Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 13.3-Inch Convertible 2 in 1 Touchscreen Ultrabook (Gray)

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 13.3-Inch Convertible 2 in 1 Touchscreen Ultrabook (Gray)..

GET Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 13.3-Inch Convertible 2 in 1 Touchscreen Ultrabook (Gray) By Lenovo

Most helpful customer reviews

187 of 191 people found the following review helpful.
Great laptop/ultrabook.
By Lapenne
I got this after a real Odyssey searching for a new ultrabook. I owned the Samsung series 9, np900x3c, and my girlfriend has a Macbook Air (MBA), so I can also compare them to the Yoga.

At this price, the Yoga is a great product if:

- you want a great quality ultrabook (parts are solid and well made and it is not as fragile as the Samsung 9).

It is not as light as others but unless you really need an ultraportable (like the Samsung 9) then the Yoga fares well as it weights just 0.3 lbs more than the MBA although it is a little bigger.

About the latter, it is sturdier in some sense than both the MBA and Samsung. The MBA actually delivers a good solid feeling (the Series 9 not much so, I felt like you can break it easily, especially the hinges of the screen) but I feel like I could drop the Yoga without having to say goodbye to it. I believe this is in Lenovo spirit, their laptop are renowned to be sturdy and long-lasting.

- good quality control (my first the Samsung 9 came with a dead pixel, the second one had a crappy trackpad which selects things at random while you move the cursor and statics from the speakers and audio output!).

- a great touchscreen, also in terms of quality of the LCD display (IPS with decent resolution). Notice that touchscreens reduce battery performance. The Samsung 9 has a brighter screen and more battery life, especially compared if you use the screen at the same level of brightness. That was a drawback for the Yoga to me, because I don't care about the touchscreen. However, overall, considering features and design, quality control, and price (!!) the Yoga wins easily.

- a good keyboard. It is not as good as the X1 Carbon, but it definitely beats the MBA (which has a decent keyboard but shallower than the Yoga) and wins hands down the Series 9 (stiff, shallow and noisy).

IT IS RELLY A GREAT ULTRABOOK FOR THE PRICE with the competition out there at the moment.

You can also upgrade the RAM and SSD easily enough (especially the RAM, it's trivial).

What I would like to see improved in the future, in order of importance, are:

- battery life! If you use 80-85% brightness and use it constantly (I mostly browse, type quite a bit -- coding for example -- and listening to some music) you might even wipe it in just 4 hours. That's not awesome. The Series 9 would last 1 hour longer. However, the battery is decent, don't let yourself down because of this. The OS and features drains the battery, the MBA would last 3 hours if it had a touchscreen like this and was running Win 8!

- more brightness and bigger screen (the MBA has a slightly bigger screen but worse resolution and quality, that's for sure).

- An even better keyboard, like the X1 Carbon thinkpad (with the nipple please!)

- I would prefer a metal case in terms of design. It would make it just awesome.

- Back-lit keyboard.

NOTE: I don't use the touchscreen much but the factor forms are really useful. Many times you are in a vehicle, or on the plane, or in a situation where you need to bend the laptop and use it with the screen closer to you, taking up less space and such. It is really useful! I love to use it on the couch and bed as tablet (otherwise a little heavy). Even if you don't love the touchscreen and would rather have a better battery life and lighter product (like I do), the Yoga still wins to such product like MBA and Samsung 9 because of its features and quality, for that competitive price!

151 of 160 people found the following review helpful.
Here's the truth
By P. Stephen
I read enough reviews on Amazon and other places to justify me having to write one here. First things first, I am an IT guy, so between hardware, software and networking it's easier for me to figure things out, so keep that in mind when reading the review.

As all of the other reviewers said, there are some known quirks with this computer. Yes, the hinges let the screen wobble a bit. I have a Dell XPS 13 and the screen doesn't wobble at all, but this one does. It's not a big deal. Secondly, yes, the keyboard is different. The keys don't appear to be as deep as other keyboards, so when pressing them down it isn't as much as a confirmed response back from the pc. That being said, I don't have a single problem typing on it outside of the backspace key being small. A few hours later and it's fine. The mouse is perfect fine for me. I actually prefer it over my Dell mouse. There are times when the tapping or click of the mouse doesn't respond, but it isn't to the point of annoyance. You can two finger scroll, two finger right click, pinch, zoom, etc all with it. I actually do like it.

The one I wanted to spend a little bit of time on is the wireless card. This thing is 2.4 ghz only. It's speed is limited to 150 mbps. My pc out of the box didn't have any driver issues, but for some reason when I installed the latest driver from the lenovo site, I couldn't get online anymore, so I had to rollback that driver. There is a combination of bad drivers, software and network requirements needed to make this thing work. Again, out of the box I was only able to connect at 65 mbps on my cisco frontier router. My xps 13 connects at 300 mbps. Obviously this is a Lenovo issue. What I did was turn off the suspend mode for the wireless card, then set my router to channel 11, upper threshold with 40 mhz width. That poppped me back up to 150 mbps on the wireless card. Unfortunately it took me about 3 to 4 hours with all the troubleshooting to get the answer.

