Playing with tech - the Yoga 3 Pro

[Joelist]

I got a chance this weekend to play with a "2 in 1" device. 2 in 1s are machines that can be used as either tablet or ultrabook. The 2 in 1 in this case is Lenovo's Yoga 3 Pro. Specs were as follows:

- Intel Broadwell-Y Core M 5Y70 CPU regular clock 1.1 Ghz ramps up to 2.6 Ghz under heavy load and has a TDP of only 4.5W.

- 8GB of DDR3L RAM

- 256GB SSD

- AC Wireless/Bluetooth

- 3200x1800 LED display with full RGB stripes


So what did my playtime show?

1) Build quality is incredible. The body is aluminum, the display is encased in gorilla glass and the palmrests have a nice rubber covering. No flex in anything, no creaks or such (then again, Lenovo is famous for their build quality - even their cheapo laptops feel like tanks).

2) I was amazed by performance. Some online sites claimed slow performance but reading the reviews showed all they did was run a synthetic benchmark on the CPU. This was snappy in every scenario I put it through. It never felt like the laptop was being overtaxed and I had a bunch of stuff open at the same time.

3) Battery life seemed really nice too. Lenovo claims 7.2 hours and I was at 7 hours use with about 15% battery left so I'll buy 7.2.

4) The display is stunning. The crazy high resolution is good for some things and not so good for others (not all OS functions really support that resolution which is higher than even Apple's "retina" displays on their Macbook Pros). And the color definition and calibration were perfect.

5) Lenovo has a tradition of having the best keyboard experience in the business (probably because they have let the ThinkPad team design their keyboards). This baby is no exception. Backlit keys with good travel that automatically shut off in tablet mode. Good touchpad as well. And as usual they have the shaping of the keys down to a science which helps cut down on typos.

As a laptop this thing is impressive. It doesn't really get warm even, performs well and is nice and truly portable. As a tablet it is biggish in terms of length and width but thickness is fine and the included software gives it a very easy transition between the modes. It also supports Lenovo's "anypen" which let's you use writing on the screen with either stylus or even a pen, pencil, toothpick et al.

And no playtime would be complete without mentioning the hinge. The Yoga 3 Pro sports a metal 6 point hinge which looks a lot like a premium watchband. It works beautifully and gives the machine full foldability in both directions.

This is an interesting PC. The Core M is a groundbreaking CPU with a VERY low TDP coupled with performance usually associated with a Core i5. Add in the high end components and first class build quality and this is a laptop that has that "premium" feel usually associated with Apple (spit). And all this for $1199 MSRP (watch for Lenovo promos and it's even less). The closest Apple product is the 13 inch Macbook Air at $1199 and it lacks several features the Yoga 3 Pro has.

 

[Overmind One]

I got a chance this weekend to play with a "2 in 1" device. 2 in 1s are machines that can be used as either tablet or ultrabook. The 2 in 1 in this case is Lenovo's Yoga 3 Pro. Specs were as follows:

- Intel Broadwell-Y Core M 5Y70 CPU regular clock 1.1 Ghz ramps up to 2.6 Ghz under heavy load and has a TDP of only 4.5W.

- 8GB of DDR3L RAM

- 256GB SSD

- AC Wireless/Bluetooth

- 3200x1800 LED display with full RGB stripes


So what did my playtime show?

1) Build quality is incredible. The body is aluminum, the display is encased in gorilla glass and the palmrests have a nice rubber covering. No flex in anything, no creaks or such (then again, Lenovo is famous for their build quality - even their cheapo laptops feel like tanks).

2) I was amazed by performance. Some online sites claimed slow performance but reading the reviews showed all they did was run a synthetic benchmark on the CPU. This was snappy in every scenario I put it through. It never felt like the laptop was being overtaxed and I had a bunch of stuff open at the same time.

3) Battery life seemed really nice too. Lenovo claims 7.2 hours and I was at 7 hours use with about 15% battery left so I'll buy 7.2.

4) The display is stunning. The crazy high resolution is good for some things and not so good for others (not all OS functions really support that resolution which is higher than even Apple's "retina" displays on their Macbook Pros). And the color definition and calibration were perfect.

5) Lenovo has a tradition of having the best keyboard experience in the business (probably because they have let the ThinkPad team design their keyboards). This baby is no exception. Backlit keys with good travel that automatically shut off in tablet mode. Good touchpad as well. And as usual they have the shaping of the keys down to a science which helps cut down on typos.

