Yoga Book and the frustrations of ordering internationally (mild rant)

[qviri]

I'm looking at the Yoga Books. (Not for me... you can pry my X220 keyboard from my cold hands... but I've been requested to procure one... and I might play with the neo-TransNote functionality... )

I require a U.S. or UK keyboard, and shipping to Canada or Germany. (English-speaking Canada generally uses the U.S. layout.)

Here's my understanding of the situation:

Keyboards are not configurable on the Yoga Book. Both in terms of what you'll be buying, and what the keyboard can do once bought. It has a "touchscreen" keyboard but the quotes are important... the backlighting cannot adapt to a different layout than what it has been shipped with. And with touch-typing much harder, the backlit symbols are more important. Canada gets U.S. layout. Germany gets the QWERTZ layout with umlauts. No choice.

No problem, right... Except Lenovo Canada doesn't stock Yoga Books currently. (Who wants to give these for Christmas? Not Canadians apparently.) Lenovo UK processes payments through a Republic-of-Ireland-Irish company, but only ships to United Kingdom. (Brexit came early, apparently.) Lenovo Germany only sells a QWERTZ version. (In fact the layout is not even specified anywhere, you can only tell through lack of complaining Germans who need umlauts.)

Finally I hit on the right combination... Amazon.co.uk has Yoga Books in stock and will ship to Germany. 12 remaining!

Amazon... I'll let you dodge taxes a bit if you let me dodge stupid corporations that haven't figured out people move around.

(Or maybe any forum members in U.S. or UK want to do re-mailing for a fee?)

[RealBlackStuff]

After reading this review by Arstechica, I would recommend you talk that person out of buying it.
Where are the function keys, no tactile feedback, keyboard too small, expensive accessories, etc.
You should tell the buyer that (s)he will be nothing more than yet another Probekaninchen/guinea pig for yet another untried and untested Lenovo item.
Personally I would categorize the Yoga Book as a POS, and go for a Dell XPS 13 instead!

[Dekks]

After reading this review by Arstechica, I would recommend you talk that person out of buying it.

RBS you are so not the market its aimed at

[qviri]

Cheers RBS. We saw the Ars review, it didn't really deter. I should say we're looking at the Android version, intended mostly as a tablet, with somewhat better typing and drawing facilities than most tablets. Focus is on portability and this definitely won't be the main machine. It also looks like we might be able to try the keyboard in person in a local store, will report if so...

Don't get me started on the XPS and other ultrabooks these days. Soldered everything appears to be the order of the day, I'm surprised they don't require the user to be soldered to the motherboard as well (could probably save some weight from the casing that way). "8 GB of RAM ought to be enough for anybody" is the slogan apparently.

[Cigarguy]

I'm with RBS, the Yoga Book is a glorified netbook. Just an experiment on Lenovo's part, throw it at the wall and see if it sticks. However, there's a reason netbooks have gone the way of the Dodo birds. So long as you understand that and realize what you're getting and not expect it to be what it is not, then go for it. It's your money.

[RealBlackStuff]

I'm surprised they don't require the user to be soldered to the motherboard as well

ROFL!

[Dekks]

I'm with RBS, the Yoga Book is a glorified netbook. Just an experiment on Lenovo's part, throw it at the wall and see if it sticks. However, there's a reason netbooks have gone the way of the Dodo birds. So long as you understand that and realize what you're getting and not expect it to be what it is not, then go for it. It's your money.

If it was A4 format i think it would have a chance of appealing to the macbook set. BTW what was the reason netbooks went extinct?

[qviri]

Tested it in a store. As a premium Android tablet it seems reasonable. With the clamshell format, keyboard ergonomics are better than most tablets. Possibly the best thing available right now without moving keys. (Faint praise, yes.)

Still kind of tempted to try and get proper U.S. keyboard. Anyone in the U.S. would be willing to re-mail one?