GregFromLynnwoodWA
GregFromLynnwoodWA's Stats
- Review Count3
- Helpfulness Votes88
- First ReviewOctober 27, 2012
- Last ReviewOctober 26, 2015
- Featured Reviews0
- Average Rating4.3
Reviews Comments
- Review Comment Count6
- Helpfulness Votes2
- First Review CommentFebruary 22, 2013
- Last Review CommentOctober 26, 2015
- Featured Review Comments0
Questions
- Question Count0
- Helpfulness Votes0
- First QuestionNone
- Last QuestionNone
- Featured Questions0
- Answer Count5
- Helpfulness Votes1
- First AnswerNovember 24, 2013
- Last AnswerNovember 24, 2013
- Featured Answers0
- Best Answers1
GregFromLynnwoodWA's Reviews
HP - Spectre x360 2-in-1 13.3" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 8GB Memory - 256GB Solid State Drive - Natural Silver
HP Spectre x360 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop: This versatile laptop's vivid HD touch screen and convertible design make it easy to enjoy your favorite shows and games in laptop or tablet mode. Connect to an external device via Bluetooth interface for simple streaming.
My New Goldilocks Laptop (and it has pen input!)
Customer Rating
5.0
Posted by: GregFromLynnwoodWA
from Lynnwood, WA
on October 26, 2015
I've been on a quest for my perfect laptop... light weight, good balance when open, good display, comfortable keyboard, enough RAM and SSD to do what I need as a developer, designer, and enthusiast, good performance, great battery life... and cheaper than a MacBook Pro or a SurfaceBook.
The Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro *almost* did it, but the Yoga Pro keyboard design is just stupid and I could never get used to some of its quirks.
After a few days with the Spectre x360, I'm in love. It looks gorgeous, it's peppy, the battery life is great, the keyboard is comfortable, the hinge is solid, and the thing perches on my lap without me worrying it'll tip over.
Better yet, I was looking for reviews of this and read that the previous generation had pen input with Synaptics pens as an unadvertised feature. I thought it might be a gag, but Paul Thurott mentioned it and there was a YouTube review video. It seemed legit.
So I did some research and found a Dell Active Stylus for about half the price of the HP stylus with reviews that said it worked great with the Spectre. And it does. I drew a couple of pictures, used it for some navigation, tested the handwriting recognition in Microsoft OneNote, and it was mostly good.
I wouldn't recommend it to serious artists. The drawing point can lag the pen at times and the pressure sensitivity seemed to have two or three levels at max, and I can't say if that's due to the Dell Stylus or the laptop, but it's good enough for my current needs.
It fits an SDHC card nearly flush, so I'm using that to make sure I can carry all my family photos and music collection with me without sacrificing SSD real estate. We'll see how reliable it is.
I love that it has both HDMI and display port, because I go to a lot of developer events that pretty much expect you to have a Mac if you're going to present.
Downsides... It's a little difficult to open one-handed and during the set-up when I was really working it with a lot of software installation and many browser windows open, the bottom got warmer than I'd like, but not so bad it hurt. I also haven't experienced it getting that hot since.
I'm not a gamer, so I haven't tested the Intel 520 graphics, but recent benchmarking articles have said it's more on par with the Intel 5500 rather than a step up, so you probably shouldn't expect amazing 3D performance.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+17points
19out of 21found this review helpful.
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Lenovo - IdeaPad 2-in-1 11.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 4GB Memory - 128GB Solid State Drive - Silver
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S-59385438 Convertible 2-in-1 Laptop: Lightweight and slender, the flip-and-fold design of this laptop makes it well-suited for productivity on the go. It also functions as a tablet or a touch-screen display in tent and stand modes, and includes voice assistant software for hands-free interaction.Learn more about the New Windows ›
Enjoying this peppy performer
Customer Rating
4.0
Posted by: GregFromLynnwoodWA
from Lynnwood, WA
on November 24, 2013
Display
4.0
Performance
4.0
What's great about it: Small, light, great screen
What's not so great: Mushy feel of keyboard when in tablet mode
You'll have about 80 gigs free when this first boots, This is because 128 gigs in marketing terms measures as around 119 in computer terms. On top of that Lenovo and Microsoft carve out around 17.5 gigs for multiple recovery partitions and a partition where Lenovo stores copies of your driver installers. Then you add in about 21 gigs for Windows and all of Lenovo's pre-installed software. The combined size of the recovery partitions seem a bit big, but I think that may be Microsoft's doing more than Lenovo.
Once I removed all the pre-installed software I didn't want, the free space figure went up to 85 gigs. For a secondary machine, that's PLENTY. I'm not going to be keeping my entire collection of MP3s and family photos on this machine. It's my "grab and go" machine for writing code, emails, web surfing.
I was concerned that the 1366x768 resolution would be an issue, but the screen looks great. This has about as much screen real estate I've become used to on a laptop, and it's bright and clear.
It handles high def YouTube videos in full screen without groaning and the sound is clear at top settings. It's not going to wow anyone with thumping bass or room-filling sound, but it's plenty for me to Skype with my kids or attend a remote meeting via webcam.
The viewing angles are great and it doesn't turn into a mirror the moment you have some ambient light.
I actually considered the Transformer Book T100, but the keyboard on that was just terrible. This one is smaller than I'm used to and I'm making a couple more mistakes than normal typing this, but my speed is good and I'm not uncomfortable. My one criticism is there's some keyboard flex and a slight hollow sound under the T and Y keys.
I don't know about heavy 3D gaming, but I've tried some WebGL demos (including the new Google one for the latest Hobbit movie) and it ran them handily with good visual quality and speed with no stuttering.
