- One of the coolest things about 2018
is that we've seen a lot of laptops
that have been really, really amazing,
and one of them I kind of forgot about.
The Yoga C930.
It's been sitting on my floor for a few weeks
and I finally got around to playing with it.
Today I'll tell you why it may be
one of the best laptops of the year.
Stay tuned.
(whooshing)
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Alright, before we get started I just want to point out
we actually did review this laptop a while ago
on windowscentral.com so you can go read that.
I'm not going to really go through
all of the benchmarks on all of the stuff there.
If you want that information go read that review.
But, let me tell you why I actually think
this is a real impressive laptop.
And, we actually have the 4K version now too,
so I'm going to share with you
the benefits and pros and cons of that one.
Taking a look at the design of the Yoga C930,
and Lenovo has done a lot of changes to it.
And I find this design really interesting.
It's at once muted, a bit conservative, and very minimalist.
But it's also very interesting too.
So I don't think it's as ambitious as say,
the Spectre or something from Dell,
but it's also kind of nice looking.
So, you can see the nice gun metal finish here,
the nice Yoga logo, all very clean minimalist.
No other designs or layers.
You don't even see any antenna markings
which is kind of nice.
Turn to the left hand side and this is where you find
all the ports.
So you have a USB Type A for your legacy connections
and two USB Type C 3.1.
These are actually full Thunderbolt 3 ports
and for those looking specificity,
yes, it is four PCIe lanes so you can use these
with an external GPU if you want.
It's also used for charging the device
and you get a nice little LED there.
And, finally, you do get a headphone jack.
Turn to the right hand side of the device
you do get a power button with LED.
And I should also mention here
this is where the antenna lines are for the system.
This is very much like the Surface laptop design
and it's actually kind of nice
instead of building it into the back of the display.
Normally the bottom of a laptop is not very exciting
but this one's actually really interesting
because of what it doesn't have.
So, look how clean this is.
You do have the screws here.
This is removable.
The only thing you can swap out
in this device by the way is the storage, so, the SSD.
Everything else is soldered to the board.
So, that's about it.
But what's really cool about this is there's no venting
on this device, at least not on the bottom.
So, normally you would have vents for the fans here.
This is a fan system though, so I'm not saying it's fanless.
In fact, it has two fans.
One here and one here in the system.
And they pull in through the hinge area
and then vent out through the center.
The CPU and GPU are going to be located here,
so it actually works very well.
The bottom of this device never actually gets hot.
It gets a little bit warm if you're doing a Windows update
but the ventillation and thermals
on this device are actually excellent.
Now, the back of the device
is actually where all the magic happens.
So this is the new sound bar hinge that they use.
So they replaced the watch bands
and this is actually just a beautiful design.
I think this looks phenomenal.
And the beauty of this system is the fact that
the sound now, which is Dolby Atmos,
can play in all the positions.
So don't forget this is a Yoga device
so you'll change positions.
And the speaker basically follows that.
And it's pretty clever.
I should also point out something that's really interesting
which is now there is a pen built into the system.
So they're copying the Thinkpad X1 Yoga here.
You press it and you get the pen that comes out.
This is a fully rechargeable one
so when you stick it in that system it charges up.
It's a small pen but if you
don't want to use it that's fine.
You can use one of Lenovo's more premium pens,
or you can use the Wacom Bamboo Ink which I actually prefer
if you're going to be drawing.
Now this is actually a really good inking system too.
It is a Wacom AES 2.0.
It's actually one of the best out there.
I actually prefer Wacom over
Surface N-trig but that's me.
I think it's a very good system.
But this is really made for people
who want to ink on occasion and not necessarily
draw all the time, but I think it's a pretty clever design.
It is a little pain to pull out that pen though,
so just keep that in mind, but hey,
it's better than nothing.
Take a look at the display here
and there's a lot to talk about.
So, very thin vessels.
Not quite as thin as Dell's XPS systems
but pretty close to it.
Atleast on three sides.
You still get that big chin on the bottom.
Lenovo is one of the few companies
that have not moved yet to a more symmetrical system.
It is what it is, I think, because it's black
it blends in and it's alright
but I know some of you are going to have
strong opinions on that.
Now, at the top here you do get a 720p camera,
and that full HD, which is, you know, something
Lenovo doesn't have good front facing cameras,
I'll just say it.
