Skip to main content
» » » » Windows 8 PC Laptop Review

Windows 8 PC Laptop Review






Windows 8 presents a dilemma for PC makers. It contains two very different user interfaces: a touch-oriented, tablet-like one with clusters of tiles, full-screen apps and an on-screen keyboard; plus the traditional Windows desktop and apps, which are best used with a mouse or a touch pad and physical keyboard. So the hardware companies are trying to create laptops that work well with both environments.   This week, I've been testing one of the most creative and best-known of these new laptops, the $1,000 IdeaPad Yoga 13 from Lenovo. It takes its name from the fact that, like a yoga practitioner, it can contort itself into multiple positions, some of them unusual, using a sturdy but flexible hinge.   The Yoga PC can look and work like a standard clamshell laptop, with an excellent keyboard at the front and its sharp 13.3-inch touch screen display behind it. Or it can be folded into tablet mode, with the keyboard hidden under the display, which faces up for tapping and swiping on it. 

 A third position, "stand mode," turns the Yoga into a sort of mini-monitor for, say, viewing movies on an airplane, by allowing the screen to flip up from its base, with the keyboard behind it. And a final position, "tent mode," stands the machine in an inverted V, with the slanted display facing toward you. In this mode, the screen is more rigid than in stand mode, so it's better for tapping and swiping while doing active tasks, like scrolling through Web pages.   I've been testing the Yoga for the better part of a week and I admire its creativity and the typical Lenovo quality with which it's built. I found it did a good job with popular, traditional Windows programs, as well as the new-style, tablet-type apps. It is speedy and fluid, and relatively light and thin at 3.3 pounds and 0.67 inch thick. It runs the full version of Windows 8, which supports most existing Windows programs.  

I also found some significant downsides to the Yoga. Despite its hefty price, it has limited storage, only fair battery life and lacks a backlit keyboard. In tablet and stand modes, the exposed keyboard is on the bottom, raising the possibility that it could attract moisture or dirt when on a sticky, dusty or wet surface. The keyboard is recessed slightly to mitigate this risk, and it is disabled in these modes. But I still worried about a naked keyboard being the bottom surface of a computer. 

 Worse, it has a bug which periodically disables key functions of the touch pad, such as two-finger scrolling and the ability to swipe on the touch pad to activate key Windows 8 features. Lenovo pledges to fix the bug, which it attributes to a mysterious interaction between the third-party touch-pad software it uses and Microsoft Office. But the company's attempts to solve the problem during my testing failed.   If you're considering buying the Yoga, I recommend checking to make sure the bug is fixed. Even though it has a touch screen, the touch pad will be a more natural way for many people to navigate traditional desktop software.   The 13-inch Yoga I tested will be joined in December by a similarly flexible 11-inch model, which will start at $800. But this smaller, lighter model will run a variant of Windows called RT that-unlike the larger Yoga-doesn't allow you to install any traditional Windows desktop apps. Though both machines can act either as laptops or tablets, Lenovo officials describe the larger model as notebook-centric and the smaller one as tablet-centric.  

In fact, like a lot of competing Windows 8 laptops that can be converted in some way to lie flat like tablets, I found the Yoga 13 to be clumsy to use in tablet mode. It's more than twice as heavy than the weightiest iPad and almost twice as thick. I tried reading an e-book with the Yoga in tablet mode and had to give up after a while because I just found it unwieldy as a tablet.   As a regular laptop, however, it performed well, except for the touch-pad bug. All the new tablet-style apps worked smoothly and swiftly. And I easily installed and successfully ran some of the most popular desktop programs, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook; Google's Chrome browser; Apple's iTunes; and Adobe Reader.   You won't be able to store much data on the Yoga, however. It is only available with a 128 gigabyte solid-state drive, and, shockingly, only 60 gigabytes of that is available to the user-the rest is occupied by system files. Lenovo will soon be increasing available storage to 70 GB, but that is still paltry. An optional 256 GB drive also is in the works, but it will cost at least $100 extra.  

