Category: Computers and Internet

Introduction

Beginning in January 2008, Lenovo has introduced a range of consumer-oriented computers named IdeaPad. The range has a number of different series within it, each designed for a different purpose or user group. The Yoga series is a line of tablets and laptops. The name “Yoga” was chosen because the laptops have hinges that allow the screen to be fully folded back (up to 360°) to convert a laptop into a tablet. A Yoga laptop can also be placed in “tent” or “stand” mode for showing presentations or movies.

The latest generation is the Yoga 900, introduced in October 2015. It is clearly the successor to the Yoga 3 Pro, which was introduced in October 2014. The Yoga 900 has almost exactly the same dimensions and design as the Yoga 3 Pro, including the unique Lenovo “watchband” hinge. For that reason, I’ve used the Yoga 3 Pro as the basis for comparison with the new Yoga 900 in this review. Compared to the Yoga 3 Pro, Lenovo has also made changes in the Yoga 900 design, both internally and externally, which I will point out in this review.

I’ve been able to do this review because Lenovo has provided me with an example of the Yoga 900 in mid-September, ahead of the official launch on October 19, 2015. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks using it, and comparing it with a Yoga 3 Pro that I’ve had since January 2015.

This post focuses on the Yoga 900 hardware and its performance. I have a separate post looking at the software environment of the Yoga 900, i.e. the setting up of Windows 10, and a look at the software bundled with the Yoga 900 by Lenovo. 

Here’s a table that shows a quick comparison between the Yoga 3 Pro and the new Yoga 900:

	Yoga 3 Pro	Yoga 900
OS	Windows 8.1 64/8.1 Pro 64	Windows 10 64 / 10 Pro 64*
Screen	13.3” QHD+ 3200×1800 IPS, 300nits	13.3”QHD+ 3200×1800 IPS, 300nits
CPU	Intel Core M 5Y70/5Y71	Intel Core i7-6500U* / Intel Core i5-6200U
Graphics	Intel HD Graphics 5300	Intel HD Graphics 520
Memory	8 GB DDR3L	Up to 16GB DDR3L*
Storage	256GB/512GB SSD	256GB* / 512GB SSD
Audio	JBL stereo speakers with Waves Audio certification	JBL stereo speakers with Waves Audio and DOLBY Home Theatre certification
Webcam	720p, 30 fps	720p, 30 fps
Connectivity	802.11 a/c Wireless Bluetooth V4.0	802.11 a/c Wireless Bluetooth V4.0
Battery Life	44.8 Watt Hour – 7.2 hours	66 Watt Hour – 9.2 hours
Ports	2xUSB 3.0 1xDC-in with USB 2.0 function, 4in1 card reader (SD, MMC, SDXC, SDHC), Micro-HDMI, Audio Combo Jack	2xUSB 3.0 1xDC-in with USB 2.0 function, 4in1 card reader (SD, MMC, SDXC, SDHC), USB-C, Audio Combo Jack
Weight	1.19 kg. (2.62 lbs)	1.29 kg. (2.84 lbs)
Dimensions	330 x 228 x 12.8mm (13” x 9” x 0.5”)	324 x 225 x 14.9 mm (12.75” x 8.85” x 0.58”)

Table 1
*There is an i7-6500U, 8GB and 256GB SSD fitted on the Yoga 900 I have, and it is running Windows 10 Pro.

Both the Yoga 900 and the Yoga 3 Pro are examples of what Intel calls the Ultrabook class of laptop. That is, they are ultrathin, using solid-state drives, low-power Intel Core processors, and (because of their thinness) do not have optical disc drives or full-size Ethernet ports. They are the Windows equivalent of Apple’s Macbook Air series.

Unboxing

On September 17, UPS delivered a rather plain box: white (on top) and orange (underneath), with four icons on the side representing the four Yoga configurations (Laptop, Stand, Tent, and Tablet).

Like the box of the Yoga 3 Pro, it contains a slick piece of paper engineering – after taking off the lid, you fold back the two flaps covering the top, and as you do so, the Yoga 900 rises out of the box to greet you. This is a nice touch to the packaging.

Underneath the Yoga 900 are compartments that hold the power adaptor, the special USB power cable, and a sleeve containing the quickstart user guide. In my example, the guide was missing, it may have still been in preparation. However, I didn’t really need it, since I’ve been here before, so I could get straight on with plugging in the adaptor and cable and setting up Windows 10 on the machine (see my separate post).