As for complaints about the RAM, I'm running IE with two tabs open, Chrome with 4, a few File Explorer windows, a couple of system tools, and I've still got 2 gigs free. 8 gigs would be nicer, but 4 isn't as terrible as some people make it out to be.
All in all, it's a darn fine laptop for simple everyday use.
This product is... Perfect for Business, A nice compact size
About me... Parent with kids, Technology guru
I would recommend this to a friend!
+35points
35out of 35found this review helpful.
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Sony - VAIO 14" Refurbished Touch-Screen Laptop - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - Gunmetal/Vintage Gold
Learn more about Windows 8Enhance your on-the-go multitasking with this Sony VAIO SVE14A27CXH laptop that features built-in wireless networking for simple Web connection and a 1TB hard drive for ample file storage space. The touch-screen display allows easy navigation.
Most powerful touchscreen at Best Buy right now
Customer Rating
4.0
Posted by: GregFromLynnwoodWA
from Lynnwood, WA
on October 27, 2012
Display
4.0
Performance
4.0
What's great about it: Fast, powerful, sleek
What's not so great: Sony loads it down with crapware
I bought this because it's one of the few laptops out there combining a full voltage, mobile core i7 and a 1600x900 touch screen (as opposed to ULV core i5 chips and 1355x768 screens). The only downside is that it doesn't have a TPM chip, so BitLocker can be a pain in the butt if you want to encrypt. .
I'm enjoying Win 8, swiping across the screen, getting it set up for productivity. All in all, I'ver got everything I loved about Win 7 plus Touch and a nice power/speed bump.
This product is... Good sound quality, A touch pad that works great, A nice compact size, lightning fast
About me... Parent with kids, Business Professional, Comfortable with technology
I would recommend this to a friend!
+31points
34out of 37found this review helpful.
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GregFromLynnwoodWA's Questions
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GregFromLynnwoodWA's Answers
Lenovo - IdeaPad 2-in-1 11.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 4GB Memory - 128GB Solid State Drive - Silver
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S-59385438 Convertible 2-in-1 Laptop: Lightweight and slender, the flip-and-fold design of this laptop makes it well-suited for productivity on the go. It also functions as a tablet or a touch-screen display in tent and stand modes, and includes voice assistant software for hands-free interaction.Learn more about the New Windows ›
does this have microsoft office included?
Ive seen various websites where they include microsoft
There's a trial of Office, but not a free version of Office Home and Student like on some other tablets like Surface.
Depending on your needs, Libre Office may be just as good for you as Office and it's free.
If Office is a must-have for you, then the cost of buying a license should be factored into your purchase decision.
Depending on your needs, Libre Office may be just as good for you as Office and it's free.
If Office is a must-have for you, then the cost of buying a license should be factored into your purchase decision.
10 years, 5 months ago
by
Posted by:
GregFromLynnwoodWA
from
Lynnwood, WA
Lenovo - IdeaPad 2-in-1 11.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 4GB Memory - 128GB Solid State Drive - Silver
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S-59385438 Convertible 2-in-1 Laptop: Lightweight and slender, the flip-and-fold design of this laptop makes it well-suited for productivity on the go. It also functions as a tablet or a touch-screen display in tent and stand modes, and includes voice assistant software for hands-free interaction.Learn more about the New Windows ›
The current RAM is 4GB. Is this the maximum RAM supported or can it be increased (to 8GB for example)?
It can be upgraded to 8 gigs. Here's a link to the maintenance manual...
http://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/ideapad_yoga11s_hmm_en.pdf
http://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/ideapad_yoga11s_hmm_en.pdf
10 years, 5 months ago
by
Posted by:
GregFromLynnwoodWA
from
Lynnwood, WA
Lenovo - IdeaPad 2-in-1 11.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 4GB Memory - 128GB Solid State Drive - Silver
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S-59385438 Convertible 2-in-1 Laptop: Lightweight and slender, the flip-and-fold design of this laptop makes it well-suited for productivity on the go. It also functions as a tablet or a touch-screen display in tent and stand modes, and includes voice assistant software for hands-free interaction.Learn more about the New Windows ›
Does it have a backlit keyboard?
No.
10 years, 5 months ago
by
Posted by:
GregFromLynnwoodWA
from
Lynnwood, WA
Lenovo - IdeaPad 2-in-1 11.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 4GB Memory - 128GB Solid State Drive - Silver
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S-59385438 Convertible 2-in-1 Laptop: Lightweight and slender, the flip-and-fold design of this laptop makes it well-suited for productivity on the go. It also functions as a tablet or a touch-screen display in tent and stand modes, and includes voice assistant software for hands-free interaction.Learn more about the New Windows ›
how would you hook this up to a LCD projector to display a powerpoint slide show?
This has a full-size HDMI port and two USB ports. Every projector I've run into will support one of those.
10 years, 5 months ago
by
Posted by:
GregFromLynnwoodWA
from
Lynnwood, WA
Lenovo - IdeaPad 2-in-1 11.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 4GB Memory - 128GB Solid State Drive - Silver
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S-59385438 Convertible 2-in-1 Laptop: Lightweight and slender, the flip-and-fold design of this laptop makes it well-suited for productivity on the go. It also functions as a tablet or a touch-screen display in tent and stand modes, and includes voice assistant software for hands-free interaction.Learn more about the New Windows ›
What is pre-loaded, windows 8 or 8.1?
8.1 thankfully.
10 years, 5 months ago
by
Posted by:
GregFromLynnwoodWA
from
Lynnwood, WA