Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro Review: A Masterclass in Design and Display

The Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is one of the nicest high-resolution displays we've ever laid eyes on for any 13-inch notebook. The display itself is a marvel, with its wide 170° viewing angles and 350 nits of brightness, making it easily visible in various lighting conditions. This ultra-high definition panel really impresses when viewing HD video and 4K Super HD content. The Yoga 2 Pro's impressive display quality is matched only by its beautiful design.

The Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro comes with a very tiny AC adapter, which may be a consideration for some users, but the other major feature of the product that truly sets it apart is its specialized hinges. These hinges allow the notebook to contort into many different positions, hence the name "Yoga". There are four different modes for which The Yoga 2 Pro can set up in: flip and bend into tablet mode, tent mode, stand mode, and the traditional notebook mode. Stand mode might be useful for video viewing or video chats, while tent mode is perhaps more intended as a touch-driven setup for gaming, photo viewing, or quick browsing.

The display quality of the Yoga 2 Pro is truly one of its standout features. With its impressive 3200 x 1800 resolution, it's hard to go back to more standard setups once you've seen image quality at this level. However, with a relatively small 13-inch form factor, web pages can look pretty tiny at standard 100% Zoom settings, so you'll want to turn up image zoom settings and windows to help compensate for this.

The Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is built with a silver flat matte finished covering that almost completely eliminates fingerprints. Surprisingly, Lenovo also added a rubberized grip edge to the top bezel of the notebook, which feels great and protects the display a bit as well. The right edge of the Yoga 2 Pro houses a headphone and mic port, as well as a powered USB 2 port, and you have power and volume controls here as well. There's also a battery status indicator light and a Nova button that can access Lov those one-key recovery tools or bios setup.

The back of the Yoga 2 Pro reveals venting for the system, as well as the fully articulating hinges that allow for such flexibility. On the left edge of the Yoga 2 Pro, you'll find the new rectangular power port that Lenovo is employing in its notebooks lately, along with a USB 3 port, HDMI out, and an SD card reader. The notebook also features a battery status indicator light and a Nova button that can access one-key recovery tools or bios setup.

The Yoga 2 Pro's keyboard is also really nice, featuring a backlit design and an extra column of keys on the right side for page up and down, end, and home buttons. The key caps are slightly concave and shaped to fit your fingers nicely, but there's a fair bit of travel before you reach the bottom row. We did notice that the keyboard's smaller than traditional backspace keys, which takes a bit of getting used to.

The Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is built with strong performance in mind. Powered by Intel's Core i5 4200U Haswell dual-core processor with hyperthreading at 1.6 to 2.6 GHz, the system handles most tasks with ease. The integrated Intel HD 4400 Graphics topping out at 1 GHz also provides a good balance between performance and power consumption.

Gaming performance on the Yoga 2 Pro is up for some light duty gaming, and it handles about as you'd expect for a thin and light notebook. With its impressive display quality and strong performance capabilities, the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is a great option for those looking for a high-end notebook that can handle everyday tasks with ease.

