Ideapad Yoga?

I'm concerned about this also... not just that it's Realtek, but the ipbook lists the antennas are only about two inches long and in the palm rests... that's all.

Not sure any of you have followed the other Ideapad Ultrabooks, but the U310s and U410s have both had miserable wifi dropping and low signal problems. Those are Intel Centrino 2200, I believe.

The U300s I have on the other hand has been absolutely perfect with great wifi signal. Intel Centrino 1030.

Can some of the current owners give us some feedback on wifi in the real world? Thanks.

 

Generally, where is the best place for the antennas? Seems odd that they would be under the palm rest, but that is typical for all I know.

 

@noxxle99 it's my understanding that the best have antennas up through the screen, but most (where ever they are) are at least six inches long in length.

@Don1, thanks for the BB additions info and link! Earlier than I had heard with the additional models. Great news (although way over priced, like you mentioned).

About the BestBuy models... anyone learn any more about the BB exclusivity? Was it just the first one SKU: 6634279, or all of them? Also, the link doesn't mention color; I'm still curious about that Orange one. If it's anything like the U300s, orange will only be for the top most model.

 

Except for the screen. The MacBook Air would be pretty much perfect imo if it had a decent IPS screen. Unfortunately, Apple only offers IPS screens on their overpriced Retina models. Since many PC makers are now starting to offer superior IPS screens starting around 1K, Apple will probably fall in line with the next MacBook Air update - Finally (and I say that as a long time Apple user).

 

Not definitive about the colour, however the pictures on the BB links only show the silver models.
I had been led to believe that orange and updated models would be available from Lenovo website mid-November, however don't quote me from that as I can't remember where I saw that.

 

This is probably one of the best forums out there on the IdeaPad Yoga.... it's really too bad... I've been planning since CES to get this laptop.... it looked so perfect. I figured it would more or less be a touchscreen MacBook with a fake leather palmrest and a hinge that let if flip 360 degrees... alas it doesn't sound like we got that.

So help me out. I currently have a gaming laptop (Asus G73) and it's great, I really like it, except it's a portable desktop lol. It ways a ton and it's huge and I don't like taking it to campus... so I wanted something light, that had enough basic functionality for Office, or to remote desktop if I needed to run powerful programs. Which has led me to these possibilities:

1) Keep the laptop, get a Surface RT for basic portable computing, including Office.

2) Wait for the Surface Pro, sell my laptop, get an external monitor and wireless backlit keyboard for home

3) Wait for Haswell devices in Q2 next year

Right now I'm kind of leaning towards #2... I played with the Surface RT today and it felt really good... I could deal with a little extra weight and thickness of the Pro. Just wondering how hot it will get and how effective perimeter venting will be. The problem is... if Yoga 2.0 comes out next year running Haswell with a backlit keyboard.... I'll be doing this all over again lol.

 

This is a virtual certainty. Worth the wait imo if 2.0 will have a non-realtek wifi card.

 

Yup, I've also been waiting for the Yoga since January. Looks like I might wait a little longer!!

 

I received a Yoga 13 on 10/26 from BB. The Wifi is problematic. If you are in the same room with the router it's great and fast. If I'm in another room 25 ft away from the router it is slower. Also if it's on your lap it gets even slower. If you have your hands on the palm rest it slows down substantially more. I used Toast.net to verify ( it may not be an accurate site but it shows me the differences). In the router room I can get 15 - 17 MBPS. In the room 25 ft away on the coffee table I get 8 - 12 MBPS. In my lap 2 ft from the coffee table I get 4 - 6 MBPS. When I rest my hands on the palm rest it does 1.5 - 3 MBPS. I understand that the antenna is under the palm rest so that kind of explains it. I checked my old Dell laptop side by side and I did not see the big swing in speed. The Wifi is the only complaint I have but it is a deal breaker. The screen is beautiful and bootup is instantaneous. I will be returning it tomorrow and I have no idea what I will buy next. I was so hoping that the Yoga 13 was going to a keeper. Hope that this helps some of you who are on the fence for the Yoga 13.

