Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 14 Convertible Review

[Redaktion]

For work and play. The successful 12.5-inch ThinkPad Yoga has now spawned a 14-inch model with dedicated GeForce graphics. Lenovo has engineered this convertible to adapt to any situation both at the office and at home. Can this versatile solution replace that old ThinkPad or aging family computer?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Yoga-14-Convertible-Review.133661.0.html

[surf]

This is a review for the 2014 model right as the 2015 is announced. The refresh is even mentioned in review. This is going to confuse people. Lenovo stated the refresh would be on sale around February. Good review of the old model though.

[Illuminatus66]

This review is long on details and short on personality.

I have this device:  It's not perfect, but it's very impressive and satisfying.  It does several things really well and better than most.

The weakest link is the embarrassment of Windows 8.1

[Allen.Ngo]

thanks for the feedback and apologies for the lack of personality! We typically provide as much objective detail as we can on the products we publish and so personality tends to take a backseat. It's a tough balancing act for sure :)

[Illuminatus66]

thanks for the feedback and apologies for the lack of personality! We typically provide as much objective detail as we can on the products we publish and so personality tends to take a backseat. It's a tough balancing act for sure :)

LOL....

I understand.  I'm sorry if I offended.

I think my comment arose out of feeling I was reading a lot of tech specs at the forefront with you and your responses being diminished...in the background.

tech specs are fine...but then become wankery.

Inserting yourself and your opinion into the narrative makes your argument  - for, against or indifferent more effective.  That's about cultivating your own style.  Objectivity needn't be colorless!

I differ a bit in my impressions than you but that is ultimately irrelevant.

It's a great machine IMO aside from the Win 8.1 quirks....it will be that much better when I get an SSD in there!

[just a notebook user]

As the review outlines the good stuff, I will focus on the negative just to support new customers to make a more informed choice. Unfortunately Lenovo did not improve on any flaw of the first ThinkPad Yoga 12, and even more - it seems they made it worse.

Screen. New TPY 14 has a HUGE bezel just as TPY 12. So it is actually a 14inch screen in a close to 15inch box dimensions. Of course we can live with that, but I would prefer the opposite ;-) I have measured that original TPY 12 would exactly fit a 14inch screen if the bezel was not like almost a full inch. Also the brightness of 300nits is actually a downgrade of the TPY 12's 400nits. And generally the screen specs are far from the best coming from the competition.
Heat. Original TPY "lap"top is practically unusable on the lap - the heat pumping exactly at the middle of the rear side even on normal load (like watching a video) soon makes it very uncomfortable. It seems now that 54C measured for TPY 14 is even more than TPY's ~50C. So if you will use it only on a desk, or you are OK frying your private parts - please.

Connectivity. In this department at least we see a full HDMI vs. the most exotic miniHDMI on the TPY 12. Everyone can decide on his own if interfaces provided are enough; however I would suggest to wait for at least one review confirming trouble-free operation of TPY 14 with OneLink Dock. There is a huge thread on that on Lenovo support site; I personally settled with Toshiba Dynadock and just gave up on trying with OneLink.

[af]

This review is long on details and short on personality.

I have this device:  It's not perfect, but it's very impressive and satisfying.  It does several things really well and better than most.

The weakest link is the embarrassment of Windows 8.1

WRG

[Michael A.]

Looks like some of the comments here are older and not related to the refresh 2015 version of this notebook.

Just quickly it looks like a couple of paragraphs are duplicated at the start of this review.

On to my comment then :
Did they update the screen to use the Active Pen or AnyPen technology? 

From the Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga 15 Specs : IPS Glare/AG Film (10 Finger touch & active pen)

[gordon]

in the first release of the thinkpad yoga 14 (haswell), many users found that picking up the laptop from a corner caused flex and loosened a safety-circuit-switch (maintenance purposes) on the motherboard, and would therefore shut off the laptop in battery mode. I was wondering if this is still present in the redesigned broadwell generation.

also it seems like the US lenovo site has taken the thinkpad yoga 14 off its selection and put in place the yoga 15 instead. Will the yoga 14 eventually make it back into the US market? because i prefer its centered keyboard minus the numkeypad over the yoga 15

[fkbreitl]

I have to add that the touchpad of the Yoga 14 and probably of many other series which use the Alps touchpad is very poor in many respects:

1. sensitive button area, which cause a jumping of the pointer when clicking
2. clicking only possible in the back area because of the tilt design
3. tapping area in the front is too insensitive
4. coarse surface causes stuttering of the finger
5. broken driver in Windows 8.1 after sleep

I give more details at Warning: ThinkPad Yoga TouchPad very miserable in many ways
Unfortunately the moderator has renamed and merged my original post making it more difficult to find...

[joe]

Have they sorted out the issue of the laptop switching off when on battery??

http://computerfixes14.blogspot.pe/2015/03/thinkpad-yoga-14-get-rid-of-battery.html
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-S-Series-ThinkPad-Yoga/Re-Thinkpad-S3-Yoga-14-Random-shut-offs-when-not-plugged-in/td-p/1854161/page/6

I have this laptop and its great when connected via AC but completely unusable as a laptop as it may just power itself off at any moment when on battery.. causing loss of work.

There are many things I love about it though. They should really consider a 16GB upgrade for it though. 8GB is not that much these days.