As a laptop this thing is impressive. It doesn't really get warm even, performs well and is nice and truly portable. As a tablet it is biggish in terms of length and width but thickness is fine and the included software gives it a very easy transition between the modes. It also supports Lenovo's "anypen" which let's you use writing on the screen with either stylus or even a pen, pencil, toothpick et al.

And no playtime would be complete without mentioning the hinge. The Yoga 3 Pro sports a metal 6 point hinge which looks a lot like a premium watchband. It works beautifully and gives the machine full foldability in both directions.

This is an interesting PC. The Core M is a groundbreaking CPU with a VERY low TDP coupled with performance usually associated with a Core i5. Add in the high end components and first class build quality and this is a laptop that has that "premium" feel usually associated with Apple (spit). And all this for $1199 MSRP (watch for Lenovo promos and it's even less). The closest Apple product is the 13 inch Macbook Air at $1199 and it lacks several features the Yoga 3 Pro has.

VERY impressive. I could easily see myself getting one of these, and the price to power/feature ratio is really very good. Much better than Apple. With this kind of power, I could actually run OS X in a virtual machine on it. I like the convertible aspect of it. The previous Yoga machines were not bad either.

 

[Joelist]

It shocked me somewhat. Not the build quality like I said - Lenovo is known for that. But the fact that it was pretty snappy in performance. Usually a processor with that low a TDP is sluggish in anything but the lightest of work. I think part of the performance being good is using an SSD which avoids I/O bottlenecks, using 8GB RAM which again helps keep the bottlenecks down but the main driver is that Core M. It has a TDP usually associated with an Intel Atom or an ARM phone CPU but appears to drive the system similarly to a Core i5 4590T.

 

[Joelist]

The Core-M just got a small boost in clock speed which has made its way into the Yoga 3 Pro. No price change from it - just be sure if you get one that the CPU is 5Y-71 as opposed to 5Y-70. It has a 1.2 Ghz base clock and turbos up to 2.9 Ghz now as opposed to a 1.1 Ghz base clock with turbo up to 2.6 Ghz. Sounds like the 5y71 is about 9-11% faster than the 5y70.

 

[Joelist]

I am now playing with my very own Yoga 3 Pro.

The first thing I did was completely decrapify it despite there not being a lot of bloatware in the first place. By the way no Superfish on the factory image. The cleaning process was surprisingly easy and took a total of 30 minutes. It consisted of:

1) Download Windows 8.1 ISO from Microsoft.

2) Put ISO along with Lenovo drivers and utilities on USB key

3) Use the Magical Jelly Bean tool (https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/) to get and copy the "CD" key for use in the installer.

4) Run the Windows 8.1 installer off of the USB key and when asked about what to save select "Nothing".

When it rebooted all I needed to install was the Intel Chipset driver and the Lenovo Harmony, Paper Display and One Key utilities - I didn't actually need the utilities but I really like what they do.

Presto! Utterly clean build. And fast as a thief to boot. I put Classic Shell in place (basically a free analogue to Start8) and am cruising along.

My earlier comments on this ultrabook/tablet stand. It is slick, very well built and the screen is a thing of beauty - not just Quad HD but the color calibration is perfect.

 

[Joelist]

The next thing I have in mind to do is set up a multiboot and run the latest Windows 10 Preview also. That way I can directly compare/contrast better.

 

[Overmind One]

The next thing I have in mind to do is set up a multiboot and run the latest Windows 10 Preview also. That way I can directly compare/contrast better.

Windows 10 is....neat. It is worth a double take. MUCH better than Windows 8/8.1, but not as clean feeling as Windows 7. There is something very "toylike" about it.

 

[Joelist]

I'm not sure I'd say toylike. But it is much cleaner than 8. 8 needs something like Classic Shell to make it usable in desktop mode (in touch mode 8 is actually ok). 10 is usable out of the box in desktop mode.

What will be interesting to see is how 10 handles the transition from laptop to tablet on a 2-1 like the Yoga. Lenovo wrote special software (Harmony) to manage the transition but 10 supposedly does not need that special rig.

 

[Overmind One]

I'm not sure I'd say toylike. But it is much cleaner than 8. 8 needs something like Classic Shell to make it usable in desktop mode (in touch mode 8 is actually ok). 10 is usable out of the box in desktop mode.

What will be interesting to see is how 10 handles the transition from laptop to tablet on a 2-1 like the Yoga. Lenovo wrote special software (Harmony) to manage the transition but 10 supposedly does not need that special rig.

