How I fell in love with my Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga. A personal usage report.

How I met my Yoga

I work as a PhD student. Specifically, this means that I work a lot with data (statistics, SPSS), I produce publications (Word or LaTeX), I go to lectures, I read a lot of literature, and I also supervise students. Therefore, my work laptop needs to be light (to accompany me whenever I go wherever I go), it needs to be reasonably fast (imagine you would fall asleep while waiting for the data to be analysed) and the display should not tire my eyes while I am reading. I am not much of a techie and I did not know what computer would fit my needs best, so I asked the friendly Projekt Neptun staff for help. Traditional me believed that I needed to get a laptop, but they recommended a convertible that comes with a high-resolution screen to reduce eye-strain while reading. I learned that the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga comes with a pen and I did not know what I would use it for or whether I actually had a need for it. Still, it sounded nice and I went with the recommendation and ordered this model.

I did not have to wait for too long until my Yoga finally arrived. To my disappointment, I realized after unpacking it that it was one of the few DOA (dead on arrival) cases. This is why you should always unpack your new device right away (check here for a quick guide). So, full of anticipation I had to wait again until I finally received my new Yoga. Still, I was positively surprised by how quick and easy my DOA case had been handled.

A final thing to note is that when I purchased my Yoga, I decided to extend the warranty for my device from the basic three years to five years. I intend to keep it as long as possible for environmental/sustainability reasons and I use the warranty to make sure I do not need to buy a new device too soon.

What I like about my Yoga

The pen. I mentioned earlier that in the beginning, I was a bit reluctant about the pen. I have had my Yoga now for almost a year now and I got used to the pen. I used to print work that my students sent me just so that I could write on it. Now, I have them send me a PDF file so I can write on it digitally with my pen. It saves me time (I do not have to print it and scan it) and it saves the resources (paperless workflow). Another thing is that when I design a study, I used to conceptualize it on paper first. Now, I just draw it directly on the computer and save it as PDF file. Also, it looks much more professional as compared to a scan.

The convertible screen. When you read a lot or when you prefer to read on paper, you can fold your convertible instead, put it flat on the table and it looks almost as if it was a piece of paper. Also, you can use your pen and the app allows you to mark freehand or in a guided manner (if you do not like bumpy lines), whatever you prefer. I also use a newspaper app on my Yoga. For this, I also fold it so that I can handle it as if it was a tablet. In fact, for me, my Yoga is a computer I use for work, a tablet I use in my free time, and a fun device I can use for drawing.

The size. I really fell in love with my Yoga and I like to carry it around. You never know when you need to check something on your computer! The size and the light weight make it easy to do so. When I go to work, I bring it there and when I leave work, I take it home with me.

The camera shutter. Have you noted that most students keep covering their cameras on their laptops with stickers? I do not need to do so because my Yoga has a camera shutter, the ThinkShutter, that you can open and close as you like. In my opinion, this is really one of the best inventions of the past few years.

The colour. I like to think of myself as a creative person. This is why I think I like to personalize my things, especially my laptops. The plain black Lenovo design therefore suits me very well because the stickers I put on my Yoga really shine from its black surface.

What I do not like about my Yoga

One thing I do not like or do no longer use is the automatic screen brightness function. It says that it adapts to the environment and optimizes the screen brightness automatically. However, to me it seemed as if it was too sensitive. In turn, I was sitting at my desk, reading and the screen brightness just went up and down like crazy. Now that I have turned this feature off, I am back in love with my Yoga.