The good. The screen is exceptional. The icons are glorious and it's even better in tablet mode. I'm not sure if the colors are right given that the white background has a bit of wash in it (like on this page), but when I look at this screen and then go back to my XPS 13, you can clearly see the difference. Tablet mode is also good and I was initially worried about the keyboard being on the bottom, but it's actually not a big deal at all. What I didn't like was when you have the pc in presentation mode (bent back 75%), the keyboard and mouse aren't turned off like they are in tablet mode, so you have to put it on a flat surface or it will start going nuts.

In summary, I'm not sure the pc is worth the $899 asking price that Amazon has it for considering all the tweaks that have to be done to it, but at a lower price, this computer may be worth the money. It's fast, the screen is gorgeous and the battery lasts a decent amount of time. Hopefully this review helps as all the other ones on Amazon did help me.

**Update 7/1/13**

Well, I must have been premature in my review. There are a few things wrong with this laptop I can't get over:
1) The fan runs constantly and it gets too hot. I literally start sweating with it on my lap if I'm watching a movie or using something intense like adobe flash player
2) The keyboard is absolutely terrible. The keys stick and aren't firm enough. Moreover, the flex in the keyboard itself makes it even worse to type. It feels like the engineers at Lenovo only typed on this laptop standing up, because the keyboard is virtually useless on the lap.
3) While the wifi card works, it has to be the lowest end possible. I only get 130mbps while my dell xps 12 gets 300 with ease. The data transfer rate is 10x on the XPS and in order to get those speeds, I have to plug in the Lenovo to a usb-to-ethernet adapter. At first I was willing to accept this issue, but after using the pc in a hotel with weak wifi connections, it wasn't worth it.

The pc is going back to Amazon as we speak. What a shame, because if they fixed the fan and spent a few more $$ on the keyboard/wifi, this pc would sell like hotcakes...

118 of 124 people found the following review helpful.
Best convertible laptop currently on the market
By ENDY
The Yoga 13 is an excellent computer, which works (almost) exactly as it should (with one minor wifi fix). My real rating would be 4.5 stars, but I'm rounding up because this is a 1st-Generation device, so small bugs are usually common. I've compared it extensively with the Dell XPS 12 and opted to keep the Yoga 13, even though I got the Dell for the same price ($1,000 for a Dell-refurbished unit + a coupon).

Design (9 out of 10)
The 360 hinge works as it should, with one minor complaint. The screen is a little bit "bouncy" when you have the laptop open at all and try to write on it with a stylus, which means you need to either have the screen "open" all the way and flat on a surface or you need to stabilize it with your other hand to use a stylus well. The Dell XPS 12 hinge does not have this same problem. However, overall, I slightly prefer the Yoga 13 design to the Dell XPS 12 design. In fact, I now find it silly to have a laptop with a touch screen that doesn't open all the way. The double joint feature that allows the fold back really can't cost more than $20 or $30; every laptop should have it. The criticism about the keys being exposed is blown way out of proportion. It feels a little funny at first, but that's it. Don't set your laptop down on a dirty, wet, or sticky surface and the keyboard will be just fine.

The one main advantage of the Dell XPS 12 design is that you can leave the base completely stationary and flip the screen. If the laptop is plugged in, this is handy. Still, the flip screen design on the Dell feels a little gimmicky (although it's still a fine alternative design to the Yoga 13 and much better than the Twist, in my opinion).

The overall feel of the Yoga is nice. It is not "premium" like the Dell XPS 12 carbon fiber, but it's not worth paying extra money for a slightly nicer texture, in my opinion. I actually prefer the interior texture on the Yoga 13 -- very comfortable typing handrests that don't get cold or hot.

Screen (9 out of 10)
The screen looks very nice; the 1600x900 resolution works very well for a 13 inch screen. Side by side with the Dell XPS 12's 1080p, it's clear that the Dell has a better-looking screen. However, the resolution on the Dell is a bit high for a 12 inch screen, which means you need to increase font sizes for most text to be readable without squinting.

Touch/Tablet mode (10 out of 10)
This is where the Yoga 13 demolishes the Dell. If you plan to use a stylus and are considering the Dell please read this, since I've not seen it come up in any reviews. The Dell XPS 12 is unusable in stylus mode. I tried two different Dell units with the exact same results: jagged lines, missed lines, and illegible text if I tried to write anything small. This occurred in every program (One Note, Word, Corel Draw, Note Anytime), and 6 hours with tech support could not fix it (new OS, new drivers, etc.). The Yoga 13, on the hand, works quite well (although I would pay an extra $150 for a active stylus with digitizer -- Lenovo, are you listening?).

Tablet mode has worked great, with no problems. With the Dell, I had problems with auto-rotate and auto-keyboard pop-up failing to work on two different Dell units. The only fix was a complete re-install of windows.

