Lenovo - Yoga 2 2-in-1 13.3" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 4GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive - Black

I first purchased this laptop as a replacement for my previous 17" powerhouse. I was tired of having to lug the big behemoth around, and wanted something a bit more portable, without sacrificing too much on the performance end. Once I started looking at ultrabooks, the Yoga series started to seem more and more appealing. I didn't need the higher resolution model, especially with all the quality issues they were having with the QHD screens (at time of purchase), and the specs for this mid-range model seemed good enough for what I would be using it for, so I made the purchase. The first one was faulty. I'm not sure if this reflects on Lenovo's current product standards, but it seemed to run poorly, and some of the screws kept falling out from the bottom of the chassis. I was also having occasional problems with getting past the Windows 8 boot screen, but I'm convinced that was an issue with a specific Windows Update patch that rolled out around that time. Regardless, I decided to return it after a few days. Then, the associate convinced me to give the product another chance, and since I usually have such good luck with Lenovo, I was eager to agree. The new one is fantastic. I've had none of the hardware problems present in the first one, and since I've decided to avoid that patch altogether, none of the boot issues, either. The start time is fast enough for me to justify taking it pretty much anywhere I'll need to sit down for a few minutes, and since it's so portable, I find myself coming up with excuses to go to the park and type something up. I originally wasn't sold on the tablet transition aspect of the laptop, but it makes content much easier to show or pass around, and I've actually been using that feature quite a bit. The trackpad is nice, but takes a bit of tweaking with the software settings to be truly great, and the speakers are surprisingly good for such a small notebook. Since Lenovo kept the exhaust vents along the back, rather than placing them where they could be blocked by your legs, it handles long stints of Netflix and simple gaming just as well as browsing around the internet for a few hours. The performance is actually pretty good, as long as you won't be rendering any intense graphics (4 gigs of RAM is still only 4 gigs, after all), but it handles things like Civ V well enough, as well as some casual programming. The screen does wobble a little bit when you poke the touchscreen while in laptop mode, but since the only way to fix this would be to increase overall resistance in the hinge, I think I'd rather have it as is. The battery lasts long enough for me to go a few days between charges (I generally use it for an hour or two each sitting), and they keyboard is extremely comfortable to use. There is an issue with the way Windows 8 interprets screen resolution, however. On a 1080p screen this small, leaving the text scaled at 100% makes it almost difficult to read. It can be managed, but since the screen usually sits somewhere around 3' from my face, I leave the scaling at the default value, which is slightly higher than 100%. Unfortunately, Windows 8 hasn't quite figured out how to do this consistently, so while the operating system and most of the apps look fine in this mode, some of them get pretty blurry (Google Chrome windows appear slightly fuzzy, for instance). This is more of an annoyance than an issue, and it's probably something that the various companies will fix as Windows 8 gets more and more popular, but it's something you need to be prepared for, until then. Overall, I am happy with the purchase. I enjoy being able to take the laptop out and not feel like I'll be glued to a charger, and the touchscreen and keyboard make it a joy to use. I would recommend this to anyone looking for something portable, for everyday use.