 

This has indeed helped... I can say I definitely won't be getting the Yoga. I have faith they'll nail it in round 2. I will wait for a Haswell device... and if I can't wait that long, then the Surface Pro... If it comes out with Haswell I'll pre-order instantly... although I know they've publicly stated it will be running ivy bridge.

 

is the sd card slot full depth, allowing you to keep a high capacity SDXC card in there all the time to increase storage?

 

Yes it is. Only very slight protrusion.

 

thanks for that.

cheap and easy to add at least 50% more storage to the basic model then.

 

Can we have more real world wifi experience post? I know MV52 said it is very poor. All else is speculation. If you have one, tell us your experience.

 

Would it be possible to change the wifi card or are the antennas more likely to be the problem (I know it is difficult but not impossible to take apart)

 

Update on my order: I Ordered the Yoga 13 from Lenovo.com on 10/25/2012... my order status says "order received" and estimate ship date 12/10/2012. That's six weeks. I just called Lenovo Post-Sales team to inquire, and note that I'm thinking about cancelling the order and picking up up (a lesser model) at the local BestBuy, which has them now.

Lenovo post-sales tried everything in their power to not cancel, they promised to give my order "prioritization" and put me at the front of the line, and that the December date was an estimate only, it would be "Much much" sooner. I didn't cancel, I'll give it a few more days and check the status.

What do you guys think? anyone had this happen before? Is it worth waiting, or was the post sales guy lying?

 

Can anyone spot the wifi card or antennas in the pics by Woolooloo on page 22 of this thread?

 

I was sitting down to order a 8GB SO-DIMM and the 256GB msata SSD but I guess I'm having some second thoughts. I really don't mind the Yoga so far, I can live with the trade-offs... But I guess I'm considering waiting for the 13" Taichi. I'm not in a particular rush so I can wait. I don't really see a need for 2 screens - at all, but it does solve the issue of not having the exposed keyboard when using it in tablet mode. Another thing is I've only used the Yoga a couple days and the fingerprints on the outside are already unseemly - that is one thing I didn't miss when I switched to my Macbook Pro from using Thinkpads for years. Thinkpads - and the Yoga - are fingerprint magnets. What to do, what to do. I think I'm going to hold off on order the additional parts for a few days and give it some more thought.

 

Wait for Haswell.... if it comes out on the Surface Pro then we've got a winner. If not, we'll see plenty of new designs in Q2 2013. I expect with the new capabilities of Haswell, we'll see lots of tablets with docking keyboards that's have built in USB ports and an Ethernet port. Again, I do like the form factor of the Yoga... it just needs to get out of Beta.

 

What do you guys think about the Asus zenbook on BB site? It has pretty much the same exact specs as the yoga however has a backlit keyboard and is aluminium construction. Obviously it doesnt have the hinge capability as the yoga. Its $100 more. However, doesnt seem like you can order this item although its on the site.

UX31A-BHI5T11
SKU: 6906246

Asus 13.3" TouchScreen Laptop 4GB Memory 128GB Solid State Drive UX31A-BHI5T11 - Best Buy

 

Lack of a backlit keyboard is a bummer but not a deal breaker, poor wifi performance however is. Will monitor this latest development.

 

There has only been one person with poor wifi performance... the worry may be unfounded, but let's hear about from others. woolooloo, what's the wifi been like for you?

 

Very true that's why I will "monitor" and not just jump to "forget it". I'm really tempted to pick up the BB version and try for myself even though I want a 8/256GB version.

 

No wifi issues for me yet. I have used wifi in 3 different locations all together.

 

Anyone do a clean install of Win 8 to recover disk space yet?

 

I haven't noticed any WiFi issues with mine (BB Version).
I will test it further when I get home and report back if there are any Wireless Problems.

I also have the Lenovo Twist (trying to decide which I prefer) and will see how the wireless compares with that.

 

So far so good, I haven't noticed any drops at all. I just ran a speed test with the Yoga and my 2009 Macbook Pro and saw no difference.

This is the first day I've used it without the kids running around or the TV on and I do hear the fan running while it is sitting on my lap. It is actually at a fairly annoying frequency. Sigh.

