For a Christmas gift, I was looking to purchase for someone getting into more gaming (I'd call it "moderate and not benchmarked obsessed" 
), who wanted something that would also support a pen for drawing/design/graphics - funny enough, though I'm generally a big advocate of Macs (she currently uses a a Quad 2.3GHz Mini), I realized my GPU options were limited to either a really expensive 15" MBP, but of course, no tablet/touch - the idea of both of something like a refurb 13" MBP (that's GPU limited) plus an iPad Pro would be nice for more people to use them at the same time, but less of a unified experience. It will likely wind up being a shared machine for someone else as well.
So I considered a SB2 up till about 2-3 weeks ago, and was also juggling the idea of a lightly used SB1. The SB2 of course can be had with a 1060, that pushes $2K for a 13", the 15" another $500+, the SB1 prices seemed to have gone up the used market (for the Performance Base), that's still only a 9xxM.
Anyway, found my way to Lenovo, wound up scoring her a Yoga 15.6" at a great discount (direct), it's a nice machine, really solid build, it's a 2.8GHz i7 quad (7700HQ) with a GTX-1050, plenty of power for the intended use (and significantly more GPU than the Apple options), tablet mode is fantastic, nice integration across modes, awesome pen functionality (got the Lenovo Active Pen, but it's supposedly compatible with any AES stylus).
Got it with 8GB OOTB, but it's user upgradable to 16GB (actually "unofficially" 24GB). It's also the HD (1920x1080) display vs. the 4K - the latter has some hits on power/performance, though it's supposed to be beautiful - plus, there's been an ongoing issue with the panels, so I figured with the super positive reviews of the HD model, it made more sense. It is really beautiful, bright, sharp.
Keyboard is excellent, backlit, good feel/travel - trackpad is pretty decent, that's always hard to beat (vs. Apple products). Has a fingerprint scanner that once setup seems to work consistently. Great, loud, clear speaker setup.
This is one of the designs where the machine folds back onto itself, so it makes a pretty chunky tablet, but it can run in "tent" mode (going to setup it up multi display with an external KB).
For $999 (before tax, pen, but free delivery), I think it's a winner.
), who wanted something that would also support a pen for drawing/design/graphics - funny enough, though I'm generally a big advocate of Macs (she currently uses a a Quad 2.3GHz Mini), I realized my GPU options were limited to either a really expensive 15" MBP, but of course, no tablet/touch - the idea of both of something like a refurb 13" MBP (that's GPU limited) plus an iPad Pro would be nice for more people to use them at the same time, but less of a unified experience. It will likely wind up being a shared machine for someone else as well. So I considered a SB2 up till about 2-3 weeks ago, and was also juggling the idea of a lightly used SB1. The SB2 of course can be had with a 1060, that pushes $2K for a 13", the 15" another $500+, the SB1 prices seemed to have gone up the used market (for the Performance Base), that's still only a 9xxM.
Anyway, found my way to Lenovo, wound up scoring her a Yoga 15.6" at a great discount (direct), it's a nice machine, really solid build, it's a 2.8GHz i7 quad (7700HQ) with a GTX-1050, plenty of power for the intended use (and significantly more GPU than the Apple options), tablet mode is fantastic, nice integration across modes, awesome pen functionality (got the Lenovo Active Pen, but it's supposedly compatible with any AES stylus).
Got it with 8GB OOTB, but it's user upgradable to 16GB (actually "unofficially" 24GB). It's also the HD (1920x1080) display vs. the 4K - the latter has some hits on power/performance, though it's supposed to be beautiful - plus, there's been an ongoing issue with the panels, so I figured with the super positive reviews of the HD model, it made more sense. It is really beautiful, bright, sharp.
Keyboard is excellent, backlit, good feel/travel - trackpad is pretty decent, that's always hard to beat (vs. Apple products). Has a fingerprint scanner that once setup seems to work consistently. Great, loud, clear speaker setup.
This is one of the designs where the machine folds back onto itself, so it makes a pretty chunky tablet, but it can run in "tent" mode (going to setup it up multi display with an external KB).
For $999 (before tax, pen, but free delivery), I think it's a winner.