For some who have noted that there is sometimes a lag in the touch screen if you haven't used it for a while, follow these steps (found on a message board):

- Open device manager
- Expand Human Interface Devices
At the bottom of the HID list are two devices labeled "USB Input Device" On my system, the one we're concerned with is the second one, so the last item in the list, but just to make sure it's the right one:

- Open the device properties
- Click the Details tab
- In the drop down menu, select Hardware Ids
The one we want will say USB\VID_04F3&PID_000A on the second line

- Move to the Power Management tab
- Uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

Keyboard/Trackpad (9 out of 10)
Trackpad is great (I updated to latest drivers). Not sure what the mixed reviews are about. The Dell XPS 12 was not good. Keyboard on the Yoga is also great. I liked the feel of the Dell's keyboard a bit more, but I've had no missed keys on the Yoga.

I don't understand the criticism of lack of keyboard backlight. I've never had a scenario where I needed keyboard backlighting. In completely dark room, the computer screen illuminates the keyboard enough to see the keys. But if you really love keyboard backlighting, be aware that the Yoga 13 doesn't have it!

Wifi (7 out of 10)
While it sounds like some people are having bigger problems with wifi, my failure-to-reconnect on log-on issue was solved with this simple fix: Go to Device Manager (Charms Bar --> search for "Device Manager" in settings), Go to Network Adapter, Right Click on the RealTek, Click on Advanced Tab, Then set Selective Suspend to "Disabled."

Since I did that, I've had zero problems. It annoys me that Lenovo could ship a product that needs a fix for wifi that automatically reconnects at log-on, but the range issues people have been reporting are non-existent for me. In fact, for both my home network and work network, I have 3-4 bars of wifi in places where my Dell XPS 12 had 1-2 bars and would fail to connect at times. Since my fix, I've had zero wifi problems in the past 3 weeks.

Ports/Other Features (10 out of 10)
I like the full-size HDMI port. While DisplayPorts might be the future, everything in my house has HDMI (and HDMI to DVI cables are $6 on Amazon, if you have a monitor without HDMI). No VGA port, though, which is fine for me since it is no longer 2005.

SD card slot is nice. Seems silly that Dell left it out of the XPS 12.

Expandable SSD slot is amazing. I have a 128GB Yoga now, but it's nice knowing I'll be able to add a second SSD in the future as prices drop (see YouTube for instructions). Also, I plan to expand to 8GB of ram, although I've had no problems with 4GB for the time being.

Not happy about the charger (the unique style means I have to pay top dollar for a replacement, since I like to have two), but it works fine.

Final Thoughts
The upcoming Helix could rival the Yoga in terms of design (detachable screen, 10 hours of batter life, stylus), but if you're like me and do a decent amount of typing, an 11-inch screen is just too small. The Yoga 13's 13-inch screen is just right for productivity, and in tablet mode works really well on your lap. No, you can't hold it with one hand comfortably, but you can prop it up in a variety of ways. I find the 9-11 inch tablet size to be nice, but also too large for one-handed use. I hope the next version of the Yoga has an active stylus.

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Acer Aspire S7-392-9890 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Crystal White)

Acer Aspire S7-392-9890 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Crystal White)..

Buy Acer Aspire S7-392-9890 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Crystal White) By Acer

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412 of 435 people found the following review helpful.
[Updated-Windows 8.1] Exceeded My Expectations and the speakers....
By YingWei
Last Updated December 09, 2013 [Windows 8.1 review]
==============================
Reason for purchase:
==============================
Been waiting almost a year now for Haswell to come out after leaks were given online, and it meets and exceeds my expectation through and through. I was looking for a replacement for my 3-year old Acer TimelineX laptop and decided I'm not going to go cheap when it came to buying a laptop since I was tired of flimsy screen that feel like they'll break if pressed in the middle. It was either the Acer S7, the Asus Zenbook Infinity, or Samsung Ativ Book Plus HD for my replacement laptop. Chose the S7 over the Zenbook Infinity and Ativ Book for 3 reasons:

1) This is Acer's third iteration of the S7 compared to Asus Zenbook Infinity which will be it's first. First generations for new designs usually have more kinks/issues that I'm trying to avoid when I'm paying over $1000+ for a laptop, you'd expect it to be flawless to an extent.

2) Owned an Acer and Asus laptop before, and Acer always knew what they were doing when it came to power efficiency versus Asus which for some reason or another has issues with power consumption levels. (this is from my experience)

3) Samsung decided not to increase the max ram amount to 8GB, which is shame since ram is crucial in multitasking especially for apps on windows 8

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Pros:
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--Battery Life!: just doing regular task like checking emails and browsing online at 70% brightness I was able to get 8-9 hours! which is amazing, this is why I waited for Haswell =) (assuming if you have 99% battery at start)

--Boot Time: Switching from an HDD on windows 7 to an SSD on windows 8 was mind blowing, from 2-4 minutes to only 2-4 seconds just made me love this laptop more than I already do. Albeit windows 8 is cheating a bit with their hybrid shutdown design, overall this is what I was expecting.

--Design: thin and light, ergonomic to feel albeit I was expecting a smoother finish on the edges but overall I don't know if there is another laptop that looks this good.

--Case: I was surprised that Acer included a leather case that really makes this laptop look like a fashion statement a plus for me, one less thing to buy =)

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Cons:
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--No adapters: I was surprised that Acer didn't include an ethernet dongle like they did with previous versions of this laptop which was disappointing since I need it for when I use the laptop at work

--Bloatware: this is typical but Acer like any other company included sponsored apps and their own homebrew apps of their own.