 

Can you test how well the Yoga picks up a signal through walls?

 

Ok, bad news. I'm downstairs from the router, still using my 2009 Macbook Pro sitting right next to it for comparison. I took turns copying a 3GB file from my desktop (which is on gigabit wired ethernet) to both laptops and the Yoga was repeatedly 20-35% slower than my old MBP. On one attempt, the Yoga went to 0 MB/s and got stuck and I had to cancel it and restart it. I think this, combined with the fan noise are now my major complaints and I am likely to return it later this week.

 

I hate to hear that... sorry. I'm with many others, really hoping on this one to be our everything. there's really no better option imho.

I really don't like the design of the Dell duo; it looks like an HP Pavilion laptop from 15 years ago. And the Twist looks like a child's version of a true Thinkpad, with a sub-par screen. The new zenbooks look nice, but no convertible mode, I really wanted that.

I may still have to get my own to disprove the negatives in my own way, or prove them and know for sure.

 

That's discouraging as well. I'm more concerned about fingerprints on the screen than on the outside case, though.

I hate to stray, but what Thinkpads are fingerprint magnets? Certainly not my z61t, and I don't recall that problem with my T2x or my T4x, either. Just curious.

 

Understood... I'll never buy a Dell laptop, I've never seen one that didn't look outdated the minute it was purchased, I've never seen one not fall apart. I worked as a consultant for years with a company that bought Dell laptops for all of its employees and they all drooled over my Thinkpads. I would need to see lots of sustained improvement from Dell before I would trust them. Asus appears to be my remaining hope for something innovative, possibly HP, some of their current batch have some interesting features but none hit all the marks. I like Apple laptops but I run Windows and they just aren't optimized for that, certainly not for Windows 8 if that is where things are going. Anyways, good luck with your search, I'll be interested in hearing your impressions when you pick up a Yoga.

 

I bought my last Thinkpad about 5 years ago, an X, and I had owned X's and T's before that. They all had the matte finish, just like the Yoga, that sucked the oils right off your fingers. Maybe the Thinkpad line isn't like that anymore, but the Yoga certainly is. I've played with it for a few days, only a few hours total and you can tell what happens to it from this picture that contrasts it to the aluminum shell of a MBP that probably hasn't been cleaned in over a year.

 

"I bought my last Thinkpad about 5 years ago, an X, and I had owned X's and T's before that. They all had the matte finish, just like the Yoga, that sucked the oils right off your fingers. Maybe the Thinkpad line isn't like that anymore, but the Yoga certainly is. I've played with it for a few days, only a few hours total and you can tell what happens to it from this picture that contrasts it to the aluminum shell of a MBP that probably hasn't been cleaned in over a year."


A wet hand can leave a finger print on a thinkpad. A dry finger certainly does not. I just tried this on two of my four thinkpads.

 

I'm going to have to disagree partially with your fan noise assessment. I can see how when you're in a noisy Starbucks or a home with a high level of background noise (kids, AC, TV, whatever) that it wouldn't be noticeable. I was in a coffee shop the other day with it and, of course, couldn't hear the fan. It was nice. But when I'm at home or in my quiet office, it is a constant whirring at a very obnoxious frequency right in front of me. Unacceptable. High dB or not, it's really annoying.

I guess my home is quieter than others (I can easily hear the rain, wind, or people outside). So yeah, it's not great to have a fan like this. It's wonderful to use for about 30 seconds when I pull it out from sleep mode, then it whirrs on up very audibly. At least my old samsung had a fan mode that was "on, but still quiet." Would that Lenovo had put a similar speed into the Yoga, I'd be fine with it.

Why not pipe the heat to the back of the screen? That part's up and touching ambient air all the time (in laptop mode), you could make it a gigantic heat sink. Anyway. I think this thing is going back. Unfortunate, since I like almost everything else about it (no backlit keyboard).

 

Im coming from a macbook pro and honestly even in a quiet room i dont really notice the fan at all. I think its very quiet and really barely noticeable.