Overall, we really like Lenovo's new Yoga 2 Pro Ultrabook so much that we're giving it Hot Hardware's Editor's Choice Award. Its Superior design and build quality, along with strong performance and a fantastic high-res display make it a must-have for anyone in the market for a premium notebook. Be sure to check out our full review on Hardware.com for all the benchmarks and analysis, and don't forget to subscribe to our channel for future video reviews, webcasts, and event coverage.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi there it's Dave altavilla for hot hardware and this is lenovo's Yoga 2 Pro flippable and foldable Ultrabook The Yoga 2 Pro is a spelt 3 lb 61 in thin machine based on Intel's fourth generation Haswell processor and we're specifically looking at a model based on the Intel Core i5 4200u dual core at 1.6 GHz with Boost speeds up to 2.6 GHz on board is Windows 8.1 as well as 4 gig of 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM and a 128 GB solid state drive also on board is a 720P HD webcam Intel 80211 BG and wireless and Bluetooth 4 however one of the most standout features of the Yoga 2 Pro is its absolutely gorgeous 13.3 in QHD plus full touch display with its super tight 3200x 1800 native resolution I'm going to say that again 3200 by 18800 native res on this panel it is super high res this is an IPS display with 72% color gamut and wide 170° viewing angles and 350 nits of brightnesss it's easily one of the nicest highresolution displays we've ever laid eyes on for any 13-inch notebook as configured the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro retails for $999 The Yoga 2 Pro also comes with a very tiny AC adapter but the other major feature of the product is its specialized hinges that allow the notebook to contort into many different positions hence the name yoga there are in fact four different modes for which The Yoga 2 Pro can set up in like its predecessor it can flip and bend into tablet mode tent mode stand mode and the traditional notebook mode stand mode might be useful for video viewing or video chats things like that while tent mode is perhaps more intended as a touch driven setup for gaming photo viewing or quick browsing while tablet and notebook modes are pretty self-explanatory at least one would hope but again we can't say enough about the Yoga 2 Pro impressive 3200 by 1800 display it really is gorgeous and once you've seen image quality at this resolution it's hard to go back to more standard setups our video review here really doesn't do the Yoga 2 Pro Justice there are however some considerations you'll need to keep in mind with a super highres but relatively small 13in notebook form factor for display as you can see web pages at standard 100% Zoom can look pretty tiny so you'll want to turn up image Zoom settings and windows to help compensate for this however when viewing HD video and of course 4K Super HD video content this panel really impresses The Yoga 2 Pro is built built with a silver flat matte finished covering that almost completely eliminates fingerprints surprisingly Lenovo also added sort of a rubberized grip Edge to the top bezel of the notebook which feels great and protects the display a bit as well it's one of the nicest notebook designs we've seen in a long while and the right edge of the Yoga 2 Pro houses a headphone and mic Port as well as a powered USB 2 port and you have power and volume controls here as well there's also a battery status indicator light and a Nova button that can access Lov those one key recovery tools or bios setup as well as a rotation lock button on the back you'll find venting for the system as well as the Yoga 2 Pro's fully articulating hinges and on the left edge of the Yoga 2 Pro you'll find the new rectangular power port that Lenovo is employing in its notebooks lately as well as a usb3 port HDMI out and an SD card reader and as you can see here the yoga Pro with the help of its 128 GB solid state drive that we had installed in our system also boots faster than most notebooks we've tested to date in well under 10 seconds actually it's really quick on bootup The Yoga 2 Pros keyboard is also really nice it's a back lit keyboard and it has an extra column of keys on the right side for page up and down end and home buttons Etc the key caps are slightly concave and shaped to fit your fingers nicely and there's a fair bit of travel however we did notice the keyboard's smaller than traditional backspace key which takes a bit of getting used to and it's the result of Lenovo squeezing in those few additional keys on the right edge of the keyboard it's the same configuration as lenovo's Yoga 13 model incidentally as well but once you've worked with the machine for a while you do get used to it and from a software standpoint Lenovo does bundle in some useful utilities and apps like getting to know your yoga which walks you around the ious positions and setups of the device and yoga Chef which is similar to Microsoft's Bing food and drink app other apps like yoga photo touch allow basic image editing capabilities for things like color lighting balance cropping sizing Etc General performance and gaming performance with the Yoga 2 Pro powered by Intel's Core i5 4200u Haswell dual core processor with hyperthreading at 1.6 to 2.6 GHz that's a mouthful is very solid and with integrated Intel HD 4400 Graphics topping out at 1 GHz The Yoga 2 Pro is up for some light duty gaming and handles about as you'd expect for a thin and light notebook when you boil it all down we really like lenovo's new Yoga 2 Pro Ultrabook so much so that we're giving it hot Hardware's editor's Choice Award for its Superior design and build quality along with strong performance and a fantastic high-res display make sure you stop by