My PC background includes laptops from Acer, Asus, Gateway, Sony, Toshiba, and IBM. The Yoga 2 13 is the best of the lot. My previous best notebook is the Portege R835 from BestBuy. My notebook search criteria included price, portability, quality build, flexible usage, battery life, vendor support rating, storage options, backlit well designed keyboard, full HD screen resolution, and a good CPU. I chose the Yoga 2 13 over the Yoga 2 Pro for price, display, and storage. The Yoga 2 13 full HD display has better test numbers in contrast and color fidelity than the Y2Pro. The numbers include a color fidelity delta value of 3.2 compared to 7.6 for the Y2Pro (lower is better), a contrast ratio of 1350:1 compared to 730:1 for the Y2Pro (means colors stand out). The Y2 13 has a higher Windows Experience Index number of 5.3 compared to the Y2Pro's 4.6. The build is several months newer than the Y2Pro with fewer bugs and problems. To be fair, the Y2Pro is 8 ounces lighter and 2 mm thinner and has a quad HD display. I have not encountered any problems in two weeks of ownership. Removing the included anti-virus improved performance. The backlit keyboard is great. All of the normal keys and functions are single key presses including home, end, pgup, pgdn, vol+, vol-, mute, brightness+, brightness-. Other keyboards require FN+key to access pgup, vol+, and so on. The thoughtful design includes a power button accessible in all modes (laptop/stand/tent/tablet), a screen orientation lock button, a hardware volume control, and a boot button. The boot button lets you boot up to a menu to select bios, boot device, and recovery. My other PCs require hitting a key at the right time during boot. With the Yoga shutdown, just press the boot button to get to the menu. In addition, I found a vibration notification feature by pressing the Windows start button. Nice feature. The touchpad works well. There is an option to swap the scroll direction. The touchscreen brightness ranges from barely readable at night to daytime brightness. There is an adaptive brightness function that works with the current brightness setting unlike the auto brightness of smartphones that overrides your brightness setting. The build quality is excellent. The notebook feels solid. The keyboard does not flex during use. Pressing firmly on the back of the screen does not distort the display. The notebook edges are rubber coated. Painted edges tend to get scratched and worn. The AC adapter power cable is thicker than normal. The adapter is quite compact and charges the notebook very fast - less than 3 hours. The battery life is good. Normal web browsing battery life is 6 to 8 hours. Maximum battery life is 13 hours (minimum brightness and doing nothing). Internet pictures of the Yoga 2 13 internals show an empty M.2 Sata SSD 80mm slot that can hold up to a 480GB SSD. Some owners have added a 240GB SSD in addition to their current 500GB hard drive. The internal 500GB drive is a WD drive that is 5mm in height. Do not expect to upgrade the hard drive any time soon. Consumer drives come in 9.5 mm and 7 mm sizes. In one support survey, Lenovo rated second only to Apple in quality rating. Minor nits would include having only 1 USB 3.0 port, an SD card slot that leaves the card sticking out, a short right shift key, a single backlit keyboard brightness level, and no RAM upgrade path.

Hello everyone, Here's the story of how my Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 13 died after 10 months of light use. I bought my Yoga in late Jan 2013. I liked it so much and everyone saw it was impressed by its design and performance. Up to that moment in Nov 2013 when I was out of the country for extended period when the tip of the weird looking DC socket in the yoga (The yellow plastic thing inside) came out with the charger socket as I was unplugging it. The yoga was out of juice already when that happened. I contacted lenovo in the country I was in and they referred me to their service center. I took my yoga there, they said they will fixed and that my computer is still covered by the warranty. They said that the charger and the DC socket both need to be changed and they ordered a new one. Don't ask me why, but it took them over 3 months to get those parts. Anyway, they go them and replaced the parts, but my yoga still won't charge or power on. They diagnosed it as a failure in the motherboard and that it needs a new one. At that point I had to leave back to the US and didn't have time to wait for another 3 months till they get the replacement motherboard. They said that it won't be a problem and that lenovo in the US should be able to take care of it, and they gave me the receipts that show that they got the computer back in Nov and that it was not working and shows the parts that they replaced and that they were covered by the warranty. That was in Feb 2014 (So more than a year since I first bought it). I contacted Lenovo when I cam back to the US and explained the whole story. All I got from them that "We are sorry your computer is out of the warranty and you'll have to pay for the repair". After a back and fourth on the phone they asked me to send a copy of the receipts I have and I did. The didn't accept them, because they said the receipts are not from lenovo, they are from the service center which has a different name. That's the way it usually works, lenovo would have another company or service center that they deal with for those matters, but the supervisor I talked with didn't want to accept it and asked from a proof coming from Lenovo in the country I was in and not the service center. After tons of international calls I still can't get "Lenovo" to send email to Lenovo to tell them the repair should be covered by the warranty. That's just reticulated. The worst customer service I've ever seen in my enter life as a customer of a lot of companies to so many countries. I lost hope in Lenovo and decided to take my computer to best buy where I bought it. They said of course it's out of warranty and that they can fix, but I will have to pay. The initial assessment was that it's the DC inverter board and that it should cost around $133.49 to get fixed. I agreed to that and the store got my computer shipped out to their service center to get a call from them later (as I expected) that it would cost $1004.49 for my computer to get fixed as it needs a new motherboard and they see that it would be more cost effective to buy a new laptop instead. As a last resort I went online and started to see if I can get the motherboard and replace it myself. I found some people selling some used i5 boards, but I wanted to get the same one it was in which was an i7 and I preferred a new one. I contacted lenovo again to see if the part is available. They said that it's not available and even no other compatible motherboards are available and they asked me to call next month (??!!). And that's how I ended up with a useless dead yoga 13. Lesson learned: NEVER LENOVO AGAIN

