Lenovo Yoga 2 13 first impressions
Two weeks ago, I finally bought myself a new laptop. The Lenovo Yoga 2 was the first ultrabook to offer all the specs I wanted at a (very) reasonable price. It’s taken me a while to properly set it up, but the Yoga is now ready to replace my trusty old Asus UL30A. The Lenovo has some pros and cons, so I thought I’d write about them.
Hardware
As with almost all PC laptops, there isn’t just one Yoga 2. There are two base models, an 11 inch and a 13 inch, and they both come in many hardware configurations. Mine has a Core i5 CPU, 8 GB of RAM and a 250 GB SSD. I like how the higher end models come with a top notch wifi adapter (Intel 7260), and a fast Samsung SSD. The 13 inch 1080p screen is IPS, so viewing angles are very good. For under a thousand euros, this machine is a steal.
The Yoga 2 is from the Ideapad series, so it’s not quite as bulletproof as a thoroughbred Thinkpad. Still, build quality is above average. And so is the trackpad. I use a Thinkpad X230 too, and its trackpad is simply horrible in comparison. The only thing I don’t really like about the Yoga’s hardware is the selection of ports. There are only two USB ports (one USB 3.0), no wired ethernet and no DisplayPort. I have to use a USB3 LAN adapter sometimes, which leaves me with just one USB port. Also, the cooling fan can occasionally be noisy.
Software
To my surprise, the Yoga 2’s SSD came with no less than six(!) partitions. Most of them were small system ones, but I really have no need for a 25 GB partition to hold backup drivers. Luckily, there’s the option to create a rescue disk, after which you can remove the restore partition to free up some space.
I didn’t spend a lot of time in Windows 8.1, but it was clear that the OS is still struggling with high resolution displays. Even with the proper settings, some desktop applications look fuzzy, or have weird small icons. Other than that, Windows ran well, and I decided I’d leave it on there. So I deleted a couple of partitions and shrunk the main Windows one to make room for Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Because the Yoga 2 has a UEFI BIOS, it took some steps to get it to book from a USB stick. I followed this guide to create a UEFI-only stick, and once I figured out how to get to the BIOS (hint: there’s a hardware button), Installing Ubuntu was easy.
Out of the box, everything worked – even the touch screen – except wifi. There’s an issue with the Yoga 2 series and Linux. Essentially, Ubuntu thought the laptop was in “airplane mode”, and blocked all wifi adapters. Even an external USB one wouldn’t work. I ended up following this guide to fix it, and ten minutes later I was online.
Ubuntu is much better at dealing with a 13″ full-HD screen. Unity – by default – uses rather large icons and fonts, so I left the resolution setting at “1”. I do use Chrome’s zoom function sometimes, and I might end up increasing the font size a little in Sublime Text. Other than that, I’m happy.
So?
I like the Yoga 2. It – well at least my model – packs a lot of punch. It’s a sleek little laptop with high quality internals. At 1.54 kg it’s perfect for my backpack. Ubuntu runs fine with the wifi fix applied, and there’s room to keep Windows too, in case I ever need it. I probably won’t be using the “convertibility” and touch screen very much, but they’re there if I change my mind.
Join the discussion on Twitter!
I'm on Twitter as @roytanck, and I'd love to hear what you think!