- Windows 10 on ARM is starting to catch on
and now Lenovo is on the scene with their Miix 630.
Today I'm gonna compare and contrast it
with the HP ENVY x2 and tell you which one is better.
Stay tuned.
(funky music)
All right, before we get started, don't adjust your set.
If the Lenovo Miix 630 looks a lot
like the HP ENVY x2 to you, well, that's not coincidence,
and no, Lenovo is not copying HP.
What's happening here is Qualcomm had a reference design
for this tablet in form factor and HP and Lenovo
both made their own iterations of it basically tidying it up
and adding their own little flare to it.
So yes, this device is very similar to the x2,
but Lenovo has done a few little tricks here
to make it their own and I kinda like some
of the decisions they made,
although not all of it is perfect either.
Here it is, the Lenovo Miix 630,
it has that usual leather folio keyboard combination
which comes in the box.
Very minimalist logo here,
as you can see with Lenovo's lettering on the side.
You can barely see that.
Other than that there's nothing else on this.
It is a black leather-ish material.
It's gonna pick up dirt and grease pretty easily
but for those of you guys who are Lenovo fans
that likes jet black, well this is pretty solid design.
Here you still also have the hinge here on the back
for the kicks stand, it's a very stiff hinge,
they did a great job with it.
And it's a little bit more muted than HP's
but overall works pretty well.
All right opening up the device,
you get your familiar 12.3-inch display.
It's gonna be full HD+ 1920 x 1280, it is IPS.
Again, a similar display to HP's, although, I would say,
the blacks are a little bit deeper on this device
which blends in nicely with those bezels.
And yes those bezels are a little bit thicker
again, referenced design device here
they haven't changed up too much here
but if you're gonna hold this device a lot
those bezels work out pretty well.
I don't have a problem with it but it is this design.
You do, though, on top here have a five-megapixel
front-facing camera, dual IR Windows Hello,
that's actually an improvement over HP
who's using a single IR camera
and it actually does make a difference.
I find the Windows Hello on here just a tad faster,
a little bit more reliable than HP's.
In terms of screen brightness, Lenovo is slightly
around 400 nits and I would say it's pretty accurate.
It gets very bright outside and you shouldn't have an issue.
It is a glossy display though,
so you will get some reflection
but overall, very good display, very happy with it.
When it comes to speakers,
you get two of them, they are on the side here,
this is an all metal unibody design,
and you could see it's nicely cut.
I think Lenovo did an excellent job
in terms of the machining of this device,
it just feels really solid.
And it feels a little bit different than HP's
which is also metal but this one
has got a lot more angles to it.
Now the speakers are really good.
Same quality as HP's in my opinion,
the difference is they fire from the sides
so they don't actually hit your ears as well
but they're still very loud speakers, very clear,
I really like the audio on this device.
That's partially due to Qualcomm
who's using their own proprietary audio system on here
and it works out well.
And on the left hand side here,
you do have a SIM card slot in it,
it's actually both SIM and microSD on the single tray
which is a bit of a change from HP who separate them
but other than that you still get
the expansion here with microSD.
I should also say that Lenovo throws in an actual eSIM
with this device which is really interesting.
So an eSIM is a programmable SIM chip
that resides on the device and that card
so you can swap this out with Sprint
which is also running a deal with this device
when you buy it on Amazon.
You get Sprint free data throughout 2018
and I did that as well.
But Lenovo will also allow you to connect to Lenovo Connect
which is their data service going through a third party
and they give you free one gigabyte
of data for the first month
and then you can re-up it through the service itself.
That's really interesting though
as this allows Lenovo to save money
by putting an eSIM into this device
so it can ship worldwide and it just activates
in your country on a local carrier.
Really neat to see that actually finally happening.
Take a look at the keyboard deck
and you do get Lenovo's familiar Smile design on their keys.
It's a really good keyboard, it's Lenovo,
can't complain too much.
I do find HP's keyboard actually a little bit better
it's personal preference though, nothing wrong with this.