H hardware.com for our full review with all the benchmarks and Analysis and be sure to subscribe here for future video reviews webcasts and event coverage it's Dave altavilla with the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro thanks again for stopping byhi there it's Dave altavilla for hot hardware and this is lenovo's Yoga 2 Pro flippable and foldable Ultrabook The Yoga 2 Pro is a spelt 3 lb 61 in thin machine based on Intel's fourth generation Haswell processor and we're specifically looking at a model based on the Intel Core i5 4200u dual core at 1.6 GHz with Boost speeds up to 2.6 GHz on board is Windows 8.1 as well as 4 gig of 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM and a 128 GB solid state drive also on board is a 720P HD webcam Intel 80211 BG and wireless and Bluetooth 4 however one of the most standout features of the Yoga 2 Pro is its absolutely gorgeous 13.3 in QHD plus full touch display with its super tight 3200x 1800 native resolution I'm going to say that again 3200 by 18800 native res on this panel it is super high res this is an IPS display with 72% color gamut and wide 170° viewing angles and 350 nits of brightnesss it's easily one of the nicest highresolution displays we've ever laid eyes on for any 13-inch notebook as configured the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro retails for $999 The Yoga 2 Pro also comes with a very tiny AC adapter but the other major feature of the product is its specialized hinges that allow the notebook to contort into many different positions hence the name yoga there are in fact four different modes for which The Yoga 2 Pro can set up in like its predecessor it can flip and bend into tablet mode tent mode stand mode and the traditional notebook mode stand mode might be useful for video viewing or video chats things like that while tent mode is perhaps more intended as a touch driven setup for gaming photo viewing or quick browsing while tablet and notebook modes are pretty self-explanatory at least one would hope but again we can't say enough about the Yoga 2 Pro impressive 3200 by 1800 display it really is gorgeous and once you've seen image quality at this resolution it's hard to go back to more standard setups our video review here really doesn't do the Yoga 2 Pro Justice there are however some considerations you'll need to keep in mind with a super highres but relatively small 13in notebook form factor for display as you can see web pages at standard 100% Zoom can look pretty tiny so you'll want to turn up image Zoom settings and windows to help compensate for this however when viewing HD video and of course 4K Super HD video content this panel really impresses The Yoga 2 Pro is built built with a silver flat matte finished covering that almost completely eliminates fingerprints surprisingly Lenovo also added sort of a rubberized grip Edge to the top bezel of the notebook which feels great and protects the display a bit as well it's one of the nicest notebook designs we've seen in a long while and the right edge of the Yoga 2 Pro houses a headphone and mic Port as well as a powered USB 2 port and you have power and volume controls here as well there's also a battery status indicator light and a Nova button that can access Lov those one key recovery tools or bios setup as well as a rotation lock button on the back you'll find venting for the system as well as the Yoga 2 Pro's fully articulating hinges and on the left edge of the Yoga 2 Pro you'll find the new rectangular power port that Lenovo is employing in its notebooks lately as well as a usb3 port HDMI out and an SD card reader and as you can see here the yoga Pro with the help of its 128 GB solid state drive that we had installed in our system also boots faster than most notebooks we've tested to date in well under 10 seconds actually it's really quick on bootup The Yoga 2 Pros keyboard is also really nice it's a back lit keyboard and it has an extra column of keys on the right side for page up and down end and home buttons Etc the key caps are slightly concave and shaped to fit your fingers nicely and there's a fair bit of travel however we did notice the keyboard's smaller than traditional backspace key which takes a bit of getting used to and it's the result of Lenovo squeezing in those few additional keys on the right edge of the keyboard it's the same configuration as lenovo's Yoga 13 model incidentally as well but once you've worked with the machine for a while you do get used to it and from a software standpoint Lenovo does bundle in some useful utilities and apps like getting to know your yoga which walks you around the ious positions and setups of the device and yoga Chef which is similar to Microsoft's Bing food and drink app other apps like yoga photo touch allow basic image editing capabilities for things like color lighting balance cropping sizing Etc General performance and gaming performance with the Yoga 2 Pro powered by Intel's Core i5 4200u Haswell dual core processor with hyperthreading at 1.6 to 2.6 GHz that's a mouthful is very solid and with integrated Intel HD 4400 Graphics topping out at 1 GHz The Yoga 2 Pro is up for some light duty gaming and handles about as you'd expect for a thin and light notebook when you boil it all down we really like lenovo's new Yoga 2 Pro Ultrabook so much so that we're giving it hot Hardware's editor's Choice Award for its Superior design and build quality along with strong performance and a fantastic high-res display make sure you stop by H hardware.com for our full review with all the benchmarks and Analysis and be sure to subscribe here for future video reviews webcasts and event coverage it's Dave altavilla with the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro thanks again for stopping by\n"