 

Well I returned my Yoga 13 to BB today because of the wifi range. I did notice when I was at BB that they had 2 yoga 13's on display in 2 different parts of the store. I know that BB's wifi is probably weak but I noticed that both Yogas had lost their connection to the internet and I know that one was connected earlier because I was playing with it.

 

I went window shopping at BB today, and played with the Yoga.

IMO, if you're using touch, there's only one mode that it is comfortable in- Tent mode.

All other modes suck if you're going to use touch.

Laptop mode = super wobbly hinge. Touch, boing-oing-oing.
Tablet mode = you have to hold it with your forearm because of the weight and size.

So, after using it a bit, I still would prefer a separate dedicated tablet.
After I used the yoga, I went to the tablet section, and all those ipads were featherweight and comfortable.

In comparison to touchscreen laptops, Yoga tent mode trumps them all.
Laptop hinges are just too wobbly for touchscreen.

 

I hope that my experience was just a fluke and all of you have good luck with your Yogas !

 

Picked one up today to see if I can live with it for the next 30 days. So far so good but the keys feels smaller coming from the X220 Thinkpad. The screen is very nice though. As far as touchpad, Mine came with a Synaptics. Overall I really like the laptop so far and haven't experienced the connection weakening when my palm is placed over the palm rest.

Here are my observations:

Screen is slightly wobbly, but not a deal breaker. The backspace button is smaller than traditional keyboards so that will take some getting used to. The right "Shift" key is smaller as well so some can run in to some trouble with this. So in a sense, I've been over-reaching since I'm used to a larger layout. I'll have to see how this affects my typing overall before I can come to a conclusion of any sort.

Touchpad is annoying since I'm used to the ones with a physical button. Although, the reality is manufacturers are not going to revert--ever. I can live with it. Touchpad tracking is accurate, but not as accurate as my Dell Vostro V131. I am going to try and play around with the drivers tonight until I find one that is more fluid. The Dell's custom touchpad driver for synaptics is surprisingly responsive when compared against the manufacturers drivers. In what way? When you do 2 finger scroll, and you quickly let go and reverse direction with the 2 finger scroll. On the synaptics drivers, it hesitates.. Not on the dell driver.

No backlight is not a deal breaker jfor me as the white lettering on the keys are pretty reflective and I'm a touch typist.

Screen is excellent. If I had to use a 1900x1080, I don't think I'd like it unless the fonts were sized up properly; 1600x900 is perfect for this 13.3" and the colors are very vibrant and accurate. On par with the X220 IPS screen.

Oh! Another thing. When I was at Best Buy, while messing with the Demo version, I was also concerned about the durability of having the keyboard against the table, in tablet mode; but i purposely scratched the surface of the palmrest with my fingers, really hard, and it did NOT scratch. Pretty amazing.

I'll add more to my thoughts as they come up.

 

I'd love to have your Yoga then, because the two Yogas in my household are both unacceptably loud. Or perhaps our definitions of quiet are different. I'm coming from a Samsung R580, which oscillates from quiet to loud, spending most of its time being quiet. This Yoga is really the dominant sound in the room when I'm sitting in my living room. I can hear my girl's Yoga from across the room, and if I'm in front of it--as in using it--it's just as loud as mine.

Keep in mind that when I say a quiet room, that means there are no other electronic devices in the room, and it really is truly quiet. Maybe there's some air blowing into your "quiet" room that you don't notice? Truly quiet is hearing the leaves outside rustle in a slight breeze. If you can't hear that, then I wouldn't consider your room quiet, and this Yoga is too loud!

I'm sticking with my trusty, mostly quiet Samsung until Lenovo solves this fan issue, and the wifi issue, and puts a keyboard backlight on this thing.

 

Wifi antenna under the palm rest? not in the screen??

Lenovo has had a working concept of the Yoga since at LEAST January. I don't think some of these oversights are acceptable. If they've had this long to come out with generation 1, what makes all these people have faith in gen 2?

I'm grateful to all you who want to try out the new technology and take the time to give us feedback. The Yoga just confirms to me, though, that we can get our hopes so high for what we THINK a product will be, when in reality it may have one too many shortcomings. Too bad only Apple takes its products to an OCD perfectionist level, and even then there are still flaws.

