New Work Laptop - Thinkpad Yoga... awful!

[MrRockliffe]

Haha! I used to think macs were pointless but thanks to the lack of innovation on Windows side, they're rather appealing

[Biscuit]

Haha! I used to think macs were pointless but thanks to the lack of innovation on Windows side, they're rather appealing

There are some good options out there. The Dell M3800 and XPS 15 are really nice devices but both are on a long lead time and quite expensive. There is a newer version of the HP Spectre 13 which doesn't seem to be available that supposedly has a 1440p screen. Lenovo have some great options and if i hadn't been burned with this Yoga they would be the way i would look. The Yoga device itself is quite innovative and is the best idea for a convertible i have seen or used... just a shame they haven't implemented it very well and/or i have been so unlucky with it.
Asus are doing loads of different crazy things with convertibles, i just keep steering away from them because their range is so confusing its quite difficult to know what you are getting.

[shaithis]

The Lenovo T-Series are where it's at IMO.

Still got a T61 going strong here, I replaced the HDD with an SSD and had to swap the wifi/BT mini-PCI-E card out for a new one (£7) for Windows 8.1....but for a 2007 laptop that gets carried around by the screen on a daily basis, it's doing an impressive job.

I recently threw away my previous laptop, an IBM T-series, circa 2003! The only thing wrong with it was the "S" key missing....and it was abysmally slow by todays standards and only had an IDE interface!

[herulach]

Thats HP isnt it?

Sorry, missed the ## off, its a lenovo.

[Biscuit]

The Lenovo T-Series are where it's at IMO.

Still got a T61 going strong here, I replaced the HDD with an SSD and had to swap the wifi/BT mini-PCI-E card out for a new one (£7) for Windows 8.1....but for a 2007 laptop that gets carried around by the screen on a daily basis, it's doing an impressive job.

I recently threw away my previous laptop, an IBM T-series, circa 2003! The only thing wrong with it was the "S" key missing....and it was abysmally slow by todays standards and only had an IDE interface!

Yeah as i said before, i wished i had gone for a T440s. Main reason i went for the Yoga was that it was cheaper so i could get better specs for the money... and its a convertible.

Lenovo have lost my business with how many hoops they have made me jump.
Only now, today, after weeks of persistence have they agreed to collect the laptop and docks from me and give me a full refund.

[Biscuit]

Well i have had this macbook (13" retina with i7 upgrade, 16GB Ram, 256GB SSD) for a week and a half now and im pretty impressed overall. A lot of the issues i had experienced with Mac OS X before seem to have been tackled very well and using some of the workspace features it has are surprisingly intuitive with the multi-touch pad, whereas with my old MBP they felt as much of a hinderance as a help.
The screen is nothing short of epic, it really is something else! This is especially impressive in combination with the way Mac OS X scales the text, Very very crisp. One of the things that really stands out here is the fact i can set individual scaling settings for each monitor im using. In windows the settings for this are utter crap and don't work well at all.

Some of the more graphics-y things I'm finding myself doing have become a lot easier in OSX as there is loads of different (none-subscription) software options out there as alternatives to adobe, much more than i found in windows. I was never a photoshop expert so learning new stuff is largely a none issue for me and i much prefer to work with vectors which photoshop has traditionally been poor in... I'm out of the loop though.

The battery life.... oh.... my.... word.... this thing makes the Duracell bunny look like a wind up toy!

Standards OS X apps have vastly improved. iCal especially is very very good for my usage.

Desktop environment that is still optimised for desktop usage... more than i can say for W8/8.1

There have been some snags however:
5 button mouse.... yep thats right, by default OS X has no options to bind the extra buttons on my bluetooth 5 button mouse so i had to install a bit of 3rd party software. I tried 'USB overdrive' but had issues with it, 'steermouse' worked flawlessly.

The keyboard annoys me. I don't get how people can claim that OS X keyboards are the best in the world? I mean its not the worst by a long shot, its actually decent in fairness, but in comparison to the thinkpad its like typing on keys that are supported by pieces of sponge. The backlight is much better than the thinkpad but other than that the Lenovo takes utter victory. I can use it but it just doesn't have a positive tactile feel that i expect from an quality, working tool.

As i have mentioned, i need to use windows a lot. I could set up the computer so it is a windows computer and just use it as such, but i would much prefer to try and use the Mac as a Mac. The solution is parallels and it is an excellent piece of software. Coherence is great for using windows apps in mac environment, but also as a general VM tool it is very powerful. The problem i have had is that the windows software i use relies heavily on modifier keys, the key one being alt/option + LMB. If i hold alt/option in mac and then click and drag, it moves the window in focus... this is useless for me. I have tried a few things with no luck, hopefully i will find a resolution on the forums.

Although it has a quality look, this obsession with a thin and smooth profile has given it a distinct flimsy feeling. Just like any apple product, the function is severly crippled by the form. This is not a heavy duty laptop that can be carried by any part of it your hands can grasp and would pass milspec testing, this is a good looking device that should be looked after and use to a certain set of standards.

