Lenovo Yoga 900

Yep after 3 days of ownership, I had to return the HP Pavilion X360 to JB Hifi.  After praising the machine, somehow the speaker or audio hardware failed.  It would disappear from being available and I even got dreaded BSODs with the error message of APC Index Mismatch.  The BSODs are a lot prettier these days but just as unwelcome.

Note the HP Support help I received was superb.  I had remote help from someone at the other end and they jumped in and helped to try and diagnose.  But in the end after doing a full factory reset the speakers were only sometimes activated and had awful crackly noises.  This morning it went all back into the original packaging and at lunch time I took it to JB Hifi (after doing a full reset and taking a few of my files off the machine).

In store I compared the HP Spectre X360 and the Lenovo Yoga 900.  They were exactly the same price at $1613.  But side by side with a bit of music made the Yoga the choice.  Although as I was ringing up the difference I realised one of the reasons I didn't choose the Yoga 710 last time was the lack of a full HDMI port and 1 less USB port.  Let's hope I don't regret that decision later.  I've already hit the reviews and seeing that there are some issues with the build quality on some Lenovos.  I'm hoping this machine lasts the distance as configuring a Windows 10 machine and installing apps etc is a not that much fun.  Even if it's a lot quicker these days than it use to be.

So the features of the Lenovo are

Intel Core i5-6200U Processor ( 2.30GHz 1866MHz 3MB)
13.3" QHD+ (3200x1800), wide view angle IPS, multi-touch
256GB SSD
8GB PC3-12800 DDR3L
Bluetooth v4.0
Intel Wireless-AC 8260
720p HD Webcam
2 x USB 3.0
1 x USB 3.0 with video out
DC-in with USB 2.0 function
Combo audio/microphone jack
4-in-1 card reader (MMC, SD, SDHC, SDXC)
4 Cell Li-Polymer Battery
Windows 10 Home 64

(uh oh, I just hit the down arrow a few times when I wanted to hit the up arrow.)

The packaging is so much more exciting the HP.  Lovely retail box shrinkwrapped with a pop up feature:

I'll update the post if I find that I have to take this one back too!

(Not jinxing myself just yet)

The machine is looking fairly nice although I'm not a fan of the 'watch' hinge:

And just so you can see that the newer machines can do an UGLIER than normal BSOD, here's what the HP Pavilion was showing earlier today: