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Thinkpad Yoga review

alicskysareblue

So I know this has been out for quite a while but I thought I would do a very honest review on it, Note I dont game on this laptop ( not that it is built for it anyways) so that will not be a part of my review.

 

 

 

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First lets start off with the specs on my laptop:

 

Core i5 -4200

8 gb of ram

1920X1080 screen

on board graphics  intel 4400

built in Wacom support and Digitizer

 

Built quality:

this is probably one of the best built ultrabooks I have used, the case is made out of magnesium and there is no flex to it. Now being a business notebook it doesnt have any flashy colors going with a dark slate color with the only light being the red dot. with that said some things do bother me for instance it is very difficult and annoying to get into the laptop, you have to unscrew 7 screws and the back is held with clips for (no) apparent reason, I actually had to buy some prying tools just to open it. however with that said there is not much to change as the ram is soldered onto the motherboard but, you can switch out the ssd and add an m.2 as needed. 

 

port layout

very limited it has only 2 usb ports, a Kensington lock  that actually is useful (most laptops are plastic and therefore the lock can be yanked out, not this one) an sd card reader  and a micro hdmi port, it also comes with its proprietary power port that doubles for the lenovo one link dock (which I don't have).  I hate the lack of usable ports and the power button is on the side and you have to practically jam it to turn the laptop on. I also wish they had gone with minidisplay port instead of micro hdmi as the connector is a lot sturdier.  Also for a laptop meant for the corporate environment it has no smart card reader something most business laptops have.

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Security:

as mentioned above it lacks a smart card reader also there is not finger print scanner. but it does come with  intels Anti-theft  as well as computrace although you weill have to buy them separately, it also support supervisor passwords as well as harddrive password. so that's something to look forward to if you need extra security or just don’t want people screwing with your bios (like me).

 

Sound:

Medicore and tinny , its fine for listening to but don't expect great sound quality, also, because they are under the screen they end up being muffled when you put it in presentation mode.

 

Display:

Very good, at 1920X1080 the viewing angles are great and the screen is matte its also protected by gorilla glass, which is nice ( I once had someone throw keys at me while I had my laptop out and there was no scratch).

The one problem is that the screen is a finger print magnet, so I suggest having a micro fiber cloth with you, the matt coating makes it a bit difficult to clean but if you use a wet micro fiber cloth that works pretty well.

 

GPU:

it uses an intel 4400, which baffles me it comes with a wacom stylus but with only an integrated gpu  adobe elements  is extremely slow,. I wish they had used a low end quadro or something like that instead.

 

Stylus and Wacom support:

the stylus is basically, crap it is thin is not ergonomic and only has one button, the red tip does not act like an eraser, however it does fit into the laptop so that's nice, it also pretty accurate but really I would recommend getting a better stylus.

 

the Wacom support is pretty good but unlike the surface 3 the laptop has no palm rejection so  screens will move if you rest your hand on the screen while in tablet mode.

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Keyboard and trackpad

 

The keyboard is incredible, it’s extremely comfortable to type on and the keys have very good travel distant, its only as comfortable as my desktop keyboard with cherry brown mx switches, what I don't like however is that lenovo continues to mess around with the keyboard, for instance, they switched the control and fn keys around, which has caused problems when typing or doing programing, however they do include the option in the bios to switch them back. Another minor complain is that there is no way to know whether you have caplocks on or not, their solution ? to make a program that makes an on screen pop up (which is handy but still).  I also don't really like that they switch the default use of the function keys. In order to press f5 you have to press fn+f5 or alternatively use function lock. minor complaints aside the keyboard is still pretty good, but I do wish lenovo would stop trying to  reinvent the keyboard.

 

the same can't be said about the trackpad, why they changed from the original track pad  I will never know, its too big and lacking actual buttons makes it difficult to use the track point, which at the end I switched to as the trackpad was too loud and would cause me to move the cursor when I was typing. however it does have a nice surface texture and is pretty accurate.

 

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Final thoughts.

 

For all my criticisms I really enjoy using this laptop its comfortable to use is as well as being  thin and lite enough that I can carry it in my backpack without it hurting my shoulder ( I have constant problems with my left should) , it’s very versatile as well because I can use its stand mode to watch movies or read documents while typing and  its extremely durable. 

 

 

so there’s my first reviews any thoughts ?

Desktop:ryzen 5 3600 | MSI b45m bazooka | EVGA 650w Icoolermaster masterbox nr400 |16 gb ddr4  corsiar lpx| Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1070ti |500GB SSD+2TB SSHD, 2tb seagate barracuda [OS/games/mass storage] | HpZR240w 1440p led logitech g502 proteus spectrum| Coolermaster quick fire pro cherry mx  brown |

 

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Needs pics

n0ah1897, on 05 Mar 2014 - 2:08 PM, said:  "Computers are like girls. It's whats in the inside that matters.  I don't know about you, but I like my girls like I like my cases. Just as beautiful on the inside as the outside."