 

Ok, for those of you who bought the Yoga 13, be sure to go to Synaptics.com and download their latest drivers. It makes a HUGE difference. No more inaccuracies when scrolling or pointing.
Here is the settings I used:
- Pointer Sensitivity (Mouse settings) turned UP two notches from default
In Synaptics Settings:
- Turn off Pinch Zoom
- Turn off Pinch Rotate
- For two finger scroll, enable "Coasting"
- Turn the Touch Sensitivity to Lightest touch (furthest to the left)

Let me know how this works for you.

 

Awesome info, thanks. I'll do it once Lenovo decides to ship mine.

Can you verify whether or not it is possible to reverse the direction of the two finger scroll? On the BB unit I played with, it was the opposite from most Windows laptops I've experienced. I'm used to sliding two fingers down, towards me, to make the page go down. The BB unit was in reverse, like a Mac.

 

Yes, nearly forgot.. you can reverse it too. This can be done through the same menu as the "two-finger scroll".

Not sure why it comes like default, so unintuitive. On laptop mode, the volume rocker, down=volume up and up=volume down. Very peculiar.

 

MobileTechReview of the yoga! Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 Review - YouTube

Sorry if its already been posted.

 

Darnit. It turns out you can't just use the latest driver as you please directly from Synaptics. It doesn't have the functionality to turn off the touchpad when the laptop is put into tablet mode. I guess its back to the lenovo drivers. I hope lenovo updates the touchpad driver for better tracking precision tho..

-edit- UPDATE:
Found the solution!
After you install the Synaptics driver from Synaptics.com, get it all set up the way you want it, THEN install the one that came with the tablet (on drive D), it will upgrade the drivers to have Lenovo's auto-disable feature while keeping ALL of the settings including the precision of the pointer. Even edge-scrolling is enabled even though the option isnt available in the new driver--interesting!
You will also retain Three Finger Flick, Four Finger Flick, etc..

So MAKE SURE you enable all the features you want in the previous version before upgrading to Lenovo's driver. I'd say, live with the current settings for a while before your ready to keep the settings.. then update. Enjoy!

 

Yea mine is really quiet. Im pretty picky about that kind of stuff. I don't know what to say since you have two yogas with louder fans.

 

I just did some wifi tests with the yoga and MacBook pro all over a two story house. Both worked the same. Speedtests were pretty equal.

 

Not sure who provided the information that the Wifi Antenna's are under the handrest but it looks like they may have been onto something there, but based on what the maintenance manual states which I shared back in the high teens of this document it makes it sound slightly like they may be in the screen. I wonder if this is a section copied form another Laptops section, unless the Bluetooth is ran through the screen.

When installing:
• Route the antenna cables along the cable guides. As you route the cables,
make sure that they are not subjected to any tension. Tension could cause the
cables to be damaged by the cable guides, or a wire to be broken.
• Make sure that the LCD connector is attached firmly and make sure that you
do not pinch the antenna cables when you attach the LCD assembly. Route
the LCD cable along the cable guides.​

If you look at the picture shared by woolooloo you can see the wifi card above the right fan in the picture. The grey and the Black cords are the antennas. You can follow them around the battery to the front of the device. So they are under the palm rest, but they are actually at least 6 inches closer to 7-8 inches. With how antennas work I would see that it should only negatively affect the performance at the edge of a connection if the body of the laptop was between it and the router. I would think if you see wifi issues it would more liekly be the wlan card. Most of the time I have seen drivers resolve this.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/att...7d1351369954-ideapad-yoga-20121026_131918.jpg

I am actually still looking at the Yoga. Using an old 17" HP Pvailion using AMD. Another laptop we have is a netbook running the AMD fusion chipset. With both the fan runs so I don't see the fan being an issue for me. The primary gripe for me is the amount of free space. It sounds like they were sloppy with their paritioning the HD. I will most likely wait for Lenovo to release their official versions, with possible partition fixes, hopefully sooner than later.

I actually have played with the Yoga a couple of times and like the build alot. I am also looking forward to Windows 8 on a native 8 box. I like the changes they have made.