And that doesn't change here.
You do though get a privacy cam
which is their new thing that they're kind of pushing.
It's just a little slider
that you can physically slide over
and you'll see that red dot pop up
and it'll let you know that web camera is blocked.
I guess people like this.
I find this solution just kind of chintzy.
It's not my favorite out there.
I think HP's solution where they have
a button that kills it is actually a little better.
Now the display gets real interesting.
This is a full HD model.
There is a 4K12 which we'll show you in a few minutes here.
But we'll talk about the full HD version
as I think most people look at that.
So it's a pretty good display.
It's 13.9 inches and I think that's really interesting.
So it's basically 14 inches.
Most laptops of this stature are 13.3 inches
so you're getting a slightly larger display
and I really appreciate that.
I think 14 inches is actually the perfect size.
It is 16 by nine.
I think many of you would prefer three by two
but it is what it is.
And the display is really nice.
It's like I said, full HD.
It is obviously touch, you can use inking on it.
The brightness on it is alright.
It's just around 300 nits.
It's not the brightest display
but it's one of those when you set it to max it's fine.
For indoor usage you'll be very happy.
You'll struggle a bit outdoors
but this display doesn't set the standard for anything.
It's like merely an okay display.
Contrast is a little bit below what I would prefer.
Color accuracy is okay with it as well.
I don't mind using it though.
That's what's really important.
It's also easy on the eyes.
I've found just using it very good.
It's also pretty sharp.
I say that because I do have the 4K version
and I don't find the 4K version all that much better.
I think it is but it's also not a huge dramatic difference.
Alright, looking at the keyboard deck here.
Lenovo is still doing this little cool
thing here with the secondary hinge.
I actually really like this design
instead of putting it on the display,
so I'm okay with their logo being there.
And they do have the Dolby Atmos logo
which again is very subtle
and I think just looks very clean and minimalist.
Alright, the keyboard has
1.3 millimeters of travel which is pretty good.
It's a little shallow but it ain't too bad.
Typical smile key design from Lenovo.
Very good typing experience.
Actually, it's one of the things that sold me
on using this device is typing on it.
It's just very good.
For back lighting you do get two stage back light
using the function key and space bar.
Typical Lenovo design here.
Now, for Windows Hello you do get a fingerprint reader.
There is no facial recognition like I had said,
that's kind of a bummer.
The fingerprint reader's okay though.
It gets the job done and I had no issues with it
for logging in and accuracy.
Alright track pad, always the touchy point for me.
This is actually full precision drivers.
Glass design, pretty good clicking too.
I don't necessarily love the way it clicks back
but it feels very nice and it's a very smooth track pad.
I actually do really enjoy using it,
so Lenovo did a good job there.
Alright let's talk a little bit about this 4K model.
So as far as I know, only Best Buy is selling this.
Even if you go to Lenovo.com you can't order this one.
This is a slightly different color.
It's like a champagne gold.
I think they call it something else but whatever.
It's actually pretty nice looking.
It's definitely a lot more premium looking in my opinion
although I think that many of you will prefer the dark mode
and I kind of agree with that to a certain extent.
But, I think it will look pretty fancy.
Alright, take a look here at the 4K version.
So this is a very good display.
It gets around 98% sRGB and
78% Adobe RGB which is pretty solid.
Brightness is around 370 nits so this is brighter
and it has better contrast than the full HD model
but I'll be honest, this is not an outstanding display.
It's just, it's very good.
I enjoyed using it, but it doesn't
push the boundary forward at all.
By comparison Dell's XPS X0 display is just way better
but I think this is a nice step up.
I just wish Levono had used the same panel that they do
in the Thinkpad X1 Yoga, which was outstanding.
This is Dolby Vision which sounds really amazing.
I can't really tell you though
what the difference is here with this one.
Movies look okay to me.
I don't even find this picture mode does anything
so it's a little bit confusing,
but if you want the 4K version, go for it.
Alright lets talk about the specification for processors.
So this has a Core i7 8550U which is pretty good.
It's a quad core processor.
And compared to things like the HP Spectre
and the Dell XPS 13 and all those,
this actually out performs them.
It doesn't beat it by a lot but it does beat it.
So, Lenovo did a very good job here with the device.