You also get two-staged backlighting
versus HP who only has one stage,
not a huge difference but nice to have that option as well.
And they do have all their function keys
a little bit differently placed
but you still get dedicated keys
for brightness and volume which is a nice touch.
Looking at the deck itself, it's kinda of a metal design.
They actually put magnets in here at the top
so it allows that this stick to the display.
It's another change over HP, it's a nice little touch.
It gives you a little extra effort to open it up
but it stays closed all the time, which is really nice.
That trackpad is full precision drivers.
I had no problems, it's a very smooth trackpad,
glass, nice size as well.
It's technically a little bit taller than HP's.
Now HP does use a long trackpad,
but this one's actually a little bit taller.
I have really no complaints,
I think this one actually works a little bit better,
I'm not a huge fan of the long one from HP
but overall, very good trackpad here.
Coming around to the right hand side here
you do have dedicated volume switchers.
You can see they did some nice labeling there.
Resides above this speaker here grill on the side.
And you do get a single USB Type-C port
here at the bottom, that is USB 3.1,
it means you could do display out,
you could do auxiliary power, and of course data
so it's a very good port, but you only get one of them
so make sure you use it wisely.
Finally on the back here, you can see the antenna lines
for where the LTE and WiFi resides.
That's why it's always a different color,
that's basically has to be a different material
so the signal goes out, really good design though.
And you do get that 13-megapixel rear camera.
So again, they're using the same camera as HP.
Referenced design, five-megapixel front, 13-megapixel rear,
autofocus, very good camera.
Difference here, it is placed on the corner
versus the middle, where HP uses it.
And it does have a little bit of a ridge
around it for some protection.
So it sticks out a little bit because it curves around.
Very good camera though, really, no complaints at all.
All right let's talk a little bit about performance
and the specifications here internally.
So we're still talking a Snapdragon 835.
For those of you holding out for the Snapdragon 850,
we're still not expecting that until later in 2018
which means, yes, you may wanna hold off
on buying this device.
However, if you still really kind of want this,
I actually still recommend it.
I love Snapdragon 835, it's for me.
It doesn't mean it's for you though.
So make sure you take it to consideration here.
That means it is running Windows 10 in S mode.
Now you can unlock it to Windows 10 Pro
so you're technically getting a Pro license
with this device, that's pretty important.
If you stick with store apps,
you're not gonna have any problems.
That's primarily what I do,
I haven't actually even unlocked this yet.
I do run a lot of my devices,
including Surface Laptop at S mode, that's me.
If you really need that old legacy app though,
you may have an issue here.
This can run those apps,
but soon as you start running Win32 apps outside the store,
you're gonna run into a little bit of a performance hit.
It's certainly acceptable in my opinion,
but everybody has different thresholds.
Now when it comes to RAM,
we're talking four gigabytes of DDR4.
Again that's the same as what HP's using
in their device as well.
So, DDR4 is pretty solid RAM, it's very fast,
it's gonna be very power efficient, so that's excellent.
When it comes to storage,
we're talking 128 gigabytes in there using a Samsung driver.
Now it is eUFS which again, same thing that HP's using
but this Samsung driver is actually one
of the faster ones out there.
So you're talking around 700 for read speeds
and around 200, 220 for write
and it's actually a big improvement over what HP's using.
And normally I wouldn't make this as a big deal
but obviously in this kind of device
all that little performance gain is gonna matter.
I have to say, using this device,
I had no issues whatsoever, in terms of lag,
well as the launching and just running Windows 10
as an operating system and sticking to store apps,
the performance was very good for me.
Now when it comes to battery, it's a 48-watt hour battery.
It's actually one watt hour lower than what HP's using
so really negligible difference there.
Now you're talking around 16 to 18 hours
of battery life depending on how you're going to use it.
I'll just say, it's been very good battery life.
You could easily go two to three days of regular usage
of this device without having to recharge it.