I was looking for a 13 inch ultrabook under $1,000, and I think Lenovo and Best Buy did it. This one avoids the problems with wifi, touchpad, and touchscreen that other models apparently have, even upscale Lenovos. You trade some weight for price and drive space - this 500GB model weighs 3lbs 10.5 oz, exactly as advertised on BB. But the Yoga 2 feels light, and is a pound less than the 11 incher it replaced for me. And I value the extra storage space over SSD drives. With that, you get - a 1900dps HD display which is bright, pretty, and readable, without the problems of having to set and reset resolution that quad 2500 or 3200 screens have. - An excellent keyboard with great feel and typability. I prefer the Lenovo layout with pgup/pgdn/home/end keys on the right for convenient one stroke navigation. I am still getting used the the small right shift key tho. Backlighting is great; I can turn it on or off and don't have to worry that an autosensor will set it wrong. - The case materials feel great, and just don't show fingerprints. - The wireless works flawlessly, unlike a lot of Intel cards on a lot of computers since Win8 came out. Maybe they've got the drivers right by now. - The touchscreen is usually very receptive to touch, enabling me to select small icons with ease. Occasionally it seems less receptive, and I haven't figured out if that's me or the laptop, or maybe even the network. - I wasn't shopping for a "convertible" since the traditional laptop format is so convenient and comfortable. But I've had a lot of fun using tablet and stand modes for browsing when I don't need to type. I especially like turning the laptop for portrait mode to read longer documents or webpages. The automatic system to adapt the computer mode to its position is great. But I do find that at certain angles trying to read in stand position it flips back and forth with tablet mode. - I'm getting plenty of battery life for watching a video or using it in a coffee shop. - Lenovo should include adapters for connecting the Yoga 2 to a projector or ethernet like other manufacturers do. I bought a microHDMI to regular HDMI plug for just $6 (weighs an ounce) and a USB3.0 to ethernet dongle for $19 (also light). I'll stick these in a suitcase when I travel to be prepared for business presentations and hotel connections. Yoga 2 is a flexible device for taking advantage of the current state of the art win 8.1 OS which is really a hybrid of desktop and mobile systems. I like being able to use the device the way I want to do the things I'm doing. And it's cheaper than most comparable ultrabooks. I'm pleasantly surprised by the Yoga 2 13, and heartily recommend it.

I teach online and I also travel, so I needed a tablet that I could grade my online class with, and that was convenient for travel. I have a Surface RT that I liked that wasn't quite powerful enough for some of my applications, so I bought the Surface Pro in Jan, used it 2 weeks and took it back for various reasons - mainly because it was HEAVY and ran hot. My Best Buy salesman suggested the HP Split that could be a tablet or could be attached to a keyboard and become a laptop. Again, I used it ONE week, but it froze all the time, was heavy, and I just didn't like the way it worked, so I took it back. By this time, I was frustrated - all I wanted was a small form factor tablet that I could add a keyboard to easily if I needed to do more than just hunt and peck to type sometime, and I wanted it to have good performance. My BB salesman (different one this time!) listened to me, and the suggested this Lenova Yoga. At first, I really was turned off at the price, but I realized that if I had specific needs, I may need to pay for them. I haven't been disappointed. In fact, I have found myself using this at home on the couch or in the bed, instead of going to my desktop to work daily. It has four positions you can put it in, and the display is great. Further, it weighs very little and is easy to hold when I need to (I have a torn rotator cuff, and that is important). I like to fold it back and use it as a tablet, but sometimes, I just need to type a long email (or a review, like this) and I like turning it into a laptop. The LARGE screen that I can use when I have it in tablet form is wonderful also, as my eyes are getting bad and it is harder to see little screens. In addition, using the MathPad program that is included, I can work problems by simply writing on the touch screen, and it converts to a jpg that I can send my students (or better yet, that I can use while skyping with them). I also downloaded lots of pictures to it recently, and I sat on my couch and edited all 100 of them that afternoon and resaved them with no lag time or feeling that I was stressing it. I highly recommend you purchase this - bite the bullet and try to ignore the price, because after you get it home, you will find it is the best bargain for the price you have gotten in a while.