Now, there is no GPU on this or at least
no in-video GPU I should say.
It does use Intel UHD or HD 620 which is an okay thing,
but if you're looking for gaming
these are not going to be your laptops obviously.
Now as I mentioned earlier, you can use an external GPU
with this so you can use it for gaming
in that sense at least but if you're going to take this
on the go with you, probably not the best choice for gaming.
That's unfortunate.
I would love to have seen an MX150
at least thrown in there but we don't get that option.
For RAM, it starts off at eight gigabytes
and goes up to 16 in the 4K model.
The Best Buy model also has 12 gigs of RAM
which is kind of weird but kind of nice.
I actually like having 12 gigs of RAM.
It's really that nice middle thing.
Now, as I mentioned the RAM is soldered to the board
so you can't upgrade it,
so make so you order the one you want.
Now, storage goes up to two terabytes which is kinda nice.
It's PCIe and BME gets very good performance as well.
We're talking nearing 3000 for reads
and around 1400 for writes which is pretty solid
at least in the 500 gig model,
so pretty happy with the performance there.
Now when it comes down to battery life
it all depends on which version you get, full HD or 4K.
So these both have a 60 watt hour battery which is actually
down from the original Yoga 920
but it's still actually very good battery life.
In fact it's one of the reasons why
I'm kind of calling this one of the best laptops of 2018.
The full HD model can push eight or nine hours easily
if you really put it to battery saver maybe even 10 hours,
but it has very good battery life.
The 4K model does take a hit in battery life
but again I find it acceptable.
I'm getting around seven hours so far
which is right at that point where it's like
it's kind of good enough.
Mind you 4K, 16 gigs of RAM, a Core i7 processor,
I'll take seven hours.
This does have USB fast charge as well
with a 65 watt charger in the bag.
So, it's very good for that.
Overall I'm actually really happy
with the battery life on these devices.
I think it's some of the best in it's class.
Okay, let's bring it all in.
So the Yoga C930.
Why it's one of my favorite laptops of the year?
Well, it gets almost everything right.
The display, well it's very good.
It's not the best, I wish it could have done
a little bit better here in the display,
but I think most of you are going to find it
just to be a really good display.
It is glossy, and I do wish the contrast was better,
but it's still pretty good.
Everything else though,
when it comes to typing, the trackpad,
the inking experience, the foldability of this device,
it's just really, really, good.
The build quality is also excellent and that translates
into a slightly heavier weight, so this is around
three pounds, 1.36 kilograms.
Most laptops in it's class around 2.6 or 2.7 pounds.
So, yeah, it's a little bit heavier but you are getting
a larger display and I think the trade off is worth it.
The real selling point here is going to be that sound bar.
It is just absolutely phenomenal.
That sound bar houses around two tweeters
for a Dolby Atmos system and at the bottom of the device
there are two subwoofers for the mids and lows
and the system just works very well.
If you're going to use this to watch a lot of media, movies,
TV, and all that kind of stuff, well between this and
the really good display,
it's going to be a really good experience.
In fact, everybody who I showed it to,
just really appreciated how that sound
just really blasts at your face.
I think it's a really clever design, too,
that Lenovo did here.
While some manufaturers are still
putting speakers on the bottom
well they're just kinda blowing everyone away with this.
So I think it's just a really good design.
And rounding out the perfections of this device
the performance is very good.
I do wish it had a built in GPU
but hey it is what it is.
And overall the battery life
is better than expected as well.
So I think if you're looking for the all around best
two-in-one of 2018 I gotta really give it to Lenovo here
with the Yoga C930.
I think it's just an excellent device.
And the pricing ain't too bad either.
It starts around 11 or $1200 for that Core i7 model,
full HD with 12 gigs of RAM,
and you can go up to around 1700 bucks for a 4K model,
with 16 gigs of RAM and 500 gigs of storage.
That's not cheap but at the same time,
considering how premium I feel like this device feels,
I think it's actually worth it for its price.
Alright so there are some quick thoughts on the Yoga C930.
Now if you want more information about this
head Windows Central where we have our full written review.
If you have any questions about it
let me know what you think in comments,
including which color you prefer,
although I think most people prefer that darker version.
If you like this video, give us a thumbs up
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Thanks for watching, take care everyone.