In my harsh battery test, where I turn off all power-saving features, crank the screen to 100% brightness, leave on the Wi-Fi to collect email, and play music until the battery dies, the Yoga 13 lasted just 4 hours and 31 minutes. By contrast, Apple's similar-size MacBook Air lasted just under 6 hours in the same test. In normal use, I suspect you might be able to squeeze between 5 and 5.5 hours out of the Yoga. The Yoga 13 configuration I tested, a special one made for Best Buy, uses a midrange Intel processor and has 4 GB of memory. Models with more memory or faster processors cost up to $1,300.   This computer feels great in the hand. The case has a soft, matte feel, and the palm rest is covered in leather.   I salute Lenovo for design imagination. But the touch-pad bug, available storage, and battery life, combined with the hefty price, make the Yoga 13 less than ideal.

Label:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Comparing Lenovo and Asus Laptops

Buying a new laptop and don't know what you need to be considering before making that crucial purchase? Here in this article, we discuss the important factors that need to be considered before putting your money on the table. Laptops from Asus and Lenovo ensure that one doesn't require any major checking before making a buy. However, to be on the safer side, it is always best to check out the major configurations and comparing them with your other options so as to make the best buy of all. So read on to get an understanding of what it takes to make the best purchase of all.  Taking the instance of the Lenovo laptops, this meticulous brand is well known for the innovative technology it incorporates in each of its series. Further, its recently launched laptop i.e. Lenovo Essential G580 3rd Gen Laptop, illustrates the endeavor this brand invests in developing laptops that are not only performance efficient but also are competent. This meticulous product is incorporating the l...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is Universal Serial Bus?

One of the most useful inventions of recent times that are connected to computers and digital data is a Universal Serial Bus or USB which can be used to store any kind of data in its memory. This USB has an interesting history and one has to note the difference in a memory stick that has been attached via USB and the USB itself. Things came to a head when many electronic corporations found that their devices required connection with a computer but could not find a single port for all their devices. This was because each company had an individual kind of connector and it was not possible for all these electronic companies to expect computer manufacturers to accommodate their particular kind of connection. Therefore in the year 1994, personnel from seven corporations namely Compaq, DEC, Intel, Nortel, IBM, Microsoft and NEC came together to design a common portal through which it was possible to connect external devices and memory devices to one's computer. The aim of all this was...
Post a Comment
Read more

Things To Think About When Considering Trading Computers

If you have been searching for trading computers, I am sure you feel a little bit overwhelmed trying to decide what is the best option. There a lot of things to take into consideration. The first one, of course is the components of the machine. You want to make sure your trading computer has the best components. A lot of companies that sell trading computers do not reveal this information because they use cheap components and they don't want you to know that. Another important factor to consider when buying trading computers is customer service. In this era of technology overload, we take for granted human interaction and contact. It is hard to get an answer these days. When you call, you are either placed on a queue, get routed to a foreign country, or end up having a whole conversation with a machine. Being able to talk to a human being is special these days and if you manage to do that, being understood is probably even more challenging. The moment you get somebody on the p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Benefits of WAN Routers

A router is a device that forwards date packets between computer networks, creating an overlay internetwork. A router is connected to two or more data lines from different networks. When a data packet comes in one of the lines, the router reads the address information in the packet to determine its ultimate destination. Then, using information in its routing table, the router directs the packet to the next network on its journey. Routers are used in homes across the world, as well as businesses. However, WAN routers are typically used with bigger businesses.   A WAN router is a router used for a wide area network (WAN). It facilitates the transmission of multiple data streams between a company's enterprise locations to its branch location, for example, which use smaller capacity branch routers. A WAN router aggregates traffic from multiple access routers, either at the same site, or to collect the data streams from multiple sites. WAN routers typically have a great deal o...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is a VPN?

The initials VPN stand for the term Virtual Private Network. The aim and simple concept of a Virtual Private Network is that it provides users with the ability to access a private network (and therefore individual computers and servers on a private network) from a remote unsecured point outside of that network, without compromising the security of the private network itself.   In effect a VPN creates a tunnel through unsecured networks, which clients can use to access their private network without interference from the rest of the unsecured networks. As VPNs therefore have to transmit private information across unsecured networks such as the world wide web, they need to ensure that the data exchanged across these networks is kept secure by employing a combination of encryption on the data packets and authentication to allow access to only those users with permission.   Using these secure data packets VPN services can therefore be used to transmit any kind of dat...
Post a Comment
Read more
© Notebook and Computer Tips Design by Seo v6