The chargers are still utterly terrible. This magsafe thing Apple have been pushing all this time is garbage, they need to stop it and use a sensible connecter! I can tell already that im going to have to go through a lot of these things throughout the life of this laptop. The whole idea the cable dropping out if you trip over the wire is counter intuitive because they have had to make the thing so flimsy that it breaks when you use the built in cable management hooks.

I could go on defending/attacking my decision to go to Apple Mac but overall im more than satisfied so.... mehhhh.

[Biscuit]

It seems the problems with the thinkpad Yoga and the dock have now been solved with a BIOS update. Lot of people on the forums seem to be happy now.

Thought it was only fair that anyone coming to this thread understood Lenovo had made progress

[MrRockliffe]

How's the mac doing?

[Biscuit]

Very good actully.

I discovered that my issue with the ALT button was actually because of software i had installed called Flexiglass that allows me to do the snap to half the screen thing that i got used to using in windows.

Other than that, everything is the same as in my previous post really.

I do however, have a black smoke plastic case to hide the fact that its a Mac Shame the apple logo shines through it really.

[MrRockliffe]

I also have one - to protect it because they're so fragile!

[Beatnik]

I'll chime in late. I have a bit of experience with the X220, the Thinkpad Yoga, and MBP retina.

I can't help but think that Yoga 2 and Yoga 2 pro screen size and resolutions are better than all of the above.
I mean 13.3 at 1920x1080 IPS is probably ideal. So probably Yoga 2 wins. Because the 3200 x 1800
puts you at a realistic 1600 x 900.

Only other thing I would add is that you can always tell a "U" CPU, from a normal one. Core i7 2620M
on the X220 is a great CPU. Thinkpad Yoga 4600U vs. MBp Retina 4558U vs. X220 2620M ... hmmm, so
winner is:

Thinkpad T440p with an "M" or "MQ" cpu and the 14" 1920x1080 display... Probably the sweet spot...

[Biscuit]

I'll chime in late. I have a bit of experience with the X220, the Thinkpad Yoga, and MBP retina.

I can't help but think that Yoga 2 and Yoga 2 pro screen size and resolutions are better than all of the above.
I mean 13.3 at 1920x1080 IPS is probably ideal. So probably Yoga 2 wins. Because the 3200 x 1800
puts you at a realistic 1600 x 900.

Only other thing I would add is that you can always tell a "U" CPU, from a normal one. Core i7 2620M
on the X220 is a great CPU. Thinkpad Yoga 4600U vs. MBp Retina 4558U vs. X220 2620M ... hmmm, so
winner is:

Thinkpad T440p with an "M" or "MQ" cpu and the 14" 1920x1080 display... Probably the sweet spot...

Perhaps it would have been, but im actually very happy with the MBP13" in a portability vs battery life vs screen size vs power... basically almost everything i have mentioned.

the M and MQ CPUs might be fantastic, but the U CPUs, especially the higher end ones are still exceptionally powerful. 2 high speed cores that turbo with hyper threading is plenty for me!

I still haven't got a dock for it, as they are quite expensive. But I only have to connect a Displayport, USB and power connector when im at home... so its not toooooo bad. I will eventually pick up a dock i guess.

[Beatnik]

I hear ya. mbp 13" and 15" retina were ground breaking product. Ease of use in OS X is pretty good as well.
I just always thought Apple could do better than the 1400x900 that you get stuck into as a "native" resolution.
I do understand the usefulness of retina. Maybe they'll be a multiple of 1920x1080 on the next go round...

[Biscuit]

16:10 is a far superior screen aspect ratio for actually doing work!

[Beatnik]

16:10 is a far superior screen aspect ratio for actually doing work!

Yeah. word on dat.

12.5" at 1920x1080 is a bit too ppi ish. 1920x1200 on 14"
might be just right .... but 1920x1080 on 13.3" seems like
a good target if you can't find 16:10.

[Beatnik]

Hmmm. Just checked out the 3200x1800 Yoga 2 Pro at Best Buy.
$1200 seems like a good price. They had a Yoga 2 as well at 1920x1080.

As for the screen controversy, yeah, 13.3" is better than 12.5" no matter how you slice it.
My Thinkpad Yoga screen is not the best display I have ever seen. The convergence seems
to be just a hair off.

The Yoga 2 and Yoga 2 pro were both nicer than the Thinkpad Yoga. The Thinkpad Yoga
is just heavy enough that it is too heavy. Other comment I would make is that the Yoga 2
pro feels faster / more responsive, which is surprising. I gotta think that the wacom stuff
adds some drag for some reason. Very surprising.

Apparently there is all kinds of talk about Windows 8 / 8.1 scaling capabilities, and compatibility.
And that the 3200x1800 is pentile. But int the store, using the windows fonts, and checking out
a few web pages, I thought it looked pretty good. The Yoga 2 pro felt fast and it looked good,
and had a good weight. So my rough call would be Yoga 2 pro. (But I didn't spend a ton of time
looking at the native 1920x1080 Yoga 2. Some reviewers prefer it significantly.)