When your Ultrabook is better at Yoga than you it’s a good thing – Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro review

We’re fans of the design and engineering being done at Lenovo – the X1 Carbon is our “BEST Ultrabook” for 2014, and it’s lucky – very lucky, because when the Yoga 2 Pro landed in the EFTM studio the X1 started gathering dust.

In startling Orange, the Yoga 2 Pro I’m using certainly gets attention – it’s quite refreshing to see something other than silver or black.

The texture of the orange shell is quite strange, not quite rubberised, not quite smooth plastic – in fact it’s great when carrying the Yoga 2 Pro around because it certainly feels like a safer grip.

Open it up and the differences are similar, like the dashboard of a car, Lenovo have gone for a leather-look plastic around the keyboard. It’s a fine grain so just a subtle look, but it works.

The keyboard area seems sparse, as if the keys are crunched in to a more confined space when in fact they are nicely spaced and easy to use, plus they are backlit in what is now for me a must have keyboard feature.

Around the sides you’ve got a USB looking power charge slot (a tad confusing at first but it’s a one-off) USB (one on each side – only one is USB 3.0), HDMI, SD Card as well as volume and power controls.

Putting the power button – and a teeny tiny one at that, on the front of the right hand side seems strange to me – there’s plenty of space on the keyboard surface for it plus it’s a little small and sometimes hard to press in a hurry.

Power wise, you’ve got Intel Core i5 (at the $1599 price) or Core i7 ($1999) so there’s no problems there, and as always you can customise all the specs as you see fit. This Orange colour is available online at Lenovo’s website only, and I’d reckon that’s worth the delivery wait time.

It’s only 1.39kg, and 15.5mm thick – seriously very nice, with a 13.3inch screen inside.

Now for the show-pony feature – the screen.

Touch-screen – very nice, makes Windows 8.1 usable – in fact, I’m not sure I could bother with Windows 8 if I’m not using a touch-screen any more – an Operating system designed with Touch in mind is not as easy to use without it.

Like the X1 Carbon the screen will lay flat on the desk – for what reason, I’m not sure, but it’s the additional rotation that matters.

Twist it further round and stand the Yoga 2 Pro like a tent – the screen flips round and you’ve got a great built-in stand for watching movies.

Sit it on the desk keyboard down and again the screen is up ready for movie viewing.

Fold it all the way, and you’ve got a Windows 8.1 tablet.

Such choice, such versatility.

Very gimmicky for some, but if you do watch a lot of movie or TV content on your PC this will be fantastic. Likewise the tablet mode – having the full power and capabilities of an Intel Core i5 or i7 in a device that is both Ultrabook and tablet is great stuff.

To top it all off, the battery is excellent, you’ll grab 6 hours of movie playback time, and 9 hours Windows idle time – which I’ve found to be more like 6 and a bit in normal usage with WiFi and a decreased screen brightness.

Overall, top class, a great Ultrabook. We love the Orange – and you’ll be pleased with the build quality and performance.

[schema type=”review” rev_name=”Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro” rev_body=”Great ultrabook, versatile and high performance with a flip and fold screen” author=”Trevor Long” pubdate=”2014-07-22″ user_review=”4.5″ min_review=”0″ max_review=”5″ ]