Monday, November 05, 2018

Thoughts on the Lenovo L380 Yoga

Because I have transitioned to starting my own company (HexaBuild) I needed to pick up a new daily driver laptop rig. Looking around there were some tempting things to pick up like the new Surface Pro, the MacBook Pro, Dell XPS 13, and a few others. But to be honest, I have always been partial to Lenovo ThinkPad products. I have used them for years and they arguably have the best keyboards on a laptop in the industry. So, even though I was spending my own money (ThinkPad's aren't known for being cheap in quality or price) I decide to start looking through the Lenovo website to pick out a new laptop.

I started in the X series that I have always gotten before. X1 yoga and X1 carbon were high on my list. But looking at the pricing and options I soon realized my price to performance ratio was getting a bit out of reach. I started looking around the site for other options. The Yoga and IdeaPad stuff was fun to look through. I wanted a 2 in 1 (I actually use a pen on the screen occasionally when presenting remotely to do brainstorming and quick drawings) and I wanted a 13" design or smaller for travel reasons. I wanted something with USB-C but that also had more "ports" then what the MacBook line does.

Then I stumbled on the L380 Yoga. It isn't perfect, no cool keyboard retraction when using it as a 2 in 1, but honestly, I am not in tablet mode enough to notice that. But everything else is about perfect. One thing I miss is backlight for the keyboard but I've only had that be an issue twice in the two months I have been using it. Given the price point (I got it for under $1,000) and the performance I am very happy with it. It seems with the focus on premium devices that some of the more moderate professional grade options are being overlooked. I would recommend others check out the L380. It doesn't have the high density screen display of the X line but given my old eyes and the fact this is a bigger display than traditionally what I have gotten it has worked out just fine. So a thumbs up for now.
- Ed