And of course, you're gonna use that USB Type-C charger
in the box that Lenovo gives you.
It's a really nice sized charger as well
and gets the job done.
But you can use any Type-C charger you want with this
including one that goes up to 100 watts
for very fast charging.
When it comes to cellular performance,
it's very similar to HP.
Now I'm using the Sprint data SIM
with this device at the time.
And I haven't used Sprint in many years
but I've actually been pretty happy with it.
The upload speeds are not as good as AT&T,
at least where I am but download speeds have been very good.
I'm hitting between 60 and 80 megabits per second downloads
and that's only around three bars
so it gets very good speeds and that's one thing
I really love with these Qualcomm chips is,
you're gonna get very good LTE performance.
You still of course get that instant-on ability too
meaning I can leave this device off for five days
and come up to it, hit that power button,
it's gonna turn on instantly.
Another ability of this device,
because it's always on, is you can leave Cortana on,
which means you can call Cortana up
at any time using those microphones.
Even when the device is closed with that lid,
it still responds which is kind of a fun thing to have,
something that laptops really can't do right now.
All right let's bring it all in.
I have no major complaints with the Lenovo Miix 630.
Now it does price at $899,
which is technically $100 cheaper
than what HP's offering for the ENVY x2
but the ENVY x2 has also been on sale for 899
and on Amazon, it's gone as low as $870,
so it's gonna be very comparable in price.
Now this device is about nearly half pound heavier
than HP ENVY x2 and that's solely due to the materials used.
So it's a little bit thicker, it's a little bit heavier.
I'm not sure that matters for everybody
but the ENVY x2 is noticeably lighter.
Now if the Miix 630 was heavier
and you got something out of it
for that heaviness, it would be okay
but you're not getting any better battery life
or necessary any better performance.
Now I do like some things that Lenovo has done here.
That dual IR works better than HP's.
The storage is a little bit faster as well.
They keyboard's pretty good, I do prefer HP's as well
but this is really just personal preference.
Everything about this device though is really nice.
You do get a pen in the box too, it's an active pen.
Again, very nice, matches what HP is offering here
so I believe it's around 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity
had no issues drawing with it, though,
and it's just a really good deal.
You're getting all of that in the box.
Now obviously, the elephant in the room here
is gonna be Surface Go which was just announced recently
and lot of you will compare the price there
but don't forget, Surface Go has half the storage,
at least at that 399 model,
and it's not gonna be as good performance, it's EMMC,
so it's gonna be a little bit less performance there.
You're also not getting the keyboard,
you're also not gonna get a pen,
you're also not getting LTE,
you're also not gonna get instant-on abilities,
and you're gonna get much shorter battery life.
I think performance for store apps
is gonna be very similar between these devices.
But where the Surface Go will beat out these devices
is when you start using apps outside the store,
and it's really gonna be the benefit there.
Now who should buy this?
Well, for this price, you are getting everything
in one box, which I really enjoy.
It's gonna be really good for, I would say,
students, for artists, for journalists,
and for people who do a lot of writing,
for people who are realtors
that need to be on the go all the time,
I think this is gonna be a solid device.
It's one of my favorites,
I'm still sticking to the Windows 10 on ARM,
I know it's not for everybody,
but if you really need an always connected PC,
these are a lot of fun.
As far as choosing between HP and Lenovo,
it's really gonna be a personal decision.
You just have to weigh out which is better.
I think the HP's one is gonna be a little bit lighter
and easier to carry but Lenovo has done
some fun things as well.
I should also mention that later in 2018,
we are expecting the Snapdragon 850
with around 30% performance improvement coming out.
Whether or not this device gets refreshed with it,
I'm not certain, I'm sure it will be.
So you may wanna hold off until that device.
But if you need this right now,
it may be good purchase if you can find it on sale.
And so there's our quick review of the Lenovo Miix 630
which is now available.
If you want more information about this device,
make sure to click that link in the description below.
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Thanks for watching, take care everybody.