Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro: My New Companion

I have been using the Yoga 2 Pro now for a couple of months and I have to say, I absolutely love it.  It’s the best laptop I’ve ever used.  I love its color, orange, it perks me up every time I see it.  I’m so tired of the black laptops I’ve used all my life.  The Yoga 2 Pro is definitely the lightest laptop I’ve ever owned, weighing in at just 3 lbs.  I literally take it with me everywhere as it isn’t too heavy, is compact, and is easy to transport.

One of the unique things about the Yoga 2 Pro is it’s 360 degree flip and fold design.  It can be used as a laptop, a tablet, atent (great for presentations), or a stand (great for videos).  No matter how you turn the screen, the screen rotates to its new orientation.

I take the Yoga 2 Pro everywhere!  Now you may be wondering, hmmm, how am I using my laptop everywhere and where am I taking it to?  I thought I’d give you a glimpse into my life to show you how I’m using the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro.  Take a look…

 How I Use My Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro

Volleyball Practice

My 11-year-old daughter has volleyball practice for 1 hr. and 45 minutes twice a week.  Most of the moms drop off their girls and come back.  But I live about 20 minutes away, so I have found it very convenient to take the Yoga 2 Pro with me and answer emails.  Fortunately, my daughter’s coach is a tech lover too and understands the importance of offering free WiFi to the parents!

Christmas Show Rehearsals

Both of my children…and my husband…are in our church’s Christmas Show this year.  Our church does a fun Saturday Night Live fun Christmas Show each year and my little performers LOVE to be a part of it each year.  They are in 2-3 acts this year, so I find myself taking them to practices three times a week.  Our church is about 24 minutes away, so I often sit and watch them…while shopping for Christmas deals online and checking email on my Yoga 2 Pro.

Odyssey of the Mind Practice

I coach one of our school’s Odyssey of the Mind teams, where a group of 7 kids write their own play, create their own staging, and perform their play during the regional competitions…all according to a particular theme.  It’s a fantastic competition for the kids to be a part of, every single idea, props, costumes, lines, music, staging are kid-created.  I can only coach them but not give them even the slightest idea of how to do something.

I use the Yoga 2 Pro often to show them Odyssey of the Mind videos from years past so they can get a good idea of what to do and what’s possible.  As our theme this year is creating a video game around Pandora’s Box, I fanatically searched YouTube for different renditions of Pandora’s Box to open their mind and think outside the box about how their rendition of Pandora’s Box could be portrayed through a video game skit.  The Yoga 2 Pro is perfect for 7 kids to crowd around and watch the videos.

I also used the Yoga 2 Pro to teach the kids about brainstorming and give them some tips to be more effective.  I used Powerpoint slides to teach them about brainstorming.  The Yoga 2 Pro works great for giving a presentation and showing videos because of it’s unique ability to twist into a tent-like fashion.  The screen can rotate up to 360 degrees around.

Another part of the competition is called Spontaneous, where the kids are given either a verbal or physical problem to solve and they need to come up with out-of-the-box answers to score more points.  We practice all sorts of Spontaneous activities to get their creative juices flowing so they can act on-the-spot during the competition in March.  I found a fun Windows app called Kids Story Builder that allows kids to take pictures of things and add text and their own voices to each picture.  The pictures are then stitched together by Kids Story Builder to create a fun story.

I divided our team into two groups  One group used the Yoga 2 Pro to take the pictures with it’s webcam and type their captions.  The other group used my Lumia 635 Windows Phone and Kids Story Builder to create their story.  We then watched both stories and picked a winner, based on the criteria I had given them.  It was a lot of fun and a good use of technology.

As I meet with the kids at school, I was able to use a Mobile HotSpot from my phone over to my Yoga 2 Pro.  It’s worked out perfectly.

Build-A-Church Meetings

Our church is in an exciting phase of its life, we are in the building stages of building a new church!  We are so excited.  I am on the planning committee to figure out what our needs are and work with the architect to convey our needs.  Using Microsoft OneNote, I copied and pasted different parts of church designs I saw online to help create our ideal church floor plan.  I meant to bring paper copies of the design to a particular meeting, but was in such a hurry, I wasn’t able to print them out in time.