Before doing that, I thought it would be useful to compare the Yoga 900 side-by-side with the Yoga 3 Pro, so here are some photos of the two machines together. The Yoga 900 came in the Champagne Gold colour, while the Yoga 3 Pro is Clementine Orange.

Yoga 900 Externals

As you can see from Table 1, the dimensions of the two machines are very nearly the same. The Yoga 900 (on the right in the photo below) is slightly narrower and thicker than the Yoga 3 Pro, but at a casual glance you wouldn’t see it.

As introduced with the Yoga 3 Pro, the hinge on the Yoga 900 is the distinctive “watchband” design, which I personally find appealing and which works smoothly and very well. Lenovo states that there have been improvements to the design in this generation.

Continuing on our tour of the externals, we come across the first marked difference on the left hand side of the machines. The Micro-HDMI port of the Yoga 3 Pro has been replaced with a USB-C port in the Yoga 900, which (according to the Yoga 900 User Guide) supports USB 3.0, native DisplayPort 1.2 video and VGA/HDMI output. Not (yet) having suitable USB-C cables or adaptors, I couldn’t test this out for myself. Nonetheless, I think that Lenovo is right to be forward-looking with adopting USB-C.

The other ports on this side of the machine remain the same. In the photo above, the first port can act as a standard USB 2.0 port, but it is also the charging port for the Yoga 900/Yoga 3 Pro. Lenovo provide a special USB cable for this purpose, which has a connector that is physically different from a standard USB male cable (it has a small “nub” on one side). The second port is a standard USB 3.0 port, while on the other side of the USB-C/Micro-HDMI port is the card reader port. Here’s a photo of the special USB charging cable connector (above) compared with a standard USB 2.0 connector (below):

Looking at the right-hand side of the machines, one thing immediately leaps out because of its absence. Unlike the Yoga 3 Pro, the Yoga 900 has no rocker switch for volume control.

Everything else is there – but no physical volume control switch. I’m a little surprised by this. It means that the only physical switches for volume control on the Yoga 900 are on the keyboard. For an ordinary laptop, that would be perfectly sufficient. However, this is a Yoga – when placed into one of the other modes (Tent, Stand or Tablet), the keyboard is disabled. Every other tablet (and smartphone) device that I’ve ever used has had a rocker switch on the side of the device used as a volume control; the Yoga 3 Pro has it, so why has Lenovo dropped it for the Yoga 900? On the face of it, this seems a strange design decision on the part of Lenovo.

Other than that, the Yoga 900 has exactly the same controls and ports as the Yoga 3 Pro on this side of the machine. From the left in the photo above: the power button, a recessed button that activates OneKey Recovery (of which more later, in the post on the Yoga 900’s software); the display rotation lock button, the headphone jack socket, and a USB 3.0 port. This last port can also be used to charge devices such as Smartphones via a USB cable.

Lifting the lids of the two devices reveals the next major difference; this time a welcome improvement. The Yoga 900 has a sixth row of keys – a line of dedicated function keys on the top row. It seems that Lenovo received negative feedback over the 5-row keyboard of the Yoga 3 Pro, so the traditional 6-row keyboard has been restored in the Yoga 900. An excellent decision that will please many keyboard jockeys.

The keyboard backlight now has two illumination levels in the Yoga 900, as opposed to the single level of the Yoga 3 Pro. However, there has also been a change to the design of the keys that I feel is a step backwards. As I think you can see in the photo above, the edges of the keys in the Yoga 3 Pro are translucent, whilst those in the Yoga 900 are solid black. This reduces the effectiveness of the backlight in the Yoga 900. For the sake of chic all-black design, backlight functionality has taken a hit. It’s a minor point, but I find the Yoga 3 Pro keys are better in this respect.

The trackpad appears to be the same in both machines, with an area of 60mm x 90mm. It’s a Synaptics trackpad, that unfortunately has not been certified by Microsoft as a Windows Precision Touchpad, perhaps because it is slightly smaller than Microsoft’s recommended optimal size of 65mm x 105mm. This also means that the trackpad settings are not integrated into Windows 10 Settings. More on the trackpad and keyboard in the Yoga’s Modes: Laptop section.

