Friday, 20th of November, 2015
Wednesday, 18th of November, 2015
Monday, 16th of November, 2015
Sunday, 15th of November, 2015
Wednesday, 11th of November, 2015
Thursday, 5th of November, 2015
Good For: Proper touch screen laptop. Touch screens are becoming more common on laptops now, but most of them tend to be retrofits of a regular laptop form factor, preventing them from ever being used like a tablet in the most mobile situations. Most manufacturers have been offering detachable keyboards to present hybrid laptop/tablet solutions, but the Yoga saves you from working every day on a laptop that is designed to break into two pieces. The first unique Yoga move is the double-jointed hinge, which allows you to fold the screen so it is flipped all the way against the bottom of the laptop. It's a simple way to convert a laptop to a tablet, except the keyboard is now on the bottom. How do you prevent the keyboard from getting hammered with inputs from all the things that touch the bottom of a tablet, like fingers and table surfaces? The second Yoga move is a keyboard frame that lifts and physically locks out the action. All this adds up to a laptop form factor that is thinner than other Thinkpads, while still cramming in about twice the battery life of the X230T.
Compromises: The keyboard on the upper right changed again; the insert button has been deleted. It's not that I think I will miss the Insert key much, but the Home and End buttons have shifted to the right. It appears this is to space out the F-keys and make the Esc key bigger, but I had no issues with the old design. Other removals make sense in achievng the modern thin profile. The regular RJ45 network port has been dropped, and video output is mini-HDMI. Adapters are easy to attach for days when I am visiting customers still stuck in 2008. This is the first Thinkpad I have had with no detatchable battery. Hopefully, the battery holds charge after daily usage cycles as well as Apple products do, as replacements seem to be more complicated than Thinkpads used to be.
Overall reaction - Two thumbs Up: The new Yoga form factor is designed from the ground up for hybrid keyboard and tablet usage scenarios. There are no compromises typical of adapting a traditional laptop form factor. The power button, screen rotation lock, and power buttons are on the side, so they are accessible even in tablet mode. The stylus is on the corner, which seems like a more space efficient location. The screen is a beautiful 1920x1080, a lot of pixels for a 12" screen, and it responds to my finger as well as an iPad. Lenovo kept the TrackPoint and TrackPad combination that actually makes sense, not the awful minimalist one in the latest T series. I suppose it doesn't matter what Lenovo does with old designs as long as they do a good job on new ones like this. Honestly, I had already started ordering a Surface Pro 3, but was glad to find a solid Lenovo that works better for daily use.
Monday, 2nd of November, 2015