No worries, I grabbed my Yoga 2 Pro, connected to the guest WiFi network at church, and downloaded the work I had done from my computer at home.  Using the tent fold stance, I was able to confidently show the design on the Yoga 2 Pro and explain why we needed particular features in certain areas of the floor plan.  I presented to a group of 6 people around a round table and everyone was able to see just fine.  Quite frankly, I think they were more impressed with the fact that it was on my computer rather than on paper!

Bible Study

I go to Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) every week after completing a 2 page homework assignment.  We have a small study group we meet with first to discuss our answers, then move onto the lecture hall where our leader goes into more details about what we just read and studied for the week.  She covers a lot of material and having the Yoga 2 Pro handy to type my notes is so great.  They way the keyboard sits, it doesn’t make a lot of tapping noise like some keyboards do.  I am able to capture my notes as well as use the webcam to take pictures of the slides that have pictures.

I use Windows OneNote to capture all of my notes.

Bedroom

I mainly work on my desktop, it’s what I feel most comfortable typing on.  But there are times when I am so exhausted and would rather lay in bed while I work.  The Yoga 2 Pro works great for casually reading emails while relaxing a bit.  It also is great for watching Netflix by twisting the screen around to a tent stance.

 Features

• 8GB RAM (important for me, I’m a multi-tasker!)
• Fast 256 GB SSD hard drive (space varies per model)
• 4th generation Intel Core processor
• Super high resolution (3200 x 1800) 13 inch 10-point  multi-touch display
• 4-cell battery
• Windows 8.1 operating system
• Unique 360 degree flip and fold design
• Super-high-resolution QHD+ (3200 x 1800)
• Voice and Motion control
• Back-lit quiet keyboard
• Dolby Home Theater stereo speakers
• Up to 9 hours with standard battery
• 2-in-1 card reader built-in
• Bluetooth 4.0

Pros:

• Lightweight
• Very versatile with it’s 360 degrees design (laptop, tablet, tent, stand)
• Fast Intel processor, video is seamless
• Great for multi-tasking, I often have several programs and 10+ Google tabs open at once
• Includes a HDMI port so I can use a HDMI cable to connect to TV
• LOVE the orange color!
• Can use it as a tablet for playing games or drawing
• Fast awake from sleep
• Quick screen orientation, rotates quickly to whether I turn tablet upside down or on it’s slide
• Includes 15 GB free back-up to Microsoft One Drive – so you can access your files from anywhere
• Has Bluetooth built-in, so I can easily connect Bluetooth speakers for increased sound

Cons:

• If you use the Yoga 2 Pro as your main computer, 256 GB hard drive space will not last long (due to saved pictures/video)
• It’s pricier than other laptops, but it packs a lot of functionality

The Yoga 2 Pro is at a much better price right now, now that the Yoga 3 Pro was just introduced last month.  With is awesome 3200 x 1800 display, super fast Intel  processor, display position flexibility, and it’s lightweight size, $1,154.99 is a reasonable price (discounted from it’s original price of $1,399) and can be found at Amazon.  You can get a Yoga 2 Pro for less if you don’t need as much RAM and hard disk space, starting at $929.

A Mom’s Perspective

I find myself waiting around a lot with my kids’ various activities.  Though the phone is a good distraction, it is hard to do a lot of work on it.  I have never brought my laptop with me in the past due to my laptop being so heavy, it seemed like a pain to drag around.  But the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is so lightweight and their always seems to be plenty of battery power, it’s easy to take it along with me.

I know this sounds weird, but the fact that the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is orange makes it more fun to take along.  I am a bit shocked how much just the color of the laptop affects my mood in wanting to work on it.  Go figure.  With the Yoga 2 Pro, I feel like now my time is not wasted, meaning I’m not being unproductive, and I actually don’t mind waiting.

My son, who loves orange, is hopeful for my hand-me-down Yoga 2 Pro, but I’m thinking it’s going to be a long time before this ultra-cool, ultra-light laptop gets handed down!  🙂

*  I was given a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro laptop for purposes of review.  All opinions are my own.