Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro Ultrabook Review

When starting up the Yoga 2 Pro, you’ll notice it boots very quickly. In fact, we saw the login screen in less than 10 seconds from the time we pushed the Power button.

Lenovo includes a number of programs with the Yoga 2 Pro. Some of these apps are commonly found on ultrabooks such as McAfee Internet Security (30-day trial), Skype, Amazon Kindle, Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium (30-day trial), and others. You’ll also find a few preinstalled apps that are unique to the Yoga 2 Pro including Phone Companion, Yoga Camera Man, Yoga Chef, and Yoga Photo Touch.

Lenovo’s Yoga Picks app is designed to help you find apps that best utilize each of the configuration modes supported by the Yoga’s hinges. You can open Yoga Picks from the Start screen to see a number of apps that are ideal for each usage mode. You’ll also see a notification when you switch modes that alerts you to open Yoga Picks for app recommendations (these notifications can be disabled).

When you open Yoga Picks in Tent mode, you’ll see icons for Yoga Chef, AccuWeather, Rdio for Windows, and more. Stand mode shows icons for Skype, Netflix and others. Tablet mode shows various games and apps including LenovoTycoon, Fruit Ninja Lite, and Lenovo Roulette. Lenovo includes four free apps as a sample, but many of these apps must be fully downloaded before you can use them.

One of the apps Lenovo preloads on the Yoga 2 Pro is Phone Companion. This app is designed to be used in laptop mode. It lets you connect your PC and phone wirelessly to send text messages, make calls, sync contacts, share content, and more. This app is currently compatible only with Android phones. During our test with this app, the Yoga 2 Pro had no problems sending and receiving text messages through an HTC One Max smartphone.

Yoga Chef is another app that comes preinstalled on the Yoga 2 Pro. This app lets you navigate recipes in tent mode using touch, gestures, or voice controls. The voice control functionality is made possible by Lenovo Smart Voice which also works with Yoga Camera Man (another preinstalled app on the Yoga 2 Pro). Using Smart Voice, you can take a picture in Yoga Camera Man or switch between slides in Yoga Chef.

Lenovo’s Motion Control feature lets you navigate through music, photos, videos, eBooks, PowerPoint slides, Yoga Chef, and other apps by waving your hand in front of the web cam. The Smart Voice and Motion Control features worked great during our tests, but both are rather limited in compatibility with apps and in their functionality within those apps.