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Update: added pics as well as more information and ALOT of spelling correction

Desktop:ryzen 5 3600 | MSI b45m bazooka | EVGA 650w Icoolermaster masterbox nr400 |16 gb ddr4  corsiar lpx| Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1070ti |500GB SSD+2TB SSHD, 2tb seagate barracuda [OS/games/mass storage] | HpZR240w 1440p led logitech g502 proteus spectrum| Coolermaster quick fire pro cherry mx  brown |

 

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Fellow Thinkpad Yoga owner here, agree with you on just about everything. (Note I have the i7-4500 cpu, otherwise identical)

 

I use the One Link dock at work, makes life so much easier, but yeah only 2 usb ports on the device itself is a bummer. I went out of my way to get a bluetooth mouse so I wouldn't loose a port when out and about. I don't use the stylus for much myself, but it does make highlighting notes during lectures easier. 

 

I wish they would've gone with a full-size HDMI port to make life easier when connecting to TV's and projectors and what-not, but stashing a mini-hdmi to hdmi cable in my bag solved that problem. But like you said, a mini-display port would've been a nice addition too. I keep a 128GB SD card in mine for more storage, but I'm still happy they went with a small SSD over a large HDD. 

 

I've done some light gaming on it, seems to run ok. I also get good performance from AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop & SketchUp, although I might not be pushing it as hard as you.

 

Reading comics on it is amazing by the way, puts that beautiful screen to work. And as you said, great keyboard for a laptop. I hate the trackpad, though I hate every trackpad.

 

Overall, I too love mine, great versatile device, use mine for school (taking notes mostly), work (as my main workstation for 3d modelling, CAD drafting, document creation, ect) and as a media & gaming streaming device at home. It's solid as a tank and is the best laptop/netbook/convertable I've ever used personally.

HexCase: Corsair iCUE 5000X RGBCPU: Ryzen R7 3700X  | MOBO: Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus | GPU: Gigabyte RTX 2070 Super | RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaw DDR4-3600 16GB | SSD: Corsair MP600 1TB & 480 GB EVO | HDD: 4tb WD Black & 3TB WD Green | PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G+ | Cooler: CORSAIR iCUE H100i RGB PRO XT, | Monitor: Acer Predator X34 | Keyboard: Corsair K70 RGB | Mouse: Logitech Hero | OS: Windows 11 | Speakers: Audioengine A5+ | Headset: Kingston HyperX Cloud 2 | Laptop/Tablet: TBD | Phone: Samsung Note 9 | PS4 | Xbox One | TV Sony XBR55X900F

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Fellow Thinkpad Yoga owner here, agree with you on just about everything. (Note I have the i7-4500 cpu, otherwise identical)

 

I use the One Link dock at work, makes life so much easier, but yeah only 2 usb ports on the device itself is a bummer. I went out of my way to get a bluetooth mouse so I wouldn't loose a port when out and about. I don't use the stylus for much myself, but it does make highlighting notes during lectures easier. 

 

I wish they would've gone with a full-size HDMI port to make life easier when connecting to TV's and projectors and what-not, but stashing a mini-hdmi to hdmi cable in my bag solved that problem. But like you said, a mini-display port would've been a nice addition too. I keep a 128GB SD card in mine for more storage, but I'm still happy they went with a small SSD over a large HDD. 

 

I've done some light gaming on it, seems to run ok. I also get good performance from AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop & SketchUp, although I might not be pushing it as hard as you.

 

Reading comics on it is amazing by the way, puts that beautiful screen to work. And as you said, great keyboard for a laptop. I hate the trackpad, though I hate every trackpad.

 

Overall, I too love mine, great versatile device, use mine for school (taking notes mostly), work (as my main workstation for 3d modelling, CAD drafting, document creation, ect) and as a media & gaming streaming device at home. It's solid as a tank and is the best laptop/netbook/convertable I've ever used personally.

you push yours harder then I d,o I mostly use it for taking notes and papers and some Photoshop work, I don't use it for anything heavy since I have a pretty powerful desktop.

 

I really do enjoy the laptop, works great for note taking I also can prop it into presentation mode and use it to look at notes while I type papers on my desktop.

 

I also agree on the mini hdmi I wish they had gone with mini display port, much more secure

.

 

I personally just disabled the damn trackpad and use the trackpoint instead, if I need something else I will use a bluetooth mouse.

Desktop:ryzen 5 3600 | MSI b45m bazooka | EVGA 650w Icoolermaster masterbox nr400 |16 gb ddr4  corsiar lpx| Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1070ti |500GB SSD+2TB SSHD, 2tb seagate barracuda [OS/games/mass storage] | HpZR240w 1440p led logitech g502 proteus spectrum| Coolermaster quick fire pro cherry mx  brown |

 

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