--Speakers: speakers are located on sides of the laptop near the bottom so the sound comes out muffled but I'm a headphone type person so this doesn't bother me much.

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Answers to questions asked/ Updates
====================================
--Fan: the fan doesn't make a peep even on huge overload of online gaming which was surprising but the laptop does heat up at the rear end of laptop (hinge area) if you block the vents on the bottom.

=====================Update: July 18, 2013 (Day 3 with Laptop)=====================

--Cooling: when the manufacturer said to avoid blocking the vents they meant it, the laptop started to get moderately hot. Although granted I was running a lot of adobe software (photoshop, illustrator, dreamweaver, fireworks, etc...) the laptop fan didn't make any noise which was good. Just needed to remember that this isn't a desktop.

--Vent location: air enters and exits on the back bottom vents that stretches across the entire back (below the hinge side).

--SSD Space: 195GB are available after you remove most of the bloatware.

--Battery During Heavy Use: When I was running the laptop with Adobe Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and fireworks I was able to get to 6hours and 13 minutes of constant runtime which was awesome to me as a website developer on the go.

--Battery life (100% brightness): around 7 hours if at 99% full battery (please note the S7 comes with an automatic sensor like your smartphone to adjust brightness so the battery will last longer, automatically on by default)

=====================Updated: July 19, 2013 (Day 4 with Laptop)=====================

--Changed from 4 to 5 stars, decided 1 star off for speakers didn't make sense when it's an ultrabook and I use my headphones most of the time.

--Updated some of my statements on battery life, this was after bloatware was removed and I had Kaspersky 2013 and skydrive desktop app always running in the background, automatic updates and scans does drain the battery faster (no breaks)

--Automatic Brightness: to turn off automatic brightness control panel->Edit Plan Setting-> Change Advance Power Setting (clickable text)->Display(header)-> Enable Adaptive Brightness-> choose off or on

--Battery Life (w/ automatic Brightness off): at 100% brightness the battery lasted at ~6-7 hours just browsing the web, watching videos ~5/6 depending if your running videos on 1080p or 720p.

--Touchpad: very responsive and customizable, recommend you adjust everything on the touchpad so you get the most out of the multi-gestures

--Screen Resolution: spending a couple hours watching videos on this laptop was superb and I can't imagine switching. Colors were crisp and clear, a huge gap in clarity from my old laptop's resolution (720p)

--Keyboard Layout: a bit weird at first but the organization is pretty convenient where all the hotkeys are easier to reach and alot faster than a tradition keyboard.

--Backlit Keyboard: awesome feature that only enhanced the laptop, the brightness is adjustable/turns on automatically when it gets dark which was convenient

--Webcam: resolution is at .9megapixel which is pretty low but the sensors on the webcam are top notch especially at night, I thought SONY were the only ones with night sensors for their webcams but Acer actually implemented their own variation or they outsourced w/ sony which is awesome. I was able to see my face clearly in a pitch black room no lighting except the laptop screen.

=====================Updated: July 21, 2013 (Day 6 with Laptop)=====================

--Wireless Signal: the Intel Dual-band 7260 + Bluetooth 4.0 for some reason started to act up by dropping signals in 5 bar areas, fixed issue by uninstalling the driver, and reinstalling the driver available from Acer's Support page.

--To download driver: go to Acer US -> click on "Support" tab -> click "Driver & Manuals" icon w/ wrench & hammer -> type "Aspire S7-392" in search by model text box & search (looks like nothing loaded but bottom of the page changed with list of drivers) -> look for "Wireless LAN Driver" -> click "Download" -> extract file using Winrar or Z-zip -> click "Drivers" folder -> click "win8" folder -> double click "DPInst64.exe" to install the driver (do this after driver is uninstalled and make sure Intel PROSet/Wireless software is NOT installed on the computer)

--To uninstall the driver: go to control panel -> Network and Sharing Center -> Change Adaptor Settings (left menu) -> right-click network card icon -> properties -> click "Configure" -> click "Driver" tab -> click "uninstall" driver

=====================Updated: July 22, 2013 (Day 7 with Laptop)=====================
--Updated Wireless Card issue from previous update.

--SSD Drive Info: 2X 128GB SSD (Formatted in Raid 0) from Kingston using Intel Trimming Technology

=====================Updated: July 31, 2013 (Day 16 with Laptop)=====================
--Updated Reason for Purchase, Touchpad comment, Wireless Card Comment & Cooling Comment

--Screen Protector: unnecessary since touch-screen is scratch resistant

--Maintenance: used Philips SVC1116F/27 LCD, LED and Plasma Screen Cleaner to clean both sides of the laptop once or twice a weeks to make the glass clean and clear =)

--Touchpad Software: Synaptic v8.1 Clickpad multi-gesture touchpad, similar to the apple touchpad.

