Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro - 59394185 Pro Reviews

Before we get down and dirty with our final judgment, let’s first think about the kinds of tablets we can pick up for $500. At that cost, we can select popular models such as the iPad Air 2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5, which are undoubtedly rich with stellar specs and top-notch performances. Rather than trying to out-do its rivals in the specs department, the Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 Pro aims to entice us with its different approach of being a larger, more generously sized tablet that blends fun and play into one neat package – especially when it features a rarely seen built-in pico projector. If you’ve been waiting for a tablet with a larger-than-normal display, you’ll certainly find the Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 Pro’s $500 priced package to be enticing.

If you're in the market for a home entertainment machine that acts independent of an HDTV, this is the one you want. If you live in a small apartment or a dorm, for example, just skip the TV and run with this 13.3-inch beast. At $499 it's not the cheapest tablet on the block, but once you blast your ears off with these speakers while you're projecting a 50-inch movie on to your bedroom wall, you'll know where the money went.

Overall, the Lenovo Yoga 2 13 should be called the Yoga 1.5. While it’s certainly better than its predecessor, the new model feels like an incremental update. That wouldn’t be a problem if the Yoga was frequently updated, but we’ve been waiting well over a year for a new entry-level model, and what a year it has been. Everyone but Apple has a convertible on the market, and some competitors, like the Dell XPS 12 and HP Spectre 13t, are remarkably competent. Comparing the Yoga 2 13 to these alternatives results in a mix of pros and cons. The new Lenovo is powerful, and has a great display, but it’s hampered by a slow hard drive and an unpleasant keyboard. The biggest problem is the Yoga’s core concept; a 360 degree display hinge. This design leaves the keyboard exposed during tablet use, and makes the device thicker and heavier than it needs to be. In 2012, the hinge was fresh, unique and innovative. Today? It just feels dated.

A superbly crafted 11.6in hybrid with a gorgeous display and a well-judged specification – for a very reasonable price

In some respects the Yoga 2 is a real bargain, as it provides good screen quality, battery life and lightweight design at a very competitive price. Performance is below-par, although it will still handle routine web browsing, streaming video and wordprocessing perfectly well. And, with its lightweight, convertible design, it's a far more attractive device than the big, heavy 15-inch laptops that most manufacturers offer as their low-cost option.

Windows 8’s poor resolution scaling and lower than expected battery life spoil an otherwise excellent laptop

For the enterprise customer, the Yoga 2 Pro might be a great fit. Impromptu presentations become easier as the device flips into Tent orientation. Stand mode makes it easier to use while on a plane or train (or on the couch), and you’ll still enjoy all that Windows has to offer in any position you can bend it into. For the consumer, it’s an interesting niche device, but one that makes a few too many compromises for our liking. We found a lot of cool use-case scenarios where the varying form factors the Yoga 2 Pro offers came in handy, but not enough. Day-to-day, most of us will use a device like this in Laptop mode, and the rubberized feel around the keyboard is distracting. So are some of the oddly shaped keys, and painfully small trackpad. Overall, it’s a strong device that sits on the fence about what it wants to be, and that’s unfortunate. The Yoga 2 Pro is a very nice laptop, but the design choices make it frustrating to use in that regard. It’s a bulky tablet with a dense screen resolution, but doesn’t scale properly and has odd color reproduction. The touchscreen is snappy, but we’re not sold on Windows as a mobile platform just yet. Overall, it’s a good device, but not one that’s going to win top honors in any category. It makes a strong showing, but just doesn’t astonish.