Turning our attention to the screen, both Yoga models have the same high-resolution (3200 x 1800) touchscreen displays, but Lenovo has improved the aesthetics by having a single piece of glass in the lid of the Yoga 900; the Yoga 3 Pro has a strip of black plastic running along the bottom edge. These high resolution screens are almost de rigeur in quality laptops and Ultrabooks these days, so it’s no surprise to see one in the Yoga 900. The display has a ratio of 16:9, which makes it ideal for some uses; less so for others. See my further thoughts on this in the Yoga’s Modes section.

Both Yogas have a Windows button positioned below the display, for use primarily when in Tablet mode. Neither Yoga has haptic feedback for this capacitive button (unlike Lenovo’s ThinkPad tablets). This could simply be because it is physically impossible for Lenovo to fit a haptic mechanism in such a thin lid, but I do somewhat miss this feature.

In comparison to the Yoga 3 Pro, the Windows button of the Yoga 900 is also more difficult to see in some lights. Of course, it could also be argued that, with the advent of Windows 10, the Windows button has become redundant, since, unlike in Windows 8.1, the Windows Taskbar with its Start button is always present – even in Tablet mode. It would not surprise me to see this button dropped altogether in the next generation of Yoga devices.

At the top of the screen is the Yoga 900’s webcam; capable of 720p @ 30 fps (the same as for the Yoga 3 Pro), along with the dual-array microphone.

The speaker grilles are positioned underneath on the Yogas. Those on the Yoga 900 are slightly larger than on the Yoga 3 Pro, although the specifications of the JBL speakers are the same.

Yoga 900 Internals

Lenovo heard feedback from customers that the performance of the Core M processor in the Yoga 3 Pro was slower than anticipated. Lenovo’s response is to include the latest (6^th) generation of Intel Core processors, codenamed “Skylake”, in the Yoga 900. Two versions will be available in the Yoga 900 range; a Core i5 and a Core i7 model. These processors are a step up in speed and power compared to the Intel Core M processors used in the Yoga 3 Pro. See the Benchmarks section for comparative results.

Skylake also introduces a new generation of the graphics processor architecture, and the Yoga 900 has an Intel HD Graphics 520 engine[1], which, as can be seen from the benchmarks, improves 3D graphics performance significantly over the Intel HD Graphics 5300 in the Yoga 3 Pro.

The Yoga 900 can have up to 16 GB system memory installed – improving on the maximum of 8 GB of the Yoga 3 Pro. Storage for both Yogas is the same; either 256 GB or 512 GB SSDs can be specified. It’s a similar story for wireless connectivity; both will support 802.11 A/C Wi-Fi and Bluetooth version 4.0.

The battery is another area where Lenovo has improved on the Yoga 3 Pro as a result of customer feedback. Like many others, I found the battery life between charges on the Yoga 3 Pro to be disappointing. Lenovo has increased the battery capacity of the Yoga 900 to 66 Watt hours. That is a third more capacity than that of the Yoga 3 Pro. The Yoga 900 is very slightly thicker and heavier than the Yoga 3 Pro (14.9 mm vs 12.8 mm and 1.29 kg vs 1.19 kg), but it achieves its increase of a third in battery capacity at a cost of only 15% extra thickness and 8% in weight. it’s a sacrifice I’m happy to make for the increased running time on battery.

Both Yogas are equipped with cooling fans. See the benchmarks section for comments on effectiveness and noise.

There’s one omission that I personally find a little disappointing: there is no built-in GNSS to feed GPS coordinate data to the Windows Location service. It’s a hobbyhorse of mine – I feel that mobile devices should have a GNSS chip fitted as standard. Downloadable maps in map and navigation apps are standard these days, but I still can’t use the Yoga 900 (or indeed the Yoga 3 Pro) off the grid without an additional Bluetooth GPS logger to track its position.

However, that omission apart, the Yoga 900 is a very attractive looking Ultrabook, with an excellent display and connectivity options.

Benchmarks

Having attractive looks is one thing, but how does the Yoga 900 measure up in performance? I ran some standard benchmarks on both the Yoga 900 and the Yoga 3 Pro in order to have a comparison between them. I did a quick subjective performance test using a Digital Audio Workstation application that I run on my desktop PC. Finally, I ran a simple battery life test.

PassMark Benchmarks

PassMark Software provide benchmarking software and hardware. I downloaded their Performance Test 8.0 software and used it to run benchmarks on both Yogas. The results are shown in Table 2 below. I also downloaded HWMonitor from CPUID, to record the maximum temperature of the CPU reached when running the benchmarks.