--Warranty: Amazon sells the version with a 2-year limited Warranty

--Screen Resolution: Amazon sells the 1920X1080 version, the 2560x1440 isn't sold in the United States

--Dolby Home Theatre v4: at first I thought this was just the speaker version but it's actually an audio software built into the laptop that allows you to easily change the amplitude and clarity of sound for both the speakers and headphones, you can also save customized settings in the extra slots a plus for me since I'm an audiophile =)

--Ram: 8GB of ram is a necessity for any ultrabook and Acer finally understood that, no more memory dump issues since there's enough ram for running all my programs at once =)

=====================Updated: August 5, 2013 (Day 21 with Laptop)=====================

--After 3 weeks with the laptop, I'm glad I purchased this machine, never have to wait for the laptop to start-up since it's instant, working with adobe software (illustrator, photoshop, dreamweaver, etc...) hasn't been more seamless, and the build of the laptop couldn't be better, solid aluminum at its finest =)

--Only complaint now is the power button which should have been placed on the keyboard side of the laptop. Having the button on the side is really not smart since grabbing the laptop on its side can result in accidental pressing (happened to me a couple times), easy fix though is to change the properties of the button to do nothing, it'll still turn on the laptop when it's shutdown :)

--To change button properties: go to "Control Panel" -> click "Power Options" (icon with battery & plug) -> on left side menu click "Choose what the power buttons do" -> change the setting for "When I press the power button" to desired setting for both columns (Battery and when plugged) -> click "Save Changes"

=====================Updated: August 14, 2013 (Day 30 with Laptop)=====================
--A month has past since I got the laptop and I have to say I don't regret being one of the first few people who bought this laptop when it came out at retail price $1649. At first I had wireless issues but found out last week it was my router that kept dropping the signal on me, fixed it with the ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router. Now I'm developing programs and websites faster than ever. My old laptop would crash on me every other day so having a laptop that probably won't ever crash on me is huge relief also.

--One thing I do recommend that everyone get with this laptop is a cooling stand such as the Cooler Master NotePal ErgoStand II - Adjustable Laptop Cooling Stand with LED Light Strip for three reasons.
----1) Although the twin fan 2nd generation is whisper quiet that does come with a cost as the hinge area does get somewhat hot.
----2) Laptops are faster when they are cooled so your benefiting by making the computer consistently fast =)
----3) Having a laptop stand helps with posture and fatigue so you aren't constantly bending your neck and back :)

=====================Updated: September 15, 2013 (Day 61 with Laptop)=====================
--2 whole months have passed and I'm still loving the laptop as I did the first time I received it. You really can't beat instant startup after shutting down, I've come to rely on this feature too much lol. I haven't had any recent issues, everything has been running so smoothly. The wireless issue hasn't occurred at all after switching routers which I'm thankful for.

--Availability: Based on the trend for the past 2 months, Amazon usually receives a new shipment every week (on a Sunday normally). When they do run out they post an estimated "3 to 4 weeks" shipping but this is a worst case scenario if there were too many orders placed (probably the holidays is when this is true).

=====================Updated: October 17, 2013 (Day 93 with Laptop)=====================
--Windows 8.1 update was simple, updated through the Microsoft App Store Icon. Should be the first icon you see when you open the app, if you don't see it please update your computer to the latest windows 8 update then go back to the Store App Icon.
--Update is ~3.6GB and took ~10-15mins to install, make sure power adaptor is plugged in and don't have any external usb or dongles hooked up otherwise the update will not install, learned the hard way =(
--One thing I noticed, got ~5-10GB in space back from the OS since Windows 8.1 is way smaller than Windows 8
--Defragmenting actually started to trim the SSD compared on Windows 8
--Customizing startup to launch with Desktop Mode was easy, just need to adjust a setting on the Taskbar properties under "Navigation"
--Hibernate mode issue of sometimes turning back on by itself got fixed
--Drivers seem to work a lot better mainly wifi, got better signal than usual in most areas
--Battery life increased a tad ~10-20min since apps are more efficient/ updated

=====================Updated: November 17, 2013 (Day 123 with Laptop Windows 8.1)========
--If brightness setting doesn't work, it's an indication that there is an update and you will have to restart the computer to get brightness setting back. It's annoying sometimes but it does make sure your system is always up to date.
--Acer also released an updated version of the wireless card driver for Win 8.1, so now all wifi issues are non-existent. If you experience any wifi issues, manually download and update the driver from Acers support page.
--I've been quiet vocal on how the speakers for the S7 has been the downside to the machine but after updating to Win 8.1 and reinstalling the realtek audio driver from Acer's support page. The speakers now sound a lot clearer and crisper, but maybe this is because of my cooling stand also but the sound is literally surround sound when I change the sound mode on the Dolby Home Theatre to Movie mode. (You can change the sound profile by going the Dolby Home Theater program in the minimized icons on the taskbar)

=====================Updated: December 09, 2013 (Day 145 with Laptop Windows 8.1)========
--After a couple weeks with the improved speaker software, I've figured that in order to get the surround sound feel you have to put the volume at minimum %80 or higher otherwise the sound will sound muffled like it did before but otherwise, you feel immersed in the movie or videos you watch with this laptop. One reason I figured was that ~80% the audio software starts to mega amplifies the sound in a good way making the speakers sound clearer than they were before. I don't exactly how but they did the amplifying but it made me love this laptop even more :D

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Will update regularly or as questions are asked
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141 of 157 people found the following review helpful.
Returning (BEWARE Fundamental Hardware Issue)
By Scott Reisig
While certainly a beautiful product, the hardware has a specific issue where it is thought the grounding plate can easily become jostled resulting in the laptop randomly shutting down. The issue was detailed extensively on Acer's support forum for last's year (Ivy Bridge based) S7. Apparently Acer DID NOT fix the flaw for this Haswell based S7. The original thread discovering the issue is here:

[...]

