Yoga

My pictured skills may be slightly exaggerated. My girlfriend's boobs are not.

I recently said good-bye to my long time laptop, the Acer Extensa 5600. I got it nearly 6 years ago, and boy did it go the distance. I was good in its day, but its day was quite a short one thanks to a spike in portable computing technology. But I stood by it anyway, and it lasted perfectly fine for at least the first 4 years, at which point I probably should have replaced it.

The battery became more or less useless, only surviving for as long as it took to move position and find a new power socket. It started getting really slow and having to think too much. And one of the screen hinges broke, so I couldn't close the lid anymore making it even less portable. It was reduced to essentially a low-powered flat-bed "desktop". But it was still running, and with uni out of the way now, I was only using it for Internet and emails mostly anyway. Oh, and editing my videos for WETS! This soon became too much and it could only handle one program open at a time. Want to check your emails? Better close Chrome. Want to edit some footage? Better close your emails. And then suddenly it couldn't even do that.

Expecting that this would happen soon, I'd been researching laptops over the last few months to see what was available. I wanted SSD, which whilst they generally have smaller capacity, they are faster and more reliable, plus with external storage being so cheap and accessible these days internal storage isn't really an issue. HD screen was a must; touch screen indifferent. Whilst not at all necessary I wanted an i7 processor over an i5, simply because why wouldn't you. I also wanted at least 8Gb of ram, for the same reason really, but especially if I did get and i7 4Gb wouldn't suffice.

I was just about to settle on a very nice Asus Ultrabook, when I stumbled upon the Lenovo site. I hadn't disregarded Lenovo - they're very sturdy and capable - I'd just sort of forgotten about them. Enter the Yoga 2 Pro. It came with all the specs I wanted in a neat package; super fast, super light, super HD, and most important in a laptop, super portable. Oh, and available in an online only limited edition orange colour. 

If I had one complaint, it's that the screen is TOO good. It's Quad HD+, with 3200x1800 resolution. For general use it's amazing, however not all programs are able to run in such a high resolution, and as they shrink to fit the screen, things get a little warped. Some images are pixelated, as they were designed for a lower resolution, but the same on-screen area now has twice as many pixels and it doesn't have enough information to display the image properly.

So essentially, most programs are zoomed out (though very crisp), and most images (mainly icons, favicons etc) are zoomed in. But it's nothing I can't live with, and the pros of the screen make up for it. Everything else is amazing. The speakers aren't the best compared to some bigger laptops (the Asus I was looking at came with some very nice Bang & Olufsen speakers), but for a small laptop they're probably at the better end - certainly better than my last laptop anyway.

If you're wondering where the Yoga gets its name from, and didn't figure it out from the above comic, it's because of the versatility in its positions making it very good in bed. It of course has standard laptop mode (1st frame) with screen and keyboard. You can also fold the screen all the way back (deactivating the keys and touch pad) turning it into a tablet (2nd frame).

The other two positions are more or less like comparing missionary to cowgirl - pretty much the same just upside down."Stand Mode" uses the keyboard (face-down) as a baseplate (3rd frame), while "Tent Mode" uses the edges of the base and screen for support (5th frame). Both pretty much useful for when you want to use it as a tablet, but don't want to hold it and need it propped up. So with a full 360 degree hinge, you can put it at literally any angle for any purpose, hence why it's good in bed. 

One very awesome little bonus, is that during the sale, I could get this mouse, for only $1. I didn't need a new mouse, as I already had wireless one for my old laptop. But ONE DOLLAR, and it's super awesome. The movement is very smooth and precise. In place of a scroll wheel, it has a scroll 'surface', which works the same as a wheel when you move your finger up and down over it, and also has scroll wheel "click" functionality. However it also takes gestures from the left and right, which correspond to the left and right screen function in Windows 8 (apps and charms), and has a convenient "Start" button.

But that's not all. Twist the base, and it goes from nicely contoured for mousing, to sleek and flat for presentation mode. The left and right buttons can be used to navigate a presentation, whilst clicking the scroll surface activates a laser pointer. LASERS! *PEW* *PEW* *PEW*. You can use it with a wireless dongle, or pair it with Bluetooth. It's a very neat accessory, and even at full price ($70) I'd certainly recommend getting one.

The verdict: the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is an exceptional little laptop, and fairly affordable too. If you want to go the extra mile, I'd even recommend the Yoga 3 (or Pro) as it can only get better. 

Chris