	Yoga 900	Yoga 3 Pro
PassMark	2214	1575
CPU Mark	4439	3628
2D Graphics Mark	410.5	338.8
3D Graphics Mark	953	392.9
Memory Mark	1771	1598
Disk Mark	3201	3208
Max CPU Temperature	71°C	71°C

Table 2

In the results table above, it is clear that the CPU and graphics performance of the Yoga 900 over the Yoga 3 Pro is much improved, particularly for 3D graphics. Only the disk performance remains unchanged between the two machines.

As a general principle, I don’t like fans in portable devices, and have expressly purchased tablets for myself that do not have them. Nonetheless, for Ultrabooks with the performance of the Yoga 900, it is probably inevitable that such a device will have a fan. During the running of the benchmarks, the fan on both machines could be heard. Subjectively, the loudness of both fans sounded the same to me. I did not find it intrusive – a hissing sound – and I think it would be at an acceptable level for most people.

What is interesting from the table above is that the maximum temperature reached by the CPU in both machines during the running of the benchmarks is the same. The i7-6500U processor in the Yoga 900 will certainly be giving out more heat than the M 5Y70 in the Yoga 3 Pro. Given that the fans were equally loud, this would seem to support Lenovo’s claim that they have improved the cooling system in the Yoga 900.

Windows System Assessment Tool

The Windows System Assessment Tool was first introduced by Microsoft in Windows Vista as a means to compare the performance of the hardware of Windows PCs. For Windows Vista and Windows 7, Microsoft provided an applet (the Windows Experience Index applet) to display the results. Although Microsoft no longer provides this applet in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, the assessment telemetry is still in place and can be used by third-party tools to display the Windows Experience Index. I used the WEI tool from ChrisPC to display the results for both the Yoga 900 and the Yoga 3 Pro.

For the most part, the results from this set of benchmarks confirm the findings of the PassMark benchmarks. CPU, graphics, and memory performance is improved in the Yoga 900, whilst disk performance remains the same. For some reason the WSAT tool claims that 3D graphics performance is the same for both machines; I suspect that the PassMark tests are more rigorous, and give a truer picture.

Digital Audio Workstation Test

As a result of the improvements to the CPU, GPU and larger system memory, the Yoga 900 can tackle more demanding tasks than the Yoga 3 Pro. By way of a quick subjective experiment, I installed Cubase LE AI Elements 8 on the Yoga 900, and used it with a Cubase project that uses 10 virtual instruments in the HALion Sonic SE workstation, also running on the Yoga 900. This performed well.

Battery Life Test

Lenovo claims that the Yoga 900 battery can last for 9 hours between charges when playing HD video at 200nits. I did a simple test of battery life under the following conditions:

• Display always on at 50% brightness
• Speakers at 100% volume with Dolby Audio on and set to music playback
• Continuous music playback via Groove Music
• Music streamed from a media server via WiFi

Under these conditions, the battery lasted for 6.5 hours. Not the 9 hours claimed for by Lenovo, but certainly more than can be achieved by the Yoga 3 Pro under the same conditions.

Performance summary

As a result of this testing, it seems clear that the Yoga 900 will perform very well in activities involving both productivity (office work) and media consumption (watching movies/videos and listening to music). It can also be used for media creation work (digital audio). Battery life is improved over that of the Yoga 3 Pro.

Yoga’s Modes

A prime selling point of the Yoga is the fact that it can be folded into a variety of modes. At the time of introduction of the original Yoga back in September 2012, this was a unique innovation. Since then, the concept has been copied by other manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Toshiba and ASUS, which proves that imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery. It also clearly demonstrates that the concept is perceived to have market value. Lenovo followed up with the introduction of the “watchband” hinge in September 2014, and now with the Yoga 900 we can see both innovations in a mature form.

These are the four modes of the Yoga:

Laptop

The traditional laptop mode is probably the starting point for most people, and the mode in which I suspect most people will be using it for the majority of the time.

The Yoga 900 keyboard delivers in this mode. The extended keyboard, and its quality feel (something for which Lenovo has a reputation for), will please those who pound keyboards all day long.

I am less positive about the trackpad. As mentioned earlier, this is a Synaptics device that has not been certified as a Windows Precision Touchpad by Microsoft. The result is that it is not integrated in Windows 10 Settings, and Synaptics mimics the required Windows 10 touchpad gestures in their own driver. I also note that there are many complaints about the software driver in the community support forums of Lenovo. I feel that Lenovo should get this trackpad properly certified and fully integrated into Windows 10.

