Comment by drcode | Hacker News Reader

Comment by drcode | Hacker News Reader

A warning for anyone considering this laptop: I bought a similar laptop, the Sony Duo 13, last week.

If you're doing heavy work on a machine as a developer you'll often need to do complex "mousing", such as working in a UI building tool, art program, or working with dialogs in Visual Studio.

For these cases, I find I'm frustrated because I want the speed/simplicity of the touch interface (instead of using the touchpad) but my finger just isn't precise enough.

These situations constantly make me reach for my stylus, which surprised me: Turns out, precision styluses are very useful, even when you're not doing strictly "artsy" things.

However, this Yoga 2 Pro touch display does NOT appear to have precision stylus support. The Sony Duo 13, on the other hand, ships with an excellent wacom-style stylus.

BOTTOM LINE: I think you'll regret buying a touchscreen laptop without advanced stylus support, if you use computers professionally.

EDIT: Others have pointed out the now "Yoga" also released today (not the "Yoga 2 Pro" with the high res screen) has stylus support.

Stylus support is a good point, but you could also just use a good mouse to perform complex 'mousing'.

Having used a pen while doing general purpose computing i would have to agree with the OP that you do in fact miss itwhen having to use a trackpad or a mouse. Mice are not as precise at some things as a good stylus.

Yeah, folks will have to try what works best for them- Just wanted to let people know that there is something potentially useful they might miss out on.

Absolutely

The Tinkpad Yoga has a stylus [1]. It can have the resolution "only" up to 1920×1080 though. The other positive thing is that you have an additional precise pointing device: the trackpoint (I admit it takes more time to get productive with it than to a stylus, mouse or touchpad - but for ten-finger typists it pays really off)

1: http://m.heise.de/newsticker/bilderstrecke/bilderstrecke_195...

The Thinkpad Yoga and "Yoga 2" are two different machines, both released today. Near as I can tell the stylus support exists ONLY for the regular Yoga, not the "Yoga 2" linked by OP. (but since information is still limited I could be wrong.)

... but you could also just use a good mouse to perform complex 'mousing'.

I was disappointed to see that the Yoga 2 pro does not have a trackpoint.

The Duo 13 is an excellent machine, but the stylus uses N-trig technology, not WACOM. It's sufficient, but a WACOM stylus has 2 advantages: It's more responsive and accurate than N-Trig, and it doesn't require a battery.

Basically, the Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga will have a better keyboard and a better pen, but the Sony has almost double the battery life. If you aren't an artist or a designer, an N-Trig stylus isn't the end of the world. If I were in the market for either, I'd wait for some reviews to come out for the Lenovo machines before making a decision.

the red thingy on the right side, visible on the third picture looks like a stylus.

Yes, but that appears to be a pic of the "Yoga", not the "Yoga 2", so I'm not sure both new laptops have this ability.

It is a Thinkpad Yoga as it says under the picture: "The ThinkPad Yoga is a bendy laptop that means business". And yes it has a stylus.

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