I bought this device for my fiance's use for medical school. She was very delicate to the machine with simple non-computational intensive tasks. The machine started to randomly shut down within the first week or so. When contacting Acer and going through their troubleshooting scenarios, they realized (as I already had) that it was not a software issue, but a hardware one. It was arranged to have the ultrabook sent to their facilities in Texas for repair. The outrageous part here was Acer has the audacity to ask that I PURCHASE A SHIPPING BOX AND PAY FOR THE SHIPPING! Due to the time constraints of my fiance's need for a computer, I shipped the ultrabook overnight delivery hoping to reduce the turnaround time. Total cost to shipping with insurance (valuing the device at $1600) $145..........................

Days go by, calling Acer to get a more specific status other than (received, in repair, etc.) is futile. We finally received the ultrabook 8 days later. The paperwork stated they needed to "reseat the motherboard and update the BIOS" but it did not specify what exactly was the issue. With my fiance happy that it's back, all is well (even though I'm still ticked I needed to pay for the shipping of a brand new defective product). Within another week.....the issue is back...lovely.......

Calling Acer, this time not interested in runarounds, I state the device is defective. Not surprisingly they wanted me to PAY AND SHIP it back to them. I instead demanded that they send a brand new S7 (non-refurbished which many manufactures sneakily do) to me. Once I confirmed the new ultrabook is non-defective, I will send back the defective device. Of course Acer would not do such a thing. You know, the common customer service required for any PC vendor. I asked to speak with the supervisor, was told they were busy and will call me back in 30 minutes. No call...........

Frustrated I call Amazon. Explained the situation (the ultrabook was 8 days past its return period). Amazon agreed to allow me to return the device and provide a refund. This is exactly why I'm a Amazon customer. Fantastic customer service. Acer not so much. Defective products happen from time to time, but making the customer pay out of pocket and waste their time is NOT customer service, it's garbage.

Acer did manage to call me back 8 hours later "ready to talk". I informed them I will be returning the device to Amazon and getting my refund. The supervisor said "Sorry", then click.......

214 of 244 people found the following review helpful.
Great new Haswell Ultrabook with a few glaring flaws
By J. McMahon
I have a short, but demanding list of requirements in a laptop. I regularly travel internationally and I use my laptop for both normal office tasks and high-performance processing.

My list is:
Lightweight, 13 or less, 3lb or less, full HD screen or better, Core i7 CPU, 8GB RAM or more, 256GB SSD+, good battery life ~5+ hours. I'm unwilling to budge on any of these items. This makes for a very short list of potential laptops. In 2011, ONLY the Sony Vaio Z (my current laptop) offered all these features, but is getting long in the tooth. This year, there are more options, and the Acer S7 appears to be an attractive one.

Pros:

Battery life. 6-8 hours under normal WiFi, 60-80% brightness, browser, video playback, Outlook usage. Typcial business usage.Battery life is great, as I believe it will be on many/most Haswell-powered lightweight Ultrabooks. I'm pretty confident they could slap the new chipset and CPU into last years' hardware and nearly double battery life. It's amazing. But that's nothing specific to this laptop. The new Sony Vaio Pro 11/13 also see the same battery benefits.

Fan. This system is silent. Even under load, the system occasionally got warm, but was always extremely quiet, the fans were imperceptible.

SSD speed. Amazing read speeds, middling write speeds. Has 2x 128GB Kingston SSD's in a RAID0. Now that Intel's RST supports TRIM in RAID, these SSD's should last plenty long even in a RAID. Boot times and load times were good as expected. I'd expect the same kind of performance with any other Haswell laptops with SSD's.

Build quality. Looks nice. Feels premium, solid, and tough. No flex, no screen wobble, which is big for a touchscreen laptop. Unfortunately, the edges of the screen are quite sharp, which seems strange and unnecessary.

Screen. A good quality, good color, full-HD screen. Has some minor light bleed at the corners, but is only visible on full black. I'd hoped to see the model with the 2560x1440 screen, but it appears this isn't available yet.

Speakers. I've seen other reviewers knock the speakers. Coming from the horrific speakers on the Vaio Z, anything is a step up. I found the speakers to be reasonably good, with the note that they do face down from the front edge of the laptop. This means if you have it on a hard surface you'll get good sound, but on a soft surface or on a lap, the sound may be muffled.

Leather case is neat and attractive.

