What are your thoughts on the Lenovo Yoga 2 models?

[Bateluer]

I've been looking to upgrade my my Acer V5 122P to something with a little more oomph under the hood. Its AMD A6 1450 is . . . a dog. I had to do some homework on it this weekend, and it was almost frustrating trying to use Eclipse on it.

The Yoga 2 models all seem to have their RAM soldered to the board though, so most are limited to 4GBs unless you spring for the much pricier 8GB models. But, the hard drives do seem to be accessible under the torx screws. Not 100% sure what size, but they are 2.5in form factors.

Anyone have direct hands on experience with the Pentium N3520? The CPU Boss charts don't make it seem like there's a bump from the A6 in performance, thought it is a quad core.

Edit
Went hands on with the Yoga 2 11in this morning. Not overly impressed with the N3520 CPU, in web based benches, it performs similarly to the A6 I already have that I need a bump from. Looking at the Yoga 11S now, Haswell i5 4210Y with upgradeable RAM and an SSD out the gate.

 

[corkyg]

Hate to see your valid query unresponded to. Personally, I would never look at an Ideapad. Performance wise, they are below Thinkpads in the food chain.

I see your first hand trial agrees with this review.

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-yoga-2-13.aspx

ANyway, it's good for a bump.

 

[Bateluer]

Hate to see your valid query unresponded to. Personally, I would never look at an Ideapad. Performance wise, they are below Thinkpads in the food chain.

I see your first hand trial agrees with this review.

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-yoga-2-13.aspx

ANyway, it's good for a bump.

But the Thinkpads cost more.

Regardless, I did buy the 11S this morning. It'll take me an hour or so tonight to de-stupefy Windows 8 though; Lenovo's crap takes up about 80GBs of the 128GB SSD. Almost as bad as my Acer, though some Lenovo's programs aren't complete shit.

That said, I actually like the design of the Yoga 2 models better than the Y1s. Their solid, sturdy, matte, and generally just feel like a well built machine. And while I understand why they soldered the RAM in, only offering 4GBs on the 11.6in models is idiotic. And I really feel like an SSD should be standard on a laptop that costs 800 dollars, not a hybrid drive and certainly note a 5400rpm mechanical drive. The model 11S that I bought has 4GBs of RAM and an SSD. I chose the 11S because upgrading it to an 8GB DIMM costs 75 dollars for a fast stick; purchasing a decently sized SSD costs substantially more. Its also powered by an i5 4210Y, dual core hyperthreaded. Should provide a fairly substantial bump over the AMD A6 1450 and twice the battery life.

I'll post some more detailed performance numbers and thoughts after I'm finished doing a clean install and have more time with it.

 

[Rdmkr]

The 13 inch models weren't much less expensive than the Yoga 2 Pro's when I last saw their price. Looked like you were better off going for the most bare boned Y2P model if you wanted a budget version. I wouldn't say no to a QHD screen and SSD if you could get them for such a modest relative price.

I saw a general performance comparison recently where the Y2 seriously underperformed the Y2P. The SSD probably makes a big difference.

As a Y2P user I do recommend the form factor. You can't go wrong with any of these.