The display is excellent, high resolution, good colours, and, at 300nits, bright enough for me. It’s a 16:9 ratio display, so it’s ideal for watching movies. For office work (e.g. word processing in Word, Excel), I personally prefer at least a 16:10 ratio. Even better would be the 3:2 ratio of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3. The 16:9 ratio is also not ideal in the Tablet mode (see later). The Yoga 900 has a large bezel area surrounding the display. It should be possible to fit a 16:10 ratio screen that is the same width as the current display into the Yoga’s lid. If the (now redundant) Windows Button were to be dropped in the next Yoga generation, this would be very easy to do. The overall dimensions of the Yoga would then remain the same, but having a 16:10 ratio display would serve the Laptop and Tablet modes far better than the current 16:9 ratio display, in my opinion.

Tent

This mode is ideal for media (movies and videos) presentations, particularly in space restricted situations, e.g. on a shelf or an aircraft table. For viewing movies, of course, the 16:9 ratio of the display is now ideal. Couple the Yoga with a wireless presenter, and you can use this mode for PowerPoint presentations as well. In this mode the keyboard and trackpad are automatically disabled.

Stand

As an alternative to the Tent mode, the Stand mode can be used for media and PowerPoint presentations. It requires more space than the Tent mode, but the screen can be set to a greater range of angles for the best viewing experience. The keyboard and trackpad are automatically disabled in this mode also.

Tablet

The last mode is where the lid is completely folded back over the (disabled) keyboard, and to convert the Yoga 900 into a tablet. You can select to have Windows 10 automatically switch into Tablet mode, or to give you the option to switch manually. In this mode, the 10-point touchscreen comes into its own. However, I find that the size of the Yoga 900 (and the Yoga 3 Pro before it) makes for a slightly unwieldy tablet. While the overall size ratio is very close to that of an A4 pad of paper, it’s bigger, and it’s just too big for me. The 10.1 inch Lenovo ThinkPad 10 is much more my ideal size of tablet. The ThinkPad 10 also has an active digitiser and pen, which again I find important to have in a tablet. Artists also want pens with their tablets, and while many artists might prefer the larger size of the Yoga 900, without proper pen support, they will be crossing it off their list of devices to consider.

Talking of A4 pads of paper brings up one last point. One of the frequent uses of a tablet is for reading books or magazines. And once again, the 16:9 ratio of the Yoga 900 provides (in my view) a diminished reading experience over devices with 16:10 ratios (e.g. the ThinkPad 10) or 3:2 ratios (e.g. the Surface 3). Pages are rendered longer and narrower in 16:9, and the reading experience suffers as a result.

I would certainly make use of the tablet mode of the Yoga 900, but for me, and my usage patterns, it would not be the most frequently used mode. Still, having the option is something that a traditional laptop could not offer me.

Overall Conclusions

In my opinion, the Yoga 900 is a clear advance over its predecessor, the Yoga 3 Pro. Lenovo has listened to customer feedback and successfully addressed the major weak points of the Yoga 3 Pro, while maintaining its style and design quality. The plus points are:

• Higher performance suitable for a wide range of consumer and business users
• Improved keyboard
• Improved battery life between charges
• Excellent display
• Build quality and style
• Flexibility in use

There are some minus points (in my view):

• The trackpad is not certified as a Windows Precision Touchpad
• The physical volume control switch has been dropped.
• Few Lenovo apps deliver real value-add (see this post for details).

And perhaps Lenovo could give consideration to the following for the next generation of the Yoga:

• Move from a 16:9 screen ratio to at least 16:10, if not 3:2.
• Include an active pen option in the Yoga 900 range.
• Include a GNSS chip to deliver GPS coordinates in real-time to the Windows Location service.
• Put back the volume control rocker switch.

It is a fine example of the Ultrabook class of computer. It also offers additional flexibility with the configurations that it can be folded into. I like it.

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[1] Yes, the Yoga 3 Pro has Intel HD Graphics 5300, but despite being a higher number, it has a lower performance. Intel has changed their numbering scheme “in order to reduce confusion”. It seems to me to have done precisely the opposite.

Microsoft had a big day of product announcements yesterday. I watched the videostream to see and hear what they had to say.