I did a lot of research before getting the Yoga 2. First, wanted to try the Mac and in fact I did purchase it......I got the MacBook air 13 hoping for the best laptop as it is very well rated. I tried it for a couple of hours and found many good things, starting with how well apple built its devices. I just don't belong to the apple family, I've always used windows and the transition to mac would cost me a lot of time converting files, money (buying new software exclusively for mac # and effort... so I decided to stick with Windows. I spent more than a month reading and researching #and wen to best buy many times# about the windows laptops I wanted within a reasonable budget. All I need it was to find a laptop that would satisfy my needs. Finally, I decided to go for a great bran Lenovo, and since I was always interested in a hybrid I picked the Yoga 2. This laptop has a much much better screen than a MacBook a..a.videos, Ms office, pictures and anything you browse in internet looks crisp and beautiful. 4GB RAM is enough for a regular user #excluding gamers#, the hard drive is hybrid and it takes 20 seconds to get Windows up and running. An i5 is enough power for me and the 500Gb in hybrid hard drive is big enough not be concerned about running out of memory #as it happens with laptops with SSD drives). I can multitask without any problem and I love to work on this laptop all time. The lens of the camera is not that good as the video looks granny, but for me is not important as I don't use it often. Only 2 USB ports, would've been nice to have at least 3....but again, is not a big deal as if I can always attach a USB hub. Battery life is good, get about 6 hours working on Ms Office and listening to music. Apps on windows work well and I love the fact I can use it as tablet by flipping the display. I also installed an app called Bluestacks tat lets you play android apps on windows if you want more extensive library of games and apps. I got an excellent student discount of $150 so I pay $700 plus taxes..... it was just a not brainer for me !!! I have own this laptop for a couple of weeks and hope to continue enjoying it for long time...

The touch screen that can be used as a laptop or tablet is great for both personal and business use. The device boots quickly and is fast and easy to use. The only issue that has been a negative is that one of the USB ports did not work; however, I didn't know that the port was not working within the 15 day window that I had to return the device and instead brought it to Best Buy 34 days after my purchase and was told that even though my laptop and various other accessory purchases made me an Elite member, that since I was not an Elite member prior to the purchase I only had 15 days to return the device. Therefore, even though the USB port NEVER worked,the laptop had to be sent off for repair after it being barely only a month old! Since the device is used for business purposes it was quite inconvenient and bad service in my opinion that Best Buy didn't work harder to try and exchange the device since the device was only about a month old and past purchases had made me an Elite member in the past few years too. Also, it should be noted that a call was made to the Geek Squad just a couple weeks after the device was purchased about the inability to use an external DVD drive that was purchased with the laptop and connected via USB and was told to try connecting the USB to a different port, which worked. When that worked it seems like they would have suggested that the device be brought in to make sure the USB Port was working properly for other purposes, rather than making it seem like that port just didn't work for the DVD drive!

I've had the Yoga 2 Pro and Surface Pro 3.. They both cost nearly double the cost of the Lenovo Yoga 2 13.. This is probably the best bang for the buck if you're looking for an Ultrabook that can act like a tablet. Although I will say it's not the best to seriously use as a tablet but it's nice to fold it up and prop it up on yourself on the couch or set it up in tent mode on an Airplane tray. The screen is better than the higher resolution screen on the Yoga2Pro and it's also better than the Surface Pro 3.. The colors are more accurate than both of those machines as well. Things to consider: The i5 and i7 difference in performance is very negligible, in fact you would probably never notice it. The Surface Pro 3 has problems with thermal control, it gets hot and then will actually run slower than it's designed. (This is why I returned it). The Yoga 2 Pro has it's share of issues when in tablet/tent/stand mode whereas the Yoga 2 13 does NOT. The battery life of the Yoga 2 13 is just as good as any other Windows Ultrabook on the market. You can add a M2 sized SSD to the Yoga 2 13, there's an available open slot beneath the bottom cover. The 500gb drive is a hybrid SSD, and while it's not too slow, a full real SSD inside this unit makes it unbelievably fast, perhaps faster than what's included in the Yoga 2 Pro.