
Lenovo’s new Yoga 2 Pro has the same flexible hinge, 3200×1800 display - BerislavLopac
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/09/lenovos-new-yoga-2-pro-has-the-same-flexible-hinge-3200x1800-display/
======
drcode
A warning for anyone considering this laptop: I bought a similar laptop, the
Sony Duo 13, last week.

If you're doing heavy work on a machine as a developer you'll often need to do
complex "mousing", such as working in a UI building tool, art program, or
working with dialogs in Visual Studio.

For these cases, I find I'm frustrated because I want the speed/simplicity of
the touch interface (instead of using the touchpad) but my finger just isn't
precise enough.

These situations constantly make me reach for my stylus, which surprised me:
Turns out, precision styluses are very useful, even when you're not doing
strictly "artsy" things.

However, this Yoga 2 Pro touch display does NOT appear to have precision
stylus support. The Sony Duo 13, on the other hand, ships with an excellent
wacom-style stylus.

BOTTOM LINE: I think you'll regret buying a touchscreen laptop without
advanced stylus support, if you use computers professionally.

EDIT: Others have pointed out the now "Yoga" also released today (not the
"Yoga 2 Pro" with the high res screen) has stylus support.

~~~
Metrop0218
Stylus support is a good point, but you could also just use a good mouse to
perform complex 'mousing'.

~~~
drcode
Yeah, folks will have to try what works best for them- Just wanted to let
people know that there is something potentially useful they might miss out on.

~~~
reirob
The Tinkpad Yoga has a stylus [1]. It can have the resolution "only" up to
1920×1080 though. The other positive thing is that you have an additional
precise pointing device: the trackpoint (I admit it takes more time to get
productive with it than to a stylus, mouse or touchpad - but for ten-finger
typists it pays really off)

1:
[http://m.heise.de/newsticker/bilderstrecke/bilderstrecke_195...](http://m.heise.de/newsticker/bilderstrecke/bilderstrecke_1950865.html?back=1950853;bild=3)

~~~
drcode
The Thinkpad Yoga and "Yoga 2" are two different machines, both released
today. Near as I can tell the stylus support exists ONLY for the regular Yoga,
not the "Yoga 2" linked by OP. (but since information is still limited I could
be wrong.)

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reirob
How comes that the non-Thinkpad Yoga has a higher resolution than the Thinkpad
Yoga? I thought that Thinkpad is the brand that is targeted to the
PROfessionals!?

I agree about the battery with you. However not so much about extra cost. The
computer is my main tool, I am using it the whole day - I stare at it the
whole day, I type on it the whole day. For me the keyboard, the trackpoint,
the ergonomy, the screen quality are more important than the price.

Disclaimer:

* Being a freelancer, unfortunately the money for my equipment is at my expenses

* I am a Thinkpad user (X220T currently).

* I do not use mouse and touchpad. I have to admit that over years my dependency on a good trackpoint grew to a state where I feel uncomfortable on computers without them. When at customers I have to spend days on their machines (because of security prohibiting to use my laptop in the customer's network) I bring in an external Thinkpad keyboard with a trackpoint, even though the most time I spend on the console.

* I would love to see good alternatives to Thinkpads and I would be ready to pay even a higher price.

* I added this disclaimer as an edit to the original post

~~~
aroch
Well, "PROfessionals" that use the thinkpad lines (think business people) have
no need for the extra costs and battery hit associated with a higher PPI
screen

~~~
reirob
I agree about the battery with you. However not so much about extra cost. The
computer is my main tool, I am using it the whole day - I stare at it the
whole day, I type on it the whole day. For me the keyboard, the trackpoint,
the ergonomy, the screen quality are more important than the price.

~~~
aroch
You're not the one buying the laptop though, your company is. The bottom line
is they don't feel the need to buy a more expensive laptop for you whose only
reason for being more expensive is the screen is nicer. Typing a Word doc or
making a powerpoint doesn't require a high PPI screen. High PPI is pretty much
dead last in the sprint for "things that matter when corporate buys a laptop
for you"

~~~
Joeri
Yes it does. Eye fatigue takes much longer to set in one a high dpi display.
The productivity benefits of giving a high dpi display are probable more
meaningful than those of giving an i7 instead of an i3 (for word users).

------
clyfe
They also ruined the keyboard in the process, no more home/end/pgup/pgdown
row. I love those keys.

~~~
wffurr
Learn your emacs shortcuts - ctrl-A, ctrl-E, ctrl-U, ctrl-D.

~~~
vkou
Not every application is emacs.

~~~
dman
Eventually there is an emacs port of every application.

~~~
sliverstorm
Even of emacs?