Product announcements can be tricky things to do well. Too often they can be mind-numbingly boring, and Microsoft has been guilty of doing plenty of those in the past. However, I have to say that – for the most part – Microsoft did a very good job. Agreed, the first few minutes did not bode well. The event opened with the typical corporate aspirational video, followed with a welcoming introduction from Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of the Windows and Devices Group. Gawd love him, he’s clearly doing a good job at Microsoft, but an inspirational speaker he is not. He opened with some facts and figures about the takeup of Windows 10 in both the consumer and business markets, then segued into talking about Xbox One and finished by introducing a demonstration of a HoloLens game. The demonstration looked pretty impressive, but questions remain about the experience that the wearer of the HoloLens actually sees. Time will tell.

Following that was a video and then a product presentation of the next generation of the Microsoft Band given by Lindsey Matese from the team that developed the product. She did a reasonable job, and there were whoops and cheers from the crowd, but my attention kept wandering. Perhaps it’s because the Microsoft Band and the Microsoft Health cloud service behind it is currently focused on athletes. If a focus on pensioners’ healthcare were to be added, then I’m sure that I would be more interested.

Right, we are now 30 minutes into the product announcement, and so far, it’s your typical corporate event. Now, Myerson moves on to talking about Lumia and Surface, and introduces Panos Panay (head of engineering of all premium Microsoft devices), and things move up a gear or three.

Panay is a showman. He is passionate about his products, and there’s more than a whiff of the preacher about him. He works the crowd (and the crowd are already a noisy bunch) and they respond enthusiastically. Part of me hates this style of presentation, because it’s so nakedly manipulative – like an evangelical prayer meeting – and part of me can’t help admiring it, because he does it so well. It’s helped, of course, by the fact that when you get down to it, the products mostly stand up to the hype.

He starts with the Lumia phones: the 950 and 950XL.

Panay introduces Bryan Roper to demonstrate the Continuum feature of the new Lumia phones, and once again I think this is not your father’s Microsoft product announcement. Once again, I am struck by my ambivalence towards Roper’s style of presentation. Roper reminds me of the old-style market trader, with his patter. I should hate it, but I am won over by the corniness of it, by his humour, and by the fact that he really does demonstrate (with consummate ease) why Continuum has the potential to turn the Windows Phone business around and grow the market share in the Business and Enterprise markets.

Back to Panay to wrap up the Lumia part of the presentation, and then he says: “So, I guess you want to talk about Surface?”.

He starts with a review of how well the Surface Pro 3 has done in the market (“98% of people who use Surface Pro 3 recommend it”), and then unveils the Surface Pro 4. He proceeds to walk us through the technology of the Surface and the Surface Pen, and throws in a little dig against the Apple Pencil, which is loved by the home crowd. After 20 minutes devoted to the Surface Pro 4 and related products, he asks: “Do you want to talk about another product?”.

This is his cue to move into the final part of his presentation and introduce the Surface Book – Microsoft’s entry into the 2-in-1 Laptop market. The crowd goes wild.

After a further gripping presentation on the Surface Book, he is finished, and after a final video, the floor is given over to Satya Nadella (Microsoft’s CEO) to wrap up.

Panay and Roper delivered, and lifted that product announcement up several levels.

A couple of months ago I wrote a post “Metro – Murdered By Microsoft?” in which I expressed my concern that it appeared as though Microsoft was dropping many of the elements of the Metro design language. As I said:

Frankly, if I’d wanted an Android phone, I would have bought one. One of the key reasons why I went with a Windows Phone was the UI design. I like it a lot, and I am at ease with it. To have a key Microsoft team turn their back on it and introduce Android elements is a shock, to say the least.

A few days ago, we got confirmation that Microsoft has indeed stuck a dagger in the back of Metro. The confirmation came in the form of an AMA (Ask Me Anything) discussion on Reddit by an ex-Microsoft Windows Phone designer, Jon Bell. It’s clear that he doesn’t care for the Pivot design element that is a key part of the design language:

Swiping sucks. It hides content. Let’s say you’re in Format and you want to get to something 5 tabs away. Five swipes is an unacceptable series of interactions. The carousel model has been disproven repeatedly, every single decade, for several decades. We have the data. It’s a dumb interaction model, full stop.

