to pick it up with one hand without strain. Makes caring the tablet version easier without hitting keys in the back.
Fan/Heating
~Fan is quiet, the only time I hear it is when there is no sound and it sound like a really small fan. Hardly noticeable. I also like the placing of the fan. All the laptops I have owned, the fan has always been on the bottom (causing the laptop to overheat in my lap or table) but because of the flipping you can do with the laptop, the fan is on the back edge which keeps the whole computer cooler. As for the heating itself I have had it in my bare lap for hours and not once was it unbearable or overly hot. I would say that it can get pretty warm though.
Problems Switching from Tablet to Notebook
~I have noticed that there are some switching problems when flipping from tablet to laptop forms. There are times when I touch the screen on a page for typing such as this review (after switching back to the notebook after having it in tablet form) and the onscreen keyboard will pop up instead of having just the text pointer blink there; not being able to use the pointer/touchpad and having to use the touch screen to click on what I want; or the keyboard will continue to be locked after taking it out of tablet form. I have not notice any problems switching from notebook to tablet, just the other way around. All around these are minor problems as I can still do what I need to do using the touch screen or by restarted the computer which literally only takes a minute.
Battery Life
~I would average it about 4 to 6 hours of continuous web browsing and movie watching.
Screen Quality/Stereo Sound
~I am watching The Avengers on it right now. The visual is amazing and clear in any form and at any angle. As for the sound, I have not had a problem with it. I wouldn't say I'm an expert on sound quality but this is also very clear. It also gets loud for notebook speakers.
Storage/Space
~I have never been good a looking a computer space and knowing what I can fit on there just by looking at the ram so I will just say that I fit right out of the package, 6 full length movies such as Batman The Dark Knight, 40 home videos (all under 10 minutes), 500-1,000 songs, 50 or so pictures, and 30 or so word documents. As well as the two games I downloaded from the Windows Store and the apps. No extra memory was added for me and no extra memory is needed.
If there is anything you want to ask me about specifically please don't hesitate. Please note that have stated I am watching The Avengers as I was typing this so please excuse misplaced/misspelled words or incomplete sentences. :)
