Lenovo Yoga 910 Battery Is Disappointing AND Phenomenal [Updated]

Just 5 days ago I posted the Internet sucks in large part due to the sea of bullshit reviews on affiliate link farms we consumers must wade just to get an honest fucking review.

One would hope that “real” sites (ie: those we expect to have legitimately critical reviews) were not so desperate they find themselves stooping to the level of the disingenuous bottom feeders at Purch Group (ie: Top Ten Reviews and their ilk).

As a consumer, I expect professionals who receive piles of free laptops, consoles, cameras and countless other gadgets to review, to actually review them. I guess I live in a dreamworld. I mean, I always knew there was some payola going on in every industry to some degree. Like that movie reviewer at some daily paper in Ohio who gives the latest box office bomb 5 stars. But I thought they were easy enough to identify.

In the market for a new laptop, I’ve started looking at 2-in-1’s or hybrids or whatever you want to call them. All those shiny new devices trying to mimic and improve upon the Microsoft Surface. One of the essential specs for me is excellent battery life. Therefore, I was a little surprised when I read two reviews of the Lenovo Yoga 910 on two (arguably) reputable tech review sites.

The first review, by Kevin Lee (@baggingspam) at Techradar, informed me that the Yoga 910 has “disappointing battery life.” It was listed one of the three main cons in his pros & cons list.

The second review, by Joel Santo Domingo (@JoelSD) at PC Magazine, informed me that the Yoga 910 has “phenomenal battery life”.  It was listed in his Pros column and a key point in his “bottom line”.

Obviously, the same battery cannot be both amazing and shitty. Battery life is not an Adam Sandler film. It’s not subjective. It’s fucking measurable. So one of these guys is either very bad at his job or he’s full of shit and on the payola train, and not so different than the assholes at Top Ten Reviews.

I guess I should have titled this post Why The Internet Sucks: Part 2.

 

UPDATE:

Or… I could have titled this post Why The Internet Doesn’t Suck.

No more than 2-3 hours after my post and tweet, one of the reviewers (Domingo at PC Mag) had replied to me on Twitter and clarified the discrepancy. He pointed out that Techradar had reviewed the 4K version of the Yoga 910 while he had reviewed the 1080p version. (Lee and PC Mag liked his response, letting me know that everyone had at least acknowledged my concern.)

I appreciate the quick response. But a word of advice to professional reviewers:

If you are reviewing a product and there are two versions of the product, you should make it very clear that there are two versions and clearly indicate which version you are reviewing. Both articles barely made any mention of this, hence my confusion.

The PC Mag article states “a standard 13.9-inch 1,920-by-1,080-resolution (full HD) IPS touch screen. (An option for a 4K version boosts the price of the Yoga 910 up to $1,499.99.)” halfway through the article and makes no other mention of it.

The Techradar article does mention the 4K screen a few times, once on the first page and a twice again on the second page. In their spec sheet it is listed as UHD (Ultra High Def) rather than 4K, something that may not be clear to the average consumer.

I scoured the articles looking for differences/typos and completely missed the bits about the screen. So that’s my bad. Mostly. (I’ll take 80% of the blame.)

It would have been very simple for the articles to be titled Lenovo Yoga 910 (1080p) Review and Lenovo Yoga 910 (4k) Review, especially when the different models have quite different performance results.

When I’m in the market for new tech I like to read as many reviews as possible. I scan them looking for the germane, I don’t digest every word as though I’m reading Faulkner or Fitzgerald. Clarity is key.

That said, the one thing I’ve always like Twitter for has been customer support. Somehow I’ve often found it more effective than official customer support channels. Perhaps because it also allows companies to slip a bit of marketing in with their support.

 

Conservative front page ad exemplifies just how “conservative” they are

This must have been cheap.

The Ottawa Citizen Should Vet Their Ads

It’s not unheard of, or even rare, nowadays in this world of clicks and impressions and maximizing the online ad revenue of every single pixel. But that doesn’t make it excusable.

Today in The Ottawa Citizen, smack dab in the middle of an open letter titled “Fear-mongering shows contempt for a politics of mutual respect”, was an ad by Christianity.com justifying the genocide and apartheid currently underway in Palestine. It is promoting the very “wedge politics” and “fear-mongering” that the letter is denouncing.

