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Apple 13 rMBP vs. Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro

The yoga hardware is great, but the software is a pain in the but. I find windows 8 incredibly annoying to use.
 
Yoga is a great machine, but FYI it's a lot more expensive direct from Lenovo. You can get the i7/8gb/256SSD for $1199 from Best Buy.

I've got an original Yoga and like it enough I'm buying a Yoga 2. They've fixed all the annoying things, like now it has a backlit keyboard and it's got a non-skid edge that doesn't slide around so much in tent mode.

Memory isn't upgradeable like it is on the original, so buy it with 8gb if you need it because that avenue (buy 4gb and upgrade) is no longer an upgrade. I have twin 256 SSD's in mine which the new one won't do either.

Windows 8.1 works well on it despite the whiners :D
 
Thanks for the responses. I'm excited to try one out tomorrow.
 
thomj said:
Thanks for the responses. I'm excited to try one out tomorrow.
Click to expand...

I played with the display in BB for a while trying to talk myself out of ordering it, and frankly the only issue I could find with it is that when you go to the Windows desktop vs the "Metro" start screen given the 3200x1800 screen a standard Windows dialog can be ultra small. Workable with a mouse, but with a finger ain't gonna happen. Screen on the floor models (they had 3) were lovely, some reviews have complained of an orange tint but my eyes didn't see it.

The i7/8gb/256 in my area is ship to store but I live in East BFE, they only stock the i5/4gb/128 flavor. and no Clementine Orange (my preference, but not even from Lenovo in the i7!)
 
Ccrew said:
I played with the display in BB for a while trying to talk myself out of ordering it, and frankly the only issue I could find with it is that when you go to the Windows desktop vs the "Metro" start screen given the 3200x1800 screen a standard Windows dialog can be ultra small. Workable with a mouse, but with a finger ain't gonna happen. Screen on the floor models (they had 3) were lovely, some reviews have complained of an orange tint but my eyes didn't see it.

The i7/8gb/256 in my area is ship to store but I live in East BFE, they only stock the i5/4gb/128 flavor. and no Clementine Orange (my preference, but not even from Lenovo in the i7!)
Click to expand...
Thanks, Ccrew.
 
Used both. I am no mac fanboy, but the yoga 2 pro does not even compare to the macbook retina, IMO. Yoga 2 pro feels cheap in comparison through and through. Keyboard & trackpad are TERRIBLE compared to rMBP. Hinge feels cheap and easily wobbles. Yoga 2 pro gets about 5.5-6 hours of battery life on light usage, the 13'' macbook retina gets about 10 hours on light usage. Yea, the yoga has "tablet" mode... but I found myself never using it, it was just too big and impractical, for me at least. The only thing that the yoga compares to the retina in is the displays, however, I still think that the retina has better calibration (out of the box) than the yoga 2 pro.

The Yoga 2 Pro is an okay machine, but just cannot compare to the macbook retina - and scores lower in every category (other than possibly the displays) that I can think of, when matched up to the newest 13'' retina.
 
aiyaaabatt said:
Used both. I am no mac fanboy, but the yoga 2 pro does not even compare to the macbook retina, IMO. Yoga 2 pro feels cheap in comparison through and through. Keyboard & trackpad are TERRIBLE compared to rMBP. Hinge feels cheap and easily wobbles. Yoga 2 pro gets about 5.5-6 hours of battery life on light usage, the 13'' macbook retina gets about 10 hours on light usage. Yea, the yoga has "tablet" mode... but I found myself never using it, it was just too big and impractical, for me at least. The only thing that the yoga compares to the retina in is the displays, however, I still think that the retina has better calibration (out of the box) than the yoga 2 pro.

The Yoga 2 Pro is an okay machine, but just cannot compare to the macbook retina - and scores lower in every category (other than possibly the displays) that I can think of, when matched up to the newest 13'' retina.
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Thanks, aiya.
 
Personally if I would get such a very mobile little notebook the tablet mode would be worth a lot. Flipping it into a tablet should make it so much more enjoyable to read pdfs or watch stuff in tight spaces like an airplane or comfortable spaces like reading chairs in libraries. A 13" rMBP is just a notebook. A good one but just that.
Tablet mode just adds a very portable use case to the Yoga.
I think among all the hybrids the Yoga is the best solution.
 
don't know if you would miss apple, I would!

The specs are good, but just not as good as the macbooks (cpu, gpu, 802.11 n, battery life). But what you will really miss are the OS, the build quality and the touchpad (yes, a touchscreen is good, but trust me you will end up using the touchpad more!)

And you will really start feeling the difference after a few year...
 
I don't see why you would even compare these two. The Retina is in an entirely different league.
 
The Yoga 2 uses an inferior pentile arrangement for the LCD.

Despite claims it was used for added brightness, pentile is generally used to lower the subpixel count and hence cost.

I have not done the math but I'd bet Apples sub-pixel count tops the Yoga 2 even with the Yogas claimed higher resolution .
 
OSMac said:
The Yoga 2 uses an inferior pentile arrangement for the LCD.

Despite claims it was used for added brightness, pentile is generally used to lower the subpixel count and hence cost.

I have not done the math but I'd bet Apples sub-pixel count tops the Yoga 2 even with the Yogas claimed higher resolution .
Click to expand...

For all those who don't know what this is about. The Yoga 2 uses an Samsung screen with RGBW (red, green, blue, white), while the Macbook uses the traditional RGB Subpixel layout.
They do this do get a high density display which is also bright but doesn't use a lot of power, but it has a few drawbacks:
1. it has 1/3 less subpixel than a same resolution "normal" RGB display (the retina and the yoga 2 have about the same amount of subpixel despite the yogas higher resolution)
2. Due to that, a pentile Display looks not as sharp as a display with the same resolution and an RGB array

and example of RGB vs RGBW displays is the iPad Air/4 vs the Samsung Note 10.1 2014.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7378/samsung-galaxy-note-101-2014-edition-review/3
 
Added brightness equals higher efficiency. The notebook doesn't have the huge battery the retina 13" has. Without that more efficient panel it simply couldn't pull off its battery life with that kind of resolution.
It isn't because of cost, it is because of battery life and weight. At that kind of resolution it is not really going to be an issue for clarity.
 
dusk007 said:
Added brightness equals higher efficiency. The notebook doesn't have the huge battery the retina 13" has. Without that more efficient panel it simply couldn't pull off its battery life with that kind of resolution.
It isn't because of cost, it is because of battery life and weight. At that kind of resolution it is not really going to be an issue for clarity.
Click to expand...

yes and no. High efficiency is important, and as you said that it, due to the smaller battery, a necessity. It seems that 3200x1800 displays with RGBW array will become more common, but in general: why choose such a display over an lower dpi "normal" RGB display?!
It's not really sharper (due to lower subpixels compared to an RGB display) and it has other problems such as color reproduction/color luminance (a problem of the yoga 2 is that yellows appear greenish).

:confused:I think it all comes down to the numbers. Higher numbers are better and no one cares that displays (same goes for Mhz, Cores, and a lot of other stuff) with lower numbers can produce the same/better results.:confused:
(and look at some reviews, all that counts is resolution. No one looks at gamut, black/white level, contrast - all that counts is resolution....)


EDIT: Here a picture (taken by an admin from the lenovo site). It's yellow if that is not clear ;)
original
 
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I would never even begin to consider something that wasn't a Mac. It all depends on what your needs are.
 
Well, I'm back from Best Buy, and I got to play around with the Yoga 2 Pro.

It would be impossible for me to trade my Apple for the Yoga, the track pad of which did not track well, and the keyboard of which was just a little underwhelming.

If the track pad tracked better, Windows 8 wouldn't seem so hard to swallow, and I might have bought it.
 
^The Y2P's yellow issue was apparently fixed with a BIOS update.

I'd personally go for the rMBP just for the battery life. Unless if you'd specifically like to use the Y2P's tablet mode, I wouldn't go for it.
 
thomj said:
It would be impossible for me to trade my Apple for the Yoga, the track pad of which did not track well, and the keyboard of which was just a little underwhelming.
Click to expand...

It's those little things like trackpad and keyboard (with backlit) that make the difference. Tech reviewers like anandtech are saying that for years now and the PC industry is slowly starting to improve, but they are not on the same level as apple yet (I'm not going to talk about Win 8, which works fine for tablets, but is a horror if you use it with a cursor)
 
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