The Yoga 2 Pro is an ambitious device, sporting one of the most stunningly high-resolution notebook screens we’ve seen to date and topping the efforts of its predecessor while still maintaining the unique acrobatic convertible design. Not only does it feature great build quality and incredibly fast general system performance, it’s also outfitted with a very good keyboard and touchpad and an excellent 10-point multi-touch screen. Finally, it does a great job of managing temperatures while still remaining fairly quiet even under load. It’s certainly a step forward from last year’s Yoga 13, but in spite of its triumphs, there are still some areas that could use improvement. For starters, as stunning as it is, the screen’s pentile pixel arrangement and RGBW properties produce some unintended side effects (namely, jagged sharp edges and color saturation and hue idiosyncrasies) that will bother some users. Not all aspects of Windows or its applications are designed to handle such a resolution, either, and that results in some frequently bizarre scaling misfortunes, manifesting in the form of blocky text and under/oversized GUI elements. The Yoga 2 Pro also could do much better in the area of battery life—where it struggles to compete with today’s best Ultrabooks—and it can’t handle heavy GPU stress without reducing its clock rate. Finally, nitpicks concerning wireless connectivity problems and a slight screen wobble while typing or tapping are worth weighing as well. Other options worth considering include the HP Spectre 13-h205eg x2, the Dell XPS 12-9Q33, the HP EliteBook Revolve 810, and the Sony Vaio Duo 13 SVD1321M2E, all of which are very strong machines. All in all, however, the Yoga 2 Pro is itself a convincing addition to the convertible market—and one which certainly deserves attention from anyone looking to buy, even in spite of its drawbacks.

The Yoga 2 Pro combination laptop/tablet is a superior experience in either role, and its ultra-high-resolution display is awesome. But the dual design slightly compromises the typing experience.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro hybrid ultrabook addresses some of the shortcomings of the previous iteration. But it is still a bit too heavy to replace both a clamshell notebook and a slate tablet.

When it comes right down to it, the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro has a lot to offer for someone looking for a high-end ultrabook. The price is a bit up there, between $929 and $1599 depending on the model, but our review unit at $1299 (or even the next model down at $1149) would be good enough for most users. As we mentioned earlier, the key features include the impressive 13.3” 3200x1800 resolution display, which makes using the device a pure joy, as well as the selection of fast Intel processors and SSD drive that give it plenty of speed. Add to that the Windows 8.1 platform, and the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is a real winner in the ultrabook category. If you are looking for a tablet/hybrid though, it is a different story. Even though the keyboard is not removable, the device can still be used in 4 modes, which does add to its flexibility. However, when compared to other tablets, it is pretty bulky and heavy.

Lenovo gives its Yoga range a suite of upgrades, delivering a Haswell CPU, a big SSD and a glorious high-DPI screen for £1,000

After staring lovingly at the Yoga 2 Pro’s screen for a bit longer than we’d care to admit, and appreciating its other improvements, like its lighter weight, slightly slimmer shell, and backlit keyboard, a part of us wants to heap praise on Lenovo for improving on what was already a good convertible, and taking a risk by dropping in possibly the best screen we’ve ever seen on a laptop. But our practical side, the one that would never let us opt for a shiny, gas-guzzling sports car over a hybrid, thinks Lenovo made a mistake with the Yoga 2 Pro. Sure, the screen is stunning, and the plethora of pixels certainly makes more sense here than, say, in the Chromebook Pixel. But if Lenovo expects the Yoga 2 Pro to have the same mainstream appeal (and success) as the original Yoga 13, they probably should have opted instead for a nice 1080p screen (like the one in Dell’s Inspiron 14 7000 Series). Doing so, they could have cut a fair bit of the price, deliver the kind of long battery life we’ve come to expect from Haswell-based Ultrabooks, while keeping the laptop light at around three pounds.

Interestingly, the Yoga line is undergoing a split of sorts, with some features being added to the consumer IdeaPad version, and completely different features showing up in the new business-oriented ThinkPad Yoga. In this case, the IdeaPad Yoga 2 gets the ultra-high-res screen, but the ThinkPad Yoga gets a clever new keyboard mechanism, which hides the keyboard when the system is folded flat in tablet mode. The presence of the keyboard and touch pad under your fingers, even though they are deactivated, when holding the Yoga 2 as a tablet remains a design oddity, and the one thing many people disliked about the original Yoga. Perhaps if we all ask very nicely, we can get a future Yoga that combines the 3,200x1,800-pixel display and sleek design of the Yoga 2, with the brilliant hidden keyboard of the ThinkPad Yoga. But if you think of the Yoga 2 as primarily a laptop that can be called on to flip and fold into new shapes to serve specific purposes, it's one of the best all-around ultrabook-style systems available, and one that adds new high-end features at a price that makes it almost irresistible.