Mind you, it only showed up when I read the letter on my phone, but was not there when I checked it on my PC.

The letter is not about what is happening in Israel and Palestine, and it is safe assume that it hit upon some keywords that Christianity.com was hoping to attract: fear-mongering, Harper, barbaric practices, etc.

Still, that does not absolve the news outlet of responsibility. Unless it was intentional. Then that, of course, is a different matter altogether.

Here’s a shortened screenshot of the letter:

America is Reality TV for the Rest of the World

A Letter to America:

For the first 15 years of the 21st Century, American television audiences have been vacuously captivated by “Reality TV” programs. Scratch that — the captivation is not limited to those glued to the glowing flat screen. The “stars” of these shows infiltrate all avenues of media, spreading throughout all potential revenue and exposure streams, firmly establishing themselves as part of the American vernacular. At a point in history when most Americans probably don’t even know what vernacular means.

The effect of this reality barrage on the under-educated, over-inundated masses is shamelessly and blindly derivative of Fahrenheit 451. And those who notice just shake their heads. To gain any acknowledgement at all, opponents and pundits of this status quo must serve up their criticisms under the pretext of comedy (Jon Stewart). To stand on a platform without a laugh track, audience applause or box office receipts they are destined to be regarded outliers at best (Elizabeth Warren), wingnuts at worst (Bernie Sanders).

They joke about “fact resistant humans” running their country. Bankers are bailed out while The People are left to drown. Bodies pile up under an ever-expanding police state. They obtusely relinquish the gamut of their cherished constitutional rights, provided they can hang on to the Sacrosanct Second, even if it is in their cold, dead hands. Like dogs with a chew toy. And the best they can muster, this nation that was conceived by Revolution and birthed by Civil War, is to rally behind hashtags for a month, a week, or a day. The vernacular expands to include things like “hashtag activism” and “slacktivism” and nobody bats an eyelash. #OccupyWallStreet. #BlackLivesMatter. #Ferguson. And for the moment #Charleston. Until the next one, of course. And everybody knows there will be a next one.

And while the Distraction of the Month (Rachel Dolezal) unsurprisingly gets offered her own Reality TV show, and a Reality TV billionaire boss (Donald Trump) runs for President, Americans settle into their sofas with reruns or the summer season to keep them sated until their regular programming resumes. But to the rest of the world, there are no seasons. The show continues unabated and uninterrupted. We are not watching your TV shows. We are watching you. For you are the set-up, the delivery and the punchline. And even though the joke got old long ago, we can’t stop watching. But this is not because we consider you to be “Must See TV”. We don’t like what we’re watching. We just can’t change the channel because you’re holding the remote. Get off the sofa, America. It’s time to change the channel. Or turn it off.

When Is A Terrorist Not A Terrorist?

Apparently it is when he or she does not identify with a discernible non-Christian belief system, according to Nova Scotia RCMP Commanding Officer Brian Brennan.

“I wouldn’t characterize it as a terrorist event. I would classify it as a group of individuals that had some beliefs and were willing to carry out violent acts against citizens.”

He didn’t say what the beliefs were, other than that “they were not culturally based.”

– Brian Brennan, RCMP

So terrorism needs to be culturally based? It can’t be politically based? Interesting viewpoint, RCMP.

Players Remember, @AFCCL Social Media Specialist Gets the Message Wrong

Players in the AFC Champions League laid down on the field yesterday for a moment of remembrance for those affected by the Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami three years ago. It’s a day many will never forget. Not I, who was was in nearby yet faraway Tokyo. Not those directly in the path of the destruction. Not those who lost loved ones or homes or got sick afterwards.

I’m not sure who is in charge of the @AFCCL Twitter account, but their access should be revoked. It’s a glaring mistake to call it the “Hiroshima Tsunami”. That’s like saying the 9/11 Attacks took place in Los Angeles.

The Huffington Post Likes Deaths

That non-journalistic mound of digital feces known as the Huffington Post (that shows up in my Facebook feed) was not only relieved that Etta James finally died (“At Last Blues Singer Etta James Dies“), they also thought I might enjoy a few other celebrideaths: