Read This Before Buying Laptop 2 in 1 - Lenovo Yoga 900

Lenovo Yoga 900 Review - 2 in 1 Laptop.

I've been using computers since I was about 9 months old. I've been around the tech scene for a long time.My first laptop ran Windows 95, had no wireless internet access, nor even an ethernet port - simply a dial-up modem.With that long-term experience, I've spent most of my life with the accepted philosophy that unless you spend multiple thousands of dollars on a laptop - laptops aren't really worth crap, at least for someone who already has a powerful desktop workstation that I'd spend 90% of my time at.

But despite my distaste for all laptops within my budget ranges, I've only ever been able to really get immersed in writing on a laptop.Website articles, video scripts, personal writing and fiction - writing is something that's always been very important to me, so I've been on a quest for a high-end laptop to last me a few years lately.We're going to be starting quite a few laptop reviews now that I'm on this quest, so let's start with this one - the Lenovo Yoga 900.

The Lenovo Yoga 900 is a 13" convertible laptop - and it's a total badass.Starting for around $1200 - the same price Dell is asking for a 2-in-1 with only a Core M in it - you get an Intel Skylake i5 or i7 processor, a wonderful 8GB of RAM (configurable up to 16GB), a 256 or 512gb SSD for near instantaneous boot ups and shut downs, and a gorgeous 3200 by 1800 resolution IPS multi-touch display.

And then some boring, but useful stuff like Windows 10 pre-installed, 8260 AC wifi and Bluetooth 4.1.
It even has a USB type C port on it! But we'll get to that in the physical overview.
                                                                         
USB port
On the whole, this one badass laptop, and has definitely renewed my faith in premium laptops, but it does have some quirks to complain about.Real quick, the unboxing experience for this laptop was awesome - the box had this riser system to kinda "reveal" the laptop to the user.Pretty cool.For a "premium" product of this price I would expect such  an experience, but I've been surprised to see so little of this happening these days.
Let's take a look at the laptop itself.This is a very thin laptop, incredibly so at just over half an inch thick!

I'd call it an Ultrabook by my own classification - but I know there's specifics that go in to the official classification, so I'm not sure if it technically is.It weighs about 2.9 pounds and is great for carrying
on the go.The beautiful silver body houses quite the machine in here.The highlight of the outer view is their new "watch band" hinge system - and it's pretty impressive.Lenovo seems to have re-defined the laptop hinge in a very good way by using aluminum and steel pieces to create hinges similar to a watchband that keeps the screen completely sturdy and still while typing in normal laptop mode, or keep it locked into place for stand mode, tent mode, or tablet mode - yeah-this screen folds ALL the way back.d

Which isn't the newest feature, but the hinges feel much stronger than usual.The hinge also acts as the

ventilation for the laptop - with an incredibly
quiet metal alloy fan inside that keeps it cool
without ever getting very loud. There's some
warmth to the hinge under load, but it doesn't
get hot to the touch.My problem with this is
that there's no proper leverage for actually
opening the laptop.

It takes me a long time to get it open: Despite that the keyboard side is grippy and the screen side is not.
I don't have any part of the laptop to put my finger on the actually open it up, so I have to hold it a specific
way and use both hands.This is a weird inconvenience.Actually, this is likely due to how lightweight the computer on the whole is.With previous laptops I've used, the weight of the keyboard side keeps it down when I pull the screen up on a table.

Along one side we have a USB 3.0 with always-on
charging functionality that is, thankfully, still back to match the rest of the laptop instead of the usual blue.
Next to that there's a 3.5mm audio combo jack, an
auto rotate control button, a "Novo Recovery" button that I don't want to press, and a weirdly-located power button.


The other side features a SD card reader, a USB type C 3.0 port with video out capabilities, another USB 3.0 port, and then a really fascinating USB 2.0 port.Notice that I didn't  list a DC power in port anywhere - that's because the power plug is integrated via a few extra pins within this orange USB 2.0 port.The extra pins are only connected when the power cable is connected a certain way, and the other end runs to the
USB input of the included wall wart.When you're
not charging the laptop, you get an extra USB 2.0
port on the laptop, and the wall wart can actually
charge your other USB devices, such as your phone! While it's not charging via the USB type-C
port, it's still really cool technology.

Let's move to the surface - here we have a wonderful, black, ruberry surface around the keyboard and trackpad, which grips to my hands quite comfortably without causing too much friction.

The trackpad has an attractive silver border. The
trackpad is quite smooth and very responsive, I love
how it feels.But it feels a little too sensitive, and often
when just trying to scroll down websites I'll end up zooming in on them, which is a tad annoying.The mouse buttons are quite clicky and satisfying feeling,
no complaints there.The keyboard, on the other hand, is a little mushy and can cause some typos here and there.

I've written quite a few video scripts on it already, and when I'm going, it's quite enjoyable to write on, but I have had some issues where keys don't end up getting pressed.The trackpad is very nice feeling, but generally feels too sensitive to extra touching - for example whenever I'm trying to scroll on a webpage, I often end up zooming in, instead.That can be quite annoying. The dedicated mouse buttons are appreciated,
however.

Then we have the screen - a beautiful, 3200 by 1800 IPS multi-touch display. I absolutely LOVE it...
When I'm inside.I'm impressed that the reflective glass managesto not distract from my usage too much, and it's bright and sharp, inside.I tried using it outside at my fiancee's university and I literally just could not see the screen at all, even with max brightness.It looked as if the backlight was turned off.This was a tad dissapointing as it was a nice day out, but oh well.

                   Other Usage Notes

 Overall, using the laptop was a blast, and the small form factor and speed of the beefy i7 means that I really wish I had one.However, I ran into some weird issues, which might have been mostly Windows 10-related.

 

The wireless icon kept glitching out or disappearing, and sometimes when I hit the airplane mode button - which was generally on accident since the function keys had the extra controls as the first layer instead of the actual F1-F12 buttons, which I don't like - airplane mode just wouldn't turn off until I restarted it.

Thankfully with the SSD, it reboots almost instantly. I'd love to see how quick this bad boy is running Linux.I'll have to get ahold of one to try for myself sometime.Secondly, charging seemed to not be working properly.While the laptop is plugged in the battery icon keeps bouncing between showing just battery usage and plugged in and charging.

I can't tell if this is a software issue or an issue with the charger.But overall, this laptop is blazing fast and does quite well on benchmarks.My biggest complaint is that Windows scaling still sucks and so I have to run things at tiny icons for 100% scaling at the native resolution because I simply cannot stand how blurry Windows elements get when scaling.Windows WHYYY?

Conclusion.Overall,(how many times can I say "OVERALL" in this article?) the Lenovo Yoga 900 is an amazing laptop.It doesn't have my favorite keyboard, and I have issues opening it, but it is blazing fast, super lightweight, super thin, and very quiet. 

Really, for a laptop of this price range, it's hard to beat it. I'm not a big tablet guy, but in 2016 I prefer a touch screen - something Apple really needs to catch up on, ironically. Lenovo delivers us a 2-in-1 convertible that works well without making the keyboard detachable - I can't stand keyboard detachable models.

Props, Lenovo. My faith in premium laptops has been restored

 

 

 

 

 

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About Krasen Mihaylov

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