It clearly doesn’t matter that I (and presumably many others) happen to like the Pivot and its swiping action very much indeed. Microsoft has the data that “proves” it’s a dumb interaction model. And as an ex-Microsoft designer explains:

So on the day of the Meeting, the PM [Project Manager] will go on and on about how the Decision benefits the User. They come up with facts that support the Decision. We don’t want to confuse the User with too many options. Only 3% of people used it that way, so clearly it’s okay to remove. Consistency is good for Microsoft, so it must be good for the User. Everybody smiles and nods and agrees this is the best way. The newest to the team, because it just makes so much sense. The veterans, possibly because they secretly know it’s about the engineers and not about the User, but more likely because engineers are inherently lazy. The meeting ends and the Feature has a new direction. It’s a little bit farther from the vision, and maybe little bit worse user experience, but writing software is about compromise. This was a good compromise. It’s not that bad, anyway. It was the best option available. If only the User was there to see it, they’d understand that.

Probably more to the point, the Metro design language is radically different to those of iOS and Android, and Microsoft wants to attract those users across to Windows Phone if it can. Having a distinct design language acts as a barrier, so Microsoft appears to have made the decision that nine billion flies can’t be wrong, and moved to a similar design language. I think that’s a pity, I like Metro, but at the end of the day, Microsoft wants to make money.

Let me put my cards on the table; I’ve never been a fan of Facebook. However, it seems that most of our neighbours are avid Facebook fans, so after holding out for years, I decided that I’d open up a Facebook account in November last year, primarily as a means of being kept up to date with what was happening in my neighbourhood.

Even after I signed up, I rarely accessed my Facebook page, and contented myself with batting away the many, many Facebook notifications that appeared in my email inbox or on my Windows Phone. My prime channel for revealing my thoughts to the (largely indifferent) world has remained this blog.

Then today, out of the blue, I got a notification from Facebook that I’m restricted from seeing the profiles of people that I don’t know for one week:

Er, excuse me? I don’t make a habit of trying to see the profiles of people that I don’t know (I have tried looking up two old friends since I joined), so why the restriction?

Well, sod this for a game of conkers. I don’t need Facebook, so I’ve deleted my account. Goodbye and good riddance.

Addendum 15 October 2016: It is with great regret that I have to confess that I’ve been forced to reopen a Facebook account. There’s a group of us lobbying for internet services via optical fibre in our area, and it has been decided that a closed Facebook group is the best way of keeping the group organised. Sigh. I still loathe and detest Facebook, but needs must, I suppose…

Addendum 23 June 2019: I should point out that once the lobbying action was (successfully) completed, I deleted my Facebook account – and have been Facebook-free for over a year. Don’t miss it in the slightest.

I’ll kick this post off with a disclaimer: YMMV – Your Mileage May Vary. That’s to say that what follows is entirely my subjective impression based upon my usage requirements for portable computing. Your requirements may well be entirely different, and so would your conclusions be in the following comparison.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let me remind you that last September, I received a ThinkPad 10 tablet on long-term loan from Lenovo. I blogged about my first impressions of it in a post that compared it to my ThinkPad Tablet 2, which I had purchased myself back in January 2013.

I must admit that in the ensuing months, I quickly began to like the ThinkPad 10 (TP10); so much so that I sold my ThinkPad Tablet 2. The TP10, in combination with the Lenovo Quickshot Cover, fits my requirements for portable computing very well indeed. In particular I like:

• the size and weight (not too big, clumsy or heavy),
• the 16:10 screen aspect ratio (better for reading books than 16:9 aspect ratio devices)
• the pen – I prefer scribbling notes and diagrams in OneNote during meetings to typing
• the performance – not a speed demon, but more than adequate for what I use (OneNote, Mail, browsing with IE, Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
• the UI experience of Windows 8.1 in a tablet.

And there things stood until a couple of weeks ago, when Lenovo asked me if I would like to try a Yoga Pro 3 (Y3P). I replied that I was interested in trying out the Consumer Technical Preview of Windows 10, so if I could use the Y3P for that, then yes, please. A package containing a rather smart box (see below) was delivered a few days later, a couple of days before Microsoft unveiled the next stage of Windows 10. The box itself is a slick piece of paper engineering – after taking off the lid, you fold back the two flaps covering the top, and as you do so, the Y3P rises out of the box to greet you. A nice touch.

I have the orange version of the Y3P, which is pleasingly different to the usual black or silver Ultrabooks:

The most striking thing, of course, is that “ watchband” hinge. It’s unique in the portable computer world. I rather like it, I have to say.