Cons:

Keyboard. Tactile feedback is good, keypress depth is good, backlight is nice, BUT... The keys don't consistently register unless pressed down from the center. That is to say, if you're used to touch-typing on another keyboard and you try to use this one, you'll regularly have to go back to re-press keys that aren't registering. Here's what's happening, if you press a key, but don't press in the center, the key goes down far enough that the tactile feel would have you think it's registered. That's to say you actual feel and hear the "click" of the keypress, without the key registering. This alone was a deal-breaker for me. Maybe it's something that can be fixed in software somehow, maybe by making the keyboard more sensitive to these "partial" presses, but this made typing on this laptop irritating and unwieldy. I fear this is a hardware design issue that would be unfixable. I suppose I could have persisted to try to ensure I press each key hard and perfectly in the center, but I was too frustrated to try.

Other haven't had the same problem, so it is possible my unit was defective, but still, the experience was bad enough that I wouldn't want to try again.

Clickpad. Yet another new generation of touchpad that seems worse than previous generations. I don't know why touchpad technology seems to be going downhill, but this seems like a good example. The pad feels just like a Macbook touchpad, but without the great driver implementation that Apple has. It's a single piece of material, with no physical left or right-click buttons. It looks nice, but that's the end of the similarities. It's reactive and sensitive as well as adjustable. Despite all the configuration options, I couldn't get the touchpad to work in a way that felt natural and for this reason found it uncomfortable to use the touchpad much of the time.

Here's the problem:
When clicking, whether by pressing where pointing to click, or by pressing the lower left corner of the pad to click at the same time as pointing, the cursor would often move slightly, meaning that I would often have to try two or three times to click accurately if I was trying to click on something small. If you turn off scaling, 1920x1080 on a 13" screen means everything is pretty small...Usually these types of touchpads (I've used plenty) have a designated dead area near the bottom that you can use to left or right click without that touch being factored into the overall cursor motion. This did not appear to be the case and was not configurable. I tried to hunt down newer drivers, even trying some non-Acer drivers, but was unable to resolve this. Maybe I use the trackpad differently than others, I typically use two fingers, one to point and another to click.

The Apple touchpad/clickpad is smart enough not to use a second touch to change the location of the cursor allowing you to use a finger for clicking and holding without it moving the cursor. It does this without needing a dedicated click area. Also, the Apple touchpad features the ability to touch the pad with two fingers to right click at the current location, negating the need for a right click area. This touchpad does not have this feature.

Lack of F-keys. The laptop has no dedicated F-keys (F1, F2, F3, etc...). Instead it uses the number keys along with the Fn button. This is fine as long as you don't use these regularly (Alt+F4 for instance). I do use them regularly, so I found this annoying. I'd rather them be small than nonexistent. I assume these keys were done away with to make room for the S7's cooling, which is admittedly excellent.

Although relatively light, the laptop seemed heavy for it's size. I'm coming from a Vaio Z, so maybe the step up in weight from carbon fiber is noticeable to me where it wouldn't be to to others.

The power power on the laptop and the corresponding plug were tiny. I was afraid that it might get bent. The laptop gives off a quiet beep when the power is connected, which is nice, but the plug does not stay very securely. I suppose given the battery life, most users might unplug this laptop before using.

Cover and screen are fingerprint magnets. But I suppose that's to be expected of glass. It made me wish the screen wasn't a touch screen, so I would want to avoid touching it.

Bloatware. As is the norm on most laptops these days, Windows is chock full of Acer's "helpful" programs. Unfortunately, it's difficult to tell which programs actually serve some kind of purpose and which don't.

WiFi performance with the dual band Intel 7260 was initially AWFUL. That's to say 20% signal strength on this laptop next to my Vaio Z with the older Intel WiFi card at 90%. I was amazed to see this from an Intel WiFi card, which I normally find to be exemplary. I managed to dig up a new driver that was not yet available from Intel's site and was able to achieve normal WiFi performance.

Battery. Although battery life was great, the battery showed 5% wear after a week of usage! This is as shown by BatteryBar. Most of my laptops stay under 5% until well over a year of usage. The high wear right off the bat with a 5% loss in capacity was very concerning as to the quality of the battery in the S7.

Conclusion:

In the end, I wanted to love it, but the keyboard and the touchpad were too painful to use for an extended period of time and I ended up returning it. As always, Amazon returns and customer service are excellent.

Next on my list is the Asus Zenbook Infinity, which should have the higher-res screen the US-spec S7 lacks. Gorilla Glass 3 instead of 2 on the lid, and will ship with Windows 8.1, meaning they may already have worked out the 8.1 driver issues we're bound to see with laptops like the S7 that are released just months before 8.1 is released. Fingers crossed.

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ASUS Zenbook UX301LA-DH71T 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Blue)

ASUS Zenbook UX301LA-DH71T 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Blue)..

Buy ASUS Zenbook UX301LA-DH71T 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Blue) By Asus

Most helpful customer reviews

71 of 71 people found the following review helpful.
A quality product
By Ryan Mulligan
This ultrabook is fantastic.

Beautiful, solid, light build.
Extremely quick computing.
Minimal bloatware.
Finally, a GREAT trackpad on a laptop that isn't an Apple product.

