Any new Thinkpad with digitizer stylus support?

[rgrosz78]

My wife is an artist, and is looking for a new laptop. She currently has a four year old Toshiba Portege, which is a convertible tablet touchscreen with stylus support.

I am using a three year old Thinkpad X230, which is a convertible tablet touchscreen with stylus support. She wants something similar to mine, but needs a 12-14 inch screen, and VERY long battery life.

Does such a model exist? I had a web chat with Lenovo sales this morning, and the only model they pointed me to was the Yoga. I am not impressed with that line at all - it only has an 11.6 inch screen.

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the Forum.
There's also a 13.3" Yoga: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/le ... top-2-pro/
It can supposedly do up to 9 hours.
There's also a 14" Yoga: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/le ... yoga-3-14/
It can supposedly do a little over 7 hours.
As well as a 15.6" Yoga: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/th ... s/yoga-15/
It can supposedly do over 8 hours.

Please be aware that you'll find few Yoga users on this Forum, as it's not considered a real ThinkPad.

[Ibthink]

Please be aware that you'll find few Yoga users on this Forum, as it's not considered a real ThinkPad.

Maybe its because not even Lenovo considers the Yogas you posted ThinkPads, since these are the IdeaPad/Lenovo Yoga models?

There are ThinkPad Yogas. These are available in 12.5", 14" and 15.6". See:

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/th ... -customize

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-thin ... Id=7067032

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/th ... s/yoga-15/

Only the 12" can be purchased from Lenovo directly with a pen. The 14" model I linked can be fitted with an optional aftermarket pen by Lenovo, this one: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/itemdetail ... 6812E4188C

[rgrosz78]

I agree that Yoga <> Thinkpad. Hard to believe the limited configuration choices for the 12" model:
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/th ... s/yoga-12/

I can get 8 GB of memory by upgrading to the i7 processor - and then this is about $1,850.

[Ibthink]

You could just choose one of the i5's and then choose 8 GB RAM seperatly.

[rgrosz78]

You could just choose one of the i5's and then choose 8 GB RAM seperatly.

Thanks for the suggestion. First time I tried it, didn't seem to work. But it did work the second time around.

[csioucs]

Avoid the Thinkpad Yoga 14. It's stylus is a debacle, vapourware territory. Check the forum over there. My brother just got one, no stylus. No availability either, even if he would have wanted one. The safest bets for active digitizers are the Thinkpad Yoga 12 and the Helix, but the TP Yoga 12 is the more powerful of the two. For more power than this, while also with active digitizers, I believe you have to look at another brand.
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Edit: grammar

[precip9]

The Yoga has a touchscreen, not a stylus.

If you're not into art, it's a forgivable mistake to overlook the difference. To draw, seriously, a stylus is required -- and not just any stylus.

Professional digital artists the world over look to one maker of digitizers: Wacom. It was a minor miracle that the original Thinkpads settled on Wacom, because it has the characteristics most suitable to an artist. The Microsoft Surface 3 has a different digitizer, made by nTrig, that is unsatisfactory to most artists, requiring too much pressure to register.

So the initial question should be rephrased: Are there current Thinkpads that incorporate a Wacom digitizer?

I just looked. Sadly, there are not. This is part of the Lenovo shift away from professional tools to "lifestyle companions." To get a new tablet with a Wacom digitizer, one option (the only option?) is a Wacom Cintique Companion 2:
http://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/pen ... ompanion-2

It's expensive for what you get, but the digitizer is more advanced than the one Lenovo licensed from Wacom.

[rgrosz78]

Very interesting - sorry to hear that Lenovo is out of the picture! We are familiar with Wacom, and purchased many of their low end USB "drawing tablets" in the past.

Last year we purchased the Wacom Cintiq 24HD Touch, which my wife uses on her desktop PC. She is no fan of Windows 8, so I am not sure she can deal with the Wacom Cintique Companion.

[precip9]

You can make Windows 8/8.1 look almost exactly like Windows 7. The 3rd party start menu additions work very well. I use
http://www.classicshell.net/

Many other W8/8.1 annoyances can be disabled by preference; the upper-right corner "charms" tablet menu is an example. Some cannot. But my guess is you could make it liveable for her.

[Ibthink]

The Yoga has a touchscreen, not a stylus.So the initial question should be rephrased: Are there current Thinkpads that incorporate a Wacom digitizer?

I just looked. Sadly, there are not.

Aehm...you should look again. Cause there are several current ThinkPad models with Wacom digitizers...including the Thinkpad Yoga 12, the Thinkpad Yoga 14, the ThinkPad Helix and the ThinkPad 10. What you wrote there is not true.

[rgrosz78]

Aehm...you should look again. Cause there are several current ThinkPad models with Wacom digitizers...including the Thinkpad Yoga 12, the Thinkpad Yoga 14, the ThinkPad Helix and the ThinkPad 10. What you wrote there is not true.

I checked again, and the ThinkPad Yoga 14 is NOT available on the Lenovo web site. After a few seconds, a pop-up message says "Our apologies, This Lenovo product is no longer available":
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/th ... b-features

The ThinkPad Helix and the ThinkPad 10 do have stylus support, but the screens are too small - my wife needs at least a 12" screen, and preferably larger. They also run Windows 8, but she wants Windows 7 instead.

[csioucs]

My wife is an artist, and is looking for a new laptop. She .... needs a 12-14 inch screen, and VERY long battery life.

Does such a model exist? I had a web chat with Lenovo sales this morning, and the only model they pointed me to was the Yoga. I am not impressed with that line at all - it only has an 11.6 inch screen.

For 12 inch, why not the Thinkpad Yoga 12.5 http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/th ... tech_specs ?

Check it out. It's not the same as the regular Yoga line. And it's not 11.6 - that's the Helix. I can't understand the confusion on behalf of the sales people you talked to. The Thinkpad Yoga 12.5 is called 12.5 precisely because of the screen size. Didn't they mention this model? It's just a half inch larger. As an artist she wouldn't mind the extra canvas space.

It has everything you mentioned, and if in doubt about performance, just see the benchmarks of the cpu in the previously used machine and the one in the TPYoga 12.5 above. Sites like cpuboss and cpuworld offer a rough ideea on the comparison.

[sysiphus]

The Fujitsu T935 is a convertible like the old-style X-series Tablet that has an active digitizer. The previous iteration definitely had a Wacom digitizer; I'm pretty sure the current one does as well. 13.3" FHD IPS display. I don't like it is as well as an old SXGA+ X61 tablet, but I'd take it over an X230t or anything Lenovo has put out since. They get almost no marketing in the US, but are officially sold/warranted here--their marketing is almost exclusively corporate focused. It's not perfect, but in my experience (I used the Ivy Bridge iteration of it; presuming it hasn't changed much since) is better than anything Lenovo has put out recently. Fujitsu has a pretty wide range of convertibles with active digitzers; check them out. The only downside is that it looks like the current iterations are somewhat limited on RAM ceilings. As I recall, the corporate-issued older one I played with had 16GB and an SSD--and zippped.

[rgrosz78]

Thanks for the suggestion, this looks promising:
http://www.shopfujitsu.com/store/lifebo ... -tablet-pc

[csioucs]

Not bad indeed, from the outlook. It seems that the working canvas should be larger and more comfortable.
You might be interested in this thorough review from notebookcheck.