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jack-r-abbit
Sounds interesting. I could see using something like this. I'm guessing that
once you've flipped the screen back that far to make it a "tablet" then the
exposed keyboard on the backside gets disabled so that your knee doesn't start
typing for you?

~~~
reirob
The Thinkpad Yoga has actually a mechanical solution by raising keyboard plate
to the level of the keyboard buttons [1]. The Yoga Pro, while not having a
mechanical solution will disable the keyboard electronically, so even if a key
is pressed nothing will happen.

[1]:
[http://m.heise.de/newsticker/bilderstrecke/bilderstrecke_195...](http://m.heise.de/newsticker/bilderstrecke/bilderstrecke_1950865.html?back=1950853;bild=5)

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bluedino
6 hours of battery life in a Haswell laptop? That's probably why Apple is
keeping the Retina screen out of the MacBook Air.

I really liked the old Yoga but 14" is too big to use like a tablet and 6
hours is not enough battery life.

~~~
rsync
Perhaps ... but the resolution on the macbook air models is getting more and
more conspicuously behind the times.

We were disappointed when there was no macbook air with retina _two_ years
ago, when the first retina screens were released. Now it's 2.5 years after
that 2012 WWDC and ... same old same old ...

------
cpursley
This would make a pretty nice Ubuntu machine (next version of the OS). Imagine
in laptop mode, you get desktop Ubuntu and flip for tablet mode for Ubuntu
Touch. The orange version even matches Ubuntu's theme. Hum..

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primelens
Anyone used one of these touch screen laptops for Linux? How useful is the
touch display with say the latest Ubuntu distribution?

~~~
drcode
Driver support for my Sony Duo 13 (a very similar machine to OP) is awful.
Ditto for the Ubuntu touchscreen experience.

I've given up running Ubuntu natively and just run it in virtualbox, instead.
Unfortunately I think it'll be a couple of years before Ubuntu has caught up
with the current transition to touch interfaces.

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mscrivo
Was very much looking forward to this. But I'm curious, how did they manage to
squeeze in 4x the pixels for essentially the same price in just under a year?
I feel like this might be a mistake or there is going to be a big trade-off
somewhere else in display quality.

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DiabloD3
From the article it says it has 2.4ghz-only Wifi. That kills it for me, and
for a lot of people too.

~~~
powertower
Why?

~~~
ohazi
One example... I have a Motorola SBG6580 that I use as both my cable modem and
wireless router [0]. Although it claims to support dual band 802.11n, it
really only supports one or the other, not both simultaneously. This means
that if I have _any_ wireless device in the house that doesn't support
802.11n, and specifically the 5 GHz band, then I'm forced to tell my router to
fall back to 2.4 GHz unless I want to buy additional hardware.

[0]
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=25-122-014](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=25-122-014)

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devx
That concept looks good in photos and videos, but who's ever going to turn
their laptop upside down whenever they feel like using the "tablet mode" \- so
a few times every day? I might do it in the first few days, but I think I'd
get tired of doing that, and just touch the screen in "laptop mode", instead,
and with that flexible hinge, the screen will wobble a lot (which is why I
think touch on most laptops is a bad idea).

~~~
akmiller
Have you used one? I ask because I thought the similar thing but recently
purchased the Dell XPS 12" and one of my coworkers bought the Yoga. While I
agree, I don't often times flip my screen around unless I'm reading a long
article of some type I do touch the screen a lot and the screens don't move
like you'd think. In fact I'm so used to using the touchscreen (and I've only
had the dell for about a month) that I find myself trying to touch my screen
on my macbook now as well.

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Casseres
Do they still make convertible laptops that have one hinge point in the
middle, so it can swivel 180 degrees and then fold down to become a tablet
while covering the keyboard keys? I just can't see myself leaving the keyboard
exposed, even if it is disabled electronically.

~~~
Scene_Cast2
That would be the Thinkpad X230t and Thinkpad Twist. Neither of them are using
Haswell, but the X230t will probably be killed, the Twist will probably be
updated.

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martius
I'd love to have that kind of screen on the x230, touch screen is not
something I really need nor want, while a good screen is still something that
seems hard to find on a high-end mobile laptop.

~~~
jamesbritt
I'm hoping to see this screen rez on a 15" or so Thinkpad.

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loceng
I really hope they change the name..

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icecreampain
When will we be seeing normal (30"+) displays with that kind of resolution?
Please say "soon".

~~~
jpalomaki
The 4K monitors have resolution of 3840×2160 and they are already on market. I
believe the cheapest contender is 39" seiki[1] which goes for under $1k.

For more dots per inch there is bunch of 31.5" 4K screens coming to market at
the $3-4k price range.

[http://4k-monitors.com/seiki-39-se39uy04/](http://4k-monitors.com/seiki-39-se39uy04/)

~~~
NLPsajeeth
Except most 4K displays can't do 60Hz which for most is the bare minimum for
computer usage.

I would avoid that Seiki monitor, it can only do 4K at 30Hz max and there are
wide reports that it can't even do 1080p at 120 Hz properly (even though its
in the spec sheet).

The first 4K 60p input displays are just coming to the market this year. You
can see a list:
[http://www.noteloop.com/kit/4k/](http://www.noteloop.com/kit/4k/)

Right now it is just a trickle but expect a flood of both cheap and expensive
4K 60p displays next year.