--The i7 4558U processor (2.8GHz) is worth the extra money, as it's much faster than the i7 4500 (1.8GHz) or i5 4200 (1.6GHz)
--The 8GB of DDRL3 RAM really help boost performance over other ultrabooks housing only 4GB, especially when multitaksing.
--The integrated Iris 5100 graphics are actually capable of running fairly intense programs, newer games like Skyrim, for example, though only on low graphics settings. Still, it's impressive for an integrated unit.
--The SSD's in RAID are incredibly quick, and really help cut down boot time to just about 10 seconds from cold. I'm up and running in no time.
--The battery life is actually 8 hours or more on normal use. Way to go Haswell processor. You're not an energy sink.
--At just over 3 pounds, this laptop is so light, and remarkably thin.

I've had it for a week, and there is nothing I can complain about, and I feel I'm rather picky about my electronics.

If you have the money, and are frustrated about how it seems many ultrabooks have to compromise in some area, this is a stellar laptop.

--UPDATE--
I've had this ultrabook for about four weeks now, and unfortunately, I noticed a small linear scratch on the lid. I bring this up because the GorillaGlass3 covering the lid is reported to be nearly scratch-proof against anything but sand. I've been very careful with this laptop, carrying it in a case whenever I transport it, and I was hoping it would be more scratch resistant than it's shaping up to be. Still, this is an excellent product, and I'm still impressed by its outstanding performance.

--Update--
After 5 months, I am still extremely satisfied with this ultrabook. I can work through an entire day at school on a single battery charge, and not sacrifice performance. This thing hasn't slowed down at all. And for those of you that care, it'll produce fluent framerates for games like Skyrim (High textures, no antialiasing,) Deus Ex: Human Revolution (High settings,) and Mass Effect 3 on ultra graphics settings. Light, fast, powerful, this is still the laptop I had hoped for five months ago.

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful.
A premium ultrabook from every perspective.
By Doug Colt
After extensive research, I narrowed my ultrabook choice down to the Zenbook UX301 or the Samsung Book 9 Plus. They both have very similar specs, but ultimately I chose the Asus for the following reasons:

1) Better processor and graphics. You get the 2.8 ghz i7 with Iris graphics. The Samsung only offers the lower-tier 1.8 Ghz without Iris.

2) Better wi-fi. The Asus has the newest-generation ac wireless. Samsung is still a generation behind.

3) Seemingly better build quality, but this is largely a wash.

4) 30-day zero dead pixel guarantee. When you've got screens with as many millions of pixels as these have, that's a nice thing to have! (My screen was flawless though).

5) Some nice add ons. The Asus comes with an included ethernet dongle and an included mini display port/VGA dongle.

6) I feel silly saying it, but a bit of cache. The Asus is generally more difficult to find and there are fewer of them out in the wild.

I have been very impressed with this machine so far. It truly is gorgeous. The build quality appears to be very good. I could not identify any manufacturing flaws, and the whole thing feels rock solid. The keyboard is excellent, as is the trackpad. Very little bloatware. Screen was perfect. I've been impressed with the performance and I'm still testing the battery life. I'll update my review once I've had a chance to test it further.

This is expensive indeed, but it oozes premium ultrabook from all corners.

UPDATE:

After using this machine for the last two months I remain very satisfied. The performance has been excellent and the gorilla glass really seems to stand up to scratches. The exterior continues to look brand new.

I haven't experienced any technical issues with any of the hardware. The keyboard remains very pleasant to use and the trackpad is really outstanding. On par with anything that Apple puts out.

I have received many compliments on the quality and clarity of the screen.

Battery life has generally been very good. With typical internet use and medium brightness, I'm getting 7-9 hours on average. The battery also charges very quickly, which is a nice bonus.

One minor annoyance has to do with Windows and not the hardware. The resolution on the screen is so high that you will want to use the Windows interface to increase font and icon sizes in almost all cases. This works fine, except when you need to use the machine for remote access (such as through a VPN or using a vmWare client). The increase in font and icon sizes does not carry through to a remote session, so you will end up with microscopic icons. The solution is that you have to change your screen resolution before logging into a remote session. This isn't a huge deal but it's a bit of an annoyance. Again, however, this is a Windows 8 issue and not an ASUS issue.

All in all I am extremely impressed with this ultrabook.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
ASUS has a winner on their hands for those willing to pay the premium price to own.
By Jonathan
I've been waiting for this ultrabook to release since the start of the fall semester. Well, it's definitely been worth the wait. The computer boots up insanely fast due to the RAID 0 SSD configuration. It is not bogged down by a ton of bloatware either. The only changes I've made so far were to uninstall McAfee for Norton 2014 (since I had one license left).

One minor gripe I have is the drive partitioning. I would have preferred one partition to how ASUS partitioned the drive into C: (OS) and D: (DATA) in addition to smaller recovery partitions, but I am not taking a star off for that. If it was that big a deal, somebody could (through software) change the partitions however they liked. I was able to merge the C: and D: drive partitions into one C: partition using 3rd party software.

The high resolution screen is very nice. The look, feel, and portability of this laptop are second to none. I look forward to using this high quality ultrabook for a long time.

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