Being an Ultrabook, the Y3P has more ports than the TP10. The left side has Lenovo’s battery charger port (which also doubles as a USB 2.0 port), a USB 3.0 port, a Micro-HDMI port, and a full-size 4-in-1 (MMC, SD, SDXC and SDHC) Memory Card slot. The right side has another USB 3.0 port (which can also be used to charge Smartphones), a headphone socket, Volume controls, Auto screen rotation lock, a recessed Reset button and a Power button.

I do prefer the buttons on the Y3P, they are slightly proud of the case, and far easier to use than those on the TP10, which continue to be a slight source of irritation if ever I need to use them. Fortunately I rarely need to, as the TP10’s Quickshot cover acts as a power (sleep) button, and I tend to use the onscreen Volume controls in place of the physical buttons.

Opening up the Y3P is a bit of a palaver, in comparison to simply flipping open the Quickshot Cover on the TP10. The watchband hinge is stiff (as it needs to be), and my fingers find it difficult to get a purchase at the front of the Y3P to begin prising it open. Once open, a fairly standard keyboard and trackpad are revealed (you’ll notice that the matt finish of the trackpad shows up finger oil very well).

I’m sure some long-term Lenovo users will be complaining that there is no TrackPoint device, but it’s been so long since I used one that I don’t miss it. This Y3P is the first device I’ve used that has a backlit keyboard, and I must admit that is one innovation that I have really begun to appreciate. Tapping away of an evening, seated in front of the TV, is so much easier with a backlit keyboard. With my tablet, most of the time I’m either writing, or using the on-screen keyboard (which of course is easily visible), but on the occasions when I do use a physical keyboard, it’s been one without a backlight, and now I realise the advantage of having a backlit keyboard.

The Y3P is of course much bigger than the TP10. That means both more weight (1.9 Kg versus 0.6 Kg), and a bigger screen.  Here’s the TP10 laid on top of the Y3P to give you an idea of the difference:

The screen of the Y3P is not only physically bigger (13.3” diagonal versus 10.1”), but it has a higher resolution (3200 x 1800 versus 1920 x 1200) than the TP10. It also has a higher pixel density (276.05 dpi versus  224.17 dpi), but note that it is yet another 16:9 aspect ratio device.

Like the TP10, it has a touchscreen capable of registering 10-point gestures. However, unlike the TP10, there is no pen or active digitiser.

A couple of other things that are lacking in the Y3P in comparison to the TP10:

• There is no rear camera, so capturing documents will have to be done with your Smartphone.
• There’s no GNSS chip, so you’ll have to rely on your WiFi location being known accurately if you are using a map application. However, I doubt that this will work if you are using your laptop with the train’s WiFi during your daily commute.
• There’s no WWAN option available (my loan TP10 doesn’t have WWAN either, but this is available as an option).

The Y3P is equipped with an Intel Core M processor. The model I have has the 5Y70 chip, which is a 2 core/4 thread chip running at 1.1GHz or 2.6 GHz in Turbo boost. It has 8 GB of memory, and a 256 GB SSD fitted for storage. Although in theory the Core M processors are suitable for fanless designs, the Y3P is fitted with a fan. I can occasionally just hear it – a faint hiss coming from the right hand end of the watchband.

Performance-wise, then, it far outstrips the Intel Atom processor with its 4 GB memory in the TP10. Yet, most of the time, I simply don’t notice it in the software I use.

The Y3P came with even more Bloatware pre-installed by Lenovo than the TP10. As you can tell, I am not a fan of the extra software that OEM manufacturers throw into their machines. I spent an afternoon getting rid of most of them (and one of Lenovo’s applications – Harmony – refused to uninstall itself, until I took extreme measures). There must have been well over twenty different packages, practically all of them of questionable utility as far as I’m concerned.

I have installed Build 9926 of the Windows 10 Technical Preview on to the Y3P, but I’ll keep my comments on that for another post.

To sum up my thoughts on the comparison between the Y3P and the TP10 thus far, I think it’s safe to say that I still much prefer the TP10 over the Y3P.

The Yoga 3 Pro is a nice machine; well engineered, but I think it has helped confirm my suspicion that my preferred portable computing device is a tablet equipped with a pen. I look forward to continuing to test out Windows 10 on it, but I’ll continue to take my trusty TP10 with me to meetings, and for kicking back on the sofa of an evening. But as I said at the outset, your requirements, and your conclusions may be completely different to mine…