I’ve been using computers since I was about
9 months old. I’ve been around the tech scene for a looong 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.
And it even has a USB type C port on it! But we’ll get to that in the physical overview.
On the whole, this is 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. Which isn’t the newest feature, but the hinges feel much stronger than usual.
Given that my mom has broken multiple laptops via damaged hinges, convertible laptops have
always scared me.
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 to actually open
it up, so I have to hold it a specific way and use both hands. This is a weird inconvenience.
Along one
side we have a USB 3.0 with always-on charging functionality that is, thankfully, still black
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, rubbery 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 manages to 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 disappointing
as it was a nice day out, but oh well.
Above the screen is
a 720p webcam, here’s a sample:
[webcam sample]
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. Frankly, 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. Bleh, WINDOWS WHYYY?!
Conclusion Overall, 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.