yoga pro 2 vs thinkpad yoga screen and other considerations

[syrahnose]

I'm debating 13.3 pro 2 Yoga vs Thinkpad Yoga 12.5 vs last of the x230t.

I posted something earlier about missing the ability to view whole webpages on my old x60s screen vs my x200 wide angle and its need to endlessly scroll.

How is visibility in 13.3 vs 12.5 screens these days? I 've seen complaints about glare and mirroring. I assume higher resolution might reduce web page size, so I can see more without needing to scroll endlessly. But then I've heard the super high resolution of the Pro reduces type radically and is an irritant for many.

I had a Twist for 6 months, after sorting out the auto screen rotation issue and getting used to win 8-8.1, I like it. I liked fingering the screen instead of scrolling. Also, liked its retention of track point, but it felt too far up keyboard to be as comfortable as old x200 and x60s keyboards. Beyond chicklet issue, how does the keyboard feel placement wise? And most especially, the trackpoint position?

Another consideration is handwriting recognition. The x230t obviously has great note taking abilities, how has anyone found handwriting rec on either of the yogas?

My daughter draws on an Wacom Intuos Pro and I'm thinking about handing this new laptop down to her eventually. I'm assuming none of these Yogas will replicated Wacom pen's finest drawing sensitivity, and am not sure the old x230t had that capability. Thoughts?

From the 2 models of Yoga Thinkpad I see, it implies they have nothing ready yet to advance on the x230t?

[Rob]

If you are looking for a digitizer with pen capability, you will have to get the Thinkpad Yoga and not the Yoga 2 Pro. The Thinkpad Yoga can be optioned with a Wacom digitizer, but not the Yoga 2 Pro.

The Wacom technology in the Thinkpad Yoga is probably not as precise as an Intuos Pro, but it still is Wacom based.

As far as screen resolution; even the native 1920x1080 on the Thinkpad Yoga makes text and icons pretty small with Windows 8.1 scaling is set to 100%. The Yoga 2 Pro has a ridiculous 3200x1800 resolution screen. If you leave scaling set to 100%, everything is tiny and virtually impossible to use/read. The idea is to use scaling to make everything bigger. The Yoga 2 Pro is shipped with the default scaling at it's maximum size. Samsung, who uses the same screen in their Book 9, uses a different approach and sets the default resolution to 1920x1080 and not 3200x1800.

Both the Y2Pro and the TP Yoga have higher resolution screens with more vertical pixels than the x230t, which should allow you to see more on the screen. One thing you could do with the x230t is zoom out more to something like 75% from within the browser.

[tombaker]

I looked at the Yoga Pro 2 at a Best Buy after playing with a friends Thinkpad Yoga. The Thinkpad is much better IMO. Its build is better, it really feels solid. I was excited about seeing the Yoga Pro 2 screen. But frankly I did not like it, and I am a IPS screen junkie. For whatever reason I thought it was grainier. Maybe because I was expecting more given the specs.

On paper I thought the Yoga Pro 2 was going to be the easy winner. But as of now I think my next machine will be the Thinkpad Yoga. I think they got it right.

I also don't like the scaling problems with high resolution. I have not used Windows 8 much but I still think its a hassle. I have a nice 26 inch, 1920 x 1200 screen which I won't sell to anyone ever. The only one that might be better is the rare Dell 27 at the same resolution. Once they go up higher resolution, you fiddle with the windows and Icons too much.

Again why I was not impressed with the higher res Yoga Pro 2. (maybe windows 8 solves it better than I currently understand(