As an enterprise network admin, I consider this interface very "toylike":

It does not look professional to me. I am going to need to be able to kill live tiles with a group policy or it is a no go. I have already shown this to the Director and he agrees. This Windows is still very much aimed at the consumer/home/mobile market and not the enterprise. The desktop implementation with Windows 8 performance and added features is a winner though. The learning curve is not steep. But productivity could be compromised if end users begin playing with the live tiles and other stuff in Windows 10.

 

[Joelist]

Did you get the Enterprise version of the preview? If yes then the Group Policy Object Editor allows not only disabling Live Tiles but you can even configure the whole UI however you want and apply it to users as desired. Don't want the store? No problem either - the same tool let's you disable it and/or even substitute your own if your enterprise wants to distribute applications that way.

 

[Overmind One]

Did you get the Enterprise version of the preview? If yes then the Group Policy Object Editor allows not only disabling Live Tiles but you can even configure the whole UI however you want and apply it to users as desired. Don't want the store? No problem either - the same tool let's you disable it and/or even substitute your own if your enterprise wants to distribute applications that way.

I like that. I think I got the regular Beta. Where do I find the enterprise version? Where Windows 8/8.1 was completely unacceptable, Windows 10 could find a rightful place in the enterprise if it continues to allow the enterprise to control the experience and the UI (for reasons defined by the type of enterprise). A live tile of the company intranet or IM program might be a good thing. A marketing department might find tiles of layouts to be very useful. But anything put there by Microsoft which is not removable is going to ruin it.

 

[Joelist]

TechNet I believe.

 

[Joelist]

Having used this as my exclusive machine for a few days now I have a question:

"Intel - what is the secret sauce you put in the Core-M?"

Not kidding. This 2-1 has a Core-M with a TDP of only 4.5W. Here are some comparisons:

Tegra K1 - 5W

Snapdragon 810 - 4W

A9X - 5W

Those are all PHONE or TABLET CPUs using ARM.

Here are normal laptop CPUs:

Core i5 - i7 Broadwell U series 23W

Core i5 - i7 Haswell 45W

So it sips power and has a thermal envelope like a phone processor.

However, I am pushing it hard with desktop style workloads and it is slick and fast. No fan and not even getting warm. It feels rather a lot like an Ivy Bridge or Haswell i5.

In fact, this little CPU is so powerful it raises the question of why Intel even needs to continue the Atom line. It totally smokes every other CPU in its size class and does it on an equal or slightly smaller TDP to boot. It's actually physically small enough to go in a phone which would be intriguing. Unless of course the soon to be released Broadwell version of Atom is likewise a tiny beast...

 

[Joelist]

Pictures of course:

 

[Joelist]

Also of note, I have been using on this both IE and a fork of Firefox called Pale Moon. Pale moon is okay I admit, and I can't wait to get a build of Windows 10 on here that includes Spartan.

 

[Overmind One]

Also of note, I have been using on this both IE and a fork of Firefox called Pale Moon. Pale moon is okay I admit, and I can't wait to get a build of Windows 10 on here that includes Spartan.

Spartan looks promising. I like more about Windows 10 than I dont like about it, and I could see using it as a primary OS for some people (I am sticking with Linux as my primary OS). My main interest in it is how it could be rolled out on the enterprise network I am currently managing. I need to see the enterprise version. But it looks great on your Yoga. Nice clean design, elegant converting form factor.

 

[Joelist]

TechNet is where the Enterprise Edition is kept.

Spartan is very interesting. When I was able to play with the spartan engine (albeit using the IE UI) I got a very fast and stable browser. Can't wait to see the engine in its own UI.

 

[Overmind One]

TechNet is where the Enterprise Edition is kept.

Spartan is very interesting. When I was able to play with the spartan engine (albeit using the IE UI) I got a very fast and stable browser. Can't wait to see the engine in its own UI.

Yes, they are all right here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-enterprise-technical-preview

I am installing these ISOs into virtual machines in VMware so I can evaluate them.

 

[Joelist]

This is a high level summary of one way to use Group Policy to manage the Start Menu:

http://www.petri.com/how-to-use-and-customize-the-windows-10-start-menu.htm

 

[Overmind One]

This is a high level summary of one way to use Group Policy to manage the Start Menu:

http://www.petri.com/how-to-use-and-customize-the-windows-10-start-menu.htm

One thing I really love about VMware is the Virtual Networking Manager. You can open several VMs and put them on a virtual subnet for the purpose of testing a network. I already have Windows 8 and Windows 7 machines, as well as Windows 2008 and 2012 Server VMs to enforce Group Policy. If my virtual Domain Controller (the 2012 VM) can enforce a Group Policy to manipulate the Windows 10 desktop and interface, it might just be worth looking at for an upgrade.